The Mysterious Burzahom Megalithic Site

 

 

I visited the picturesque Burzahom archaeological site near Srinagar with my friends Will and Kiara, when I had gone to Kashmir for the filming of the "End of the World" documentary. 

Burzahom has been dated by archaeologists to around 3000 BCE. The name Burzahom means, "the place of birch” due to the profusion of birch trees which grow here. It is believed that the megaliths may have been erected as memorial stones or for commemorative purposes. This was the primary reason for the erection of megaliths across the world.

A few underground pit-dwellings have been excavated here. The pits were plastered from inside with mud and were either oval or round shaped, with a central hearth on the floor. They used to be covered by a thatched birch roof. Archaeologists surmise that the people of Burzahom may have lived in the underground pit-dwellings initially, before moving to mud-brick houses at ground level.

But I am not so sure of that hypothesis. Similar pit-houses called "kiva" - with a central hearth on the floor - were made by the Hopi people of North America. But the kivas were used for ritual and ceremonial purposes, and the Hopi people did not live in them. It is possible that the pit-houses in Burzahom also served a ritual function. 

Now that we have some background about this place, let's look at some pictures of these giant stones, set in the midst of a green verdant valley, surrounded by the towering Himalayan peaks on all sides. You don't come across sights like these very often.

As you can see, a number of stones have fallen down. These used to be a time when they were all erect, and possibly arranged in a pattern.

This is the largest standing megalith at the site

A view of the same stone from another side

The same stone seen from the opposite side. You can clearly see the "T20 Cup" graffiti marked on it. That's because there's an annual T20 cricket tournament that is held here. The megalith was used by the locals as an advertising hoarding. Thankfully, the Archaeological Survey of India realized at some point that the Burzahom megaliths need to be protected, and they put a fence around the stones. But, apparently, our technology has not progressed sufficiently to erase the graffiti.

The underground pit-dwellings at the site. These kinds of dwellings were probably used for conducting rituals and ceremonies, and not for living.  

Excavations were carried out at Burzahom by the ASI between 1961 and 1970. 10 human skeletons were excavated from the burials, which revealed that the inhabitants were a long-headed, tall, homogeneous population, related to the mature Harappans. 

Interestingly, the skull of a 25-30 years female showed multiple trepanation holes - six in total. The holes were drilled into the skull, possibly to relieve the pain from a head injury or a brain anomaly. It is known that trepanation surgeries were performed by many ancient cultures with astonishing success rates of around 95%. The trepanned skull at Burzahom is one of the eaeliest instances of trepanation surgery in India.

If you plan to visit Burzahom you can easily locate it on Google Maps. It is a few kilometers outside Srinagar, and won't take more than 40 mins to get there from the city center. But don't rely on the local people, or even the taxi drivers, to help you find the way, for they know nothing about this site. Hardly anyone ever visits these stones. We were the only ones there that day. 

Kashmir has so much natural beauty that Burzahom does not figure in anyone's itinerary. But if you love history and archaeology, don't miss Burzahom when you visit Kashmir.