Those early man tools found in Sikkim!

-->Display of Neolithic tools recovered from Sajyong, 2003 (Weekend Review)

BY SHITAL PRADHAN

Not only is the Himalayan land of Sikkim old but it is also considered ancient. The archeological findings of different Neolithic tools in this part of the Himalayas over the last three decades speak of its antiquity.

It may be of little importance to many. However, findings of various Neolithic tools from the remote pockets in Sikkim over the past five decades have still collected vivid interest in people beyond this region. On three separate occasions, Neolithic tools had been dug out from Sikkim, and that unfolded the age of this Himalayan mountain land much against the period we were supposed to. “The term Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, defines the second period, at the beginning of which ground and usually polished rock tools, notably axes, came into widespread use after the adoption of a new technique of stone working. The beginning of the Neolithic, the retreat of the last glaciers, and the invention of food crops involving agriculture and animal domestication were more or less contemporary events. The period terminated with the discovery of metals.

The Neolithic stage of development was attained during the Holocene Epoch (the last 10,000 years of Earth's history). During this time, humans learned to raise crops and keep domestic livestock and were thus no longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Neolithic cultures made more useful stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired shape. The cultivation of cereal grains enabled Neolithic peoples to build permanent dwellings and congregate in villages. The release from nomadism and a hunting-gathering economy gave them the time to pursue specialized crafts.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the transition from food-collecting cultures to food-producing ones gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a starting point in the Fertile Crescent. Cultivation and animal domestication first appeared in southwestern Asia by about 9000 BC”.

The evidence of the first Neolithic artifacts collected in Sikkim was unearthed by Janak Lal Sharma, a celebrated archeologist from Nepal. In his paperwork titled “Neolithic Tools from Nepal and Sikkim,” published in Ancient Nepal, J.L. Sharma and Dr. N.R. Banerjee examined the ten tools found in Nepal and Sikkim. In his own words, Sharma described the lone found early man’s tool from Sikkim as: “It is a thin chisel made of slate in the shape of a trapezium, the cutting edge being slightly chamfered on one side. It is 5 cm long, 4.5 cm wide at its lower end, and 2.5 cm at the top, and the maximum thickness of the piece is .75cm.

It was found in the midst of a cultivated field at Odhare, Ramtek Basti, not very far from Gangtok on the southern slopes of the Himalayan ranges in Sikkim. This corresponds to the midland zone of Nepal’s topography.

Interestingly, the word Odhare, where the specimen was found, means a cave. It would, therefore, point to the probable existence of such caves, where folks using such polished implements may have once lived in the remote past. Its occurrences in the cultivated field may be attributed in this context to a discard. The sides are flattened as in the cases of the other chisels from Nepal.”

I, along with my fellow friends Padam Parajuli and Kamal Sharma, visited this remote village Odhare some time back; the widespread rocky location looked like a probable site for early men’s settlement. Considering the fact that Odhare lies adjacent to Sajyong (another excavated site of early man tools) and also the mere fact that these two places are found along the old routes connecting Nepal and Sikkim with that of Tibet before Younghusband’s 1904 route from Jelapla, there are ample chances that more priceless findings could be explored. Although nothing extraordinary narrative about any so-called caves was heard at Odhare, old folks did mention listening to ghost (!) stories of the large Rocky Mountains that were used to scare them off by their parents during their early days.

Once while surfing the web page on the internet, I came across the name of K.N Dixit, a member of the Indian Archeological Society; through him, another chapter of the prehistoric exploration in Sikkim was about to be unfolded. Dixit was kind enough to send me an attachment of two scanned pages on Sikkim Prehistoric exploration in 1980 published in Indian Archeological Society “Puratattva”. The article reports on the pre-historic potentialities of Sikkim exploration undertaken by the Prehistory Branch of Archeological Survey of India, Nagpur, in October- November 1980.

Certain places of North Sikkim and East Sikkim were preferred because of their different geographical and climatic forms. The headquarters of the entire exploration was set at Singhik near Mangan. Exploration was conducted along River Teesta and its tributaries, the entire Django (it should be Dzongu) area up to Dikchu on the west, while places up to Lachen and Lachung in the extreme north were covered. Well-polished Neolithic stone tools were recovered from different locations in North Sikkim. The tools included harvesters (2), knives (1), axes (7), adzes (13), and single and double perforated celts (3). These tools were mostly schist, shale, and a few pieces of basalt. The findings highlighted in north Sikkim were a beautiful single-eyed harvester and an Honan Knife. On the way to Lachen, a polisher with three conclave working sides and perforation on the top was recovered from the village north of Chungthang.

Except for a single polisher, no major tools were recovered from the area north of Mangan. The places in North Sikkim where the tools were recovered included Lingthen, Lingdon, Barpak, Sankalan, Gytong, Sangdong, Gnon, Tarang, Gor-Tarand, and Linkyong. In a short exploration in the district of East Sikkim around Pakhyong, six polished celts comprising two axes, four adzes, and a single polisher were recovered.

The article also confirms that perforated harvesters and Honan Knife were typical of the South Chinese Neolithic assemblage. Harvesters with one or more perforations in rectangular or semi-lunar shapes have been reported from the provinces of Honan in China. Similar single-perforated celts have also been reported from Kiangsu Province. However, double-perforated celts were typical of Sikkim.

Enthrallingly, it had been found in the villages of North Sikkim that the local people considered the Neolithic tools a source for the betterment of material life. These tools were worshiped and used for medicinal purposes, particularly during childbirth. They called those tools “Vajra Dunga”!

More recently, in January 2003, the archeologist team from the Prehistory Branch of Archeological Survey of India, Nagpur, again found some interesting Neolithic materials around the Rumtek-Martam area. The team led by P.K. Mishra, Superintendent Archeologist, ASI, Nagpur, surveyed the Martam, Adampool, Rumtek, Samdur, and Sajyong areas in the East district. Agriculture tools, along with other stuff, were recovered from these areas. The most excellent part of the exploration was the discovery of a fossilized antelope horn in the Sajyong area near Rumtek, which was reported to be about 1,50,000 years old.

Of course, in order to ascertain the route through which Neolithic Culture entered Sikkim, further work has to be conducted. Several research works are to be done on different subjects in Sikkim that might well place the age of Sikkim at the early primitive stage. A study on Sikkim Primitive, a fossilized maize variety found in Sikkim in the 1950s, has made Sikkim the secondary origin of maize after Mexico. Accounts of Yeti incidents in remote North Sikkim could be an interesting and path-breaking discovery. Much-talked human footprints scattered in places of Sikkim could provide ample chances of early man’s footprint rather than surrounded by myths. The presence of one of the oldest molar teeth of the human ancestors on earth, dating some eleven million years old, found in Nepal, results of the Neolithic tools found around Kalimpong and Peking Man found in China might create a ripple of the presence of more traces of the early men in Sikkim!