Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 29

FEBRUARY, 1932 ]
ANCIENT SOAK-PITS AT CHETPUT, MADRAS
ANCIENT SOAK-PITS AT CHETPUT, MADRAS.
By L. A. CAMMIADE. On visiting the old and now exhausted brick fields at Chetput in the town of Madras, I noticed amidst broken tiles, rejected bricks and other refuse of the kilns, a few fragments of pottery of urn-burial types. A search showed that these fragments were to be found over an area of about ten acres, scattered at the bottom of the clay pits at a depth of about 15 to 20 feet below the present ground level. The occurrence of ancient pottery at such a depth was rather puzzling until further search showed that the fragments were derived from the bottom of silted-up wells. About twenty or thirty of these wells seem to have existed within the excavated area. Many of them had been completely destroyed, their sites being traceable only by the scattered fragments of pottery. In about twelve cases, however, the last three or four feet of the well-shaft had escaped destruction.
These wells were 24 to 30 inches in diameter. Their walls were of pottery inch thick, built up in sections about sixteen inches in height, flanged at the base and curved slightly inward at the upper end. Wells of this type are not made nowadays in Southern India. Pottery rings are still occasionally used for wells, but those are more massive, being two inches thick and only six inches high, with wide flanges at top and bottom. In modern ring-wells the sections rest one over the other, while in the older pottery wells the sections are loosely socketed. The segments of the old wells differ moreover from the rings of modern pottery wells in having two opposite pairs of eyelets, which seem to have been intended for ropes to lower the segments into position.
The old well segments were made of coarse clay mixed with chaff, the outer sides being plastered thickly with straw while the clay was still soft. The wells were sunk through the bed of brick clay into a subjacent bed of water-bearing sand. It was, therefore, not possiblo to clear them out completely owing to the inrush of water. In both the wells I was able to examine in detail there was about four feet of broken pottery mixed with bones. Among tho pottery were fragments of large broad-mouthed pots of the usual urn types, and fragments of shallow oval or coffin-shaped troughs, about 24 to 30 inches in length, 1 besides quantities of lesser pottery and numerous fragments of broken well-rings. The fragments of the larger pottery recovered from the wells showed that they were derived from at least twelve different vessels having a mouth diameter ranging from 11 to 19 inches. There were also fragments of eight or ten still larger and more massive vessels with a rim diameter ranging from 22 to 32 inches, and also fragments of a large necked pot of unusual type about thirty inches in diameter, square-shouldered and with a vertical neck. Of the trough-shaped pottery, an almost complete spocimen 24" x 10" X 5' was found in one of the wells resting above the other pottery. Most of the smaller pots had globose bodies with narrow, vertical rimless necks. Pots of this type could not have been used for drawing water and must have been thrown in. Some of the vessels have six holes pierced at the base of their necks for suspension. Rimless bowl types were also frequent as well as fragments of shallow saucer-shaped vessels of the kind commonly found in the ancient burials. The latter were of somewhat larger size than is usual in the graves, having a diameter of fourteen inches. These small vessels were all of highly finished, polished black ware. Finally, there were fragments of polished red ring-stands about ten inches in diameter.
With regard to the relation of this domestic pottery to the funeral pottery it is to be noted that (1) I found no fragments of the small vessels, polished red outside and black inside, that is so characteristic of the urn burials of Southern India dating from Adichanallur upwards, although it is to be found abundantly on other village sites ; (2) the large ring-stands of red ware were highly polished and differed from the large unpolished ring-stands from certain
• Incorporating notes by K. do B. Codrington. 1 Perambair, Arch. She Rep., 1908-09, P. xxxiii, fig. 2.