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CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCES
287
A cutting across the defences has been divided into four main phases :(a) In the earliest phase, the defences consisted of a
massive clay rampart over 25 feet high at this point and 110 feet wide at the base. On the top of the rampart wall occurred a series of roughly circular holes, each about a foot deep and 10 inches wide arranged at regular intervals of 1 ft. 10 inches. They were found packed with laterite gravel and covered with a thin layer of clay. Their exact purpose is indeed difficult to determine without further evidence. This earliest phase of defences has been dated in the first quarter of
the second Century B.C. (b) During the second phase, a 4 to 6 feet thick layer
of laterite gravel was added on to the top of the clay rampart. Such a feature was also noticed at the western gateway and elsewhere in the sections of some of the monsoon-gullies round the periphery. The phase does not seem to have
been a long-lived one. (c) The third phase witnessed a change in the make
up of the defences. Two brick walls, 26 feet apart and 2 feet 6 inches and 3 feet 6 inches thick respectively, were built at the top of the laterite gravel and the space between them was filled up with mud and earth. Towards the interior of the fort and also on the outside can be seen the builder's ramp, 3 to 4 feet thick, which also helped to retain the brick walls. In course of time, more material, including brick bats, was added
to these ramps to hold the walls vertical. The 1. Ancient India, Vol. V, p. 74.
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