Excavations at Charda

The excavations at Charda was undertaken under the Major Research Project entitled “Archaeology of North Koshal Region” sanctioned by the University Grants Commission, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. During the village to village explorations in Bahraich district 70 sites of archaeological importance were found. These were settlements of different periods ranging from Pre NBPW times to Medieval Period. Gudrun Corvinus extensively explored the region of Nepal specially the Districts of Dang and Deokhuri and reported a number of sites from Dun valley and Siwalik foothills of Nepal. These belong to later Pleistocene to the later Holocene Period. These was a possibility to exist the next step of this chain in the terai region. While completing the field work in the Saryupara area specially in Gonda, Balrampur, Sravasti and Bahraich it was observed that almost the settlements were as earlier as NBPW or Pre NBPW period. The mound of Charda has an attractive remains of ancient settlement for excavation in the terai region to understand the chronological sequence of the area as well as the nature of expansion of cultures in the terai region. Total ten trenches were laid and excavated up to the natural deposit for this purpose. The upper portion of deposit was found disturbed due to robbing to ancient bricks from the mound. However cultural evidences of Pre NBPW, NBPW, Sunga-Kusana, Gupta-post Gupta, Early medieval and even Medieval periods were recorded from the site. A bone tool industry was found in this seasons work. The details of the findings and scientific reports are being given in this book.