^4 C h a p t e r VI L S ■ L E T T L E M E N T ■ I . T r ❖ - O - O - o - o - o ---------------- -------------------------------------------o - 0 - o - O “ O “ J.1 kJ O yjL The central lapi basin (Oiule district), tiie crdisile of the early cultures, was noglecteti as far as sattleraent pattern studies are concerned. This region, being one of the most fertile units in the country, attracted tie early farmers in tho beginnin;. of accond millennium B.C. The presant chapter deals with sevei*al aspects of settleaent patterns and systeos in this region during the ohalcolithic period, itie data, gathered in the field, has been utilized to draw inferences about the way in which the e^xrly farmers disposed their settlersients in the Tapi valley. The chapter consists of several sections. In the ini­ tial section, there is a brief suamery of the origin and dove- lopnent of the settlement pattam studies in arch eology. ilie second section giv«s a brief sRinnaery of li:aitations in dra­ wing inferences and applying differ«»it settlenent models. 133 section three diacusses in detail the factors affecting the overall settlanent pattern In the central Tapi basin* J?he locational analysis of various cultures and their possible migration routes in the Tapi baain are discussed in section four. Lastly an attempt is aiads to estimate the popxilotion o f the early farming com ;iunities* ‘The subsistence pattern of ttie early faraing conuaunitiea and the methodology uaed for collecting data are discussed separr^tely* iiiTTrrn i The settleia^t pattern is a geographic <1 concept which has of late baaaii introduced in archaeology by oiordon u* Willey, tfho was inspired to unuertake the study of the distribution of sites by Julian -itevrardy an i^thnographer» (^illoy 1953)* In •iiaple words, it is a study of vi^iy the ancient sites are located wiere they are* It may be viewed ^ the wording relationship betwotm people, their environment and tneir technology* iilley defined settlement pattern as “the way in which man disposed 'timself over the landscape on which he lived* It refers to dwellings, to their arrangetaent to the nature and disposal of other buildings pertaining to comsiu-' nity life* He silso describes the settlement pattern as a strategic startin:-, point for tiie functional interpretation J.37 of archaeological cultures since they reflect ‘ la the natural envlronraant, the level of technology on vmlch the builders oper ted and various institutions of social interaction and centers which the culture aaintained (villey 1953). Chang defined the sattlemant pattern as "the joanner in which hu^an settlejients are arranged over the lundscape in relation to the pnyBiographic, geo^jraphic environment and coifl.iunity pattern as t ’na m inner in vrhich the intiabitarits arrange taelr various structures within the coinmunity and their com .unities within the aggregate" (Ciiang 1958)* According to Bruce Trig er by a settlement ijattem is meant the manner in which people’s cultural activities and social institutions are distributed over the 1-^ndscapc. (Trigger 1963). Settlonent pattern studies not only help us to inter­ pret the distribution pattern (Trlgcer 1963) sjut also to reconstruct the social (Ch-'.ng 1958) or relifjioua (Sears 1961) aspects of anci^t cultures. Three different terms viz. settlement pattern, settlement systcHs and settlamont archaeo­ logy are in use. The settleiaent pattern is a study of the distribution of sites over a given area (Trigger 1968) whereas tlie settleaent aysteoi is the study of rules governing the physical arrangeaent of sites aci'oss a l:-ndscape (Flannery 133 19o7>* settlement archaeology inclu es tli© study of recon­ struction of cultural Ilfovrays and process of chmi;e (t ouao 1972). ;>lnce tho introduction of sottlema'nt pattom studies in archaeology by Gordon /llley in his vork entitled ** rehiatoric :>»ttl9n«it i^attems in '/ini Valltfv> ( /illey a nanber of studies have been c-irri«U out all over the world, 'Osjt C1965) stresses and ur^ es that it will bo fruitful for settlement pattern investigations if the archaeolof'ists, ciOi'io- lo^ists and geographers work together, ^aaders (1956) lays uore e.ajhasis on analysing "ttie distribution of human settle­ ments in the context of agricultural systi>ais, local specia­ lization and inter-re ,ionnl exchange, tiowever, Chanf, (1950) was the first to reconstruct the social org^'faizatiou of neolithic societies with tiie help of settlenent pattern studies whereas iiinford (1964) analysed the artifact variabi­ lity in -ouster!on ass .ablages from ?r, nee and reconstrue^tad the ."alaeolithic settlement system. aruce Irifi; er*s two classic research papers 1967 and 1963 huve ushered in a new era in settleinent pattern studios. He (Tri^er)l967) has isolatea tvro main approaches viz. 1 ) ^olo^ical interaction of two variables, envirooaent and technology, and 2 ) ^oclological-tleconstructins s cial, political and religious organization of c il wures. 