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1. Neolithic Remains of Eastern India:
Neolithic Sites from Chota Nagpur
Plateau, Odisha and Asam
Dr. Virag Sontakke
Assistant Professor
A.I.H.C. & Archaeology
Banaras Hindu University

2. Neolithic Remains of
Eastern India:
Neolithic Sites from
Chota Nagpur Plateau,
Odisha and Asam

3. Introduction
• Separate zone of neolithic
• Less studied than the south
and Ganga zone
• Chronology: Late
• Daojali Hading: 2700 BCE
• Specific Tool types:
Shouldered celts
• Marker Pottery: Cord
impressed

4. Neolithic Tools of Eastern India

5. Courtesy: https://www.nezine.com/info/N1ZRc0UxalQyZ21tSWhUNThVQzhvZz09/bambooti-excavation-site:-the-last-neolithic-
age-cultural-site-in-assam-with-ruins-of-3200-years-old-kitchen-midden.html
Neolithic Tools of Eastern India

6. Neolithic Tools of Eastern India

8. Neolithic Pottery of Eastern India

9. Neolithic Pottery of Eastern India

10. Chota Nagpur Plateau
• No detailed work
• Only a few Neolithic sites
• No proper excavations
• No authentic neolithic
sites are documented yet
• Rich in minerals, stone,
timber

11. Barudih
• Location: Singhbhum district
• Situated on: Sanjai Nala
• First Reported: 1875 Ball
• Excavations: 1963 & 1966 (D.
Sen), 1969 (Gosh)
• Mound area: 15 x 34 meter

12. • Remains: Microliths, celts, pottery, iron slags
• Tools: 17 celts,
• Pottery: BRW, Red ware, black ware
• On the basis of celts, it is considered a Neolithic site
• Dates: 1401-837 BCE
Barudih

13. Taradih
•Location: Bodh Gaya, Bihar
•Excavations: 1981-82, 1982-83
•Director: Ajit Prasad, ASI
•Neolithic cultural material at the lowest level
•Further subdivided into Phase A and B on the basis
of ceramics.

14. Taradih: Results
Phase A
• Handmade pottery
• Pottery: red ware, burnished
red ware, cord-impressed ware
and rusticated ware.
• House Remains:
a) The burnt clay pieces with a
reed impression
b) House of wattle-and-daub
nature.
Tools:
a) neolithic tools, microliths and
bone tools.
Phase B
• Pottery: burnished grey ware
• Tools: neolithic tools, microliths,
bone tools,
• Objects: terracotta objects,
• Ornaments: stone beads,
• Plants: rice, wheat, barley, lentil
etc.
• Animals: domestic and wild
animals
• cattle, goats, pigs, buffalo, sheep,
deer and stag.

15. West Bengal
• The neolithic celts and ring-stones were reported from the western upland with microlithic assemblage in the
valleys of Tarafeni and Bhairabbanki.
Pandu Rajar Dhibi
• At Pandu Rajar Dhibi lowest level is (Period I) Neolithic,
• A few neolithic stone tools,
• Bone tools and
• Microliths
• A handmade grey ware with rice husk impressions,
• Wheel-made painted red pottery and
• A limited quantity of black-and-red ware were encountered.
• Their date has been assigned to the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE (IAR 1964-
65).

18. Odisha
• Several neolithic sites and a few of them have
been excavated
• Kuchai, Baidipur and Shankarjang (Dhenkanal
district) confirmed neolithic celts in association
with a coarse grit-tempered red ware.
• Dr. Behera has extensively explored the
Bonaigarh area and located several celt-
manufacturing localities and a few sites
associated with celts and ceramics.
• Sulabhdihi was identified as a celt
manufacturing centre in the area.
• A trial trench at Bargaon revealed a
habitational deposit of neolithic occupation.
• Explorations conducted by Basa et al. (2000) in
the Pallahara area of central Orissa have
brought to light neolithic stone artefacts in
association with coarse red ware and black-
and-red ware.

19. Kuchai
• First neolithic site excavated in
Odisha
• Located in Mayurbhanj district
• Director: B.K. Thaper in 1960-61
• Agency: ASI
Deposit: 40 to 45 cm of clayey
deposit of neolithic culture

20. Kuchai: Pottery and Tools
•Pottery
• Coarse grit-tempered red
ware: sometimes slipped and
showing in addition incised or
finger-tip decoration.
• Shape: Bowls, vases, lids and
knob
•Tools
• ground stone axes
• chisels,
• mace-heads,
• pounders and
• grinding stones.

