Sankarjang

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Sankarjang (20°52’08“N; 84°59’19“E), Orissa/India, archaeological site near Angul with large splendid lithics. This cemetery and settlement site was test excavated excavated by the State Archaeology Orissa after a chance find made in 1971 by a shepherd. 20 long unfinished chipped and ground, lithic bars and axes of basalt came to light together with human skeletal remains and metallic artefacts. Old-fashioned archaeologists understood [ground stone lithics]] to be typical of the Neolithic Period, although they were in production during the metals age. The elegant lithics from Sankarjang resemble elaborate one from eastern Asia and the South Sea. Such lithics played a key role in the definition of R. von Heine-Geldern’s Austronesian Culture. Curiously, the incisor teeth of the 9 interred in the graves had a ‚shovel-form’ which show Mongolian affinities. The absolute chronology rests on few 14C dates. While many stones give a resonance when struck, this need not prove them to be a musical instrument. To judge from the use-wear traces and shape, the stone bars appear to have belonged to finished and unfinished lithophones.

Selected lithics from Sankarjang.
Selected lithics from Sankarjang.

[edit] References

  • P. Yule/B.K. Rath/K. Højgaard, Sankarjang ein metallzeitlicher Bestattungsplatz im Dhenkanal Vorgebirge des östlichen Indiens, Anthropos 84, 1989, 107–132, ISSN 0003-5572
  • P. Yule/M. Bemmann, Klangsteine aus Orissa-Die frühesten Musikinstrumente Indiens?, Archaeologia Musicalis 2.1, 1988, 41–50 (also in English und French)
  • P. Yule/A. Hauptmann/M. Hughes, The Copper Hoards of the Indian Subcontinent: Preliminaries for an Interpretation, Jahrbuch des Römisch Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 36, 1989 [1992], 193–275, ISSN 0076-2741