Sanganakallu () is an ancient archaeological site from the Neolithic period (circa 3000 BC). It is approximately 8 km from Bellary in eastern

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. It is a group of hills south of a horseshoe shaped valley, with Kupgal to the north. It is one of the earliest settlements in South India, spread over 1,000 acres. There is a layer of red-brown

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

ized soil spread over Sanganakallu and Kupgal that can be dated back to 9000 BC. The site is considered to be a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

factory site due to the surface excavation revealing large numbers of pottery, stone axes, and other

stone tool Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a ...

s. The site was first majorly excavated in 1946, by Bendapudi Subbarao, on Sannarasamma hill. Subbarao divided their culture into 3 phases: * Pre-

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

, the phase when Sanganakallu was first settled, had little pottery, and the people made crude

microlith A microlith is a small Rock (geology), stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 60,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Austral ...

s. *

, the phase when pottery was handmade and stone axes were mass produced. *

, the phase when pottery and tools became more sophisticated. Sanganakallu was excavated again in 1964.

Tools

The earliest tools excavated were hundreds of patinated flakes made of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

, and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

flakes. In the later Mesolithic phase is when tool making became more abundant. Stone axes, hammer stones,

chisel A chisel is a hand tool with a characteristic Wedge, wedge-shaped cutting edge on the end of its blade. A chisel is useful for carving or cutting a hard material such as woodworking, wood, lapidary, stone, or metalworking, metal. Using a chi ...

s, picks, slick-stones, and sling stones were excavated. The axes were found in many different shapes. There were oval shaped, triangular shaped, or rectangular shaped axes and some were axes were rounded and some were thin. The sheer number of

s is the reason Sanganakallu is considered a factory site.

Pottery

The first pottery started showing up in Mesolithic phase. The pottery was usually dull brown or black, and hand-made out of coarse clay. Pale-gray pots made of fine clay mixed with lime and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

were also excavated. The pottery from the later

period were more fine, thin, and polished. They were all burnt and wheel turned. The ornamental pottery was decorated in a finger groove pattern and a few shards were found painted purple. A few pots were perforated and the significance of that is not yet known.

1964 excavation

In this excavation, a one room Neolithic circular house was excavated. The wall was made with bamboo and clay and the floor was covered in potholes. There was a hearth in the center of the house, and there is evidence of it being burned. Other than the house structure, a few terracotta figurines in the shape of birds or bulls were also found as well as more

s and pottery. Animal remains were also collected, the majority of which were cow bones.

Early agriculturists

The people who settled at Sanganakallu were early agriculturists, who cultivated small

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

s and pulses. They kept sheep, cattle, and had separate areas for dumping dung ( ash mounds). It is hypothesized these ash mounds were for burning cow dung possibly in a ritual manner.

References