________________ 454 Homage to Vaisali radius of two feet. These wells served either drinking purposes or they were soak-pits or they were used as storages for graips. The depth of two such wells could be traced to a depth of more than twentyfour feet, because the excavator could not dig deeper due to the appearance of sub-soil water. Near the ringwells there were remains of a residential building; one of its rooms measured 24' 14'. The fioor of the room was made of one course of bricks paved with kankars. Bloch did detect the remains of drains in the residential buildings. He could not come across any religious building. However, he picked an image of Ganesa. From the discovery of carved bricks, tiles, and finials, one could infer that the superstructure of the buildings was a tiled one. According to Bloch, such buildings belonged to the common people, and a small part of them seemed to have been the outskirts of the royal palace. Tiles, discovered by Bloch, were of two dimensions; one measured 41" x61" and the other 71"x7". As no remains of wood were met with, naturally one can conclude that the roof of the then structure did not combine wooden material in it. Bloch bas mentioned that the floor of the buildings contained cement, but it is not a fact. Really it was made of only brick and kankars. The excavations of 1950 and 1958-60 at the site also did not reveal any such evidence. The most important discovery of Bloch was that of seven hundred and twenty seals impressed on one thousand one hundred eartben surface. of these seals, those bearing the names of Dhruvasvamini, Ghatotkacha, Sreshthi-nigama and other officials were noteworthy; and those bearing the impressions of Paduka, kalasa, chakra and Jankha were also not less important. Besides, religious and individual scals and sealings were also amongst them. Other antiquities, discovered by Bloch, included terracotta figurines, toys, balls, whorls, ivory lamp, copper bowl, fragment of an iron knife. beads of precious stones, bangles of conch and shell pin. Besides, mention may be made of the discovery of four wheels (chakras), which were dated to pre-Gupta times by Bloch. The designs on one of the wheels resembled those on the gold plate found in association with the Buddha's relics at Piprahwa. uro. III. D. B. Spooner's Excavations in 1913-14 Encouraged by the discovery of Bloch, another enthusiastic archaeologist, named D. B. Spooner), also concentrated his work on Raja Visala ka Garh with a view to locating the royal palace, identifying Basarh and its neighbourhood as ancient Vaisali, and unearthing as many antiquities along with seals as possible. 1. Archaeological Survey of India Annual Report for 1913-14 (Calcutta, 1917).
