Course Name:
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY
Paper No. & Title:
B.A. / B.Sc. (Honours)
5th Semester
(Theory)
Topic No. & Title:
(12/21)
Neolithic Cultures of Europe and India
Introduction
The Neolithic or the New Stone Age was preceded by the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
eras of human history. The domestication of plants and animals is one of the key features of
Neolithic culture. Development of agriculture and increased food resources could support
higher population densities. With food production, permanent residences could be established
and hunter-gatherer lifestyle was abandoned. The transition from hunting-gathering to food
production has been aptly designated as the Neolithic revolution by V. Gordon Childe in
1936. Studies on this culture in different parts of the world show different cultural features
and traits. Here we will be discussing the neolithic cultural development in two important
zones of the Old World, i.e. Europe and India, where we see specific features of this phase of
human history.
Neolithic Culture of Europe
In Europe, the Neolithic culture is defined as the period starting with the emergence of
farming communities until the appearance of bronze metallurgy, which is the beginning of the
Bronze Age. In the context of the East Baltic, Belarus, and Russian Neolithic, appearance of
pottery and polished stone tools is considered as the criteria.
Different views on the divisions of the Neolithic period of Europe have been
propounded by several scholars. These are:
1. Jens Luning divides the southern German Neolithic into five phases: Early, Middle,
Later, Late, and Final
2. Janusz Kozłowski classifies the Polish Neolithic into the Early Neolithic and Late
Neolithic.
3. Cooney breaks down the Irish Neolithic into the Early Neolithic, the Middle Neolithic
and the Late Neolithic.
4. Henrieta Todorova divides the Bulgarian Neolithic into the Monochrome Neolithic,
the Classic Early Neolithic, the Middle Neolithic and the Late Neolithic.
In general, the European Neolithic and Copper Age can be divided into different
chronological phases whose beginnings and ends vary across the continent. For example,
incipient farming communities appeared in the Aegean area and Greece at around 7000 BC,
while the earliest agriculture in north-western part of Europe especially in Britain and
Scandinavia did not arrive until after 4000 BC. By the time Early Neolithic farming was
established in central Europe, the Copper Age had already begun in south-eastern Europe.
Early Neolithic trade and settlement in central Europe was going on, at a time when hunting
and gathering societies were still flourishing in Scandinavia and the east Baltic area. These
different periods are not separated from one another by any sharp breaks, for the changes
occurring in the various aspects of different cultures seem generally to have been gradual. The
broad divisions of the European Neolithic are:
Early Neolithic:
Middle Neolithic/Early Copper Age:
Late Neolithic/Late Copper Age:
7000–5500/5000 BC
5500/5000–3500 BC
3500–2200/2000 BC
The processes of the transformations of European societies from foraging to farming
varied from region to region. The use of the term Neolithic does not imply that uniform sociopolitical developments took place among the various societies in Europe. In some areas,
hunting and gathering cultures persisted throughout the period, while other regions witnessed
the development of the earliest societies with hereditary inequality.
Each Neolithic society had its own cultural developments. These societies probably
shared archaeological traits that were linked in some way by language, ethnicity, history, or
myth. Therefore, many Neolithic societies are named for their unique material culture,
especially ceramic types, for example, Linear Pottery, Square-Mouthed Pottery, Funnel
Beaker, Globular Amphora, Corded Ware etc.
Beginning and Dispersals of Agriculture and Neolithic Societies in Europe
In European context, most of the major aspects of Neolithic period such as
domesticated plants and animals, pottery, writing etc. probably came initially from Asia. The
staple crops and herd animals of the European Neolithic like wheat and barley, pulses, along
with cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats were originally domesticated in the Near East shortly after
10,000 BC. These plants and animals spread to Europe as agricultural practices from
southwest Asia. The expansion of agriculture across Europe took place relatively quickly
within a period of approximately 3000 years.
