Prehistory: Stone Age and Neolithic Kashmir
The oldest human traces in J&K come from the Stone Age. The best-known sites are in the Kashmir Valley, on the flat-topped Karewa terraces.
Early Stone Age
- Stone tools have been found in the Jammu foothills and the Pahalgam (Lidder) valley. They show people hunting and gathering here long before farming.
- The Karewa beds were built up by an ancient lake. The Yale-Cambridge expedition led by De Terra and Paterson (1935) studied the Karewas and found early sites.
Burzahom: the great Neolithic site
Burzahom lies near Srinagar, close to the Dal Lake. The name means "place of birch" (burz is birch).
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Period | About 3000 BCE onwards (Neolithic), continuing into early metal-using times |
| Discovered | De Terra and Paterson, 1935 |
| Excavated | Archaeological Survey of India, 1960s, led by T.N. Khazanchi |
| Houses | Pit dwellings dug into the ground, some with steps. People lived below ground in the cold. |
| Tools | Polished stone axes, bone needles and harpoons (used for fishing and sewing hides) |
| Burials | Bodies in pits, some stained with red ochre. Dogs were buried with their masters. |
| Art | A stone slab showing a hunting scene with a hunter, dogs and a deer, and what looks like two suns |
| Later phase | Megalithic stones and a few copper objects appear. |
Gufkral
- Gufkral means "cave of the potter" (guf = cave, kral = potter). It is near Tral in south Kashmir.
- It was excavated by the ASI in 1981 under A.K. Sharma. It shows an early Neolithic phase with no pottery, followed by pottery-using people.
- People here farmed (wheat, barley and lentils) and kept sheep and goats, as well as hunting.
Other early sites
- Semthan (Anantnag) and Hariparigom are also Neolithic.
- Ladakh has rock carvings (petroglyphs) of ibex and hunters, spread over many ages.
Palaeolithic Kashmir: the finds
Very few human fossils are known, so stone tools are the main proof of early people.
| Find | Place |
|---|---|
| A hand axe and a large flake | Lidder valley, Pahalgam |
| Choppers, discoids and scrapers | Rembiara river valley, Balapura, Shopian |
| Fossils of elephant | Sombur (Samboora), Pulwama, and Glandar, Pampore |
| Stone tools | Bhatchak, Huin, Kalladur and Tapriballa in Baramulla district; Khan Saheb and Hab Shah Sahib in Budgam |
Neolithic sites of the Valley
- Burzahom is the earliest Neolithic site found in the Kashmir Valley.
- Other Neolithic sites: Begagund, Gufkral (Pulwama), Hariparigom, Jayadevi-Udar, Olchibag, Pampore, Panzgom, Sombur and Thajiwor.
- Finds: coarse grey ware, burnished ware, combed ware and gritty red ware, together with mace heads and celts (polished stone axes).
- Pit dwellings were found at Gufkral, Olchibag and Damodar Udar (and at Burzahom).
Megalithic age
- Menhirs (large standing stones) have been found at Burzahom and Gufkral.
Keep practising
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Prepared for exam revision from standard sources, official publications and the Census. Figures and recent developments change, so check official sources before relying on them. Found a mistake? Tell us.