Research Paper
Landscape and Settlement Pattern of Southern Neolithic Sites in the Eastern Raichur Doab
Authors: Srija Merugu, Arjun R, Deepak Pal & Elanthendral S. R.
Year: 2025, Volume: 16, Page/Article: 227-249, DOI: https://doi.org/10.47509/AA.2025.v16i.13
Abstract
Raichur Doab is geographically a confluence region of Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, covering Raichur district of Karnataka and Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and Jogulamba Gadwal district in Telangana. Neolithic sites in Eastern Raichur Doab fall under the Southern Neolithic (3200-1200 BCE) group with its general characteristic being sedentary villages with rich ground and edge stone tool assemblages, ceramic assemblages, animal and plant remains and the most unique is the ashmound and rock art sites. This paper highlights the landscape and settlement pattern of Neolithic sites in the Eastern part of Raichur Doab, where the Neolithic villages seem associated with the granitic hills with dyke resources, perhaps also bearing substantial natural springs. As the region is geomorphologically conditioned to two broad non-perennial channels (Krishna and Tungabhadra, the landscape must have been prospective to groundwater aquifers, and dykes in the hills barrier to rise springs. This paper also reviews the nature and locational pattern of Neolithic sites in the Eastern part of Raichur Doab analysed with the use of geospatial tools like Google Earth, Base Camp and ArcGIS.