Koldihwa is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, India. It is situated in the valleys of

Belan River Belan river (बेलन नदी) is a river in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.it Originates from Western part of Sonbhadra district Uttar Pradesh.It is famous for prehistoric sites on its banks. Origination It originates from western part of S ...

near village Devghat. Along with Mahagara, it is one of the few Neolithic sites in Uttar Pradesh. Both are in district Prayagraj. Also, Koldihwa and Mahagara, both are on the opposite banks of

. Both sites are earliest examples of rice cultivation

Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...

. It is also the site of the finding of horse bones.

Features

In Koldihwa, archaeologists found evidence of rice and some fragmentary bones. The site was excavated from 1972 to 1976. Remains of pottery and rice have been found to be from c. 7000 BCE according to carbon dating. In Mahagara, apart from rice, evidence of cattle domestication such as hoof marks and bones of goat, sheep, horse, deer and wild boar were found on clay surfaces symbolic of cattle pen. This is in contrast with other neolithic sites of Indian subcontinent such as

Mehrgarh Mehrgarh (; ur, ) is a Neolithic archaeological site (dated ) situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in Pakistan. It is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River and between the modern-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Ka ...

Chirand Chirand is an archaeological site in the Saran district of Bihar, India, situated on the northern bank of the Ganga River. It has a large pre-historic mound which is known for its continuous archaeological record from the Neolithic age (about 25 ...

and

Burzahom The Burzahom archaeological site is located in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Archaeological excavations have revealed four phases of cultural significance between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE. Periods I and II represent the Neolithic ...

, where evidences of wheat were found instead of rice, and other sites of southern India, like

Hallur Hallur is an archaeological site located in the Haveri district (which was carved out of Dharwad district), in the Indian state of Karnataka.Kenneth A. R. Kennedy (2000), p272 Hallur, South India's earliest Iron Age site,Robert Bradnock (2000) ...

and Paiyampalli, where evidences of

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

was found as chief grains.

References

Neolithic sites of Asia {{UttarPradesh-geo-stub