Yesamba
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YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
The 2023 April findings
Anjali Marar, April 20, 2023: The Indian Express
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From: Anjali Marar, April 20, 2023: The Indian Express
That exploration by the student, Oshin Bamb, has now brought Yesamba, believed to be once a thriving agrarian community, into the limelight. The site, he says, is now in immediate need of conservation efforts both from the local administration and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
WHEN A 25-year-old PhD student from Pune set out for field work to Khairwada in Maharashtra’s Wardha district for his dissertation, little did he imagine that his journey would lead to a discovery that would make headlines: a 2,600-year-old megalithic site.
That exploration by the student, Oshin Bamb, has now brought Yesamba, believed to be once a thriving agrarian community, into the limelight. The site, he says, is now in immediate need of conservation efforts both from the local administration and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
“It was during my ethnographic field survey in Khairwada, for the MA dissertation in March 2022, that I was informed by some locals about the presence of distinct circular structures in Yesamba. Upon visiting and inspecting, it turned out to be a megalithic site which had stayed unknown to the world,” Bamb, a first-year PhD student at Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, told The Indian Express.
The use of large stones and boulders — mainly identified as burial sites — are one of the typical characteristic features of the Megalithic period. As some of this period coincided with the Iron Age, communities living close to these sites practiced agriculture using basic iron tools. In India, central India regions, especially Vidarbha, have abundant megalithic sites. For instance, Khairwada has over 1,500 megalithic burial sites.
Today, Yesamba is a gram panchayat in Wardha taluka — the present-day village seems to have settled upon the ancient habitation, according to a recent paper about Yesamba by Bamb that was published in the Journal of History, Archaeology and Architecture.
As many as 60 stone circles, with sizes varying from 4-40 m in diameter, were found here. However, due to overgrown bushes and grass covering most of these circular structures, the presence of the megalithic rural site is nearly indistinguishable and hence could have remained unnoticed, Bamb said.
“Within an expanse of 2 km, there exist more than 60 stone circles with round boulders placed in their periphery, indicating the population that lived here. Probably for hygiene purposes, the stone circles were located away from their settlements, but not far away. The stone circles, many located close to one another, were located on low lying rising hills,” Bamb, who hails from Wardha, said.
Besides, a mound along with potsherds in red and black coloured clay, a broken saddle piece and ceramic assemblages were unearthed from this site. Advanced studies applying carbon dating techniques and other analysis would be needed to fully unravel about Yesamba’s past, the researcher said.
These pottery and ceramic remains could offer clues that this site could have been a favourite and inhabited for a long period, Bamb said.
According to Shrikant Ganvir, archaeologist at Deccan College, Yesamba needs to be protected from any further deterioration and there are plans to send a formal proposal in this regard to the ASI and Maharashtra’s Archaeological Department.
