Megalithic burial cluster excavated near Kollegal

Project is funded by University of Mysore

 A megalithic burial cluster close to site of human habitation belonging to the Iron Age have been discovered near Kollegal in Chamarajanagar district.

Megaliths in India are generally dated from 1,500 BC or earlier to 5 th century BC and are some of the earliest records of prehistoric society.

Discovered at Budipadaga in Hanur taluk abutting the BRT Tiger Reserve and M.M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuary this is one of the rare findings or examples of both human habitation and burial clusters in close proximity.

There are three burial sites of different sizes at the cluster which is at a distance of nearly 300 metres from the habitation site which is now part of an agricultural field.  

The excavation project is fully funded by the University of Mysore and a team headed by V. Shobha, Assistant Professor, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, is working on the project.

‘As many as 40 burial sites were reported by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the 1960s. The University approved a project to document and locate the exact sites that were mentioned by the ASI as no material is available pertaining to the earlier findings but for the names of the villages’’, said Ms. Shobha.

When the team set out to survey the area it could locate some of the sites reported by the ASI and in the process it stumbled upon evidence of human habitation in Budipadaga. The team recovered broken fragments of pottery apart from animal bones and was led to the site of the burial cluster by the local villagers.