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Archaeobotanical Studies at Suabarei, Puri District, Odisha, India


Affiliations
1 Department of AIHC and Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Deemed to be University, Pune 411 006, India
2 Excavation Branch-IV, Archaeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar 751 002, India
3 UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, University College London, WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom
 

This article presents the results of archaeobotanical analysis of charred plant remains from Suabarei, a Neolithic–Chalcolithic mounded settlement site situated in Puri district, Odisha, India. A single rice grain has provided a new radiocarbon date of 3370– 3210 cal BP. Crops identified include rice (Oryza sativa cf. subsp. indica), horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum), green gram/mung bean (Vigna radiata) and possibly some millets, including browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa). Suabarei is part of the agricultural mounded settlement group that existed during the Chalcolithic period of the eastern fertile plains of India and the data recovered from this site provide only the third complete archaeobotanical dataset for this cultural group.

Keywords

Archaeobotanical Analysis, Charred Plant Remains, Mounded Settlement, Rice Millet.
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  • Archaeobotanical Studies at Suabarei, Puri District, Odisha, India

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Authors

Satish S. Naik
Department of AIHC and Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Deemed to be University, Pune 411 006, India
Jeeban Kumar Patnaik
Excavation Branch-IV, Archaeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar 751 002, India
Eleanor Kingwell-Banham
UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, University College London, WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom
Charlene Murphy
UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, University College London, WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom
Dorian Q. Fuller
UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, University College London, WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom

Abstract


This article presents the results of archaeobotanical analysis of charred plant remains from Suabarei, a Neolithic–Chalcolithic mounded settlement site situated in Puri district, Odisha, India. A single rice grain has provided a new radiocarbon date of 3370– 3210 cal BP. Crops identified include rice (Oryza sativa cf. subsp. indica), horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum), green gram/mung bean (Vigna radiata) and possibly some millets, including browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa). Suabarei is part of the agricultural mounded settlement group that existed during the Chalcolithic period of the eastern fertile plains of India and the data recovered from this site provide only the third complete archaeobotanical dataset for this cultural group.

Keywords


Archaeobotanical Analysis, Charred Plant Remains, Mounded Settlement, Rice Millet.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv116%2Fi8%2F1373-1380