Bagor ‐A late mesolithic settlement in north‐west India

Abstract

Abstract The paper reviews the results of recent excavations at Bagor, a late mesolithic settlement in south Rajasthan which was occupied regularly for a period of five millennia immediately before Christ. The earliest settlers at the site had a highly evolved geometric microlithic industry and an economy based on hunting and stock‐raising. About the middle of the third millennium B.c. they acquired the knowledge of copper or bronze tools and of making hand‐made pottery. At this stage contacts developed with the earliest village farming cultures in Mewar and Malwa and with the urban Harappa Culture of north‐west India. Finally in the middle of the first millennium b.c. iron and wheel‐made pottery were introduced. Although stone tools continued in use their place in technology declined, as did the role of hunting in favour of animal husbandry. Bagor provides important evidence of the process whereby primitive hunting and stone‐using cultures were slowly incorporated into metal‐using and food producing econ...