21. Golbai Sasan
• Large neolithic site 60 km
from Khurda district
• Right bank of Malaguni
• Located in the coastal region
of Odisha
• Earlier excavated by Sinha by
1991 to 1992
• Director: R.K. Mohanty
• Year: 2010-2011
• Agency: DCPGRI
• Culture sequence:
• Period I: Neolithic

22. • Hand made and wheel made
1. Red ware (chocolate slip)
2. Grey ware
3. Cord-impressed ware
• Shapes:
• Bowl, vase, basins,
Golbai Sasan:
Ceramics

24. Ceramics from
Golbai
Sasan

25. Stone tools from Golbai Sasan
Celts from Kuchai and Nayapur

26. • Archaeobotanical Remains
1. Rice
2. Horse gram
3. Pigeon pea
4. Mung
5. Variety of millets
Golbai Sasan: Food habit

27. Asam
• Major state of NE India
• Flat and hilly track
• Assam valley covers:
a) Brahmaputra plain,
b) Eastern Himalaya,
c) Purvanchal and
d) Meghalaya-Mikir region
The region is crisscrossed by several
tributaries and streams of the
Brahmaputra and Barak rivers.
• Neolithic sites are located on the hilly
tracks

28. Assam: Historical Background
•First time reported by Sir John Lubbock in 1867
•A.H. Dani (1960) made a detailed study of an eastern
Neolithic culture divided Assam and north-eastern
states
•V.D. Krishnaswami (1962), divided the Indian Neolithic
complex into four regions including N-E
•T.C. Sharma (1966), systematically studied the neolithic
material from Northeast India
•B.K. Thapar (1978) also studied the problem of
neolithic, and divided the culture into six geographical
zones.

29. Daojali Hading
• A well-known site of
entire Northeast India
• Situated in Dima Hasao
district
• Location: in a low
hillock having an
altitude of 1,000 feet
AMSL
• Director: M.C. Goswami
• Excavations: 1961, 1963
• Deposit: 1.5 meter

31. Daojali Hading: Tools
a) 32-edged tool,
b) 22 grinding stones,
c) 4 querns,
d) 6 mullers,
e) 11 quartzite pebbles
1.Small celts with three sub-
types:
i. Oval
ii. Triangular
iii. Quadrangular
iv. Quadrangular adzes
v. Chisels
Material:
a) Locally available shale,
b) Sandstone,
c) Quartzite and
d) Fossil wood.
• Shale was used for making
edged tools
• Sandstone for grinding
stones, querns, etc.

32. 1. shouldered axe,
2. shouldered axe
3. axe with broad cutting-edge,
4. faceted hoe with long parallel sides,
5. faceted hoe curvilinear,
6. shouldered axe, regular and broad,
7. shouldered axe, regular and long,
8. shouldered axe with a regular and crescent-shaped
body,
9. Faceted hoe with a unifacially ground edge,
10.Gouge-adze,
11. Rounded butt axe, curvilinear,
12.Rounded butt axe with the bifacially-ground median
edge
13.Splayed axe,
14.Tanged axe,
15.Faceted hoe with a bifacially-ground median edge,
16. rounded-butt axe, unifacially ground edge-bevelled,
17. wedge-blade,
18.A faceted tool with side notches
Daojali Hading: Tools

33. Stone artifacts from excavation at Daojali Hading (after Sankalia 1974)

34. Daojali Hading: Pottery
• Three varieties of pottery collected
a) 595 pieces of a cord-impressed pottery
b) 19 pieces of stamped dull red variety,
c) 11 pieces of the brick red variety.
• The majority of the potsherds are heavily weathered and
• Broken into small fragments which prevent identifying the shapes and
forms.
• Core: Cord-impressed coarse grey ware is made of coarse and unevenly
mixed clay, heavily tempered with large quartz particles.
• Technique: coil-building method.