1 O J. J irlggor (1SN5 ) in hia pa^^er on the "ooternin .nts of tiiQ ^ettlojjcait Pattern" has cu^gestsd three dirferent levels of aQttle,a:ynt pattei'n atudies, 1) laaivLdttai >/aildiiiR atr structure - Trigger has divcn a list of ruotors iffactltus individual structures and tholr layouts. Ihe nature of juilcilnfS Uetarainfss a sottlo:nent (>attem, hom.Mic people prufor to hava round auts, as they are ©asy to construct an^i easy to tnnis^ort frjtn place to ;)iace, jThoroas tiie settled cora;iunities pr i'er to live in pera.inent i\.ata;i{5ular hou;;es (Flannery 1972^. iTiare is specific correlation Oetyeen houae typea r.na the availabi­ lity oi raw aTitorial# For oxanple uuo to scarcity of raw material in desert, people live in tenta. *he size and layout of a building not only reflects the structure of fairdly, out also In the wealth cmd rank. Xha studies at tliis level ara coasidembly naoerous# Tha ./orK of following sciiolars is forth nothing; Ch^mg (1953), Tri&;»r (1953), tlannery (1972) ami havalikar (1977, 1980) etc. 2) ■^Oi-a.tunity level - the arrangeaent of buildings in a particular locality riiflacts social -;tratiflcation and uccjnonic activities, ^vironment cjid subi^istence t^.»chnology play a very significant rjle in deteriaining the size and stabi­ lity of a coiajouiiity. ihe studies at thi& lev.il are numerous. Q r\ l~ y j J The iirorks of -xi m (1961, 1965)» Chang U 962),Flannery (1971- 1976), Clark (1972), Jhavallknr (1977, 1978)^ Fletcher (1979) etc* are very ijapoirtant* 3) ^nal attem - The zonal pattern Is largely deter- niined by the availability of natural resources, famming communities tend to settle near good arable lana and perennial supply of water vrtiereas pastoral group settle ne^r pasture land. Factors such as the relative case of co ununicat!on, political orcianization, warf ire anti raligion and their sub­ sistence technology, deternine the location of a particular settlement. Ia.>ortiint works at this level are those of /idan 1961, 1965) Flpjmery (1971), alley (1965), f enfrew (1972), ►:.andera (1965), ^luavalikar (1978 and 1982 unpublished), Chitalwala (1979), -^ossGhl (1980), -«raj 3han (1977), Makkhan Lai (1982), lorsten Madsen (1982) Jo^i (1982), iome other factors like nndLgration, population ch sngo and different tradi­ tion of land use (iioaans 1962) affect the settlenaent pattern in various ways. The data obtained for the study of settlement pattern cooes from sty o^m field investigations in the central i'api basin, I have studied the zonal pattern; the third level of settlement pattern studies su ggested by Bnace Trigger (1968). *i. ->ali of the ^rch eologlcal ^urvey of India, in the late sixties and tho eirly seventies, carried out archaeological investigations in parts of tSiule district anti discovered a good nunabar of chalcolithic and historical sites* I surveyed these sites for observing complete inform .tion. A few sites auch as x-'rakashe, wavalda and Bahurupa were subjocted to vertical excavations but they supply only sketchy information, it is not ,possible to explore all ancient sites as several of tiiem on the b .nks of rivtfrs Tapi and ? -mjhra might have been washed off in the later period becauae of the occurrence of frequent heavy flooas* Secondly, taost of the unclaimed l^oiu is being distributed fimong tho landless people and is being brought under cultivation. In this process, sevaral omcient sites are beinf' destroyed. There is every possi­ bility of losing surface intJLcation of ancient settlements with very thin h^bitation^^l de:>osit, if they are brought under cultivation* repeated ploughing of the ancient habitations has caused irrepairable damage* ilonce very few sites are intact* In the course of field work, sometimes it becomes very difficult to detect a site if it is hidden balo / a stand­ ing crop. If at all ancient habitations are free fron cultl- vaiion, they are heavily dei^troyed by mercilessly digging by local inhabitants for obtaining whitisk soil «^ch is used for plastering and constructing houses and ni'inurln,, fields* Uuito a few sites lie bolow the present habitations or to^ns, in which case the extent and occupational debris cannot be estimated* 2 0 2 The aizo and distribution of different cultural periods is datenaineci on the basis of distribution of ceraaiics. As most of the ancient settleaenta are multi-cultural and are under cultivation, there is every possibility of getting the ceramics of oifferent cultures jnixed up and distributed evenly all over the surface in the process of oloughing* In the central lapi basin there are rem?.lns of four different chalcolithic cultures* namely, the liavalda, the Late ilarappa, the ?lalirfa and the Jorwe, tultfiaents of the K y; tha culture are present at only two sited n.ijsaely Varsus f and Lonkhede, which is not sufficient to guess the settle­ ment p^ittem of this culture.