HiddenMysteries: Archaeologists hit upon 'gold mine' of relics at Hadonahalli

Shimoga;The State Department of Archaeology and Museums has sought the permission of the State Government to take up extensive excavation at a proto-historic site at Hadonahalli in Shimoga taluk on the banks of the Tungabhadra.

The department had made a formal proposal to the district administration, asking it to send a proposal to the Revenue Department.

The excavation is to be taken up on a 12-acre plot on a mound. Owners of the land, which was lying vacant, had decided to utilise it for areca cultivation. They said that they were not willing to give up their rights over it.

A team of the Postgraduate Department of History and Archaeology of the Kuvempu University comprising Rajaram Hegde and G Sarvamangala along with students had been carrying out the initial study under the guidance of senior archaeologist A Sundara.
They dug a small pit on the eastern slope of the mound with a view to ascertain the sequence and identity of the culture or cultures at the site as well as the thickness of the deposits at the site on March 15, 2002 at Hadonahalli.

Pottery and bones were collected from the fringe areas on the eastern side of the mound and a few metres away pieces of early historical pottery, including russet coated white paint, were collected. By the riverside, an axe and a cleaver of Acheulean types, made on the hematite quartzite, showing particularly the first and the last signs of rolling were collected by the team.

According to the preliminary study, the area had was a human habitation even from the Early Palaeolithic stage and was a regular dwelling site during the early or late Neolithic and Iron Age.

The spread of pebbles on the surface of the site shows signs of the site being deserted after heavy floods.

Two distinct potteries were found at the site — Neolithic grey ware in different shades and the Megalithic black-and-red and all black ware in varying proportion — throughout in all layers, a feature noticed for the first time here.

The Neolithic pottery consists of three fabrics; the brown-and-black coarse grey ware of generally medium to thick section, the dull greyish black to grey and rather burnished red ware. The latter two are of thick coarse section.

The Megalithic pottery comprises three fabrics such as black-and-red ware, the all-black ware and the red ware. The last variety is rare. The most common type is a vase with out-curved rim thickened and double grooved. There is a flat rather disc-based cup with flaring profile.

The most striking aspects of the habitation were its large extent and the occurrence of exclusively the overlap phases of the two proto-historic cultures: the Neolithic in the advance stage and the early Iron Age Megalithic.

But at Hadonahalli, the settlement begins and ends with the overlap phase only. Considering the extent of the settlement on one hand and the area of probing, the finding cannot be held as holding good for the settlement. "Hence there is need to investigate the site keeping in view the cultural behaviour in question," said the team.
The preliminary investigations conducted by archaeologist Poonachha into a similar but partly disturbed site at Benakanahalli (Honnali taluk, now in Davangere district), reflected the occurrence of the white painted black-and-red ware in the pre-iron age context, of course it needs to be substantiated. Hadonahalli in all probability would give a clear and better picture in this regard, said Sundara.

Finally, as the extensive settlement was of single cultural phase, the site was the most promising for procuring details of all aspects of this semi-urbanised proto historic settlement. The overlap culture in this site may be dated to circa 1500 - 700 BCE.
Proto-historic habitation sites (BCE 2200 - 800 BCE) of single culture, especially the overlap phase and of extensive magnitude were indeed rare in South India. The Neolithic site at Tekkalakota was another rare site, large and of single culture.

@Copyright Udayavani 2007

Archaeologists hit upon 'gold mine' of relics at Hadonahalli

Saturday, June 02 2007 @ 02:04 AM CDT