HYDERABAD: A neolithic celt, a stone with a cutting edge, made out of solarise stone, was discovered at Somasila village of Kollapur mandal in Nagarkurnool district by a person named E Sivanagireddy, an archaeologist and CEO of Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati.
Reddy stumbled upon the artefact measuring 4x2x1 while on a survey of archaeological remains in and around Somasila, located on the left bank of the river Krishna. The celt has a very sharp edge, which Sivanagireddy opines was a result of grinding and polishing, and it is coated with lime and ash denoting that it was dumped in a pit after its usage. Basing on similar evidences found at nearby Chinnamarur village, where a neolithic habitation was excavated by the then State Department of Archaeology in early 1980s, Sivanagireddy dated the celt to the period between 4000 and 2000 BCE, during which domestication of animals, intensifying of agriculture and settling at one place began.
The celt was found in a field, belonging to a person named Telugu Pentaiah of the same village, from where neolithic tools like discoids, pestles and grinding stones were recovered two decades ago by Reddy. These items are currently in the local museum.
Meanwhile, Reddy appealed to the Department of Heritage Telangana to take up a scientific survey to know the archaeological potential of the site. Apart from this, Reddy said: “Close to Somasila, prehistoric rock paintings can be found at Amaragiri-Bollaram. There is a lot of scope for introducing Somasila as a site for pilgrimage tourism because of the Somasila group of temples.”