Transcript Slide 1

Locating Archaeological Sites in the Ajay River Basin, West Bengal
An Approach Employing the Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System
Sutapa Roy
Research Assistant
CENTRE FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES & TRAINING, EASTERN INDIA
An Autonomous Institution under the Information &Cultural Affairs Department Government
Kolkata
DEVELOPMENT OF RS & GIS IN THE FIELD OF ARCHAEOLOGY
 In Europe, GIS has been used in the field of archaeology, since early
1980s and the Aerial Photography has had a long history of use. English
Heritage's Finland Survey Project is supposed to be the beginning of the
application of the GIS and RS in the field of archaeology. Since 1988
there has been rapid growth in the application of GIS, a tool both for
Archaeological Research and Cultural Resource Management.
IN
THE FIELD OF ARCHAEOLOGY, THE APPLICATION OF
NEW PHENOMENON IN INDIAN CONTEXT.
GIS
AND
RS
HAS BEEN RATHER A
 In the late 1990s when an attempt was made to establish that the Arayans
had their roots by the side of the old course of the river Sarasvati, RS nd
GIS were employed. Signatures of the old course of the river (i.e. the
palaeo-channel) was detected by using satellite data.
 The next pioneering attempt was made in this direction in 1993 by the
Department of Space, Government of India in collaboration with the
Deccan College, Pune. In 1995 a training course on the application of RS
for Archaeology was also conducted by the National Remote Sensing
Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad for university teachers.
DEVELOPMENT OF RS & GIS IN THE FIELD OF ARCHAEOLOGY
A few years ago, Dr. Ashis Bhattacharya, former director, NRSA made an
endeavour to trace the potential sites of Satavahana period on the alluvial
terrains of Andhra Pradesh, near Kondapur.
In present decade, the Centre for Archaeological Studies & Training,
Eastern India for the first time in West Bengal has been making use of RS
and GIS in its attempt to locate the archaeological sites on present
landscape.
IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF GIS & RS IN THE FIELD OF ARCHAEOLOGY
 Remote Sensing is increasingly important to archaeology and GIS is rapidly becoming
indispensable.
 Archaeological data are inherently spatial and archaeologist are naturally concerned
with the distribution of archaeological sites across the landscape. From these
distribution one can understand the past use of landscape in many ways- as settlement
patterns, the size of the domains, aspects of resource procurement, site catchments
analysis. Here GIS can also be used as database management tool and can generate
new information.
 RS data are currently used for exploration and discovery of new sites and there have
been successful attempts to use satellite data to identify landscape or cultural features,
such as stone quarries, structural remains and ancient river courses i.e. palaeochannels (as of the rivers Kunur, Kansai etc)
 Particularly in the context of Bengal where the riverine activity has been of greater
consequence, site density mapping, resource zone mapping by using GIS could be
more fruitful for research.
IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF GIS & RS IN THE FIELD OF ARCHAEOLOGY
 GIS based modeling approaches to analyse regional-scale data include the
estimation of cost surfaces, network models of trade and cultural interaction,
predictive models of site location, view-shade analysis (for determining of
visibility between monuments of the landscape), intra-site relationship is
assessed as well as number of other models derived from geography and
spatial analysis.
 This case study tries to utilize GIS and RS to represent a past archaeological
settlement ( i.e. Chalcolithic – Early-historic period ) in the present landscape
with a scientific pictorial view.
DRAINAGE PATTERN OF THE AJAY VALLEY
Based on unpub.GSI Report, 1986.
 The Ajay, originating from the
southeastern part of the Chakai
Plateau, Jharkhand, enters West
Bengal near Chittaranjan and meets
the Bhagirathi river at Katoya in
Bardhaman.
 The Kunur nala originating from the
north of Kaksa PS. and falling into the
river Ajay at Mangalkot.
The river Kopai, a tributary of
Bakreswar, drains the northern bank
of the Ajay valley.
