Burzahom

History glossary

Topic: Prehistory: Human Origins and Stone Age Cultures · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Burzahom is a Neolithic (New Stone Age) village site in the Kashmir valley, near Srinagar. Its people lived in pit dwellings (houses dug into the ground), used many bone tools, and sometimes buried dogs with their masters. Settlement there probably began around c. 3000 BCE; dates differ slightly between sources.

It matters because it is the best-known Neolithic site of the northern (Kashmir) Neolithic. It shows that farming life in the subcontinent began in different places at different times and took different local forms. Its features, such as pit-houses, bone tools and dog burials, set it apart from Neolithic sites on the plains and in the south.

Explanation

Background: a regional Neolithic

  • Neolithic means "New Stone Age". In this stage people ground and polished their stone tools, grew crops, kept animals and settled in one place.
  • Farming did not begin everywhere at the same time:
  • Mehrgarh in Baluchistan began first, c. 7000 BCE.
  • Burzahom in Kashmir came later, probably c. 3000 BCE.

  • Sanganakallu in Karnataka came later still, c. 2000 BCE.

  • Kashmir is a cold, high valley. So the Neolithic here developed its own way of life, suited to a harsh winter.

  • The name "Burzahom" is usually explained as "place of birch". The birch is a tree of the cold hills.

Main features of the site

  • Pit dwellings.
  • In the earliest phase, people dug round or oval pits into the ground to live in. Many pits were wider at the bottom than at the top.
  • Some had steps leading down into them. Post-holes around the edges suggest a roof of wood, birch bark or grass.
  • Living below ground probably gave shelter from the cold Kashmir winter.

  • The NCERT Class 6 textbook uses Burzahom as its example of pit-houses.

  • Bone tools. Burzahom is known for a very large number of bone tools, such as awls, needles, points and harpoons. They were made from animal bone and antler.

  • Polished stone tools. People also used ground and polished stone axes. They also had a harvesting knife: a rectangular stone blade with holes in it, used to cut crops.
  • Pottery. The pottery was mostly coarse and handmade. Later levels have grey burnished ware, which is grey pottery polished to a shine.
  • Burials.
  • The dead were buried inside the settlement, often under or beside the houses.
  • In some graves, dogs were buried with their masters. Some graves also had antlers.

  • These dog burials show that dogs had a close place in people's lives and probably in their beliefs.

  • Art. An engraved stone slab from the site shows a hunting scene. Many writers say it is among the earliest pieces of Neolithic art in the subcontinent.

How the site changed over time

  • Archaeologists usually split the site into phases:
  • Early Neolithic: pit dwellings, bone tools and coarse handmade pottery.
  • Later Neolithic: people moved up out of the pits and built houses on the ground, made of mud, mud-brick and timber. Dog burials belong mainly to this phase.

  • Megalithic: large standing stones (megaliths, meaning "big stones") were set up at the site.

  • Economy. People hunted and fished, but they also farmed and kept animals. Finds point to wheat, barley and lentils, and to sheep, goats and cattle.

  • Result. This is the same mixed farming-and-herding life that, by 2500 BCE, existed across most of the subcontinent.

Time, place and evidence

  • Place: the Kashmir valley in Jammu and Kashmir, a short distance north-east of Srinagar. The site sits on a karewa, a flat raised terrace of old lake deposits that is typical of the valley.
  • Time: the Neolithic settlement probably began c. 3000 BCE and lasted for many centuries. A later Megalithic phase followed. All dates are approximate and vary between sources.
  • Discovery and excavation: explorers first noticed the site in the 1930s. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) carried out the main excavation, led by T. N. Khazanchi, in the 1960s and early 1970s.
  • How we know: almost entirely from archaeology. The evidence includes pit dwellings, post-holes, bone and stone tools, pottery, grain remains, human and dog burials, and the engraved hunting slab. No written records survive from this period.
  • Status: it is a protected archaeological site under the ASI.
  • Nearby site: Gufkral, also in Kashmir, has a similar Neolithic culture with pit dwellings.

Don't confuse with

  • Mehrgarh is on the Bolan River, in present-day Pakistan, and is the oldest Neolithic site, c. 7000 BCE. Its people lived in sun-dried brick houses with granaries, not in pits. Burzahom is about four thousand years later.
  • Gufkral is another Kashmir Neolithic site with pit dwellings. Burzahom is the one tied in exams to dog burials with masters and the engraved hunting scene.
  • Chirand (Bihar) is a Neolithic site in the Gangetic plain. It is also known for bone tools, but it has no pit dwellings and no dog burials. The bone-tool link is a common trap.
  • Sanganakallu, Utnur and Kodekal (Karnataka) are Southern Neolithic sites on granite hills and ash mounds, linked with cattle herders. They are not pit-dwelling sites in Kashmir.

Prelims Hooks

  • Burzahom: Neolithic site in Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir), near Srinagar.
  • Burzahom is famous for pit dwellings, meaning houses dug into the ground, some with steps.
  • Dogs buried with their masters in graves is a feature unique to Burzahom among the well-known Neolithic sites.
  • Typical finds are bone tools, polished stone axes, a pierced rectangular harvesting knife and grey burnished ware.
  • Chronological order of first farming: Mehrgarh (c. 7000 BCE) → Burzahom (c. 3000 BCE) → Sanganakallu (c. 2000 BCE).
  • Trap: pit dwellings point to Burzahom/Gufkral. Ash mounds point to Utnur/Kodekal. Sun-dried brick and granaries point to Mehrgarh.

Mains Points

  • The Neolithic was regional, not one single event.
  • Burzahom shows a cold-climate way of life: pit-houses, heavy use of bone, and hunting alongside farming.
  • The north-western Neolithic, by contrast, had brick villages (Mehrgarh). The southern Neolithic had hilltop sites with herders' ash mounds (Utnur, Kodekal) [1].

  • So in a GS-I answer, "the Neolithic Revolution in India" is best described as many local beginnings, each shaped by its own environment.

  • Continuity and change at one site.

  • Burzahom moves from pit dwellings to houses built on the ground, and later to megaliths.

  • This shows how one community changed its housing, tools and burial customs over centuries without a sudden break.

  • Clues to belief and social life.

  • Burials inside the settlement, and dogs and antlers placed with the dead, suggest ideas about the afterlife and a close bond between people and animals.
  • Without any written texts, burials like these are among the main clues historians have to prehistoric beliefs.

Related concepts

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Sources

  1. 1India — Developments in the Ganges basin, Britannicabritannica.com · tier 3