THE PALAEOLITHIC CONTEXT
Archaeological History of India
Chapter – 2
Table of Contents
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
- The modern phase of palaeolithic studies in India began in the 1930s, with efforts to move beyond the succession and distribution of artefacts and focus on the environment and geochronology.
- The most significant publication of this period was Studies on the Ice Age in India and Associated Human Cultures(1939) by H. de Terra and T.T. Paterson, based on their 1935 work, in collaboration with Teilhard de Chardin.
- The study focused on the Soan river valley, with earlier discoveries in the region sparking interest from de Terra, a geologist.
- The stratigraphic profile of prehistoric tools and their related environment was first highlighted by L.A. Cammiadeand M.C. Burkitt in 1930 in the eastern Ghats of Andhra.
- Their observations included a pluvial period (heavy rainfall) with no human presence, and several dry periods with different types of handaxes and tools.
- de Terra and Paterson’s work was significant as it introduced a geochronological scale, modeled after European frameworks, for the region from Kashmir to the Salt range, and extended to the Narmada valley and Madras.
- Their correlation of tool-bearing terraces in the Soan valley with the Quaternary glacial cycle in Kashmir was influential, with the terraces classified by glacial and interglacial phases.
- Narmada valley was studied, with four terraces in tributary valleys, though they could not be distinguished in the main valley, where three sedimentation cycles were recognized.
- These sediment cycles were categorized as the lower group, upper group, and regur (cotton soil) group; the lower and upper groups contained Acheulian handaxes and tools.
- The Soan valley’s T-1 and T-2 were contemporaneous with the lower group of the Narmada, and T-3 and T-4 with the upper group.
- In South India, terraces in the Kortalayar plain near Madras contained palaeolithic tools but no fauna. Key sites were Vadamadurai and Attirampakkam.
- Early contributions from D. Sen and V.D. Krishnaswami in the Soan valley were significant, with K.R.U. Toddcontributing in 1932 and 1939 with studies on the palaeolithic industries of Bombay.
- Sankalia studied prehistoric industries in Gujarat and Orissa in the 1940s, leading to the Archaeological Survey of India’s assessment of prehistoric India in 1947.
- The foundations of palaeolithic research in post-1947 India were laid in the 1930s and 1940s, incorporating findings from Foote and contemporaries.
- In 1949, F.E. Zeuner of the Institute of Archaeology, London visited India to explore prehistory and geochronology.
- Sankalia’s Prehistory and Protohistory of India and Pakistan (1963) extended the de Terra–Paterson work in the Soan valley and other regions like Malwa, Rajasthan, and Andhra.
- In Singhbhum, Orissa, and Singrauli, significant palaeolithic research occurred in the 1950s by V.D. Krishnaswami, K.V. Soundararajan, and others.
- Sankalia‘s work in 1974 expanded geographical coverage, consolidating the stratigraphic and typological classification of the lower, middle, and upper palaeolithic periods.
- A flake discovered in Pahalgam, Kashmir was initially placed in the First Interglacial context by Sankalia but later questioned.
- New discoveries included Singhbhum, West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra, and Uttar Pradesh.
- Radiocarbon dating was introduced for the middle palaeolithic in Sankalia’s work, though no evolutionary sequence of tool types was found.
- Since the mid-1970s, palaeolithic research in India branched out beyond stratigraphy and typology, with controlled excavations at Paisra, Bhimbetka, and Hunsgi revealing primary occupation traces.
- Geochronology and geoarchaeology became more important, though available dates were still limited and sometimes unclear.
- The study of sediment deposits and sea-level studies in regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat produced clearer archaeological correlates.
- The ethnography-based settlement-subsistence approach has been successfully applied in Andhra and Karnataka, focusing on resource exploitation models based on local hunter-gatherers and peasants.
- The review of palaeolithic research offers a generalized academic perspective, showing the influence of 1930s and 1940s research in shaping modern studies in India.