Prehistoric Assam

Paleolithic Cultures

🔸 Sites:

• • • Rongram Valley (Garo Hills):

      • Belongs to the Middle Pleistocene period (781,000–126,000 years ago).

      • Known for handaxe-cleaver tools showing similarities with the Abbevillio-Acheulean culture.

    • Daphabum (Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh):

      • Tools made of metamorphic rock, signifying early human activity.

    • Khangkhui (Ukhrul, Manipur):

      • A cave-based site dating to the Late Pleistocene, showing advanced Paleolithic occupation.

🔸 Tools and Characteristics:

• • • Tools made of stone, particularly handaxes and cleavers.

    • Designed for hunting and food gathering.

    • Lack of human skeletal remains in Assam due to climatic and soil conditions, which are not favorable for preservation.

Microlithic Cultures

🔸 Tools and Settlement Patterns:

• • • Found between neolithic layers and virgin soil in Rongram Valley.

    • Microliths made from dolerite, unlike other Indian regions.

    • Evidence of crude handmade pottery, indicating hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

    • Populations were likely semi-nomadic, living in temporary shelters.

Neolithic Cultures

🔸 Important Sites:

1. 1. 1. Daojali Hading (Dima Hasao)

      2. Sarutaru (Kamrup District)

      3. Selbagiri (Garo Hills)

🔸 Tools, Artifacts, and Cultivation Practices:

• • • Tools include ground and polished stone tools like celts, hatchets, and grooved hammer stones.

    • Practiced shifting cultivation (jhum)—still in use by some tribal communities.

    • Associated with Hoabinhian culture, showing connections to Southeast Asian cultures.

    • Neolithic habitation mostly on hills and highlands, likely due to seasonal flooding in the plains.

🔸 Important Explorers and Findings:

• • • W. Penny (Biswanath): Discovered large collections of Neolithic tools.

    • J.H. Hutton, J.P. Mills, K.L. Barua, and others: Collected and classified stone tools.

    • Tools stored in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford—largest number from Biswanath.

    • J.H. Hutton classified tools into:

      1. Triangular

      2. Rectangular

      3. Shouldered type

    • A.H. Dani divided Neolithic Assam into six archaeological zones:

      1. Cachar Hills

      2. Sadiya Frontier

      3. Naga Hills

      4. Khasi Hills

      5. Garo Hills

      6. Brahmaputra Valley

Megalithic Cultures

🔸 Khasi and Naga Practices:

• • • Rich Megalithic traditions among Khasi and Naga tribes, some of which continue till today.

    • Use of stone monuments for burial, ancestor worship, and ceremonial purposes.

🔸 Cultural and Religious Implications:

• • • These practices were precursors to fertility cults, Shaktism, and Vajrayana Buddhism.

    • Shows a cultural affinity with Southeast Asia rather than mainland India.

    • Despite the absence of a formal Metal Age, the Megalithic phase fills that cultural gap in Assam.