LouJ11418910501 at 11:23, 29 January 2026

2026-01-29T11:23:36Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2019}}
{{Location map|India Uttar Pradesh
|relief = yes
|caption = Location of Lahuradewa site
|alt = Lahuradewa
|label = Lahuradewa
|mark =
|marksize = 7
|lat_deg = 26 |lat_min = 46 |lat_sec = 12 |lat_dir = N
|lon_deg = 82 |lon_min = 56 |lon_sec = 59 |lon_dir = E
}}
'''Lahuradewa''' (Lat. 26°46'12" N; Long. 82°56'59" E) is located in [[Sant Kabir Nagar District]], in Sarayupar (Trans-Sarayu) region of the Upper Gangetic Plain in [[Uttar Pradesh]] state of [[India]]. The Sarayupar Plain is bounded by the [[Sarayu River (Ayodhya)|Sarayu river]] in the west and south, Nepalese [[Terai]] in the north, and the [[Gandak]] River in the east.

The site is noted to have been occupied as early as 9,000 BCE,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWbwAwAAQBAJ&dq=Lahuradewa&pg=PT1335|title=The Cambridge World Prehistory|publisher=Cambridge University Press|author1=Colin Renfrew|author2=Paul Bahn|date=9 June 2014|page=1335|isbn=9781107647756}}</ref> it provides the oldest evidence of [[ceramics]] in [[South Asia]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HMTBwAAQBAJ&dq=Lahuradewa+9000&pg=PA250|page=250|author1=Peter Bellwood|author2=Immanuel Ness|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|title=The Global Prehistory of Human Migration|date=10 November 2014|isbn=9781118970591}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xv-CwAAQBAJ&dq=Lahuradewa+7000&pg=PA350|title=A Companion to South Asia in the Past|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|page=350|author1=Gwen Robbins Schug|author2= Subhash R. Walimbe|date=13 April 2016|isbn=9781119055471}}</ref> This pottery belong to 'Mesolithic' ceramic tradition that developed among [[Vindhya Range|Vindhya]] hunter-gatherers during the [[Mesolithic]] period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=D. Petraglia |first1=Michael |title=The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia |date=26 March 2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781402055614 |pages=407 |edition=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qm9GfjNlnRwC&q=407 |access-date=26 March 2007}}</ref>

Excavations reported earliest archaeological sites in the world for cultivation of [[rice]], with Lahuradewa Period IA giving samples that were dated by AMS [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon]] to the 7th millennium BCE.<ref>Early Farming at Lahuradewa; [[Rakesh Tewari]], R.K. Srivastava, K.S. Saraswat, I.B. Singh, K.K. Singh [http://archaeology.up.nic.in/doc/efl_rtrk.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712195732/http://archaeology.up.nic.in/doc/efl_rtrk.pdf|date=12 July 2015}}</ref> However, it is still debated whether the early rice grains were [[history of rice cultivation|cultivated/domesticated]] or in fact simply [[hunter-gatherer|gathered]] from wild rice.<ref>{{cite web | title=Debating the Origins of Rice | website=Rice | date=2018-07-05 | url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/rice/history-rice/debating-origins-rice | ref={{sfnref|Rice|2018}} | access-date=2025-04-29}}</ref><ref name="Ray">{{cite journal | last=Ray | first=Avik | last2=Chakraborty | first2=Debarati | last3=Ghosh | first3=Surajit | title=A Critical Evaluation Revealed the Proto-indica Model Rests on a Weaker Foundation and Has a Minimal Bearing on Rice Domestication | journal=Ancient Asia | publisher=Ubiquity Press, Ltd. | volume=11 | year=2020 | issn=2042-5937 | doi=10.5334/aa.175 | doi-access=free | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345464074_A_Critical_Evaluation_Revealed_the_Proto-indica_Model_Rests_on_a_Weaker_Foundation_and_Has_a_Minimal_Bearing_on_Rice_Domestication| hdl=10568/111066 | hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In addition, the claims of such early dating of rice cultivation at Lahuradewa have been questioned by historian [[Irfan Habib]], who writes: "both the cultivated rice grain and its early date remain dubious, given the other evidence from the site". Habib has noted that four other carbon dates (out of five) from the earliest period of occupation at Lahuradewa were in the range of 4220 to 2879 BCE, and that the same archaeological levels also contained "[[steatite]] beads of the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Harappan]] type!", i.e., demonstrating that Lahuradewa since the beginning had trade contacts with the Indus Valley Civilisation (which arose during 4th millennium BCE).<ref>{{cite journal | last=Habib | first=Irfan | title=Book review: Tony Joseph, The Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where They Came From | journal=Studies in People's History | volume=7 | issue=1 | date=2020 | issn=2348-4489 | doi=10.1177/2348448920908515 | pages=91–93}}</ref>

Other archaeological sites of Northern India where rice grains were found are considered as showing evidence of domesticated rice cultivation by ca. 2000 BCE, whereas other rice grains dated during ca. 4800 to 3500 BCE are considered as wild or uncertain whether wild/domesticated.<ref name="Ray"/>

[[Dorian Fuller]] — an [[archaeobotany|archaeobotanist]] — has argued that the earliest rice from Lahuradewa was "more suggestive of wild rice collecting," and the [[fauna]] reported from early levels was entirely wild, not domesticated, suggesting that this site initially had only "intermittent" occupation by hunter-gatherers, and it probably was not until the 3rd millennium BCE when settlement became "more regular" with unambiguous evidence of farming.<ref name="Fuller">{{cite journal | last1 = Fuller | first1 = Dorian | year = 2006 | title = Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia: A Working Synthesis | url = http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/articles/JWP20.pdf | journal = Journal of World Prehistory | volume = 20 | page = 42 | doi = 10.1007/s10963-006-9006-8 | s2cid = 189952275 | access-date = 11 July 2016 | archive-date = 17 May 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110517050130/http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/articles/JWP20.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> Fuller also mentions that for some other sites (such as [[Koldihwa]]) in the Ganges Plain region, where earlier reported dates for early [[South Asian Stone Age#Neolithic|Neolithic]] were as old as the 6th millennium BCE, were more recently re-examined and re-dated, showing that they "have clear stratified occupation from the later Neolithic, starting after ca. 1900 BC", which is more consistent with the known material culture and "can be linked by ceramic styles and other dating evidence to a number of other sites in the region". Fuller notes that: "Caution is warranted in considering early/mid-[[Holocene]] radiocarbon dates reported from this region [i.e., Ganges Plains]" which "dates would appear to be residual within their archaeological contexts, or represent [[Old wood effect|very old wood]]", and has concluded: "The unambiguous evidence for sedentary, agricultural villages after mid-third millennium and mainly after 2000 BC, as well as ceramic links, suggests that the Neolithic mainly of the later third millennium/early second millennium with possible origins in the earlier fourth millennium".<ref name="Fuller"/>

==See also==
* [[Chopani Mando]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{coord missing|Uttar Pradesh}}

[[Category:Archaeology of India]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Sant Kabir Nagar district]]

{{SantKabirNagar-geo-stub}}

Lahuradewa - Revision history

LouJ11418910501 at 11:23, 29 January 2026