A general understanding of the emergence and spread of Neolithic culture in Europe
suggests several directional movements of people; however, these views are also criticised
and revised time to time:
(1) A wave thrusting from Turkey across the Aegean and into Greece and that initial
movement split in two, one by land and the other by sea. The inland movement brought
farming, pottery, and rectangular mud brick houses to south-eastern Europe. The second
maritime movement along the Mediterranean shore carried domesticated sheep and goats,
cereals, and pottery.
(2) The next step was an explosive expansion across central Europe, with farmers
pouring out of Hungary and occupying an area from Holland, Belgium, and France to the
Ukraine in the east, and from the Alps to northern Germany and Poland.
(3) At the same time, another group began to move from the Mediterranean shore
inland as farmers entered the fertile valleys of Italy, France, Switzerland, and the Iberian
Peninsula.
(4) In central Europe the initial spread of farming was followed by a period of
regionalization as Neolithic groups took on a distinctive, local character and in the west began
to erect monumental tombs known as megaliths.
(5) By 4500 BC, most of Europe, with the exception of the British Isles and
Scandinavia, had been occupied by farmers.
(6) Finally around 4000 BC the last group made their way to these northwest margins,
blanketing most of the continent with the Neolithic.
There are several possible explanations usually given for the appearance of
domesticated plants and animals in Europe:
(a) a diffusion of plant and animal species along with the idea of domestication;
(b) a gradual expansion of the farmers themselves from Anatolia; and
(c) the independent domestication of certain species in Europe.
Early Farmers of Europe
Farming made its appearance in southeast Europe a little after 7000 BC. Although the
early agricultural communities of Thessaly and northern Greece share many similarities with
contemporary settlements in the Near East, there are significant differences too. For example,
mud-brick houses at Nea Nikomedeia and Sesklo of Greece are freestanding one-room
structures instead of being joined together, as in many Near Eastern sites like Qatal Huyuk.
The archaeological record from Franchthi Cave and other occupation sites in Greece
shows that local communities of foragers were taking up agriculture very soon after its
introduction into Europe, and farming seems to have spread west from Greece through the
Mediterranean basin, following coastal routes that were familiar to indigenous hunter-gatherers. Evidence of crops and livestock, together with Impressed Ware pottery appears at
places like Arene Candide in Italy and Chateauneuf-les-Martigues of southern France that had
long been visited by forager groups. Early farming sites differ little from forager settlements,
suggesting that crops and livestock were passed along from group to group and adopted into
the hunter-gatherer economy.
As farming moved north through the Balkans, it seems likely that some population
dispersal of farming groups took place. Elsewhere, however, existing forager groups appear to
have adopted domestic plants and animals into their economy.
Central Europe was colonized by groups of farmers moving along the major rivers,
who settled on hillsides covered with fine-grained loess soils, which could be tilled year after
year without much loss of fertility. By c. 5300 BC early farming communities, known from
their incised ceramics as Linear-bandkeramik (LBK) or Linear Pottery, are found as far west
as the Seine valley and the Netherlands.
The early farmers who made Linear Pottery lived in small clusters of timber
longhouses, sometimes 100 ft/30 m in length, which stood in forest clearings in the midst of
small fields. Domestic cattle bones are most frequently found on Linear Pottery sites, in
contrast to southern Europe where sheep and goats remained the major livestock species.
Linear Pottery settlement complex at Bylany
The Linear Pottery settlement complex at Bylany of Czech Republic has proved to be
one of the most important early farming sites in central Europe since 1953. The site has been
dated to c. 5400-5000 BC. The settlement is spread out over a loess-covered landscape on
both sides of a small stream. Excavations at several locations have revealed dozens of
superimposed longhouse outlines and storage pits.
Based on changes in pottery styles and the overlapping of houses and pits, five major
occupation phases have been proposed. Houses were continually being built, abandoned, and
rebuilt on these sites. Domestic cattle were most commonly kept. The discovery of many
other Linear Pottery sites close by suggests that this area was particularly favored by the
earliest farmers of central Europe.
