SCHOLARS ENGAGED in the study of First Farming Culture will scan the archaeological remains of Lahuradewa mound on Friday. State Archaeology Department (SAD) had carried out the excavation in Sant Kabir Nagar district.
Excavation carried out by SAD at Lahuradewa indicates that plantation of rice in this region began in the seventh millennium BC. SAD officials said studies on lake-cores at Lahuradewa and nearby Sanai Tal indicate that it might have had even earlier genesis for agriculture developments.
Talking to media persons on Monday, director, SAD, Dr Rakesh Tewari, said SAD planned to present the findings before scholars at an international seminar being organised by the department from January 18 to 20.
The seminar would also provide an opportunity for delegates to interact among themselves and exchange notes on the latest findings with a view to formulate future collaborative projects, with scientific inputs, Dr Tewari said.
Scholars who are expected to participate in the seminar include Peter Bellwood, Dorian Query Fuller, Ruth Pelling, Rathnashri Premathilake, Sue Colledge, Jean-Francois Jarrige, Catherine Jarrige, Lorenzo Costantini, Mukund Kajale, BR Mani, Ozra Ronaghy, Golamreza Karamian, Yo-IchiroSato, Tang Linghuaa etc. Prof PC Pant a former professor in Department of Archaeology will make keynote address.
Dr Tewari said first the farmer had an economy, which paved the way for sedentary life and fully settled villages and finally for the development of urban civilization. They departed from the earlier hunter-gatherer way of life and subsisted on the food partly produced intently by them. “Earlier it was believed that agriculture began in West Asia around the beginning of Holocene period in the Fertile Crescent region with plantation of barley and wheat. During the past few decades another Fertile Crescent emerged in East Asia in China where the cultivation of rice began much earlier than the emergence of agriculture in West Asia”, he said.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Tewari said first the farmer had an economy, which paved the way for sedentary life and fully settled villages and finally for the development of urban civilization. They departed from the earlier hunter-gatherer way of life and subsisted on the food partly produced intently by them. “Earlier it was believed that agriculture began in West Asia around the beginning of Holocene period in the Fertile Crescent region with plantation of barley and wheat. During the past few decades another Fertile Crescent emerged in East Asia in China where the cultivation of rice began much earlier than the emergence of agriculture in West Asia”, he said.
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