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10 - Early agriculture in South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Eleanor Kingwell-Banham ,
Cameron A. Petrie  and
Dorian Q. Fuller
Edited by
Graeme Barker  and
Candice Goucher
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
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Summary

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence for the Neolithic and early food production across South Asia, with a focus on four major macro-regions with distinct chronological sequences, crop ecologies and cultural traditions. The four macro-regions are given by the northwest, including the greater Indus valley, the Gangetic plains, eastern India and savanna India. The earliest agriculture in South Asia can be found along the western tributaries of the Indus River, at aceramic settlements like Mehrgarh. Towards the middle Ganges plains there is clear evidence of a strongly indigenous Neolithic tradition, which included the development of rice cultivation and eventual sedentism. The nature of early Neolithic societies in eastern India has been less well studied than other parts of the subcontinent. However, there is a growing corpus of information from various streams of evidence available in the archaeological literature. The case for a truly independent origin of agriculture in South Asia is strongest in the southern peninsula of India.

Keywords

agricultural communitiesAlan Outramfarming systemarchaeogeneticsagricultureurbanismpastoralism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 261 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Allchin, B. and Allchin, F.R.. The Rise of Civilisation in India and Pakistan. Cambridge University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Allchin, F.R. Neolithic Cattle-Keepers of South India: A Study of the Deccan Ashmounds. Cambridge University Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Basa, K.K. and Mohanty, P. (eds.). Archaeology of Orissa, vol. i. New Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan, 2000.Google Scholar
Boivin, N. ‘Landscape and cosmology in the south Indian Neolithic: new perspectives on the Deccan ashmounds.’ Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 14 (2004), 235–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, D.Q. ‘Finding plant domestication in the Indian subcontinent.’ Current Anthropology, 52, Supplement 4 (2011), S347–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, D.Q. ‘South Asia: archaeology.’ In Ness, I. and Bellwood, P. (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, vol. i. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.Google Scholar
Many of Fuller’s articles can be found online at www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/fullerGoogle Scholar
Johansen, P.G. ‘Landscape, monumental architecture, and ritual: a reconsideration of the south Indian ashmounds.’ Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 23 (2004), 309–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meadow, R.H. ‘The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in northwestern South Asia.’ In Harris, D.R. (ed.), The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. London: UCL Press, 1996. 390–412.Google Scholar
Morrison, K.D. and Junker, L.L. (eds.). Forager-Traders in South and Southeast Asia: Long-Term Histories. Cambridge University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrie, C.A. (ed.). Sheri Khan Tarakai and Early Village Life in the Borderlands of North-West Pakistan: Bannu Archaeological Project Surveys and Excavations 1985–2001. Bannu Archaeological Project Monographs 1. Oxford: Oxbow, 2010.Google Scholar
Possehl, G.L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Settar, S. and Korisettar, R. (eds.). Indian Archaeology in Retrospect. 4 vols. New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research, 2002.Google Scholar
Singh, P. Neolithic Cultures of Western Asia. London and New York: Seminar Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Tewari, R. et al. Pragdhara, 19 (2008/9). (This is the most recent issue of Pragdhara. Each issue includes excavation reports and archaeological papers from across India, and from the Palaeolithic to Historical periods.)Google Scholar
Weber, S.A. and Belcher, W.R. (eds.). Indus Ethnobiology. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2003.Google Scholar

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