Middle Neolithic
In traditional chronology, the Middle Neolithic/Early Copper Age falls within the period
(5500/5000–3500 BC). In Germany, Poland, England, and Scandinavia, copper artefacts, mainly
ornaments, are rare at most sites, thus it is difficult to talk about the Copper Age. In Bulgaria, the
Copper Age begins around 4800–4700 BC and in Hungary at 4600–4500 BC.
Around 5500 BC the Dunabian river banks and the loessic zones of Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary were occupied by a new farming population. Probably
these were the pre-existing Mesolithic folk who were in contact with the Balkan Neolithic group.
Here they developed distinct cultural features and are commonly referred to as Danubian culture.
The ceramics associated with these sites has characteristic incised decoration and hence the
culture is also called Linear band ceramic or linear banded culture.
Around 4500 BC a number of changes took place among the Linear Pottery farming
communities of central Europe, reflected in the development of new pottery styles and house
types. The next thousand years saw the emergence of much greater regional variation and the
rise of hierarchically structured societies. In Western Europe, agriculture was gradually taken
up by local indigenous populations and had been established as far as the British Isles and
southern Scandinavia by 4000 BC.
The new pottery styles that developed among the farmers of the Linear Pottery (LBK)
area after 4500 BC are used by archaeologists to identify emerging regional cultures such as
the Lengyel in the east and the Rossen, which developed in the area of the Rhineland. By
about 4200 BC the Funnel Beaker or Trichterbecher (TRB) culture had developed among
farmers on the northern edge of the area of loess soils and extended to the Baltic coast as
settlement expanded out of the river valleys on to the northern European plain. Farther west,
the Michelsberg culture succeeded the Rossen between the Rhine delta and the Alps, and the
Chas-seen culture was dominant over much of France.
Between 4500 and 3500 BCE there is evidence of increasing social differentiation
among the farming societies of central Europe, perhaps due in part to the increased emphasis
on cattle. Plow marks and other signs that animals were being used for traction are found as
far north as Denmark.
New house types came into use and copper-working, which emerged in the TripolyeCucuteni cultures of the Balkans and Carpathians, spread quickly into central and northern
Europe. The appearance of defended hilltop settlements such as one at Dolauer Heide of
central Germany are indicative of increasing social tensions as populations rose, putting
pressure on available land.
In the Alps, distinctive settlements developed after c. 4000 BC, often deliberately
located on lake shores or in marshy areas, with buildings raised on wooden stilts. Such
locations were easily defensible, allowed easy communication by means of dugout canoe, and
provided convenient access to a wide range of aquatic and dry land resources. The exceptional
preservation of timbers from these waterlogged settlements allows the detailed histories of
occupation, abandonment and occasional conflagration to be built up through the use of
dendrochronology. One of the best preserved of these sites is Egolzwil of Switzerland, where
the timber floor and central hearth of a longhouse about 32 ft/10 m long have been uncovered.
Late Neolithic
By the beginning of the Late Neolithic/Late Copper Age most of Europe was occupied by
farmers. Only the coniferous and tundra areas of northern Europe remained inhabited by hunters
and gatherers. In some areas politically complex societies already existed. However, there is a
discontinuity in some aspects of the archaeological record after 3500–3000 years of farming
societies, which may reflect crises or major changes at the end of the Neolithic.
Around 3500–3000 BC, most large settlements disappear in central Europe. Invasions of
Kurgan pastoralists from the Eurasian steppes contributed to the collapse of large settlements.
Others point to local developments such as ecological changes as the causes for the Late
Neolithic crisis.
