Excavation At Gufkral- Jammu and Kashmir

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About the Book Excavation at Gufkral is a detailed excavation report including scientific findings of excavation conducted by the author for two seasons. A summary was earlier published by the author in his book "Early Man in Jammu, Kashmir and Laddakh".

About the Author The author Sh. A.K. Sharma is in the job of field archaeology since 1959. During his 52 years of active service he has independently excavated, so far eleven major sites throughout the country and conserved them simultaneously. Report of all his excavation has been published. Apart from these he was a member of the excavation team in many other major excavations.

He deposed on Ramjanam Bhoomi-Babri Masjid case, Ayodhya before the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court as an expert as witness-in-chief.

He is presently engaged in two major excavations in Chhattisgarh and is Archaeological Advisor (Hon.) to the Government of Chhattisgarh.

He is a member of the Standing Committee of Central Advisory Board of Archaeology.

Preface Report on Excavations at Gufkral was completed by 1985. I am sorry it took nearly thirty years of academic struggle for me to bring out this report. It was submitted twice to the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India but as usual, this report also met the fate like my other excavation reports submitted to the Directorate in 1991, before my retirement from the Survey. I do not know the reason for this treatment with my reports. After waiting for a long time, in this year of 150 years of my parent Department I am publishing this report. All the photographs are in B/W I sincerely apologize to the scholars for this inordinate delay though I have published a summary in my book "Early Man in Jammu Kashmir and Laddakh. I am grateful to the then Director General, Late Mrs. Dr. Debala Mitra for granting me permission to excavate at Gulkral. To encourage me she personally visited Gufkral when the excavation was on.

1 is also grateful to the M/s B.R. Publishing Corporation, New Delhi for publishing this book in record time.

Introduction Max is an arrest animal which bas left its arterial file to the glass per pity there Hays there was excessive destruction of forests on which anthropoids lived. This forced the anthropoids to five as grand apes and changes their mode of feeding Gradually driven to terrestrial life anthropoids became men and tool making creatures. So for theirs are no definite evidences attest the ongin bime of various human groups of different regions and the evidences of primitive migrations are few The destinies of people in a particular geographical ares are influenced by the oscillations of the terrestrial crust. rise of the mountains, fall in the water pool levels, which modify the topography and climate of the pr These modifications did not come suddenly, they were grandest. During all these periods’ men and animals adopted and adjusted themselves gradually to the new conditions of life As Dr 11. D. Sakalis said in 1962 in his book Indian Archaeology "Man was after all not only 2300 years old in India, boasted of a civilization some 5000 years ags, then naturally it should have a beginning".

The uncertainty which hangs about the glacial and interglacial periods in Kashmir region need not discourage us from estimating the existence of Man in the region, which has so far been estimated to go back to 5,000,00 years from now, which may well be the earliest in Asia. The progress of man from hunter-gatherer to new heights of civilization is all represented in the evidence from Jamma, Kashmir and Ladakh. Excavations at Burzahom and Gufkral have actually traced Man's progress from hunter-gatherer to pastoralism to settled agriculturist's life and through radiocarbon dates the beginning of agriculture and domestication of animals have been found to begin sometime in the beginning of the third millennium BC. This discovery was a difficult task as in Kashmir there are no parallel evidences existing now amongst the tribal societies unlike in the rest of the country where prehistory merges with ethnography, since the people in such regions still live in the state of primitive culture. In Jammu and Kashmir, the flow of people from other areas has been so numerous that nothing of prehistoric past in the present day population has survived. The earlier inhabitants were completely overpowered by the new corners, especially in Protohistoric, Early Historic and Historic times. From the prehistory point of view much of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh still remain to be explored, excavated and scientifically reported. This kind of research for the region is not yet organized. Our political, leader’s cry, often from house tops the necessity of bringing the region nearer to the mainstream of the country, which was already there right from the Stone Age, but hardly anything is being done to help the experts and researchers who are eager to work in the region. To quote Sankalia again from his book The Prehistory and Protahistory of India and Pakistan "The cultural unity of India is evident right from the Stone Age as almost everywhere the same sequence of Stone Age Industries could be had. This would certainly point to a kind of sameness in material culture".

**Contents and Sample Pages**