HYDERABAD: The remnants of a seasonal habitation of prehistoric man were found on a huge hillock locally known as Peddagutta near Lanco Hills located between Khajaguda and Puppalaguda in Hyderabad.
The remnants were discovered by Dr E Sivanagi Reddy, archaeologist and CEO, of Pleach India Foundation, who was carrying out routine explorations at the site where prehistoric rock art and rock shelters of various forms have been found in the past.
Sivanagi Reddy and his team spotted four grooves at different locations on the site, which were formed out of grinding and polishing the stone axes during the Neolithic period datable to 2000 BC. The grooves are located within a radius of 10 metres and close to the natural rock shelters used by the Neolithic humans, which were used as seasonal campsites. The grooves measure 30 to 25 cm in length, 6 to 4 cm in width and 2 to 3 cm in depth, and may have been used by a small group to sharpen their stone tools at the time. There are more than 15 rock shelters and caverns seen in an extent of 10-acre area, some in the shape of a serpent hood and some ridge-shaped.
“These rock shelters provided a safe haven to the Neolithic people during the hot sun and rain,” Sivanagi Reddy said. Based on the evidence noticed earlier at the rock art site in Kokapet and the Neolithic site in BNR Hills, the archaeologist said that the current find assumes greater significance, leading to a conclusion that the location on other side of the Gachibowli-Narsingi ORR used to be a habitation during the Neolithic and Megalithic (Iron age) period, which pushes the history of Hyderabad area to the prehistoric time.