Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute December 1950

In the annals of the early history of India the name of this site is pointed out as the southernmost outpost of the Indus Valley Civilization and the ceramic remains found here have often been compared with the blacon-red pottery characteristic of the various Cultures known from the Indus region.' With a view to examine how far this belief was true a small scale excavation was carried out [...] Due to the paucity of funds and availability of time the work in the three lowermost layers was more concentrated in only one of the trenches while excavation in the other served as a useful check on the stratification of various layers marked in the main trench. [...] From the identity of several pottery forms such as the normal bowl the dish the lamp and the handled sauce pan recovered from all the layers on the site it can be said that the pottery of Rangpur belongs to one and the same culture ; though several ceramic industries are noted in it at different periods in the occupational history of the site. [...] The rims of the dishes of Phase III-II are ellipsoid in section with a grooving at the lower edge of the pan while those in Phase I are generally tapering with a flange at the base. [...] Whereas the mature Harappa Culture pottery shows a distinct tendency towards the total decoration of the vessels the wares at Ranpur lack the overall decorations with a preference to decorate the rims of flat vessels and cups ; in the case of large globular pots only the portion near the neck belly and around the shoulder is decorated which a MD artist would have chosen to decorate in its en