The Neolithic Site of Skara Brae
Between 3100 and 2500 BCE a village of stone-built houses was constructed at Skara
Brae on the north coast of Mainland, one of the Orkney Islands off the northeast coast of
Scotland. The site, originally excavated by V. Gordon Childe in the 1920s, shows
sophisticated domestic life at the northern edge of Neolithic Europe. Joined by covered
passage ways, the houses boasted built-in stone furniture including beds, dressers, wallcupboards and limpet tanks. The people of Skara Brae raised sheep and cattle and hunted or
scavenged whales and other marine mammals. Whale jawbones found at the site may have
helped to support the earthen roofs of the buildings, and hollowed whale vertebrae were
probably used as querns for grinding cereals. The uniform structure of the houses at Skara
Brae and other newly discovered Orcadian settlements such as Barnhouse suggests that there
were cultural restrictions on architecture and the ways in which people entered and moved
around their homes. The crouched burials of two elderly women were found under the walls
of one of the houses, but for the main part, the residents of Skara Brae were probably buried in
megalithic tombs.
Southern Iberia
In the Late Neolithic of southern Iberia at around c. 3000-2200 BC, some farming
communities in southern Iberia fortified their settlements with concentric dry stone walls and
built outlying bastions, probably to protect their irrigated fields and crops. They buried their
dead in megalithic communal graves with rich grave goods. Investigations of the walled sites
at Los Millares in southeastern Spain and Zambujal in Portugal have found evidence of craft
specialization, including pottery and copper-working, which probably developed here
independently. There were also areas for processing and storing cereals.
Megalithic tombs were of several types. One of the earliest was the passage grave,
comprising a stone burial chamber with a corbelled or stone-slab roof, entered through a
passage, the whole structure being covered with an earth or stone mound. Even though the
passage was often low and narrow, it allowed repeated access to the tomb. Similar to passage
graves are gallery graves, also known as allees convenes consisting of a corridor with lateral
chambers, covered by an elongated mound or long barrow. In Ireland, access to the burial
chamber was sometimes by an open semicircular forecourt.
Round stone chambers known as dysser are found in association with passage graves
in parts of northern Europe. Where stone was in short supply, some long barrows contain
wooden burial chambers, as at Haddenham of England and Sarnovo of Poland.
Now let us see the Neolithic cultural development in India.
Neolithic Cultures of India
Explorations and excavations conducted by various agencies like Archaeological
Survey of India, State departments of Archaeology, universities, institutes and individuals
during the last five decades have led to the discovery of a large number of sites covering all
parts of the country. The sites of the Neolithic cultures are distributed in the Kashmir valley,
the northern Vindhyas, middle Ganga valley, and eastern, north-eastern and south India.
Neolithic stone artefacts include ground or polished stone tools like axes, adzes, wedges,
chisels, querns, rubbers, pestles and hammer stones and also microliths, flakes and blades,
bone tools, and stone and terracotta sling balls etc. in some sites. Neolithic architecture
includes wattle-and-daub circular or rectangular huts and pottery is largely handmade, coarse
clay. It is poorly baked, mostly undecorated and appears drab having a limited repertoire of
shapes and designs.
On the basis of distributions and cluster of sites, the Neolithic culture of India may
broadly be divided into three main broad groups:
(i)
Eastern Group (Vindhyan region, middle Ganga plain, Chotanagpur plateau of
Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa and Northeast India)
(ii)
Southern Group (South India)
(iii) Northern Group (Kashmir Valley)
Eastern Group
In the eastern group, the sites in the Vindhayn and middle Ganga plain, Chota Nagpur
plateau in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal and Northeast Indian hills are included and
explorations and excavations conducted in these regions have highlighted the neolithic traits.
Explorations conducted in the middle Ganga plain revealed a good number of sites in the
Basti, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabirnagar, Gorakhpur, Ballia and Allahabad districts of Uttar
Pradesh and Saran, Vaisali, Patna, Gaya and Rohtas districts of Bihar of which the important
excavated sites in Uttar Pradesh include Jhusi and Hetapatti in Allahabad, Bhunadih and
Waina in Ballia, Sohgaura and Imlidih Khurd in Gorakhpur and Lahuradeva in Sant
Kabirnagar, while Chirand in Saran, Chechar Kutubpur in Vaisali, Taradih in Gaya, Maner in
Patna and Senuwar in Rohtas in Bihar. Most of these excavated sites are multi-culture sites
and yielded archaeological material ranging from Neolithic to early Historical periods.
