Navdatoli

Important prehistoric site on the Narbada River of central India, made up of four separate mounds, with Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, Chalcolithic, Iron Age, and medieval occupations. The Chalcolithic, dated to the 2nd millennium BC, had four phases with a painted black-and-red ware and black-painted cream slip ware in the first phase, then Jorwe ware, and finally painted Malwa ware. Its rectangular houses were of timber and bamboo, with lime-coated clay or dung floors. Simple copper and microlithic stone industries were employed. Only wheat was recorded from the lowest level, but from the second phase rice was also known. The site was abandoned in the 1st millennium AD. Subsequently the site was abandoned and its role as a trading center was assumed by Maheshwar on the opposite side of the river.

A large prehistoric settlement on the Narbada River in Medhya Pradesh, central India, made up of four separate mounds. There were three main phases of occupation. The first, of the 3rd millennium bc, was a village of 50-75 houses, mostly measuring cl 2 by 6 metres; the occupants were farmers growing wheat and a number of legumes. In Phase II, dated to the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium bc, the houses were smaller, c3 by 2.5 metres — possibly indicating a shift from extended family to nuclear family dwellings; in the subsistence economy rice was added to the crops grown. In all phases, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were kept and deer were hunted. Flint blades, some microlithic, were used, but copper was employed for axes. Beads of faience, agate and carnelian occur. The pottery used includes Malwa ware (painted in black on red) and Ah ar polycrome ware (in Phase 1 only). In Phase III, which is dated to the 2nd millennium bc, pottery of Jorwe type (thin, hard-fired red ware) appears. Subsequently the site was abandoned and its role as a trading centre was assumed by Mahesh-war on the opposite side of the river.