Ajay..
Of the ancient dead
Megalithic burial site at Siruthavur, Near Chennai
Was really excited as a history lover when I first came to know about these at a birding site I frequent. The lack of importance to something as ancient and significant is striking, with not even a board here, mentioning the place's significance.
This particular site has been dated to be between ~330 BCE - 619 CE. Separate graveyards like this, away from the houses, came about with the onset of the Iron age in South India.
These were primarily agrarian societies that settled near perennial water sources (The lake in the previous picture, in this case). Fertile arable lands were not wasted from encroachments by their graves and it was the unproductive foot-hills, rocky/gravelly lands that were used (as can be seen).
Different burial types were practised in different regions - including urn burials, pits with sarcophagus, dolmenoid cists (partly above the ground and party below) with unhewn stone/ dressed stone assemblage and with/without a stone circle etc. The one in the picture has a dolmenoid cist without a stone assemblage and is bound by a stone circle.
The grave goods collected from these burials include pottery, gold rings, beads, iron implements and food, as indicated by the presence of paddy husk and chaff, and some other cereals.
Of the ancient dead
Megalithic burial site at Siruthavur, Near Chennai
Was really excited as a history lover when I first came to know about these at a birding site I frequent. The lack of importance to something as ancient and significant is striking, with not even a board here, mentioning the place's significance.
This particular site has been dated to be between ~330 BCE - 619 CE. Separate graveyards like this, away from the houses, came about with the onset of the Iron age in South India.
These were primarily agrarian societies that settled near perennial water sources (The lake in the previous picture, in this case). Fertile arable lands were not wasted from encroachments by their graves and it was the unproductive foot-hills, rocky/gravelly lands that were used (as can be seen).
Different burial types were practised in different regions - including urn burials, pits with sarcophagus, dolmenoid cists (partly above the ground and party below) with unhewn stone/ dressed stone assemblage and with/without a stone circle etc. The one in the picture has a dolmenoid cist without a stone assemblage and is bound by a stone circle.
The grave goods collected from these burials include pottery, gold rings, beads, iron implements and food, as indicated by the presence of paddy husk and chaff, and some other cereals.