Faunal remains unearthed by archaeologists from the neolithic site at Molapalayam near Coimbatore included bones of Indian rhinoceros, suggesting the presence of the pachyderm in the southern part of the country around 3,500 years ago.
A total of 47,212 fragments of bones collected from the site during two seaons of excavations in 2021 and 2024 were analysed at the Zooarchaeology laboratory of Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala. Out of these, 17,397 were identified to various taxonomic positions. From these, 28 species of animals were identified, including domestic animal such as cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, pig and dog, wild animals such as rhinoceros, nilgai, blackbuck, four-horned antelope, gazelle, Indian muntjac, chital, sambar, leopard and wild cat.
The findings were published in the paper ‘Scientific Investigations at the Neolithic Site of Molapalayam, Coimbatore District Tamil Nadu, India’, authored by V. Selvakumar, Satish Naik, G.S. Abhayan, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, V.N. Prabhakar, K. Krishnan, Supriyo Kumar Das, Ravi Kant Prasad, Adithya Ramesan, Ajith M., Sharmila Battacharya, P. Udayaganesan and B. Gowtham.
“Four bone fragments were identified to that of Indian rhinoceros when they were compared with modern reference collections,” said Mr. Abhayan, Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology, Kerala University.
