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Early Phase : The earliest Neolithic homes at Late Phase : Pit homes disappeared during the
Burzahom were below ground level. People dug late phase of settlement. People started living in
pits into the ground, using stone tools. They mud huts at ground level. The pottery also
plastered the sides of the pits with mud. The pits changed. The potters of Burzahom started
were usually circular in shape. They were narrow making a kind of shiny black pottery. Most of the
at the top and wide at the base. Some of the pottery was still made by hand, though the
deeper pits had a few steps leading down. potter’s wheel was known.
Charcoal and pieces of pottery were found in Remains of both human and animal burials have
these pits. Some of the pits had ovens made of been found. Bones of dog, cattle, goat, sheep,
stone or clay, on which people must have cooked wolf, ibex (a mountain goat found in these parts),
their food. People perhaps lived in such pits to deer and snow leopard have been discovered.
keep them warm during the bitterly cold winters Animal burials of this kind have not been
here. unearthed from any other Neolithic site in India.
The early Neolithic people of Burzahom made An interesting discovery of this phase is a stone
simple hand-made pots in different shapes and slab with a hunting scene carved on it. It shows
sizes. They made polished stone tools and tools two hunters hunting a deer. One hunter is armed
from animal bones and antlers. The bone tools with a long spear and the other has a bow and
included harpoons for fishing, needles for sewing arrow. This shows us that hunting was an impor-
and arrow-heads, spear-heads and daggers for tant part of the life of the Neolithic people of
hunting. Burzahom in the late phase also.
CASE STUDY — THE NORTH-WEST Neolithic traditions. O K Singh has carried out
Investigations for discovering prehistoric sites in excavations in different parts of Mainpur and has
north eastern India began in the 1960s. A team discovered a number of limestone caves near
led by H D Sankalia carried excavations in Ukhrul. He dug a trench in a cave and unearthed
Assam and discovered the Neolithic site of both stone and bone tools. From Mizoram, a
Daojali Hading. Deeper digging at this site stone axe dating back to the Neolithic period has
yielded polished stone tools, ceramics and a host been found. It is quite big and thin. The prehis-
of things used in the house such as corn grinders, tory of Nagaland is known through stone tools
stone rubbers and mullers. found mainly in the central part of the state.
In the Garo Hills, a large number of Stone Age In Tripura, N R Ramesh has located over half a
sites such as Selbagiri, Thebroungri, Mismagiri dozen Neolithic sites in the Khowai and Haora
and Rongram Alagiri have yielded materials valleys. As many as 700 stone implements have
remains relating to all phases of the Stone Age. been collected from places such as Teliamura,
A team from the University of Dibrugarh has Jirania, Mohanpur, Bishalgarh and Agartala. An
carried excavations at a Neolithic site at important feature of the prehistory of Tripura is
Sarutaru, in the Kamrup district of Assam. B P that instead of stone, silicified fossil wood, which
Bopardikar has excavated the Dephabum area in is locally availavle, was used for making tools.
Luhit district of Arunchal Pradesh and has In the Chota Nagpur plateau, implements of the
discovered stone tools of the Palaeolithic and the Lower Paleolithic Age have been discovered
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