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June 2: Evidence of more than 3000-year-old cultural remains have been found during an archaeological excavation at Dadupur near Banthara in Uttar Pradesh.

Rakesh Tewari, director of state archaeology department said the excavation has revealed that human habitation in Lucknow region was established, at least at Dadupur, in the later half of the fourth millennium. It has also established that kiln burnt bricks, though in a limited number, were in use during those days and iron was in
use prior to Circa 700 BC, Tewari said.

He said earlier in this region the ancient mounds of Hulaskhera and Kalli Paschim, situated near Mohanlalganj on Rai Bareilly road, were excavated by UPSAD and Lucknow University respectively. The cultural remains found from the surface at Lakshamana Tila and Kila Faridi Nagar in Lucknow and Natwa Dih in the surrounding area have also
been considered more or less of the same antiquity on a comparative basis.

(TOI, April 4, 2000)
Excavation pre-dates city's antiquity to 1430 BC

By Archana Srivastava

The Times of India News Service

LUCKNOW: Was the region around Lucknow encompassing a large area of central Uttar Pradesh colonised in the pre-Buddhist period? While archaeologists have yet to establish the 'colonisation' aspect, they have succeeded in pre dating Lucknow's antiquity to 1430 BC following excavations at Dadupur, near Banthara, around 22 km from
the state capital.

The recent vital finding has shed new light on the historicity of the region which till recently could not extend beyond 600-1000 BC, coinciding with the Buddhist-Jain periods.

The excavated site, according to director State Archaeologica lDepartment Dr Rakesh Tewari, does not reveal a regular habitation area, but suggests that somewhere in the vicinity of the site there was ample human activity. Tewari says: "the core area of the habitation of this tricky site is somewhere else and to reach it we extended the area of the trenches. Unfortunately, the excavation did not give much indication of the core since the area is a very disturbed one which resulted in the in situ evidences being destroyed."

The site, however, has thrown up important findings in the form of black and red ware, corded ware, coins, arrow heads, bone and iron artefacts.

Dadupur and the area around it is not far from the river Sai which flows across the nearby Bani township. In the ancient Rig Vedic texts, Sai river is referred to as Sandika. Considering that the texts were written around 1500 BC, the possibility of human activity
either in the form of camp settlements or hutments existing in the region can not be precluded. But as Tewari says more archaeological evidence is needed to establish the aspect of 'regular' human habitation.

Nevertheless, the radiocarbon dating of 1430 BC (i.e 3400 years before present) has opened new insights into the archaeological history of the region. Till recently evidences of human habitation around Lucknow dating between 600-1000 BC had been found from
Dadupur and Kali Paschim near SGPGI on Rai Bareli road. With the date now being pushed back to 1430 BC, there is a possibility of there being a continuum between the sites excavated in western and eastern Uttar Pradesh dating back to 1800-2000 BC and those of Dadupur.

According to Tewari, the site of Dadupur initially drew the attention of the archaeological experts since it was said to be a contemporary site of Hulas Khera near Mohanlalganj. Evidences at Hulas Khera had established its antiquity to 1000 BC. Those of
Dadupur have gone 400 years beyond, he says.