B. B. Lal - Archeological Work

Archeological Work

Dr. B. B. Lal has worked as an archaeologist for more than 50 years. He trained in excavation by a veteran archaeologist, Mortimer Wheeler at sites such as Taxila & Harappa, and other historical sites such as Sisupalgarh in Orissa.

The Archaeological Survey of India had performed conservation and restoration of Buddhas of Bamiyan, Khwaj Parsa’s Mosque at Balkh and the shrine of Khwaja Abu Naser under R. Sen Gupta and B. B. Lal in Afghanistan.

During 1950-52 he worked on archaeology of Mahabharata sites, including Hastinapura, the capital city of the Kurus. He made discoveries of many Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites in the Indo‑Gangetic Divide and upper Yamuna‑Ganga doab.

In Nubia, the Archaeological Survey of India, B.B. Lal and his team discovered middle and late stone age tools in the terraces of the river Nile near Afyeh. The team excavated a few sites at Afyeh and cemetery of C-group people having 109 graves.

Dr. B. B. Lal worked on Mesolithic site of Birbhanpur(West Bengal), Chalcolithic site of Gilund(Rajasthan) and Harappan site of Kalibangan(Rajasthan). He also worked on Ramayana sites of Ayodhya, Bharadwaj Ashram, Nandigram, Chitrakut and Shringaverapura, etc.

Two British archaeologists Stuart Piggott and D.H. Gordon described B. B. Lal’s published works on the Copper Hoards of the Gangetic basin and his Hastinapura excavation report, published in journal of the Archaeological Survey of India, as models of research and excavation reporting.