Place · Chalcolithic settlement · India
Balathal
The Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic settlement at Balathal in Udaipur district, Rajasthan, 42 kilometres from Udaipur — one of the two most completely excavated Chalcolithic settlements in India (with Inamgaon). V.N. Misra's Deccan College and Pune University excavations from 1994 to 2000 documented a 5-hectare fortified settlement with mud-brick ramparts, 30-plus house plans, grain storage pits, and distinctive black-and-red ware pottery. The settlement flourished c.3700-1500 BCE with four cultural phases. The copper-smelting furnaces, the cattle-and-sheep subsistence economy, and the burial practices (secondary burial in large storage jars) document the Chalcolithic domestic life. The 2001 discovery of a leprosy-afflicted human skeleton at Balathal — the oldest known case of leprosy in the archaeological record globally — pushed leprosy's documented history back to around 2000 BCE.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- South Asian archaeology
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.530, 73.710
Connections (2)
- AnalogueInamgaon
Balathal in Rajasthan and Inamgaon in Maharashtra are the two best-excavated Chalcolithic villages in India, and both were dug well enough to reconstruct houses, diet, cattle management and burial. Balathal produced the earliest known case of leprosy anywhere; Inamgaon documents a village drying out and being abandoned. Neither is Harappan, and both are contemporary with it or just after.
- Site withinUdaipur
Balathal lies within Udaipur — the two sites sit about 6 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Balathal is one of the specific sites that give Udaipur its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Balathal”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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