Neolithic Ashmounds of the Deccan, India: A Posthumanist Perspective

It is now four full decades since Andrew Sherratt (1981) coined the interesting concept of the ‘Secondary Products Revolution’. He developed it for highlighting how, proceeding from the use of cattle and sheep/goats primarily as meat-giving sources in the initial phase of the Neolithic in Eurasian areas, secondary products of these domesticates began to play a dominant role and, in fact, effected a revolutionary change in the later Neolithic stage. In particular, Sherratt drew attention to the role played by milk and wool in daily life and the use of cattle for traction in tillage and transport. This concept has been very helpful to researchers in understanding the developmental trajectories of various early agro-pastoral communities in the Old World. Sherratt (1981: 263) even felt persuaded to state that “[t]he secondary products revolution marked the birth of the kinds of society characteristic of modern Eurasia.” In this paper I intend to broaden the scope of the concept of secondary products and add cattle-dung to the list, which is a waste product resulting from animal-keeping. Taking a cue from posthumanist thought, I have recently hinted at the possibility of considering ashmounds representing burnt cow-dung formations as an agentive power that actively shaped the life-world of the Neolithic pastoralists of the Deccan region in India (Paddayya 2019: 120). In this paper I want to expatiate upon this observation. First of all, I will briefly introduce readers to the topic of ashmounds and the different views and opinions offered over a long period of time about their age and origin. I will then explore the possibility of bringing the whole theme within the fold of posthumanist conceptions of the very nature of archaeological record

The acheulean handaxe : More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune?

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. KV is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. MC is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and Simon Fraser UniversityPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Local diversity in settlement, demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal

The Southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition demonstrates considerable regional variability in settlement location, density, and size. While researchers have shown that the region around the Tungabhadra and Krishna River basins displays significant subsistence and demographic continuity, and intensification, from the Neolithic into the Iron Age ca. 1200 cal. BC, archaeological and chronometric records in the Sanganakallu region point to hilltop village expansion during the Late Neolithic and ‘Megalithic’ transition period (ca. 1400–1200 cal. BC) prior to apparent abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC, with little evidence for the introduction of iron technology into the region. We suggest that the difference in these settlement histories is a result of differential access to stable water resources during a period of weakening and fluctuating monsoon across a generally arid landscape. Here, we describe well-dated, integrated chronological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and archaeological survey datasets from the Sanganakallu-Kupgal site complex that together demonstrate an intensification of settlement, subsistence and craft production on local hilltops prior to almost complete abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC. Although the southern Deccan region as a whole may have witnessed demographic increase, as well as subsistence and cultural continuity, at this time, this broader pattern of continuity and resilience is punctuated by local examples of abandonment and mobility driven by an increasing practical and political concern with water

Modeling the Past: The Paleoethnological Evidence

This chapter considers the earliest Paleolithic, Oldowan (Mode 1), and Acheulean (Mode 2) cultures of the Old Continent and the traces left by the earliest hominids since their departure from Africa. According to the most recent archaeological data, they seem to have followed two main dispersal routes across the Arabian Peninsula toward the Levant, to the north, and the Indian subcontinent, to the east. According to recent discoveries at Dmanisi in the Caucasus, the first Paleolithic settlement of Europe is dated to some 1.75 Myr ago, which indicates that the first “out of Africa” took place at least slightly before this date. The data available for Western Europe show that the first Paleolithic sites can be attributed to the period slightly before 1.0 Myr ago. The first well-defined “structural remains” so far discovered in Europe are those of Isernia La Pineta in Southern Italy, where a semicircular artificial platform made of stone boulders and animal bones has been excavated. The first hand-thrown hunting weapons come from the site of Scho¨ningen in north Germany, where the first occurrence of wooden spears, more than 2 m long, has been recorded from a site attributed to some 0.37 Myr ago. Slightly later began the regular control of fire. Although most of the archaeological finds of these ages consist of chipped stone artifacts, indications of art seem to be already present in the Acheulean of Africa and the Indian subcontinent