The Ganga has been the cradle of Indian culture and civilization. As Sir Mortimer Wheeler said, ‘if the Indus gave India a name, it may almost be said that the Ganges gave India a faith’. The entire Ganga Plain is divided into three units: (i) The Upper (ii) The Middle (iii) The Lower. The Middle Ganga Plain stretces to about 300 km from the Himalayan foothills in the north and Vindhyan ranges in the south. The ancient settlement off Agiabir is situated on the left bank of the Ganga in district Mirzapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The present monograph embodies the results of archaeological at Agiabir by the authors. The excavation has provided a culture sequence of about two thousand years ranging in date from c. 1500 BC to AD 700 and reveals that many hitherto unrecorded facets of human civilization had remained undocumented so far. The rich find of terracotta discs, metal tools, lamp-stands, etc. make the site all the more important. The results of this excavation, spectacular iin several ways, have been evaluated against the hackdrop of up-to-date discoveries made in the archaeology of the Middle Ganga Plain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ashok Kumar Singh
Dr. Ashok Kumar singh (b. 1959) passed his M.A. in AIHC & Archaeology in 1980 and obtained Ph.D. from the Banaras Hindu University in 1984. He has been serving the same Department for the last ten years. He has also been associated with the senior author in all the excavatioins listed above. His book Uttar Pradesh ke Prachintam Nagar (Vani Prakashan, New Delhi, 1988) was highly appreciated in academic circles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Purushottam Singh
Prof. Purushottam Singh (b. 1940) has been teaching Archaeology at Banaras Hindu University for the past four decades. He has directed excavatioins at Narhan, Imlidih Khurd and Dhuriapar – all in district Gorakhpur, at Waina and Bhunadih in district Ballia and Agiabir in district Mirzapupr. His publications include Burial Practices in Ancient India (Prithvi Prakashan, Varanasi, 1970); Neolithic Cultures of Western Asia (Seminar Press, London-New York, 1974); The Neolithic Origins (Agam Kala Prakashan, New Delhi, 1991); Excavatioins at Rajghat, Part III (with Prof. A.K. Narain, Banaras Hindu University, 1977) and Excavation at Narhan (1984-89) (Banaras Hindu University & B.R. Publishig Corporatioin, Delhi, 1994).
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