Burzahom

Burzahom is a prehistoric site in a village of that name, 16 km north-west of Srinagar on the Naseem–Shalimar road, at about 1,800 metres. It is the northernmost excavated Neolithic site in India and sits on an old lake bed with a view over Dal Lake, some 2 km away. The name comes from the Kashmiri word for birch, a wood found as roofing in the excavated houses. The Archaeological Survey of India dug here from 1960 to 1971.

The digs revealed four phases between about 3000 and 1000 BCE: two Neolithic, one Megalithic and one early historical. The earliest people lived in pits dug into the clay soil, some with steps down into them, and later settlers built in mudbrick and raised large stone menhirs hauled from the hills. Bone and stone tools show a life of hunting and early farming, and finds point to contacts with Central Asia and the Gangetic plains. The site was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status in 2014.