Ancient site · City
Kalibangan
A Harappan town on the dry Ghaggar river in Rajasthan with two phases. The earlier, walled settlement (about 3500–2600 BCE) left the world's earliest excavated ploughed field, marked with criss-cross furrows, and was ended by an earthquake around 2600 BCE.
The rebuilt mature town had a fortified citadel on the west, a lower town of grid streets, and rows of fire altars that suggest ritual. Seals, weights and pottery tie it to Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
- Dates
- c. 3500–1750 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 29.47° N, 74.13° E
How we know
The Indus script cannot be read; the site is known from excavations of 1960–1969 and radiocarbon dates.
Nearby sites
- Bhirrana claimed c. 7500 BCE; most scholars: 4th millennium BCE to c. 1900 BCE
- Harappa c. 3300–1300 BCE; city at its height c. 2600–1900 BCE
- Rakhigarhi village from c. 4600 BCE; city c. 2600–1900 BCE
- Sinauli c. 2000–1500 BCE
- Iron pillar of Delhi c. 400 CE (reign of Chandragupta II, c. 375–415 CE)
- Hastinapur Painted Grey Ware town c. 1100–800 BCE (Lal; 2021–22 dig: from c. 1500 BCE); occupied into medieval times