  Excavation at Iswal (Rajasthan), under Prof. Lalit Pandey’s supervision during 2001-2007, has provided the earliest date of iron working in southeast Rajasthan. The C14 date of the iron working is 1053 BCE. The ancient site of Iswal (73º50´ E, 24º30´ N) is located 20 Km. Northwest of Udaipur city on the Jodhpur highway. The site covers an area of 75 hectares. Geographically, the village Iswal is located on the Southern part of the Aravallis. Southern Aravalli is considered the core area of the Aravallis. The eminent Geographer Bhattacharya (2000,p.9-10) describes the region thus : “Except the Abu block, the highest part of the main Aravalli range lies Northwest of Udaipur city between the villages of Gogunda and Kumbhalgarh where it is known as the Bhorat plateau, with a general elevation of 1,225 meters. The highest amongst these ridges is the Jarga Parbat, referred endearingly as Jarga Ji. It has been anthropomorphized, as well as defied by the people of Mewar. Topographical eminence, availability of perennial water from natural springs, abundance of forest cover, at least in the earlier days, isolation and solitude have all combined to provide it ‘genius loci’, so to say, for the establishment of a series of temples round which an annual fair is held in the month of February.’ Read on...http://www.docstoc.com/docs/16495235/iswal Thanks to Moti Shemtov for the photographs of Iswal site, taken with Prof. Lalit Pandey in 2005.
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