[1] Hallur, one of South India's earliest Iron Age sites,[2] lies in a semi-arid region with scrub vegetation, located on the banks of the river Tungabhadra.

The original interpretation after the 1960s excavations was that Period II represented a new set of humans who arrived at this site with iron arrowheads, daggers and knives.

[5] This was contrary to the British archaeologist D. H. Gordon's theory that iron was not used in India prior to 250 BCE[6] Further excavations by archaeozoologist K. R. Alur in 1971 led to the discovery of horse bones (Equus caballus Linn), which were dated to a period before the presumed Aryan migration.

[7] Archaeobotanical findings at Hallur indicated that the Neolithic staples consisted of browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa), bristly foxtail (Setaria verticillata), mungbean, black gram, and horsegram.

This site also produced some of the earliest evidence for crops of African origin in South India, including both hyacinth bean and pearl millet.