North-East India: A Neolithic Enigma (4000 - 1000 BCE)

Once a corridor for cultures, sadly Assam and the North East of India are still largely, what archaeologist Prof M K Dhavalikar famously called, ‘terra incognita’ – a region that has not been mapped or documented. Thick, wild forests that make exploration difficult and excavation almost impossible, and communities that still have strong tribal roots with no written history, make the work of archaeologists even more difficult. No wonder the region has traditionally been more a laboratory for anthropologists than archaeologists. But things have changed a little, thanks to the pioneering efforts of archaeologist T C Sharma and the teams who followed him. In fact, as recently as 2017, a study using the latest technology helped date one of the early Neolithic sites there. Now we know that Neolithic life in the region goes back at least 6,000 years, if not more. What’s more, after decades of excavations, experts even believe that the earliest domestication of rice could have taken place in a region that stretched from South China to North East India. The Neolithic Age is defined by a new way of life, as humans started domesticating animals and plants, and also developed pottery. In the Indian subcontinent, the oldest Neolithic culture was excavated at the site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan (present-day Pakistan), dateable to 8000 BCE. Over the next few millennia, Neolithic cultures began to sprout all over – from Kashmir to Karnataka and Rajasthan to Assam. The dates, however, vary considerably. Modern archaeological research has in the last decade reported Neolithic sites from all the eight states of North East India. Early Discoveries The first discovery of a Neolithic artifact in Assam took place way back in the 1860s, when a British tea planter, W Haly, found a blue jadeite celt (a long, thin, polished stone axe) with a tribal man, Namsang Naga. This find was reported by Sir John Lubbock of London University in 1867. Following this, hoards of such Neolithic implements were reported from across the North-Eastern region. However, the first systematic archaeological excavation in the region was conducted only in 1961, at the site of Daojali Hading in Dima Hasao District, in the south-eastern part of Assam, by archaeologists M C Goswami and T C Sharma. Their work revealed a site with a single cultural layer around 45 cm thick. It had axes, hoes, chisels, querns, mullers, pestles, all made of indurated shale, sandstone and fossil wood. Goswami and Sharma later reported that the presence of 22 grinding slabs (querns) suggested that the area was a factory site. It also indicated a very solid development of food-processing techniques. Also unearthed from this single cultural layer was pottery. It was simple, handmade (not made using a wheel as traditional pottery is made) and ranged in color from grey to dull red. The decorations on it were mainly cord-marked (impressions made with rope). In addition, a minor type of dull-red, stamped ware was found. After further research, Sharma noted a four-fold cultural sequence at the site: 1) Hoabinhian 2) Early Neolithic 3) Late Neolithic and 4) Aneolithic. The ‘Hoabinhian tradition’ is named after the site of Hoa Binh in Vietnam. The term is used to describe stone artifact assemblages found in South East Asia (dated c. 10,000–2000 BCE). Sharma strongly believed that the Neolithic personality of the North East emerged under a strong influence of Chinese and South East Asian Neolithic cultures. This cultural similarity shouldn’t be surprising as the geographical location of North East India has ensured that it has been a cultural bridge connecting South Asia, East Asia and South East Asia. In fact, D K Medhi, Professor at Guwahati University, quite rightly terms this territory as the ‘Great Indian Corridor’ for the prehistoric and proto-historic movements of people from and to its neighbouring regions. Despite all this information dug up through excavations, archaeologists still weren’t able to date the artifacts for the longest time. Unti ...