Geo-archeology at Khajnawar in Western Uttar Pradesh plain

Abstract

Khajnawar village in Saharanpur district of western Utter Pradesh is inhabited over the remains of an ancient archaeological settlement. Field observations and archaeological investigation reveal two periods of settlement: settlement I with grey ware and iron objects and settlement II with painted red ware. Radiocarbon and optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating indicate 2600a-1400a age for settlement I and 850a-350a for settlement II. A hiatus of ~550a between the two settlements may have been caused either by an earthquake or climate change. A southfacing and NW-SE trending scarp on the southern end of the Khajnawar has been interpreted as a tectonic scarp that is a continuation of the Piedmont Fault with right-step. The scarp should have formed due to an earlier earthquake that may have caused the hiatus. Climate change can be another possibility for the hiatus, because periods of settlement and occupation seem to coincide with drier and wetter conditions recorded in the subcontinent. Collapsed and tilted walls with brick rubble and infilling by sands in the settlement II layers was probably caused by a later earthquake post-dating 350a (OSL age), suggesting that this most likely corresponds to the large M_w > 7 1803 earthquake of Garhwal Himalaya.