SIGNIFICANCE OF STONE BOWLS AND SADDLE QUERNS: A Case Study of Archaeological Sites in North-west Kashmir

There is an intriguing material culture in stoneware i.e. stone bowls and saddle querns that were reported by the author from the early historic sites in a systematic transect survey of north-west Kashmir. This stoneware has previously been reported from only three places in Kashmir and roughly bracketed within a chronological date range of c. 1000 BCE to c. 3rd Century ACE. This stoneware was first reported from Megalithic phase at Gufkral. Till date there is very little work carried on this stoneware, however, similar material culture has been reported from few south Asian sites as well. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse this intriguing material culture and put this in context with similar material from South Asia to understand its chronological significance.