An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s6.28

v1.c9.s6.28

For the palaeobotanical evidence palynological studies have been made at five places: (i) Haigam lake in the Kashmir valley; (ii) Naukutchiya Tal near Nainital in Kumaon; (iii) Kakathope, Ootacamund in Tamil Nadu; (iv) Sambhar lake in Rajasthan; and (v) Quaternary deposits around Calcutta. The pollen diagram from the Naukutchiya Tal furnishes evidence for the disturbance of natural vegetation, which may have some bearing on the economy of the Mesolithic settlements in the area, experimenting with colonization or harvesting stages of the agriculture as defined by Hawkes (Hawkes, 1969). A similar disturbance in vegetation, simulating a clearance phase, has been observed in pollen diagrams from Kakathope, Ootacamund (Vishnu-Mittre and Gupta, 1971; Gupta, 1973), dated to 23000 years ago. No case however can be made for an attempt at early farming here. Based upon a *cerelia* type of pollen, in association with a large number of comminuted charcoal pieces, a pollen diagram has been made for Rajasthan (Gurdip Singh, 1967, 1971), showing disturbance of vegetation as early as 6000 B.C. The excavated site of BAGOR (Misra, 1973) in Dt Bhilwara however does not take the evidence of occupation so far back. Finally the superficial peat deposits of Bengal (dated to *c.* 3000 B.C.) yielded pollen of a cultivated variety associated with *Plantago*, which however cannot belong to cereals (Chanda, 1969). No archaeological evidence has however been attested for such an early cultivation of wheat and barley in this area.