An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s5.17

v1.c9.s5.17

No plant remains have as yet been recovered from any site. But at several sites, such as TILWARA, BAGOR and BHIMBETKA, shallow querns and rubbers [6.19] are very common, suggesting an extensive use of plant foods. It is significant that querns and rubbers appear for the first time in the Mesolithic context only in India. At some sites—BAGOR, LANGHNAJ and BHIMBETKA—a few pieces of perforated heavy discoid stones have also been found. They might suggest the beginning of rudimentary agriculture since one of their recorded ethnographic uses is as weights of digging sticks. The main source of our knowledge of the subsistence pattern, however, is the animal remains [15.1.5] which have survived at several sites, sometimes in very large quantities as at BAGOR. The bones are usually charred, broken and split open, showing the cooking of meat on open fires and extraction of marrow. Two types of economy are indicated. At TILWARA, BAGOR and ADAMGARH the people combined hunting and gathering with stock breeding [1]. Indeed at BAGOR stock breeding seems to be more important than hunting, for 65% of the identifiable bones here belong to the sheep or goat. This is not surprising since Rajasthan forms part of the natural zone of wild-sheep distribution and was therefore a potential area of early sheep domestication. At ADAMGARH the cattle were also domesticated. And the evidence for the domestication of the dog also comes from this site. At LANGHNAJ and SARAI NAHAR RAI, on the other hand, only hunting seems to have been practised. The animals usually hunted at all the sites were the Indian cattle, water buffalo, *sambar*, *chital*, gazelle, hog deer and *nilgai*. But at LANGHNAJ the *barasingha* and rhinoceros were also hunted and at SARAI NAHAR RAI the elephant was killed. The people of ADAMGARH hunted the porcupine as well. Both at BAGOR and SARAI NAHAR RAI there are remains of the tortoise and at the former place those of the fish as well.