Abstract The prehistoric settlement of Bukkasagara was occupied during the late second millennium BCE, during a period of significant social and economic change in what is today the northern part of the South Indian state of Karnataka. The settlement is unique for the contemporaneous practice of both the region's earliest radiometrically-dated iron production and its latest dated evidence for ashmounding, a socio-ritual practice involving the construction of mounds of burned and vitrified cattle dung dating back hundreds of years to the middle of the South Indian Neolithic period (ca. 2200 BCE). I investigate the settlement at Bukkasagara in light of recent studies of the Late Neolithic period (1800–1400 BCE) and the Neolithic-Iron Age transitional period (1400–1200 BCE and suggest that both the development of iron production in northern Karnataka and the termination of ashmound ritual in late second millennium BCE correspond with an escalation in developing social distinctions that were rooted in longstanding, localized social, economic and ritual practices. These localized socio-economic and ritual practices included agro-pastoralism, feasting, commemoration and memorialization and crafting, and were together the means through which nascent Neolithic social distinctions developed, and gradually assembled a new Iron Age political landscape.

中文翻译：

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在社会变革的风口浪尖上：卡纳塔克邦北部印度南部铁器时代开始时，在Bukkasagara进行铁器加工和养牛

摘要在公元前二千年后期，在今天的南印度州卡纳塔克邦北部，社会和经济发生了重大变化，Bukkasagara的史前定居点被占领。该定居点是该地区最早的放射性年代的铁生产的同时实践及其最新日期的混响证据的独特做法，这是一种社会仪式实践，涉及建造数百年到中期的燃烧和玻璃化牛粪土堆。南印度新石器时代（公元前2200年）。