Karnataka - Mysore   

Throwing light on the neolithic past

Special Correspondent

EXCITING FIND: The remains of a burial pot found at a neolithic site near Lakkundi in Gadag district. — Photo: By Special Arrangement

MYSORE: The Department of Archaeology and Museums here has announced the discovery of 3500-year-old neolithic pits that served as human dwellings, near Lakkundi in Gadag district. The discovery will help reconstruct the outline of the cultural history of the locality from around 1600 to 1500 BC to the present age.

It will also help account for its gradual rise to a celebrated centre of art and culture and is reckoned to be a major archaeological discovery.

The discovery was made in the course of archaeological excavations of a neolithic human habitation site located 5 km northeast of Lakkundi, which is place known for medieval temples. The excavations were carried out during March-June 2005 by the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums under the direction of R. Gopal, Director; and A. Sundara, retired professor of Karnatak University; N.V. Joshi, Deputy Director; and T.S. Gangadhar, Assistant Director.

The site, near Budi Basavanna Temple, is about a hectare in area with plenty of cultural relics such as Iron Age megalithic black- and red-ware pottery; micaceous grey-ware pottery, both burnished and non-burnished; many neolithic axes; some chert blades; fluted cores and flakes; stone and terracotta perforated beads; and fossilised animal bones.

The excavations revealed two cultural phases: early neolithic in the chalcolithic stage and late neolithic overlapping with the Iron Age megalithic.

The excavations have shed fresh light on the neolithic-megalithic cultural aspects of the region, said Dr. Gopal.

The presence of what is considered to be dwelling pits in the early phase of neolithic culture is the first such discovery in Karnataka though similar pits were found to the east of the region in the lower Krishna valley, especially in Nagarjunakonda and Gundluru in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The excavations also revealed that Lakkundi had a sequence of three cultural periods: late medieval or Vijayanagara and post-Vijayanagara period, Kalyana Chalukya-Hoysala and Rashtrakuta. Much is known about the first two periods from inscriptions, temples, monuments, tanks and forts and also from local oral traditions. Not much is known about the last, apart from two or three temples such as the Halgundi Basavanna temple in the locality. But the new excavations at Lakkundi clearly show the Rashtrakuta cultural period and there are indications of the existence of the remains of the Satavahana period. The discovery has pushed back the history and culture of this famous locality by many centuries.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Throwing light on the neolithic past
Siddaramaiah kicks off election campaign atop Chamundi Hills
Theatre is facing a crisis, says Mudenur Sanganna
Contaminated water claims boy's life
24 injured as vans roll off road
10 sheep killed in leopard attack
In Mysore Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu