Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T23:36:21.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Situating megalithic burials in the Iron Age-Early Historic landscape of southern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Smriti Haricharan ,
Hema Achyuthan  and
N. Suresh
Smriti Haricharan
Affiliation:
1National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science campus, Bangalore 550 012, India (Author for correspondence, email: [email protected])
Hema Achyuthan
Affiliation:
2Department of Geology, Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India (Email: [email protected])
N. Suresh
Affiliation:
3Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 33 General Mahadeo Singh Road, Dehra Dun 248 001, India (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The megalithic burials of southern India—a wonderfully varied set of monuments—have long needed a chronology and a context. Broadly contemporary with the Roman and Sasanian empires, these dolmens, cairns and cists have continually raised contradictions with their material contents. The authors attack the problem using luminescence applied to pottery at the site of Siruthavoor in north-east Tamilnadu. Although sharing material culture, this first pilot project gave dates ranging from 300 BC to AD 600, so exposing the problem and perhaps, in OSL, its long-term solution.

Keywords

southern IndiaTamilnaduSiruthavoorIron Age-Early Historicfirst millennium BCfirst millennium ADdolmensstone circlescairnscistsurn burialOSL
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 336 , 1 June 2013 , pp. 488 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agrawal, P., Kusumgar, S., Lal, D. & Saran, R.P.. 1964. Tata Institute radiocarbon date list II. Radiocarbon 6: 226–32.Google Scholar
Allchin, F.R. 1974. Pottery from graves in the Perumal hills near Kodaikanal, in Ghosh, A.K. (ed.) Perspectives in paleoanthropology: Professor B.Sen Festschrift: 299-308. Calcutta: Firmak. L.Mukhopadhyay.Google Scholar
Allchin, B. & Allchin, F.R.. 1983. The rise of civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Banerjee, N.R. 1956. The megalithic problem of Chingleput in the light of recent exploration. Ancient India 12: 21–34.Google Scholar
Begley, V. 1986. From Iron Age to Early Historical south Indian archaeology, in Jacobson, J. (ed.) Studies in the archaeology of India and Pakistan: 297–317. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH.Google Scholar
Bluszcz, A. 2004. OSL dating in archaeology, in Scott, E.M., Alekseev, A.Y. & Zaitseva, G. (ed.) Impact of the environment on human migration in Eurasia: 137-49. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R. 2001. Aspects of mortuary variability in the south Indian Iron Age. Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-graduate & Research Institute 60-61: 253–302.Google Scholar
Cammiade, L.A. 1930. Tangal, Chingleput District, Madras. Man 30: 186–87.Google Scholar
Childe, G.V. 1946. The distribution of Megalithic cultures, and their influence on ancient and modern civilizations. Man 46: 97.Google Scholar
Deshpande, M.N. (ed.) 1974. Indian archaeology 70-71: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Deshpande, M.N. 1975. Indian archaeology 71-72: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Dorje, H.C. & Banerji, A. (ed.). 2000. Indian archaeology 94-95: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Ghosh, A. (ed.). 1969. Indian archaeology 64-65: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Ghosh, A. 1973. Indian archaeology 65-66: a review. NewDelhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Ghosh, A. (ed.). 1989. An encyclopedia of Indian archaeology, volume 2: a gazetteer of explored and excavated sites in India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.Google Scholar
Gururaja Rao, B.K. 1972. Megalithic culture in south India. Mysore: University of Mysore.Google Scholar
Haricharan, S. & Achyuthan, H.. 2012. The megalithic burial potteries of Siruthavoor: micromorphology, in Pisipaty, S.R. (ed.) Multifaceted studies in south Asian archaeology. Arpitam. Festschrift for Professor Vidula Jayaswal (British Archaeological Reports international series 2361): 107-12. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Joshi, M.C. (ed.). 1993a. Indian archaeology 87-88: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Joshi, M.C. 1993b. Indian archaeology 88-89: a review New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Krishnaswami, V.D. 1949. Megalithic types of south India. Ancient India 5: 35–45.Google Scholar
Lal, B.B. (ed.). 1971. Indian archaeology 68-69: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Lal, B.B. 1973. Indian archaeology 69-70: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Leshnik, L.S. 1972. Pastoral nomadism in India and Pakistan. World Archaeology 4: 150–66.Google Scholar
Leshnik, L.S. 1974. South Indian ‘megalithic’ burials: the Pandukal complex. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Lipo, C.P., Feathers, J.K. & Dunnell, R.C.. 2005. Temporal data requirements, luminescence dates, and the resolution of chronological structure of late prehistoric deposits in the central Mississippi river valley. American Antiquity 70: 527–44.Google Scholar
Menon, K.G. (ed.). 2002. Indian archaeology 96-97: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
McIntosh, J. R.. 1985. Dating the south Indian megaliths, in Schotsmanns, J. & Taddei, M. (ed.) South Asian archaeology: 467-94. Naples: Universitario Orientale, Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici.Google Scholar
Misra, V.N. 2001. Prehistory of human colonization of India. Journal of Bioscience 26: 491–531.Google Scholar
Mitra, D. (ed.). 1983a. Indian archaeology 79-80: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Mitra, D. (ed.). 1983b. Indian archaeology 80-81: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Mitra, D. (ed.). 1984. Indian archaeology 81-82: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Mohanty, R.K. & Selvakumar, V. 2002. The archaeology of the megaliths in India: 1947-1997, in Settar, S. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Indian archaeology in retrospect, volume 1: prehistory, archaeology of South Asia: 313-481. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Moorti, U.S. 1994. Megalithic culture of south India: socio economic perspectives. Varanasi: Ganga Kaveri.Google Scholar
Morrison, K.D. 2005. Brahmagiri revisited: a re-analysis of the south Indian sequence, in Jarrige, C. & Lefevre, V. (ed.) South Asian archaeology 2001: 257-62. Paris: Recherche sur les Vivilisations-ADPF.Google Scholar
Narasimhaiah, B. 1980. Neolithic and megalithic cultures of Tamilnadu. New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan.Google Scholar
Possehl, G.L. 1994. Radiometric dates for South Asian archaeology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Rajan, K. 2000. South Indian memorial stones. Thanjavur: Manoo Pathippagam.Google Scholar
Rajan, K. 2008. Situating the beginning of Early Historic times in Tamilnadu: some issues and reflections. Social Scientist 36: 40–78.Google Scholar
Rajmohan, N. & Elango, L.. 2005. Nutrient chemistry of ground water in an intensely irrigated region of southern India. Environmental Geology 47: 820–30.Google Scholar
Reddy, V.R. 1991. Neolithic and post-Neolithic cultures. New Delhi: N.D. Mittal.Google Scholar
Shanmugam, P. 2000. The Black and Red Ware habitations in Tamil country: a study, in Kamalakar, G. (ed.) South Indian archaeology: 35–39. New Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1990. The genesis of megaliths: monumentality, ethnicity and social complexity in Neolithic north-west Europe. World Archaeology 22: 147–67.Google Scholar
Smith, E. 1915. A note on megalithic monuments. Man 47: 92–93.Google Scholar
Sundara, A. 1979. Typology of megaliths in south India, in Agrawal, D.P. & Chakrabarti, D.K. (ed.) Essays in Indian protohistory: 331-40. New Delhi: BR.Google Scholar
Thapar, B.K. (ed.). 1979. Indian archaeology 74-75: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Thapar, B.K. 1980. Indian archaeology 76-77: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Thomas, P.J., Nagabhushanam, P. & REDDY, D.V.. 2008. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of heated materials using single-aliquot regenerative-dose procedure: a feasibility study using archaeological artefacts from India. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 781–90.Google Scholar
Tomber, R. 2007. Rome and Mesopotamia— importers into India in the first millennium AD. Antiquity 81: 972–88.Google Scholar
Tripathi, R.C. (ed.). 1987. Indian archaeology 84-85: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Wheeler, R.E.M. 1947. Brahmagiri and Chandravalli 1947: megalithic and other cultures in Mysore state. Ancient India 4: 180–310.Google Scholar