important Neolithic sites in this region. These sites also have evidence of pottery and plant and animal domestication. Evidence for the cultivation of hulled and six-rowed barley, several types of wheat, rice, pea, green gram, and gram/chicken pea, mustard, flax/linseed and jackfruit have been found at the sites of Central India. Sheep, goat and cattle bones have been found besides bones of wild animals.
The Neolithic people used a type of pottery with cord impression on the surfaces. Neolithic ground stone axe XI History - Lesson - - Early India: From the Beginnings to the Indus Civilisation Early Harappan – BCE Mature Harappan – BCE Late Harappan – BCE The urban phase was prevalent in the mature Harappan period and began to decline afterwards. The Indus valley site of Harappa was first visited by Charles Mason in CE (AD), and Amri by Alexander Burnes in . The site of Harappa was destroyed for laying the railway line from Lahore to Multan.
The seal from this site reached Alexander Cunningham, the first surveyor of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Alexander Cunningham visited the site in , and . But the importance of the site and the associated civilisation were not realised until Sir John Marshal took over as the Director General of ASI and initiated research at the site.Sir John Marshal played an important role in the development of archaeology in India. Later in the 1940s, Mortimer Wheeler excavated the Harappan sites.
After the partition of the Indian subcontinent, many of the Harappan sites went to Pakistan and thus archaeologists were keen to trace the Harappan sites on the Indian side. Kalibangan, Lothal, Rakhi Garhi and Dholavira are the Indian sites that have been since excavated. The explorations and excavations conducted after the 1950s have helped to understand the Harappan Civilisation and its nature. Geographical Area and the Settlements The Indus Civilisation and the contemporary cultures covered nearly .
million sq. km area in India and Pakistan. The settlements of Sutkagen-dor in the west on the Pakistan–Iran border; Shortugai (Afghanistan) in the