Ojiyana
Ojiyana Ahar-Banas Settlement
Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic 3000–1500 BCE·Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic (Mewar)·🇮🇳 Rajasthan, Bhilwara District, Mandal/Bhilwara Tehsil, Banas piedmont (Mewar Plain south of Bagor), India
About
About Ojiyana
R. Meena and Alok Tripathi (ASI Jaipur). Ojiyana yielded Ahar black-and-red ware with white painting, microlithic chalcedony and copper, mudbrick houses with hearth and burial urns, plus fish and cattle faunal assemblage proving Banas floodplain fishing-farming economy. The site bridges Bagor Mesolithic hunter continuity to Ahar copper-farming intensification, with early wheat-millet transition and bead workshop (steatite and semi-precious), situated between Gilund (north) and Balathal (south) forming Ahar-Banas cluster.
Why it mattersMiddle Banas Ahar node linking Gilund warehouse to Balathal village — proves Mewar Chalcolithic regional integration and fish-farming economy.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Urn burial vs intramural — change with Late Ahar?
Theories
- 01Banas Chalcolithic as continuous Bagor microlith → Ahar copper trajectory
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3000 BCE Early Ahar; florescence 2500–1500 BCE
- Period
- Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic 3000–1500 BCE
- Culture
- Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic (Mewar)
- Builders
- Ahar Chalcolithic farmers
- Purpose
- Floodplain farming-fishing hamlet and bead-copper workshop bridging Banas sites
- Abandoned
- c.1500 BCE (Late Ahar decline)
- Rediscovered
- 1999–2003 Meena & Tripathi ASI excavation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.3000–2500 BCE
Early Ahar village with black-and-red ware, microliths, cattle and fish
c.2500–1500 BCE
Mature Ahar houses with copper, bead workshop, urn burials
1999–2003
ASI Jaipur excavations; 2004 site report
On the ground
Structures & features
25.2100° N · 74.6000° E · 440 m · 2 mapped features
Central Habitation Mound
settlementMudbrick houses and urn burials on main mound summit
25.2105° N · 74.6005° EBead Workshop Flats
workshopSteatite and semi-precious bead drilling floor on eastern terrace
25.2095° N · 74.6008° E