Place · pre-Harappan settlement · India
Kunal
The pre-Harappan (Hakra Phase) settlement at Kunal in Fatehabad district, Haryana — one of the oldest Harappan-tradition sites in India, with K.N. Dikshit and the Haryana State Archaeology Department excavations from 1986-1998 documenting a continuous occupation from c.4000 BCE through the Mature Harappan phase. The pre-Harappan layers (c.4000-3300 BCE) yielded distinctive hand-made Hakra Ware pottery, square-shaped seals, copper tools and silver ornaments — among the earliest silver finds in the subcontinent. The site's chronology helps anchor the Harappan tradition's long pre-urban development phase before the mature cities of the 2600-1900 BCE period. The village is now protected by the ASI as part of the Kunal-Rakhigarhi-Banawali Harappan heritage cluster of Haryana.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- South Asian archaeology
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 29.350, 75.910
Connections (1)
- PrecursorBhirrana
Kunal and Bhirrana in Haryana both have pre-urban levels with claimed dates as early as anything at Mehrgarh, which is the case for the eastern plains having their own developmental sequence rather than receiving a finished civilisation from Sindh. The dating is disputed, and the dispute is partly about what follows from it politically.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Kunal, Haryana”. Archaeological Survey of India excavation reports; J.M. Kenoyer, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation (1998).
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