Fresh Light on the Stone Ages in Southeast India

Abstract

The first Indian Palaeolithic stone implement was found more than 60 years ago in a ballast pit at Pallavaram, a little to the west of the Madras-Trichinopoly road. Since then a large number of stone tools belonging to various prehistoric cultures have been discovered by several keen archaeologists, among whom Bruce Foote deserves special mention.During the last fifteen years or so, however, little has been published from the southeast of the Peninsula, archaeological attention having been more specially focussed on the unsuspected Sumerian-like discoveries in the north. Nevertheless, both in Southeast India and in Africa, fresh information has been collected which is very important for the elucidation of the origins and movements of prehistoric cultures.

The Lower Paleolithic of the Indian subcontinent

“…This evidence marks the earliest-recognized but undated employment of the prepared-core and Levallois technology in the region, in the form of discoidal cores and the Victoria West technique, as well as the initial production of large blades at sites such as Bhimbetka. 82,83 The Rohri Hills in southern Pakistan are one of the few Lower Paleolithic occurrences produced on chert (Fig. 9).…”

Research on Early Man in Burma, with Supplementary Reports upon the Pleistocene Vertebrates and Mollusks of the Region, and Pleistocene Geology and Early Man in Java

“…29-30;1939, pp. 327-30;Cammiade and Burkitt, 1930;Krishnaswami, 1938Krishnaswami, , 1938, where it seems to be intimately associated with the Madrasian (Acheulean). A large collection of approximately 2500 implements was studied by the writer in Bandoeng in 1938, and it was found to consist predomiinantly of chopping-tools of Anyathian type, in addition to many cores and flakes.…”

Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India: Indian Population Milieu

“…This arises naturaly due to the difficulty in coinciding the Indian prehistoric ages or cultures (which is based on the material evidence or tool types and assemblages) with the European culture items. Many anthropologists/ archaeologists (Cammiade and Burkitt 1930;Subbarao and Allchin 1960;Misra 1961) have attempted to solve this problem but still different terms are in vogue. During the long stone age estimated to cover over 5,00,000 years and forming part of the last geological period namely Pleistocene, and was believed to have been a savage-having no fixed habitation hunting and gathering.…”