Holocene alluvial geoarchaeology of Wari-Bateshwar, Bangladesh
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2016
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The Wari-Bateshwar is a celebrated theme among the contemporary intelligentsia in Bangladesh archaeology. A few recent publications have recently illuminated different aspects of the archaeological places and claims that are much debated in academia. This region contains archaeological remains with a probable age of 5th-4th century BCE based on the stylistic dating of artifacts and radiocarbon dating, but their stratigraphic context is not clear. Wari and Bateshwar are two adjoining villages sited in Balabo Thana of Narsingdi District, north-eastern part of Bangladesh. This research is an attempt to know the nature and formation processes of the archaeological materials in the alluvial terrain of Wari-Bateshwar with special reference to alluvial geoarchaeology. One of the basic landform of the study area is Madhupur Tract, which an old (Pleistocene) formation of Bangladesh. Methodologically this study is divided into three steps: literature review, fieldwork and laboratory work. During fieldwork sediments samples have been collected from fifteen localities. Various types of laboratory analyses are used in this research. As more relevant, Laser Particle Size Analyzer and X-ray diffraction were used to identify the grain size and clay mineral composition. After the completion of these methodological steps, the result of the analyses indicates distal fluvial/delta plain depositional environments and it is also found that archaeological records in different occurrences of Wari-Bateshwar have been relocated. The findings also suggest that formation and modification of the archaeological materials have been engendered by low energy fluvial activity like floods. Textural and compositional data help in the characterization of the depositional environments during the Late Holocene (< 3000 yrs BP) and it is also found that archaeological materials of this area have been relocated and modified by low energy fluvial activity as well as flood related processes (overbank). Clay mineralogy is dominated by illite and kaolinite, indicating similar climate conditions to the present ones. The analyses of historical maps and landscape history suggest that along with very active alluvial processes, changes in the shoreline, particularly the eastern part of the delta in Late Holocene have been significant.
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Tese de Doutoramento em Quaternário Materiais e Culturas
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Arqueologia , Bangladesh , Geologia , Mineralogia , Sedimentologia