The Ajay river basin is a potential zone of archaeological settlements in West
Bengal. The study area is restricted to the alluvial plains of Ajay river valley.
The two most important sites in this area are Mangalkot and Pandu Rajar
Dhibi which have been excavated. Most of the sites are buried under the thick
layer of alluvium (4-5m.).
Here two geomorphic units are dealt with i) Illambazar Surface and ii)
Natunhat surface. #9. Slide 9
Chalcolithic or Black and Red Ware (BRW) (3rd century BCE) and Earlyhistoric (2nd century BCE) sites like Pandu Rajar Dhibi (c.1100B.C.- 700 B.C.),
Basantapur, Deuli, Supur etc. are situated on the Illambazar surface. #10. Slide
10
On the Natunhat surface the Early-historic sites outnumbers Chalcolithic
sites. Mangalkot (c.1000B.C.- 1800 A.D.), Aral, Kogram etc. are located on this
landform. #10. Slide 10
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE AJAY RIVER VALLEY
• The Study Region belongs to a transitional zone between the Chottanagpur
Plateau and the Bengal River Basin.
•Two Geomorphic Units - (i) Laterite upland or Illambazar surface and (ii) Older
Alluvial Terrace or Natunhat Suface.
DISTRIBUTION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
Methodology
USING HERMENEUTIC METHOD TO DESIGN AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATABASE
• GIS incorporates the essential elements of computer cartography and relational
database into one system.
• The most important feature of this system is that every mapped feature is linked
to a record in a tabular database and may be related in other database.
• Hermeneutics database design (Rivett 1997) has an important role to prepare an
Archaeological Database in the GIS application.
Social/Historical
Archaeological
PREJUDICE
TEMPORAL
Environmental
Knowledge Base
DATA
Spatial Non-Spatial
DATA DEFINITION
Archaeological Problem
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Hermeneutic diagram for Archaeological GIS
Real World
 Here archaeological database is not sufficient and hence in the Hermeneutics
method the database is only taken as outline and as primary level data. It calls for
elaboration.
Data come in two forms- (i) Spatial (like distribution of archaeological sites) and
(ii) Non-spatial data (database on ethnographical,
anthropological and archaeological sources.#12. Slide 12
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEM OF THE STUDY REGION
Some Archaeological sites are found scattered from the upland zone to new
alluvium terrace. Many settlements in the older alluvial zone are found disturbed as
artefacts are often washed away by flood water and redeposited in the younger
alluvial zone. This is commonly observed in the Ajay basin where archaeological
sites are buried within a few metre of the terrace
surface. So sites are usually found with mixed
assemblages.
On the other hand, It is also claimed that catastrophic
Sedimentation (flooding) and rapid sedimentation `
entombs archaeo sediments, creating buried sites
which may be immune to subsequent artefacts
displacement (like Sagira).
and
• Following only the site location, site reference and river categories of the SEER diagram, only the
Archaeological Site Database of the Ajay Valley has been made.
Locational Chalcolithic and Early Historic Site Database Showing with a Geomorphic Unit
Archaeological Finds
Location
Geomorphic Unit
Cultural chronology
AFP/KFP/AKC#
% of total
Cuture
Right Bank ( R)/Left Bank (L)
OBJECTID
Site
Present Village
IF/NF/KF*
Chal/EH
1 Aral
Aral
IF
KFP/L
EH
1
2 Goswamikhanda
Mallickpur
IF
AFP/R
Med
1
3 Kalyanpur
Kalyanpur
IF
AFP/R
CH/EH
2
4 Majhigram
Majhigram
NF
AFP/R
CH/EH
1
5 Mangalkot
Mangalkot
NF
KFP/R
CH/EH
3
6 Pandu Rjar Dhibi
Panduk
IF
AFP/R
CH/EH
2
7 Chandra Hazradanga
Bahiri
NF
CH/EH
3
8 Beluti
Beluti
NF
AFP/L
CH
2
9 Bergram
Bergram
?
Kopai
CH/EH
2
10 Chandidaser Bhita
Nanur
?
