Burzahom

A Neolithic site in the Vale of Kashmir with phases of occupation dating from c 3050 BC to the 3rd-4th centuries AD. Deep pit dwellings are associated with ground stone axes, bone tools, and coarse gray burnished pottery. These characteristics plus the absence of blades, use of pierced rectangular knives, and association of dog skeletons with human burials, all seem to point to connections with central and northern Asia, as Mongolia, rather than with the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Hunting seems to have been the main basis of the economy. Phase II has houses of mud and mudbrick and Phase III has a group of large stones arranged in a rough semicircle.

A prehistoric site in Kashmir. Four phases of occupation have been identified, ranging in date from the 3rd-2nd millennium bc to the 3rd-4th centuries ad. Phase I is characterized by pit-dwellings, while Phase II has houses of mud and mudbrick, as well as burials of both humans and animals (dog, wolf and ibex) in pits. To Phase III belongs a group of large stones arranged in a rough semicircle. Parallels for this stone ring, as well as for the pit-houses of Phase I and some of the associated artefacts of Phases I-III (pottery, polished stone and polished bone tools) occur in Central and Northern Asia, rather than in the Indian subcontinent.