Topic - Iron Age in Peninsular India
Subtopic -Megalithic Culture
Heading - Cultural Artefacts and Authors (New 2019)
Megalithic culture
Burial Rituals and Social Organisation
The megalithic culture shows that the megalithic communities were dominated by
religious and supernatural beliefs. This is evident from the elaborate objects
associated with the burials.
Different burial tradition could indicate different social and ethnic groups, but so far
no fixed regional conventions regarding orientation of the bodies or the graves have
been observed.
The burials vary from total to only fractional types.
In the Vidarbha region horses were buried with the dead, possibly after sacrifice, and
this may have been a local ethnic tradition.
The social organisation of the Megalithic people of India can be worked out only
Megalithic Cultures in a sketchy manner, and data on settlement pattern are virtually
absent.
However, it appears that communities may have comprised different professional
groups, such as smiths, warriors, goldsmiths, agriculturists and carpenters. This may
be deduced from the types of grave goods offered.
Even burial must have involved community effort because setting of such huge
stones in a Circle or erection of a gigantic Menhirs, or the placing of massive stone
slabs on a Dolmen is not possible by one or two individuals.
Grave goods from Megalithic burials
The megalithic burials have yielded a variety of objects, which prove to be very
important in the megalithic culture.
It is observed that right from the later Palaeolithic period, an intentional burial was
accorded to the dead for manifold motives.
The megalithic people were construct elaborate tombs. They furnished them with as
many essential objects as they could afford.
They thought this practice to be necessary as they believed in after-life of the dead.
And so, dead were suitably provided for a place to live in with goods of their
essential needs.
In the Indian megalithic especially in south India, the grave good consisted of a large
variety of pottery, weapons and implements mostly of iron but often of stone or
copper, ornaments and food as indicated by the presence of paddy husk and chaff
and other cereals, skeletal remains of animals
, Characteristics
1. Agriculture
a. Their economy was based on agriculture.
b. The megaliths people were responsible for the introduction of the advance
methods of agriculture on a large scale, based on irrigation.
c. The megalithic people introduce the tank-irrigation in south India and thus
brought a revolutionary change in the agricultural system.
d. Rice, an essentially irrigational crop, served as their staple food.
e. Paddy husks and rarely paddy grains are reported from a number of excavated
graves from all over the region.
f. The archaeo-botanical evidence indicates the cultivation of other crops too as Ragi,
wheat, millet, barley, horse gram, black gram, green gram, common pea, grass pea,
jujube, lentil, cotton, etc.
2. Pastoralism
a. Megalithic sites have yielded evidence of the remains of the domesticated animals
like cattle, sheep, goat, dog, horse, buffalo, ass, etc.
b. On the basis of the analysis of these faunal remains at different sites, it is inferred
that cattle including buffalo predominates over other domesticated species at these
sites.
c. The occurrence of remains of domesticated pig and fowl suggests pig rearing and
poultry farming on a small scale at many of the sites.
3. Hunting and Fishing
a. Equipments of hunting like arrowheads, spears, javelins and sling balls would
indicate hunting was in practice for food supply.
b. The occurrence of skeletal remains of wild fauna from different sites indicate
these wild species were hunted and formed part of their dietary system.
Subtopic -Megalithic Culture
Heading - Cultural Artefacts and Authors (New 2019)
Megalithic culture
Burial Rituals and Social Organisation
The megalithic culture shows that the megalithic communities were dominated by
religious and supernatural beliefs. This is evident from the elaborate objects
associated with the burials.
Different burial tradition could indicate different social and ethnic groups, but so far
no fixed regional conventions regarding orientation of the bodies or the graves have
been observed.
The burials vary from total to only fractional types.
In the Vidarbha region horses were buried with the dead, possibly after sacrifice, and
this may have been a local ethnic tradition.
The social organisation of the Megalithic people of India can be worked out only
Megalithic Cultures in a sketchy manner, and data on settlement pattern are virtually
absent.
However, it appears that communities may have comprised different professional
groups, such as smiths, warriors, goldsmiths, agriculturists and carpenters. This may
be deduced from the types of grave goods offered.
Even burial must have involved community effort because setting of such huge
stones in a Circle or erection of a gigantic Menhirs, or the placing of massive stone
slabs on a Dolmen is not possible by one or two individuals.
Grave goods from Megalithic burials
The megalithic burials have yielded a variety of objects, which prove to be very
important in the megalithic culture.
It is observed that right from the later Palaeolithic period, an intentional burial was
accorded to the dead for manifold motives.
The megalithic people were construct elaborate tombs. They furnished them with as
many essential objects as they could afford.
They thought this practice to be necessary as they believed in after-life of the dead.
And so, dead were suitably provided for a place to live in with goods of their
essential needs.
In the Indian megalithic especially in south India, the grave good consisted of a large
variety of pottery, weapons and implements mostly of iron but often of stone or
copper, ornaments and food as indicated by the presence of paddy husk and chaff
and other cereals, skeletal remains of animals
, Characteristics
1. Agriculture
a. Their economy was based on agriculture.
b. The megaliths people were responsible for the introduction of the advance
methods of agriculture on a large scale, based on irrigation.
c. The megalithic people introduce the tank-irrigation in south India and thus
brought a revolutionary change in the agricultural system.
d. Rice, an essentially irrigational crop, served as their staple food.
e. Paddy husks and rarely paddy grains are reported from a number of excavated
graves from all over the region.
f. The archaeo-botanical evidence indicates the cultivation of other crops too as Ragi,
wheat, millet, barley, horse gram, black gram, green gram, common pea, grass pea,
jujube, lentil, cotton, etc.
2. Pastoralism
a. Megalithic sites have yielded evidence of the remains of the domesticated animals
like cattle, sheep, goat, dog, horse, buffalo, ass, etc.
b. On the basis of the analysis of these faunal remains at different sites, it is inferred
that cattle including buffalo predominates over other domesticated species at these
sites.
c. The occurrence of remains of domesticated pig and fowl suggests pig rearing and
poultry farming on a small scale at many of the sites.
3. Hunting and Fishing
a. Equipments of hunting like arrowheads, spears, javelins and sling balls would
indicate hunting was in practice for food supply.
b. The occurrence of skeletal remains of wild fauna from different sites indicate
these wild species were hunted and formed part of their dietary system.
