Northern Neolithic:
The Northern Neolithic culture can be understood by examining the characteristic features of Burzhom culture. T.N. Khazanchi and Sardarilal excavated Burzhom in Kashmir Valley between 1962-1966. According to them, the Neolithic culture of Burzhom displayed two phases:
(a) The first phase beginning around 2375 B.C and (b) The second phase lasting upto 1400 B.C.
The characteristics of the first phase were:
a) Oval, square or rectangle pit-dwellings
b) Separate pits for depositing kitchen refuse and for storing grains, wood, birch, hay and pots;
c) The ground stone tools such as axes, adzes, wedges, chisels, hoes, shoclast Celts, perforated picks, meatheads, double-edged flake-knives, pokers and harvesters;
d) The bone tools namely barbed harpoons, shouldered or rounded arrowheads, composite tools similar to cobbler pokers with long handles, pen-shaped points’ with hafting groover, scrapers, points and needles;
e) Hand-made pottery with coarse surface finish and fabric;
f) A variety of wares namely bowls, vases and stems of grey, dull red, brown, buff and drab colours;
g) Dependence on hunting, fishing, and primitive agriculture.
The second phase witnessed several improvements besides some continuities:
a) Larger rectangular pit-houses, brick-houses, mud houses, bricks made with clay and sand;
b) Kitchens with hearths and grinding stones and mullers;
c) Continuation of large quantities of ground stone tools of the first phase;
d) Continuation of bone tools of the first phase;
e) Continuation of copper arrow points;
f) Continuation of wheel made pottery, black-burnished wares of hemispherical bowls, small and big vessels, high-necked jars, dishes or plates, perforated triangular , stands, and some vessels with mat-impressions on bottom rests.
g) Human burials of extended type made in circular or oval pits;
h) The bones of human skeletons with red ochre;
i) Fractional or extended burials’of ibex, wild dog and wolf found in pots and buried in pits;
j) Human burials contained the bones of domesticated dog and goat;
k) The very preparation of tools, engraved stones depicting hunting scenes and large burnished red and black jars with long graceful profiles revealing the artistic talent.
Southern Neolithic:
The southern Neolithic culture developed in three phases: the first phase (2300-1800 B.C), the second phase (1800-1050 ETC), and the third phase(1400-1050 B.C)
The first phase (Utnoor, Piklihal, Maski, Kodekal and Brahmagiri) witnessed several cultural elements namely:
- Polished celts
- Blade industry
- Grinding stones
- Saddle querns
- Hand made grey or buff-brown pottery
- Some clay vessels with black or red burnished slip
- Some purple-painted pots .
- Pots with cylindrical bottom rests which are similar to those of pre-Harapppan places of Amri and Kalibangan
- Habitations constructed on granite hills and on levelled mounds on hill-sides
- Terracotta figurines
- Rock bruisings representing humped cattle
- Domestication of cattle, sheep and goats
- Cultivation of food-grains
- Burial of the dead probably after the exposure
The second phase (Piklihal, Brahmagiri, Sanganakallu, Tekkalakota, Hallur, and T.Narsipur) shows several improvements in technology, house types, pottery and raw materials used for making tools. This phase included,
- a) Well improved polished celts
- b) Well developed blade industry,
- c) Introduction of new varieties of pottery such as perforated vessels and vessels with rough outer surfaces resembling the pre-Harappan vessels in Baluchistan
- d) Introduction of spouted clay vessels for the first time,
- e) More and more use of copper and bronze vessels
- f) Simple huts of square, rectangular or circular plan supported by wooden posts and with thatched conical roofs, bamboo-reed, mud-plastered walls and lime, clay or mud, silt and dung-made floors.
The third phase (Tekkulukola, 1 killin’, Paiyampalli, Piklihal, Sanganakallu, and Brahmagiri) shows some changes besides continuities.
- The polished celts and the blade industry continued
- For the first time wheel-made pottery appeared; it resembled that of Jorwe culture found in Maharashtra.
- Bronze swords and the skeletal remains of a domesticated horse were obtained from Hallur.
- Rock bruising of horses and horse-riders obtained from Hallur.
Eastern Neolithic:
The Eastern Neolithic culture existed around 2000 B.C. This culture (Krishna Swami 1959) included two culture complexes:
The Assam culture-complex and The Bengai-Bihar-Orissa culture complex;
The evidence for Assam culture-complex comes from surface collections in Garo Hills, Khasi Hills, Kamarup District, Goalpara District comes and small-scale excavations Darrang District Lakhimpur District and a few other parts at the Deojali Hading in the North Cachar Hills of Assam (Sharma 1966).