Excavations at the sites of Koldihwa and Mahagara in the Vindhyas and several sites
like Sohagaura, Khairadih, Narhan, Chirand, and Senuwar in the middle Ganga plains have
yielded substantial amount of data on the cultural features including evidence of plant
cultivation and animal domestication, microliths, bone and antler tools and terracotta objects.
The most distinctive pottery of the neolithic culture of northern Vindhyan region is
cord-marked ware which include handmade pottery made of coarse clay and poorly baked and
has cord designs on the external surface of vessels. Other wares include black-and-red ware,
black-slipped ware with occasional painting in white, and slipped-plain red ware. The main
vessel shapes are bowls, basins, vases and dishes.
The study of the ceramic industry of the middle Ganga plain suggests that in the early
stage of the Neolithic culture, people were using hand made pottery as evidenced at the sites
of Chirand, Lahuradeva, Jhusi and Hetapatti. Subsequently slow wheel method emerged. The
pottery assemblage includes ordinary red ware, lustrous red ware, burnished ware (red, black
and grey), rusticated ware, black-and-red ware and corded ware. The cord-impressed ware, a
typical ceramic industry widely distributed in the prehistoric contexts of East and Southeast
Asia was first reported in the Indian context from Assam by T.C. Sharma. Later on, this ware
has been reported from several sites of northern Vindhyas and Gangetic valley. Considering
the wide occurrences, this ware has been considered as a unique characteristic of the ceramic
traditions of Neolithic-Chalcolithic culture of Eastern India.
From some of the excavated sites like Jhusi, Hetapatti, Chirand, Taradih, Senuwar, etc.
stone objects including blades, bladelets, scrapers, arrowheads, serrated points, triangles,
lunates, borers, flakes, etc. are unearthed. The raw material for making these artifacts are
chert, chalcedony, agate, jasper, quartz, etc. Rounded celts of basalt and granite have also
been reported from Chirand, Senuwar and Hetapatti. Fragments of querns, mullers, balls,
hammer stones, etc. fashioned on sand stone or quartzite are also found in the excavated sites.
Excavations yielded several bone objects which include celts, scrapers, chisels, hammers,
needles, points, borers, awls, shaft straightners, styli and arrowhead and bone ornaments like
pendants, ear-rings, bangles, discs, combs, etc. Bone arrowheads and points have also been
found at sites like Imlidih Khurd, Senuwar, Lahuradeva, Hetapatti and Jhusi. Other finds
include beads of steatite, agate, faience and terracotta; pottery discs, terracotta wheels, beads,
bangles, cakes, birds, serpents, etc. Some of the excavated sites like Chirand, Taradih and
Senuwar have yielded celts, microlithic tools and bone tools. Jhusi and Hetapatti have yielded
microliths in good number.
The cultivated plants in eastern Indian group include hulled and six-rowed barley
(Hordeum vulgare), club wheat (T. compactum), bread wheat (T. aestivum), dwarf wheat (T.
sphaerococcum), rice (Oryza sativa), pea (Pisum sativum), green gram (Vigna radiata),
gram/chicken pea (Cicer arietinum), khesari (Lathyrus sativus), mustard (a form of Brassica
campastris), flax/linseed (Linum usitatissium) and jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). The
domesticated animals include humped cattle (Bos indicus) and sheep/goat (Ovis/Capra). The
animal bones include bones of domestic buffalo, sheep, goat and pig and wild animals such as
elephant, rhinoceros, stag, deer, etc. and aquatic creatures like turtle and fish and birds. Rice
was the staple diet of the people which was supplemented by fish and animal meat. Besides
cultivation of crops and domestication of animals, hunting and fishing also played an
important role in the life of the Neolithic people of the mid Ganga plain.
