Archaeological Heritage: The Prehistoric Period

The recent discoveries of the evidences of early human presence in different geographical areas of the old world suggest that our earliest ancestors came out of the African continent to Europe and Eastern Asia through West Asia and South Asia. In a recent paper, we (Hazarika 2008a) have argued that Northeast India might have acted as natural passageways for various early human migrations. The Northeast India may have acted as a possible mid-way from Africa to Southeast Asia through South Asia for the eastward dispersal of early humans during the Pleistocene geological age (roughly within the time bracket of 1.8 Million years to 10 thousand years before present) with Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) cultures. In this period, our ancestors were mainly hunter-gatherers, and they were mainly dependent on hunting and predating animals, gathering and collecting wild plant foods for their subsistence. So, they were in the ‘hunter-gatherer stage’ and were living in caves, rock-shelters, under the trees and had to face different obstacles such as rain, flood, wind, danger of ferocious wild animals etc. They were using tools made of stone, bone and tree branch etc. for their various activities. Due to the perishable nature of organic materials such as tree branch, bone etc. used by our early ancestors to make tools and implements, we hardly get their traces in present day landscape. As stone is a hard material and damages comparatively slowly, we find huge amount the tools made on stones by our early ancestors in a prehistoric archaeological site. In fact, stone tools are the main source of knowing the life ways of early man. 

As far as the archaeology in Northeast India is concerned, it has a history of almost 140 years of long research starting with the discovery of stone tools by Sir John Lubbock, reporting for the first time the evidence of prehistoric culture from this region in Atheneaume of London, in 1867. Subsequently, several British administrators and Assamese researchers have reported many prehistoric stone implements from different parts of Northeast India in the pre-independence era. After the establishment of the Department of Anthropology at the Gauhati University, many scholars has explored the archaeological potentiality and contributed towards understanding the past cultural background and development of this region. Garo hills of Meghalaya has drawn attention of the archaeologist for the discovery of several prehistoric sites with large quantity of stone artefacts. Keeping asides the disputes on the presence of ‘Palaeolithic’ artefacts in Garo Hills, one can simply state that Garo Hills played an important role in the prehistoric period considering the large amount of stone artefacts of several succeeding periods.  

Coming to the human evolution in the last 10,000 years BP (before present), which is geologically termed as the Holocene period, we find a revolutionary change in the history of human being. During this time, early man acquired slowly the knowledge of taming and bringing several animals and plants under their control, which finally lead to the early domestication process. Due to this change in the economy from hunting-gathering to food producing stage, this stage of human culture is known as the Neolithic (New stone age) culture of human prehistory, meaning the new ways of life with new stone tool technology related to food production, more specifically agriculture. We are yet to understand thoroughly the role played by Northeast India for the developments of the early agricultural communities. Hazarika (2008b) have recorded several plants and animals which are very likely to be domesticated in this part of Indian subcontinent, plants such as rice, citrus, banana, mango, yams and taro etc. and several animals such as cattle species, elephants, pigs, silkworms etc. Looking at the great varieties of wild, intermediate and domesticated rice found in this region (Hazarika 2006a and 2006b), it is very likely that early domestication of rice might have occurred in this area and this region might have been very important area for emergence and developments of early farming communities based on rice agriculture. The archaeological record of this period, specifically the shouldered celts and the tanged axes and the cord-impressed potteries found in different localities of Northeast India indicate close affinities with the material found in South China and Southeast Asia. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Neolithic polished axes are regarded as the sacred Vajrashila, (axe of the deity, Indra) or thunderbolt by many communities and it is believed that these axes posses the power of curing disease and used as an medicinal properties and objects of charm. So, besides the importance of these polished axes and celts as the most important archaeological record for understanding the Neolithic culture of Northeast India, great value is paid and considered as a cultural heritage by the common people.  

Another interesting cultural phenomenon of our early ancestors is the tradition of erecting stone megaliths. These megalithic structures are present in many parts of Northeast India and acts as rich archaeological heritage. More, interestingly this practice is a still living practice among many communities and closely associated with their social-cultural and religious life. Rao (1987) discusses the ethnographic context of the area inhabited by the Khasis and the Mikirs. He describes the agricultural practices, living practice of megalithism etc. and brings out their importance in the archaeological context. The megalithic tradition (Rao 1991) has persisted in the manner of disposal of the dead in certain old customs and beliefs till today. After cremating the dead, the ashes and the uncalcified bones are deposited in a stone chamber and a memorial stone is erected in many parts of Northeast India. Bezbaruah (2003) has extensively studied the living practice of erecting megaliths among the Karbis as a post-cremation rite and drawn parallels for the prehistoric megalithic remains of Karbi-Anglong in Assam. This tradition of erecting stone and also of wood in the memory of personalities or major events, indicating respect of a particular society to the past, can tell us the artistic manifestation of past memories of a particular society, besides acting as source material for historical reconstruction. Unfortunately, there are instances of neglecting these erected stones as our cultural heritage and removing and using for various modern day activities such as raw material for construction of buildings, roads etc. In this way we are destroying the valuable properties of our past and loosing this priceless archaeological heritage forever.