35. Cord-impressed, basket pattern and beater -impressed
pottery of Daojali Hading (after Sharma 1989: 226)
Cord-marked pottery from Daojali Hading (after
Sengupta and Sharma 2011)

37. Daojali Hading : Objects
•Evidence of querns and mullers
indicates agricultural food
consumption
•A large number of rounded pots have
been recovered.
•Used for storing grains, and
preparing food.
•Jadeite stone was found that must
have been transported from China
•Date: 100 CE

38. Sarutaru
• Location: 25 km southeast
of Guwahati, Kamrup
district, Assam
• Situated on the top of a
small hillock, about 125 m
high from the foothill.
• Stone celts found during
the construction of a
farmhouse
• Excavated Year: 1967-73
• Excavator: S.N. Rao
• Agency: Department of
Anthropology, Dibrugarh
University.

39. Sarutaru: Pottery
• Single cultural site
• Deposit: 65 cm
• Pottery is handmade
• Made of clay mixed with quartz particles
• May be done on an open surface.
• Three ceramic types, on the basis of colour,
1. Brown,
2. Buff and
3. Grey
Mostly cord-impressed ware
• The ceramic is decorated with cord
impressions or basket impressions on the
exterior
• In the process of making a vessel by hand, two parts
of the vessel are molded by hand separately

40. Sarutaru: Tools
• Tools: 9 stone celts
• Material: slate of dark grey colour
and sandstone of cream to buff
color.
• Technique: chipping and grinding
• Types:
(a) shouldered celts;
(b) round-butted

41. Marakdola
• Location: 1 km from
the Neolithic site of
Sarutaru
• Kamrup district of
Asam
• Situated on a low
mound
• Excavator: S.N. Rao
(1977)
• A single cultural
stratum of 1.7 m
thickness

42. Marakdola: Pottery
• Wheel-turned pottery is fine
• Made out of well-levigated kaolin clay with no
impurities or grit
• The texture of the fabric is fine and the walls
ware thin.
• Entirely wheel turned
• Ware: cream to buff, red, and grey
• Cord impressed:
• Shapes: Globular vessel, Goblet, bowls, dish,
lids, Spouted vessel
• Exterior decoration of cord-impressions
• Terracotta objects: a dish on a stand, smoking
pipes, a terracotta cake, a fishing weight, and a
zoomorphic form

43. •Shouldered celt
•On the basis of tools and pottery, Rao assigned the
site to the Neolithic period.
•It has been observed at many sites that neolithic
celts survived as late as the 7th century CE and
afterwards.
•Neolithic deposit is questionable.
Marakdola: Tools

44. Assam Daojali Hading Edged tool, grinding stones, querns, mullers
Cord-impressed variety, stamped dull red
variety, and brick red variety
Sarutaru Ground stone celts
Cord-impressions or basket-impressions
on the exterior of the pottery of brown,
buff and grey colour
Marakdola Shouldered celt Wheel turned pottery of fine kaolin cla
West Bengal Pandu Rajar Dhibi Ground stone tools, bone tools and microliths
Handmade grey
ware with rice husk impressions, wheel-
made painted red pottery and limited
quantity of black-and- red ware were
Odisha Kuchai
Ground stone implements like axes including a shouldered
adze from exploration and ground stone axes of butt or
pointed-
end variety, chisels, mace-heads, pounders and grinding
stones, microliths of non- geometric variety represented by
blades, points, lunates and various types of scrapers from
lower level of excavation
Coarse grit-tempered red ware, sometimes
also slipped and showing in addition
incised or finger-tip decoration
Golbai Sasan Neolithic celts and bone pieces in exploration
Handmade pottery of dull red and grey
wares, showing cord and reed impressions
Overview of the Eastern Neolithic Sites

45. Conclusion
• No microliths like Ganga plain
• Similarity: Cord-impressed pottery
• The cord impressions suggest the neolithic folk were making basketry utensils.
• Tools: Shouldered celts
• Connection with Southeast Asia
• Shouldered celt and cord-marked pottery, can be compared with the similar cultures
of Southeast Asia, such as the Non-Nok Tha of Thailand, the Lung- shanoid of China,
the Sham Wan of Hong Kong, and f the Philippines, Taiwan and Burma (Movius
1943).
• Ethnoarchaeology Khasis, who belong to a Mongoloid stock and the Man-Khmer
linguistic group seemed to have entered India from Burma, where a branch of a
similar linguistic group still exists.
• Shifting cultivation could have been practised in Neolithic period