Small scale excavations at a few sites in Orissa like Kuchai in Mayurbhanj district,
Golbai Sasan in Khurda district, Kuanr in Keonjhar district and Sankarjang in Angul district
have yielded evidence of Neolithic culture of eastern India. Kuchai has yielded pointed-butt
celts and cord-impressed pottery whereas Golbai Sasan has produced a rich bone tool industry
and evidence of circular and rectangular wattle-and-daub houses, in addition to stone celts and
an extended human burial. Kuanr has reported pointed-butt celts, evidence of wattle-and-daub
structures and copper bangles whereas Sankarjang have provided several human burials in
association with bar celts and copper artefacts.
Recent dates obtained at several sites have pushed back the antiquity of the Neolithic
culture in mid Ganaga plain around the latter half of 8th millennium B.P. and Vindhyan region
to 7th millennium B.C. Radiocarbon dates from Golbai Sasan and Sankarjang suggest duration
of 2200 to 700 B.C. for the Neolithic culture of Chotanagpur region.
In northeast Indian context, ground stone celts of shouldered and splayed varieties and
cord impressed pottery have been collected form different parts. In 1963, M.C. Goswami and
T.C. Sharma carried out excavations at Daojali Hading in North Cachar Hills of Assam which
have given for the first time stratigraphical occurrence of ground or polished axes and also
pottery. S.N. Rao conducted excavations at the Neolithic site called Sarutaru in Kamrup
district, Assam during 1967-73. The cultural contents recovered from the excavations include
nine ground stone celts and potsherds. Besides these excavated sites, there are many surface
sites in different parts of Northeast India which have yielded a great amount of stone artifacts
and pottery now housed at various museums and departments. The Neolithic culture of
Northeast India is distinguished by the predominance of shouldered celts and the characteristic
Cord-marked pottery.
Southern Neolithic
The Neolithic culture of south India is primarily a product of human adaptation to the
semi-arid environment, marked by low rainfall and found distributed in northern Karnataka
and western Andhra Pradesh, although a few sites also occur in southern Karnataka, coastal
Andhra Pradesh and northern Tamil Nadu. Some of the important excavated sites are
Sangnakallu and Tekkalakota in Bellary district, Brahmagiri in Chitradurg district, Maski,
Piklihal and Watgal in Raichur district, Hallur in Dharwad district, T. Narasipur and Hemmige
in Mysore district, all in Karnataka; Nagarjunakonda in Guntur district, Ramapuram and
Veerapuram in Kurnool district, all in Andhra Pradesh; and Paiyampalli in North Arcot
district, Tamil Nadu. The stone tools of the Neolithic people consisted of ground stone tools
like axes, adzes, wedges, chisels, microliths and stone blades. At Palavoy a rich bone tool
assemblage comprising axes, blades and points has been found. In the later stages of the
culture copper and bronze tools also came to be used. The pottery was initially only
handmade, of poor quality and drab grey colour, and consisted of jars, spouted vessels and
bowls of various sizes, sometimes decorated with incised designs. In later stages wheel made,
sturdy pottery, occasionally decorated with painted motifs, also came into use. An important
new ceramic was the black-and-red ware. The study of burial practise indicates that the dead,
both children and adults were buried in double or multiple clay urns beneath the floors of their
houses. Southern Neolithic people practised an agro-pastoral economy.
The domesticated animals comprise cattle (Bos indicus), buffalo (Bubalus bubalis),
sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), pig (Sus scrofa), dog (Canis familiaris) and fowl
(Gallus sp.). Cattle played a predominant role in the economy as is evident by the abundance
of bone refuse. Further evidence comes from the presence of ash mounds, terracotta figurines,
and portrayal in the bruising on rocks near archaeological sites. The vegetation of the
Neolithic landscape is characterized by scrub woodland, savanna woodland, scattered shrubby
facies and thorny thickets of different vegetation series which is ideally suited for keeping
sheep/ goat herds. Communities like the Kuruvas and Gollas in Andhra Pradesh, the Kurubas
in Karnataka and the Dhangars in Maharashtra even today keep large herds but it does not
seem to have been an important component of the Neolithic economy.
