Ethnoarchaeology of the kurnool cave areas, South India

Murty, M. L. K.

doi:10.1080/00438243.1985.9979962

Cited by 26 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The Karuvas dedicate their modern paintings inside the rockshelter to this deity, who is said to ride a goat and be an assistant of Shiva (Robinson et al, 2008). The god Birappa is also associated with forests and huntresses, and at the beginning of the annual Birappa festival at Balapalapalle (in the neighbouring Kurnool District) a mock hunt is enacted (Murty, 1985). The Birappa rockshelter is also adorned with ancient red paintings of wild animals, anthropomorphs and geometric designs.…”

Section: Birappa Rocksheltermentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic: The evidence from Sanganakallu–Kupgal

Shipton

Petraglia

Koshy³

et al. 2012

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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a b s t r a c tHere we examine patterns in stone tool technology among Mesolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age localities in the Sanganakallu-Kupgal site complex, Bellary District, Karnataka, South India. Statistical tests are used to compare proportions of raw materials and artefact types, and to compare central tendencies in metric variables taken on flakes and tools. Lithic-related findings support the inference of at least two distinct technological and economic groups at Sanganakallu-Kupgal, a microlith-focused foraging society on the one hand, and on the other, an agricultural society whose lithic technologies centred upon the production of pressure bladelets and dolerite edge-ground axes. Evidence for continuity in lithic technological processes through time may reflect indigenous processes of development, and a degree of continuity from the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic period. Lithic production appears to have become a specialised and spatially segregated activity by the terminal Neolithic and early Iron Age, supporting suggestions for the emergence of an increasingly complex economy and political hierarchy.Crown

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Section: Birappa Rocksheltermentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic: The evidence from Sanganakallu–Kupgal

Shipton

Petraglia

Koshy³

et al. 2012

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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“…Ethnoarchaeological studies of stone tool use amongst recent populations are similarly limited. However, Murty (1981Murty ( , 1985 highlights the use of resins from three species (Acacia sandra; Dalbergia paniculata; Excoecaria agallocha) as mastics by recent Chencu populations. It is notable that plant resins, such as those from Acacia that are distributed across Africa and Southern Asia, have a history of use as mastics that extends back to the Middle Palaeolithic (Zipkin et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Origins of Hafting in South Asia

Blinkhorn

2019

J Paleo Arch

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The appearance of hafting technologies marks a key shift in hominin behavioural evolution. Hafting first appears in Africa and Western Eurasia across the transition from Late Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic technologies~300-200 thousand years ago (ka). Hafting technology in South Asia may have emerged as a result of a local innovation, through cultural diffusion or a population dispersal. The resolution of the South Asian Palaeolithic records has improved significantly over the past decade, enabling examination of patterns of change through time in stone tool technologies. Although functional studies of tool use remain limited in the region, a range of indices of hafting appear in stone tool assemblages that offer the first means to evaluate the origins of hafting in South Asia. Rare examples appear in Middle Pleistocene contexts, but indices of hafting appear repeatedly in Middle Palaeolithic assemblages dating within the past 100 thousand years and are commonplace amongst Late Palaeolithic assemblages dating within the past 45 thousand years. This dataset remains too immature to authoritatively resolve between alternate models for the origins of hafting, whereas direct association with discrete hominin populations is hampered by the region's scant fossil record. Nevertheless, this examination of the origin of hafting technology presents the means to reorient approaches to Late Pleistocene behavioural change in South Asia and integrate them within global debates regarding hominin innovation, demographic interaction and population expansion.

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“…The Kurnool District of south India is an area of outstanding archaeological significance, rich in exceptional Palaeolithic deposits Petraglia et al, 2007Petraglia et al, , 2009a and an abundance of varied hunter-gatherer, Neolithic and Megalithic sites (Allchin, 1962;Blinkhorn, 2008;Murty, 1985Murty, , 1992 (Figure 2), although many hundreds of rock art sites remain undocumented. Several different styles of rock art associated with various time periods have been identified Taçon, Boivin et al, 2010) and connections to the rock art of other parts of India and beyond are under investigation .…”

Section: Kurnool Rock Art and The Billasurgam Cavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The extensive Billasurgam Cave complex, situated about 50 km southeast of Kurnool, has been investigated for faunal remains (Murty, 1975;Prasad, 1996) and archaeological material (Murty, 1974(Murty, , 1985Thimma Reddy, 1980) since 1884, when Bruce Foote, of the Geological Survey of India, explored the caves with his son Henry (Foote, 1884(Foote, , 1885; see also Haslam et al, 2010). Although the Billasurgam rock engravings were not noted until over 120 years later, petroglyphs and pictographs elsewhere in India have also been studied since the late 1800s (Cockburn, 1899;Franke, 1902).…”

Section: Kurnool Rock Art and The Billasurgam Cavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mid-Holocene age obtained for nested diamond pattern petroglyph in the Billasurgam Cave complex, Kurnool District, southern India

Taçon

Boivin

Petraglia

et al. 2013

Journal of Archaeological Science

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India has one of the world's largest and most significant bodies of rock paintings and engravings, yet not a single rock art site or image has been directly and accurately dated using radiometric techniques. Here we report on results from the Billasurgam Cave complex near Kurnool in southern India. Although this cave complex has been investigated archaeologically since the late 1800s, it was not until 2008 that a large petroglyph, consisting of the remains of three nested diamond designs on a stalactite, was noted. In order to determine if this petroglyph had been made recently, flowstone was sampled from on top of and below the engraving. Radiocarbon dating revealed a mid-Holocene age of about 5000 cal BP for the petroglyph, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the engraving is several centuries younger. Similar nested diamond designs at some rock painting sites and on a chert core elsewhere in India have been assumed to be Mesolithic. Our result is consistent with this hypothesis, although we note that it also consistent with the creation of the petroglyph in the early Neolithic. We conclude that the Billasurgam engraved diamond design was probably made by Mesolithic foragers of the Kurnool region and is the oldest surviving form of rock art yet directly dated in southern India. AbstractIndia has one of the world's largest and most significant bodies of rock paintings and engravings, yet not a single rock art site or image has been directly and accurately dated using radiometric techniques. Here we report on results from the Billasurgam Cave complex near Kurnool in southern India. Although this cave complex has been investigated archaeologically since the late 1800s, it was not until 2008 that a large petroglyph, consisting of the remains of three nested diamond designs on a stalactite, was noted. In order to determine if this petroglyph had been made recently, flowstone was sampled from on top of and below the engraving. Radiocarbon dating revealed a mid-Holocene age of about 5000 *Manuscript 2 cal BP for the petroglyph, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the engraving is several centuries younger. Similar nested diamond designs at some rock painting sites and on a chert core elsewhere in India have been assumed to be Mesolithic. Our result is consistent with this hypothesis, although we note that it also consistent with the creation of the petroglyph in the early Neolithic. We conclude that the Billasurgam engraved diamond design was probably made by Mesolithic foragers of the Kurnool region and is the oldest surviving form of rock art yet directly dated in southern India.

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Ethnoarchaeology of the kurnool cave areas, South India

Cited by 26 publications

References 2 publications

Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic: The evidence from Sanganakallu–Kupgal

Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic: The evidence from Sanganakallu–Kupgal

Examining the Origins of Hafting in South Asia

Mid-Holocene age obtained for nested diamond pattern petroglyph in the Billasurgam Cave complex, Kurnool District, southern India

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