[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989) › v1.c19.s11 # An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s11: 14.11 Kitchen Middens (Shell Mounds) An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s11 - **Language:** English ### 14.11 Kitchen Middens (Shell Mounds) ### [v1.c19.s11.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11.1) Kitchen middens or deposits containing leftovers of prehistoric communities are found all over the Andaman Islands, more on the coastline than in the interior. They are composed chiefly of edible mollusc shells intermixed with animal bones, potsherds, implements of stones, bone and shell. The first study on the midden relics, collected by J.C. Haughton, 1863, is by Theobald, 1862. Most investigations have been conducted in s. Andaman—around Port Blair, at Hope Town, Bamboo Flat, Chauldari—and in middle Andaman, notably at Beehive Hill. The evidence suggests a tropical maritime ecology. The faunal remains attest animal life not different from those of the present. No absolute dating is available, but the lithic evidence suggests a date of around the beginning of the Christian era. Typologically the middle Andaman middens antedate the s. Andaman ones. The Beehive lithic industry bears resemblance with 'Toalean' flake and blade industry of S.-E. Asia (van Heekeren, 1972, p. 106). ### [v1.c19.s11.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11.2) The excavations yielded a huge quantity of \*Gastropoda\* and \*Bivalvia\* shells, split and fractured bones of the wild pig, \*Sus andamanensis\*, sometimes in charred condition, fish bones, broken pincers of crabs, turtle shells, human bone remains, potsherds, etc. The pottery is crude, handmade, ill-fired, reddish or black in colour, prepared by coil-building technique, medium in size, having conoid or rounded base, mostly plain but sometimes with incised linear or cross lines as decoration. The stone implements, mostly of sandstone, comprising grinding, hammering and sharpening artefacts, querns, cooking and baking stones, adzes and trapezoid celts, represent a sub-Neolithic culture. The Beehive midden produced pygmy tools of cryptocrystalline silica, the types being blades, points, scrapers, trapezes, trapezoids and utilized flakes, fabricated mostly by free flaking but sometimes by pressure-flaking technique, belonging to the Mesolithic flake-and-blade industry \[4.5\]. The bone implements are arrowheads and spearheads. The shell implements comprise spatulas, scrapers and arrowheads. ### [v1.c19.s11.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11.3) The thickness of the middens varies between 1·5 to 6 m. The existence of huts under large roofs upon the debris was noticed at some places. The people used to bury their dead in middens. The subsistence economy was hunting-gathering. The cultural remains suggest that the authors of the kitchen middens were the precursors of the present Negrito aborigines of the islands. ### [v1.c19.s11.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11.4) Cipriani, L , 1955, in \*Actes IV Congress des International Sciences der Anthropologie und Ethnologie\*, 2, pp. 250-3 (for excavations in kitchen middens); 1955, in \*Census of India 1951\*, Delhi, 17, 1, Appendix E, pp. lxvi-lxxi (for the origin of the Andamanese). Dutta, P.C., 1962, in \*Wiener Volkerkundliche Mitteilungen\*, 10, 5, pp. 17-29 (for report of a trial excavation of a kitchen midden in s. Andaman); 1963, in \*Current Anthropology\*, 4, p. 356 (for recent work on kitchen middens); 1963, in \*Nature\*, 197 (4867), p. 624 (for pygmy tools); 1963, in \*ibid.\*, 200 (4910), pp. 997-8 (for affinities of the Andamanese stone industry); 1964, in \*Ethnos\*, 29, pp. 175-86 (for Andamanese stone industry); 1966, in \*Studies in Prehistory\*, Calcutta, pp 179-94 (for Andamanese kitchen-middens). Haughton, J.C., 1863, in \*Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal\*, 32, pp. 306-7 (for Andamanese flint implements). Holland, T.H., 1904, \*Record of the Geological Survey of India\*, 31, pp. 45, 107-8 (for Andamanese kitchen middens). Lapicque, L., 1894, in \*Bull. Soc d'Anthropologie de Paris\*, 19 April, pp. 359-60 (for antiquities of the Andamans); 1894, in \*Bull. Soc. d'Anthropologie de Paris\*, 3 May, pp. 361-71 (for Andamanese ethnology). Man, E.H., 1883, in \*Jour. Anthropological Inst.\*, 12, pp. 69-116, 117-75, 227-434 (for aboriginal inhabitants of the Andamans). Portman, M.V., 1899, \*History of Our Relations with the Andamanese\*, 2 vols., Calcutta. Stoliczka, F, 1870, in \*Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal\*, pp. 13-23 (for Andamanese kitchen middens). Theobald, W., Jr., 1862, \*Jour. Asiatic Soc.\*, 31, p 326 (for celts in Bundelkhand and chert tools in the Andamans). Tweedie, M.W.F , 1955, \*Prehistoric Malaya, Background to Malaya Series\*, 6, Singapore, pp. 1-43. van Heekeren, H.R., 1972, \*Stone Age of Indonesia\*, The Hague. von Heine-Geldern, R., 1946, in \*American Anthropologist\*, 48, pp. 149-75 (for problems of S.-E. Asian researches).—P.C. DUTTA --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c19.s11) · Pramāṇa