An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s6.t4.20

v1.c9.s6.t4.20

Phase II (*c.* 2000 B.C.) of the Neolithic culture at NAGARJUNAKONDA seems to be an amalgam of the earlier red ware and the burnished grey ware, since the red ware dominated in the pits at Sites 46 A and 47, with a restricted quantity of handmade gritty red ware, burnished grey ware, microliths on chert and crystal, quartzite flakes, disc beads and a large quantity of animal bones. The occurrence of a good number of pits of various sizes, some of them associated with post-holes and extended inhumation burials in the cemetery located far away from the habitation site, may tend to show that the people were no longer wholly nomadic. They must have maintained large herds of cattle and some of the Neolithic tools may have been used for rudimentary cultivation. At NAGARJUNAKONDA this phase did not evolve directly out of the earlier phase, represented by Site 45, and its authors might have entered the valley from elsewhere.