Previous Year Question

Bagor is an important Mesolithic archaeological site situated on the left bank of the Kothari River in the present-day Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. It lies in the Mewar region to the east of the Aravalli hills.

The faunal remains recovered from Bagor provide important evidence of animal husbandry and the domestication of animals during the Mesolithic period. Initial studies regarded the animal bones recovered from the site as belonging largely to wild species, but later extensive excavation and faunal analysis changed this conclusion.

Later studies identified abundant bones of domesticated sheep/goat and cattle at Bagor. Remains of wild animals were also present. This indicates that the economy of the inhabitants was not dependent only on hunting and gathering; stock rearing had also become an important component.

The evidence from Bagor is particularly important because the faunal remains were recovered through systematic excavation and the radiocarbon dates of the site are regarded as reliable. On this basis, archaeologists consider the presence of domesticated animals during the advanced Mesolithic phase at Bagor to be strong evidence.

This discovery is important for understanding how some Mesolithic communities in the Indian subcontinent were gradually moving from a hunting-gathering way of life towards an economy involving animal husbandry. The keeping of certain domesticated animal species had begun even before fully developed agricultural and Neolithic life became established.