MEGALITHS - SOCIAL DIFFERENCES
Megaliths: Stone boulders, literally big stones
- Megaliths were carefully arranged by the people to mark burial sites.
- The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago.
- It was prevalent
- throughout the Deccan
- South India
- in the north-east
- Kashmir
- CIST: have port-holes used as an entrance
CIST
- Some megaliths can be seen on the surface other megalithic burials are underground
- Indications that there were burials beneath
- Sometimes a circle of stone boulders
- A single large stone
- Indications that there were burials beneath
COMMON FEATURES OF THE BURIALS:
- The dead buried with distinctive pots
- Red ware
- Black ware
- Tools and weapons of iron
- Skeletons of horses
- Horse equipment
- Ornaments of stone and gold
Iron equipment found from megalithic burials
SOCIAL DIFFERENCES:
- Archaeologists think that the personal belongings were kept along the skeletons in the burials
- Sometimes more objects were in one grave than the others which shows the social differences amongst the people of that time.
- In Brahmagiri, one skeleton was buried with
- 33 gold beads
- 2 stone beads
- 4 copper bangles
- 1 conch shell
- Other skeleton have only few pots
- In Brahmagiri, one skeleton was buried with
- Some were rich,others poors, some chiefs and others followers.
- Some burial spots meant for certain families- more than one skeleton
- People of the same family buried in the same place but in different periods
- Those who died later, their bodies brought into the graves through the portholes
- Stone circles or boulders served as Signposts to mark the burial sites.
- So that people could return to the same place whenever they wanted to.