PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD

PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD A general term used by archaeologists, Palaeolithic refers to the earliest period of human cultural development when the primary cultural remains are stone tools and occasional fossil bones of either early hominids or the animals that they butchered for food. The discovery of early Miocene hominoids such as Sivapithecus (14 to 7 million years ago, or m.y.a.) and Ramapithecus (13 to 9 m.y.a.) in the Siwalik deposits of northern Pakistan and India provide evidence for early primate evolution. Unfortunately, the crucial Pliocene deposits dating from 4 to 1 million years ago are badly eroded and contain none of the fossils that are needed to identify the presence of hominids that were ancestral to humans. Early scholars proposed that the roughly flaked tools of the Pre-Soan and Soan traditions belonged to a very early period of human evolution, but their discovery in eroded deposits made it impossible to accurately date them. Improvements in palaeomagnetic and other chronometric dating techniques have now confirmed very early stone tools in deposits at Riwat (+2 m.y.a.) in the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan, and at Uttarbani (+2.8 m.y.a.) in Jammu, India. These new discoveries have extended the Lower Palaeolithic in northern South Asia to more than 2 million years ago, during the late Pliocene Epoch. No fossil hominids have been found from this early period in South Asia, but early Homo fossils, possibly Homo erectus, have been found in China and date to approximately this same time period, while in Africa the main tool-using hominid was Homo ergaster. Considerably more evidence for tool-using hominids is found from sites throughout most of the northern and peninsular regions, dating from 700,000 to 500,000 years ago. While the earliest stone tools were made by irregular flaking on pebbles or large blocklets, the later forms demonstrate more refined bifacial flaking to produce bilaterally symmetrical hand axes and cleavers that fall within the Acheulian tool tradition. These early Acheulian stone tools were probably used to dig tubers, butcher animals, and make wooden tools. The Lower Palaeolithic period continues until around 100,000 years ago, when changes in tool technologies indicate the emergence of new subsistence strategies that may also be associated with more evolved species, such as archaic Homo sapiens.

The Middle Palaeolithic period extends from around 100,000 to 30,000 years ago, though it may end earlier or later in different regions of the subcontinent. The earliest hominid fossil to be discovered in South Asia comes from the site of Hathnora, in Maharashtra, on the Narmada River in central India. This fossil skull (frontal) fragment was initially identified as belonging to Homo erectus (1.5 m.y.a. to 500,000 y.a.), but more recent studies have confirmed that it should be classified as archaic Homo sapiens (400,000 to 100,000 y.a.). The Hathnora fossil was found in eroded gravels along with late Acheulian tools that could date anywhere from 700,000 to 125,000 year ago, but most scholars place the fossil at around 125,000 years ago. The only other Middle Palaeolithic fossil is a temporal bone from the skull of an archaic Homo sapiens, similar to Neanderthal skulls from Skhul cave in the Levant. This important fossil was found at the site of Darra-i-Kur, Afghanistan, and is dated by the radiocarbon technique to around 30,000 years ago, using charcoal from an associated hearth. Numerous Mousterian-style tools, scrapers, a Levallois point, and small hand axes are comparable to tools from Neanderthal sites in the Near East and Europe. Faunal remains at the site indicate the people were hunting wild goats or sheep and possibly cattle. Many more cave sites and open air sites of the Middle Palaeolithic have been found throughout South Asia, and they demonstrate that archaic Homo sapiens populations were adapting to all of the varied environments, from the glacial highlands in the north to the rich alluvial plains near Rohri, Pakistan, to the deserts of Rajasthan and the tropical jungles of peninsular India.

The Upper Palaeolithic period dates from around 30,000 to 12,000 years ago and corresponds to the period of maximum glaciation in northern latitudes. The peninsular environment changed from moist to semiarid, resulting in a change in fauna from large Late Pleistocene mammals to smaller modern forms. Periodic interglacial episodes allowed human communities to expand into the mountainous regions, such as Kashmir and northern Afghanistan. The stone tool technology gradually became more specialized, with many backed blades and some burins, scrapers, ring stones, and geometric microliths. Few bone tools have been recovered, except from Kurnool Cave in South India. One of the important cave sites is Bhimbetka (III F-23), in Maharashtra, that has early levels dating to around 100,000 years ago in the Late Acheulian. The Upper Palaeolithic occupation at the cave dates from 30,000 to around 10,000 years ago. Near Bhimbetka are hundreds of caves and rock shelters with rock art. Some of the earliest geometric paintings made with red pigments and others that depict large pigs and bison may date to the end of the Upper Palaeolithic period, or Epi-Palaeolithic, but most of the caves belong to the subsequent Mesolithic period. Very little movable

art has been discovered so far except for a carved pebble and notched stone from the site of Gar-i-Asp (Horse cave), in Aq Kupruk, Afghanistan.

In central India, the site of Baghor I, in Madhya Pradesh, is an important Epi-Palaeolithic site dated to around 11,000 years ago. This open-air campsite was located next to an oxbow lake on the Son River and contained rubble floors for huts, hearths, and large quantities of manufacturing waste from heat treatment of chert nodules and stone tool manufacture. Many broken backed blades and geometric microliths indicate that hunting weapons were being hafted and repaired at the site; used stone tools indicate the processing of hides and woodworking. Ring stones that may have been used with digging sticks suggest that the people were also collecting tubers, and grinding stones indicate that they were processing wild plant foods. A small rubble platform with a unique triangular stone in the center is thought to represent the earliest ritual structure or shrine in the sub-continent. The ancient triangular stone is identical to modern stones used in local shrines to represent the Mother Goddess and female energy, or shakti.

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

See alsoChalcolithic (Bronze) Age ; Indus Valley Civilization ; Neolithic Period ; Rock Art

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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