Pandu Rajar Dhibi

Pandu Rajar Dhibi is an archaeological mound in Ausgram II block of Purba Bardhaman, close to the southern bank of the Ajay river near the villages of Rajpotdanga and Panduk. Local belief connects the main mound with King Pandu of the Mahabharata, which is how the site got its name. Paresh Chandra Dasgupta led the first excavations in 1954–57, and it became the first Chalcolithic site identified in West Bengal; many more were later found across Birbhum, Bardhaman, Bankura and Midnapore.

The digs showed two main phases: a Chalcolithic settlement of roughly 1600–750 BC, followed by an Iron Age one. Skeletal remains of men, women and children were recovered, and a layer showing a great fire seems to mark the point where iron-using people replaced the copper-using culture. The Ajay and its tributaries were navigable at the time, and a lively trade may have existed, though the evidence for it is thin.