Archaeology of Wari-Bateshwar

Abstract

Wari and Bateshwar are two adjacent villages in Amlabo Union under Belabo police station in Narsingdi district, Bangladesh. It is situated on an isolated bit of the Pleistocene terrace at Manohardi-Sibpur, which is detached from the Madhupur tract by the Old Brahmaputra and the Laksya rivers. Since the 40s of the last century, a large number of cultural materials of Wari-Bateshwar have been reported from surface collections and chance excavations. Systematic archaeological exploration at the site was carried out in 1998-99 season by the author and subsequently a number of excavations conducted at the site since 2000. Archaeological investigations at Wari-Bateshwar revealed that the site had been occupied from the 4th century BC onwards with occasional breaks. The present paper is the detail report of all the evidences from the archaeological record in the form of physical remains unearthed from explorations and excavations till date and analyzes them to understand the nature and behaviors of the people who produced them. This also places Wari-Bateswar in the macro-level of Indian Ocean maritime trade network during the early historic period.

Keywords

• excavation
• archaeological survey
• maritime trade networks