The Neolithic people also cultivated a variety of crops on hill tops and in narrow
valleys between the hills using rain fed gravity-flow irrigation as also on alluvial banks of
rivers. Their main crops were millets, pulses and legumes. The cultivated crops include finger
millet (Eleusine coracana), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), horse gram (Dolichos
biflorus), green gram (Vigna radiata), black gram (Phaseolus mungo) and hyacinth bean
(Dolichos lablab). The only cereals known to have been cultivated are barley (Hordeum
vulgare) and rice (Oryza sativa) but they are known only from one site each.
A very distinctive feature of the southern groups of Neolithic culture is ash mounds,
which are heaps of ash produced by the burning of cow dung. They are closely associated
with habitation sites and provide tell-tale evidence of the role of cattle pastoralism in the
economy. It is believed that dung from cattle pens was allowed to accumulate and periodically
set ablaze, probably in a ceremonial way as is done at annual cattle festivals in south India
even today. The ash in the mounds consists of several distinct layers; in some layers it is soft
and loose and in others heavily vitrified, suggesting that cow dung was burnt at varying
temperatures. The contents of the ash include stone and bone tools, animal bones and pottery.
At Utnur and Budihal hoof impressions of cattle have been found beneath the cow dung,
showing evidence of cattle penning. Besides, Budihal has also produced evidence of a
butchering floor.
The Neolithic culture is dated by C14 dating from the middle of the third millennium
B.C. to the beginning of the first millennium B.C. Although during this long period the basic
form of the culture remained uniform, there were changes in the form of improvement in
ceramic technology and introduction of metal tools.
Northern Group
The Neolithic settlers of the Northern India settled in the Pleistocene lake beds of
Kashmir valley which are locally known as Karewas. The important sites are Burzahom,
Gufkral, Kanishpur, Begagund, Hariparigom, Jayadeviudar, Olchibag etc. of which
Burzahom, Gufkral and Kanishkpura have been excavated which revealed a fairly good
picture of the life ways of the first farmers in the Kashmir valley.
The Neolithic people of the Kashmir valley lived in pits dug into the compact Karewa
loess. This was to protect themselves from the freezing winds during winter. Evidence of postholes around the mouth of the pits has provided insight about the probable roof thatched with
birch and hay. Steps were cut into the walls of the pits for entry and exit, and the walls and
floors were plastered with lime. Evidence of ovens, charcoal, ash, pottery, stone tools, human
burials and animal bones indicate habitation in the pits.
The stone tools include polished axes and chisels, harvesters, pounders, polishers,
querns, grinders and perforated discs, mace heads or weights of digging sticks and the bone
and antler tool industry include harpoons, spatulae, needles, awls, spear points, arrowheads,
daggers and scrapers. Besides, beads of semi-precious stones, terracotta bangles and cowrie
shells were also found. The pottery of this region is largely handmade, however, at a later
stage, wheel made pots also appear. Vessel shapes comprise jars, vases, globular pots, basins,
dish on stand and bowls.
The subsistence pattern of the Kashmir Neolithic was combination of plant cultivation,
animal husbandry and hunting-gathering. The plant remains include seeds of wheat (Triticum
sp.), barley (Hordeum vulgare), common pea (Pisum arvense L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris).
The domesticated animals include cattle, sheep, goat, pig, dog and fowl whereas the wild
animals include red deer, Kashmir stag, ibex, bear, wolf, hedgehog, beaver and rodents.
Seven uncalibrated C14 dates from Burzahom give a time bracket of 2400–1500 B.C.
for the Neolithic culture of Kashmir. Neolithic culture of northern group is dated to a time
bracket of 2400–1500 B.C. based on several uncalibrated C14 dates from Burzahom. The new
radiocarbon dates from Kanishkapura suggests the beginning of Neolithic age in Kashmir in
the middle of the fourth millennium B.C. with ceramic Neolithic appearing in the late fourth
millennium B.C. and not in the first half of the third millennium B.C. as popularly believed by
archaeologists on the evidence of Burzahom and Gufkral. A calibrated C14 date of one
charcoal sample from Kanishkapura is 3361 BC to 2937.