The evidence for the Bengal-Orissa culture complex comes from Panduraj Dibi in Burdwan District and Cahisdai, Nannur, and Haraipur in Birbhanpur District in West Bengal (Das Gupta 1964,1966), Chirand in the Saran District of Bihar (Venna 1970-71) and Kuchai in Mayurbhanj District in Orissa Mahapatra (1962).
The Assam culture complex included several features:
- Edge ground tools with four sub-groups (axes and pebble tools),
- Pecked and ground tools with eight sub-types (Celts, axes and adzes and chisels),
- Fully ground tools with twelve sub-types (axes, wedges, chisels and lance heads),
- Grooved hammer stones with grooves for halting purposes,
- Belted or notched pebble hammers,
- Grinding slabs,
- Polished and sharpening stones and
- Flat and concave mealing stones
Thus chipping and partial or overall grinding were the tool-making techniques. The predominant tools were long and short flat celts, which were used as hoes in agricultural activities. Among the pecked and ground tools, the Naga Hills tanged celt was the most common type used as hoe; And the Naga Hill axe is the most common tool type comparable to a similar type from the Santal Paraganas. The edge ground and the fully ground groups of tools vary by region. Mullers and querns were important artefacts. People lived in mud-walled huts. The Assam culture complex was comparable to that of Southwest China and Indo-China.
The Bengal-Bihar-Orissa culture complex was also rich in tool-typology, metal technology, burial practices, cultivation and habitation.
In Bengal the Neolithic culture included:
- Ground stone axes (Darjeeling District),
- Surface collection of ring stones, pointed butt axes and small triangular celts (Midnapore and Bankura Districts),
- Single-room, square to rectangular, or round huts with mud plastered reed walls supported by thick wooden or bamboo posts and paved floors (Panduraj- Dibi in Burdwan District)
- Hand-made pottery wares (with paddy-husk impressions) and wheel-turn wares (plain pale red ware, and, black-and-red ware) in the first stage; and wheel turned ware mostly painted or plain black-and-red ware in the second stage.
- Pot types such as bowls, basins, channel-spouted bowls, vases, storage jars, highnecked jars, lids and dishes
- Copper objects like bangles, rings, nail parer, arrow head, and spear head
- Bone points
- Blade and Microliths industry
- Extended, fractional or secondary burials within habitational areas
- Cultivation of rice
- Fishing and
- Hunting
The Bihar Neolithic culture also had its distinction.
The evidence comes from the excavated site of Chirand located at the confluence of Ghagra and Ganga rivers in Saran District and from the sites of Sonpur in Gaya District and a few surface sites. The characteristic features are
- a) Blade and microlith industry where blades and points were comparable to those of Southern Neolithic culture.
- b) Rich bone tool and antler industries consisting of picks, chisels, hammers, daggers, bracelets, shaft straightners, side and end scrapers, needles, bodkin, awls, and drills meant for hunting, skimming weaving, stitching and digging.
- c) Hand made and turn-table made wares namely red, pale and deep grey, black, and black-and-red finished with lustrous burnishings and regular forms, geometrical designs of lines decorations
- d) Pot types including globular pots, spouted and lipped bowls, hemispherical bowls, perforated bowls, and pots with long and short tubular spouts
- e) Hammer stones
- f) Rubber stones,
- g) Charred grains of paddy, husk, wheat and black-grant.
- h) Circular mud walled of mud plastered , wattle walled houses with paved floors and thatched conical roofs
- i) Pit-houses
- j) Dependence on agriculture and hunting
- k) Objects of decoration and art namely beads, pendants of semi-precious stones (agate, carnelian, faience mud steatite, bangles of clay and bone.
- l) Terracotta figurine of snake which signifies “cobra cult” in the Neolithic times in this part of India (Sankalia 1974)
The Orissa Neolithic culture complex as revealed by the finds at Kuchai in Mayurbhanj District showed:
- a) Ground stone tools like rounded butt axes, faceted hoes, chisels, pounders, mace-head and a grinding,
- b) Pottery of grey-black and brownish red wares.
- c) Coarse grit-tempered red ware sometimes slipped and decorated with incised of fingertip designs.
Summary:
The Neolithic in India reveals the features of a “revolution” as described by Gordon Childe. In this context, the characteristic features are: domestication of plants, domestication of animals, complex technology, hand made of wheel made pottery, permanent dwellings, use of metals, storage of foods, snake cult and decorative designs and exquisite art. All these features developed in stages as shown below:
Burzhom:
Hand made pottery, bone tool and ground tools
Pit houses
Metals, wheel-made pottery and bone tools.
Southern
Ground stone tools, hand-made grey ware
Metals, domestication of cattle
Increased use of metals, wheel-made pottery, Intensive domestication of cattle and domestication of cereals.
Eastern
Food-gathering and dishing
Food production in terms of shifting cultivation of Jhum
Live-stock rising