Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:35:49.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Early agriculture in South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
Get access

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.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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

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. 390412.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

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×