Lahuradewa
Lahuradeva · Lohradewa
Ceramic Neolithic IA (9000–7000) → Mesolithic-Neolithic IB–II (7000–3000) → Chalcolithic III (3000–1500 BCE)·Gangetic Ceramic Neolithic (Lahuradewa culture) → Sarayupar Chalcolithic·🇮🇳 Uttar Pradesh, Sant Kabir Nagar District, Sarayupar (Trans-Sarayu) plain, Kuana–Ami doab (Ghaghara interfluve), India
About
About Lahuradewa
Earliest rice-cultivation site in South Asia (c.9000–2000 BCE) in the Sarayupar plain at Sant Kabir Nagar — 2.5 ha lakeside mound with 3.5 m deposit excavated 2001–06 by Rakesh Tewari (UP State Archaeology). Period IA (9000–7000 BCE) yielded handmade cord-impressed pottery, microliths, and domesticated rice phytoliths AMS-dated to 6400 BCE (c.8400 BP), the earliest South Asian ceramic and rice horizon. Lake phytolith and diatom cores adjacent to the mound (Saraswat & Pokharia) show paddy field evolution from wild to fully domesticated rice over 5000 years, making Lahuradewa the type-site for Gangetic Neolithic independent of Yangtze and Indus.
Why it mattersEarliest rice and pottery in South Asia — reframes agricultural origins as multi-centric (Lahuradewa + Yangtze + Fertile Crescent); South Asia's only 9000 BCE ceramic Neolithic.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Is 6400 BCE rice Oryza rufipogon domesticated or tamed wild?
- 02Relation to Bhirrana Hakra vs independent Gangetic Neolithic?
Theories
- 01In-situ Gangetic rice domestication from wild stands around oxbow lake; monsoon-fed piedmont diffusion south to Vindhyas
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.9000 BCE (Period IA ceramic Neolithic); rice 6400 BCE domesticated
- Period
- Ceramic Neolithic IA (9000–7000) → Mesolithic-Neolithic IB–II (7000–3000) → Chalcolithic III (3000–1500 BCE)
- Culture
- Gangetic Ceramic Neolithic (Lahuradewa culture) → Sarayupar Chalcolithic
- Builders
- Gangetic forager-farmers (early rice cultivators)
- Purpose
- Lakeside forager-cultivator hamlet pioneering rice domestication
- Abandoned
- c.1500 BCE (Iron Age shift)
- Rediscovered
- 2001–06 Tewari excavation (UP Directorate)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.9000–7000 BCE
Period IA: handmade cord ware + earliest rice phytoliths 6400 BCE
c.7000–3000 BCE
IB–II: microliths, ground stone, rice intensification via lake cores
2001–06
UP State Archaeology excavation; Saraswat archaeo-botanical lake cores published
On the ground
Structures & features
26.7700° N · 82.9500° E · 85 m · 2 mapped features
Lahuradewa mound
settlementNeolithic mound with 9000 BCE cord ware and rice levels
26.7705° N · 82.9505° ELahuradewa Lake core site
paleo lakeLake sediment cores with 7000-year phytolith rice sequence
26.7695° N · 82.9495° E