Kopai
EH
2
11 Kholamkuchir Math
Charkalgram
NF
CH/EH
2
12 Chella
Chella
IF
AFP/L
CH/EH
2
13 Deuli
Deuli
KF
AFP/L
EH
2
14 Ghurisha
Ghurisha
IF
AFP/L
CH/EH
3
15 Kamarpara
Kamarpara
IF
AFP/L
EH
1
16 Kogram
Kogram
IF
AKC/R
EH
1
17 Kirnahar
Kirnahar
?
Kopai
CH/EH
2
18 Mahishdal
Mahishdal
?
Kopai
CH/EH
3
19 Nachansaha
Nachansaha
IF
AFP/L
CH/EH
3
20 Surath Rajar Dhibi
Supur
IF
AFP/L
CH/EH
3
22 Sagira
Sagira
KF
AFP/R
EH
1
23 Hazradanga
Basantapur
IF
KFP/L
CH
1
24 Bulbuldanga
Orgram
IF
KFP/R
CH/EH
2
25 Indrani Pargana
Bekeihat
KF
AFP/R
CH/EH
2
AFP/L
AFP/L
* IF― Illumbazar Formation, NF― Natunhat Formation and KF― Katoya Formation. # AFP―Ajay Flood Plain, KFP― Kunur Flood Plain and AKC―Ajay Kunur Confluence.
^Chal & CH― Chalcolithic, EH― Ealy Historic
In the major flood plain i.e. River Ajay,
some of archaeological sites, like Deuli.
Artefacts scattered are most probably
in secondary context. In this regard
Archaeological sites only can be observed
on the present landscape.
Deuli
GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques can help partially to solve the
problem.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATABASE
Location
Hydrology
Site Locational
Reference
Moat
Site (Point feature)
Main River,
Tributary, Canal,
Sand-bar, point bar
etc. (Polygon and
Line Feature)
Primary
Soil Locational Reference
Soil Type (Polygon Feature)
Type of Vegetation
Related Field: Altitude,
Secondary
Chronology
Vegetation
SiteID, Name, Type,
Mound
Artefacts
Highlight indicates in use
SEER( Spatially Extended Entity Relationship)
Diagram of the Archaeological Database.
SITE LOCATION NETWORK ON TRIANGULATED IRREGULAR NETWORK
(BASED ON CONTOURS AND BENCHMARK POINTS)
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
 Some sites located on fluvial terraces were stable settlements, where a full
range of riverine activities was noticed belonging to the Chalcolithic period to the
Early-historic period.
Most important thing has to be pointed out here that a few months ago when we
were in Mangalkot to survey the Sarkaridanga mound, carbonaceous black soil in
exposed section was observed at least 15m below from the upper surface, which
indicates the presence of a palaeo-riverine course. When the satellite data(IRS
1D/PAN and Google Earth Data) has been taken into account detection of a palaeochannel has been confirmed. And the channel must have been that of Kunur.
Slide 18
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
Sites on main flood plain zone (at the juncture of lateritic and older
alluvium surfaces, have the rate of preservation qualitatively much
higher and this is evident from the extensive existence of modern
habitation on top of them. To summarize, by integrating within a unified
system, the traditional archaeological methods and new techniques, it
is possible to identify new sites (i.e. unexplored sites), explain their
location and define the role they played in the regional context.
The application of the technique is limited by the nominal ground
resolution of the sensors IRS IC and ID, LISS III (23m x 23m), multispectral data from satellite platforms, mainly LANDSAT TM (30m ground
resolution), IKONOS (1mx1m) have been successfully used for the
archaeological application.
GIS LIMITATIONS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Single data (Satellite) can hamper the study enormously.
An expensive exercises a large and extensive research might not be always
possible logistically.
Above all, through Remote Sensing and GIS technique, one can only study the
archaeological sites on the present landscape. But it is not possible to determine
the past landscape totally in relation to the chronological period in which the
sites have been found.
Thank You