Kharid Archaeological Site

Kharid Archaeological Site is an ancient settlement mound located in Kharid village near Sikanderpur in Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh, on the left bank of the Ghaghara River. Excavated by Banaras Hindu University, the site revealed cultural deposits from the Chalcolithic period to early historic times, including Black-and-Red Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware. It is notable for evidence of early agrarian life in the Middle Ganga Plain and remains a protected archaeological mound in a rural setting.

Visitors can expect a low earthen mound in a rural agricultural landscape near the Ghaghara River floodplain. The site is not developed as a formal tourist complex and has no reconstructed structures or museum on site. The mound surface shows stratified deposits and scattered potsherds. The surroundings are open fields and village settlement. Access is via unpaved village paths. The visit is primarily for observing the archaeological landscape and understanding the ancient settlement context.

Kharid is a stratified settlement site excavated by the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University in the 1990s. Excavations revealed a cultural sequence from Chalcolithic/Narhan culture through Early Historic periods, with ceramics including Black-and-Red Ware, Black Slipped Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware, along with evidence of early agriculture, wattle-and-daub structures and iron use in later levels, contributing to understanding of protohistoric to early historic settlement in the Ghaghara-Ganga interfluve.

The site represents early agrarian village culture of the Middle Ganga Plain and illustrates the transition from Chalcolithic farming communities to Early Historic urban-associated cultures. It is significant for study of ceramic traditions, subsistence patterns and settlement archaeology of eastern Uttar Pradesh.