Archaeobotanical Studies at Suabarei, Puri District, Odisha, India

This article presents the results of archaeobotanical analysis of charred plant remains from Suabarei, a Neolithic-Chalcolithic mounded settlement site situated in Puri district, Odisha, India. A single rice grain has provided a new radiocarbon date of 3370-3210 cal BP. Crops identified include rice (Oryza sativa cf. subsp. indica), horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum), green gram/mung bean (Vigna radiata) and possibly some millets, including browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa). Suabarei is part of the agricultural mounded settlement group that existed during the Chalcolithic period of the eastern fertile plains of India and the data recovered from this site provide only the third complete archaeobotanical dataset for this cultural group.