Eternal India Encyclopedia

ARCHAEOLOGY

Eternal India

encyclopedia

herd following and loose following, close farming and factory farm-

ing. In agriculture light or medium loams were preferable to heavy

alluvial soil of higher fertility. Domestication of plants depended

not only on soil but also on soil-working implements. The main

Neolithic regions of India are Kashmir, Assam, the sub-Himalayan

region, Chotanagpur plateau and peninsular India. The Belan valley

in Allahabad District should also be included. The transition from

the food-gathering to the food-producing state is not yet clear

except perhaps at Sanganakallu and Nagarjunakonda in Andhra,

Kuchai in Orissa, and Burzahom in Kashmir. The food-gathering

folk of Burzahom used awls, scrapers, harpoons and needles of

bone and axes, adzes of stone, but there is no evidence of domes-

tication of plants and animals. Ground stone tools however sug -

gest pounding of vegetal products. A hunting scene is engraved on

a stone slab. In the succeeding phase indirect evidence of cultiva-

tion of plants is provided by stone mace heads, hoes and harvest-

ers. People shifted from dwelling pits to houses, and wheel-made

pottery also came into use.

Animals

Cattle, sheep and goat were domesticated. Bones of the horse

are also found in the South Indian sites at Nallur, Nagarjunakonda,

Maski and Kodekal. Cattle were used for heavy draft and the ass

as a beast of burden.

Plants

Millet and horsegram were gathered by the Neolithic people in

the South and rice was cultivated at Baidyapur (Orissa) and

Chirand (Bihar). Barley, wheat, lentils and leguminous weeds

occur along with cultivated and uncultivated variety of rice, in

Chirand. Sample of millet (ragi) and horse bone are found in the

Southern region.

Date

The food-producing economy began in the 4th millennium B.C.

at Mehrgarh in Baluchistan (3775-2250 B.C.) and almost at the

same time Koldi (Koldihawa) in Allahabad District produced rice in

the Neolithic levels dated the 5th millennium B.C. The 14 C dates

for Neolithic-Chalcolithic are 4530± 185 and 5440±240 B.C. (Ghosh

233) at Koldihawa. This very early date is not taken into account by

some archaeologists, but there is no reason for excluding it, except

for the fact that in most other regions of India a time bracket of

2450-1200 B.C. in the South and 2350-2250 B.C. in the North is

given.

Based on physiographic divisions, five Neolithic regions recog-

nized in India are :

North-West region including Kashmir.

Eastern region covering Assam and sub-Himalayan region and

Darjeeling

The Chotanagpur Plateau and the peneplanes in Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar, Orissa and Bengal.

Mid-Eastern region including Dt. Saran in Bihar.

Southern region covering peninsular India.

The use of ground stone implements is common to all regions,

but in other material equipment and level of subsistence economy

there is considerable difference; so much so, the origin of regional

Neolithic cultures in India cannot be traced to a single centre. The

material equipment of Burzahom Neolithic consisted of stone hoes,

harvesters and handmade pottery indicating cultivation of plants,

while in the Eastern region stone tools comprising shouldered and

round-butt-ended celts, and pestles besides handmade grey pot-

tery with basket impressions were in use. Slash-and-burn and

shifting cultivation are presumed to have been practised. In the

Chotanagpur region there is an abundance of ground stone mace-

heads (digging stick weights), hoes, chisels and rounded butt axes.

The handmade pottery consisted of an orange-brown ware and a

grit-tempered coarse red ware. Evidence of domestication of

plants and animals is indirectly provided by poupders and grinding

stones. The Mid-East region in district Saran shows an advanced

stage of Neolithic economy. Paddy-husk impressions on burnt clay

lumps and the presence of charred grains confirm cereal cultivation.

Houses made of mud and daub indicate settlements of long dura-

tion. Bone and antler points, socketed arrowheads, borers and

pins, microliths, ground stone pestles, celts and querns, terracotta

figures and handmade pottery consisting of Grey and Black and

Red Ware with a burnished surface are among the noteworthy

equipment of the Neolithic folk.

The Southern region shows homogeneity to a large extent in the

equipment of the Neolithic folk. Two phases of development have

been recognized in the encountered Southern Neolithic. The early

phase at Nagarjunakonda, Utnur and Shevroy hills is noted for

ground stone tools, microliths and hand-made pale red ware. The

ash mounds suggest a pastoral life as they consist of burnt

cowdung. The second phase shows a more advanced pastoral and

agricultural economy. Stone implements include ground axes,

wedges, hammerstones, micropicks and parallel-sided blades.

Beads of steatite make their presence for the first time. Elsewhere

in Kurnool District sites such as Sivavaram and Pusalapadu have

yielded not only pottery and neoliths but also disc steatite beads of

Harappan origin.

Copper/Bronze Age

The earliest copper/bronze-using cultures are the pre-Harappa

and the Harappa cultures of the Indus valley, Baluchistan and

Sarasvati valley. The Indus Civilisation so called because of the

urban character of the major settlements in the Indus valley such as

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro has been redesignated as Harappa

Civilisation after Harappa the first site of the Civilisation which

was not confined to the Indus valley. Hundreds of sites of this civi-

lisation have been discovered during the last 40 years in Gujarat,

Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The term Indus

Civilisation is used by the present author as an all-inclusive term

for the Mature and Late Harappa cultures wherever necessary.

Otherwise three distinct phases of the civilization namely pre-

Harappa, Harappa and Late Harappa are used respectively for the

formative, mature and declining or devolutionary phases of the

civilisation.

After the discovery of Indus seals in 1921, Waddel considered

the Indus Civilisation as an offshoot of Sumerian Civilisation. The

subsequent excavations however proved that the former had a

distinct personality of its own and its planning and architecture, art,

writing, religion and even trade mechanisms differed from the

Sumerian counterparts.