Geoarchaeology of siruthavoor megalithic site kancheepuram district tamil nadu south india

Abstract

Megalithic burials are marked by big stones hence the name newlineMegalithic Mega meaning big and lithic meaning stone In Tamil Nadu the newlineperiod into which these burials have been placed extends from C 8th BCE 9th newlinecentury BCE to C 3rd century CE This period into which the megalithic newlineburials fall is an important phase which heralds many important social newlinecultural and economic changes such as the advent of Iron and agriculture newlineBurials as such are a very important means of understanding human beings newlinetheir cultural social and economic life style and pattern More importantly it newlineis one of the only ways to understand the megalithic people as very few of newlinetheir habitation sites have as yet been discovered The following study aims at understanding the megalithic burials by considering the impact of the burials to the landscape in which these burials were built Specifically our temptation is to treat these works according to the model of our own symbolic activity and of what we think we newlineknow about the symbolic activity of our immediate predecessors Dixon newline1982 Keeping in mind both these factors the study hopes that by newlineunderstanding the spatial pattern of the burials natural factors like erosion as newlinewell as present day human activities that affect these burials a better newlineunderstanding of the cognition of the people behind these burials can be newlineunderstood newline