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Palaeolithic Sites in India, Indian Archaeology
Ziarat Pir Shaban, Palaeolithic Sites in India, Indian Archaeology
The Paleolithic sites of India have been divided into primary, semi-primary and secondary categories, depending on their relationship with the place where the tools were first manufactured: original position, slightly removed from the original position through colluvial forces, and indeterminably removed from the original positions through alluvial agencies. The tools which occupy a vast space of the Indian literature on Paleolithic archaeology belong unhesitatingly to the last group.
The primary Paleolithic sites in India are rare because of the inadequate research. The cave sites are undoubtedly primary, but there are only three excavated cave sites: the upper Paleolithic Sanghao and Kurnool and the Acheulian rock-shelter III.F-23 at Bhimbetka. Sites buried in the alluvium or other deposits, such as those found in west Rajasthan, at Hunsgi in Karnataka, Paisra in Bihar. As far as the upper palaeolithic is concerned, there is more evidence from Baghor I in Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh, and the Kurnool caves of Andhra Pradesh.
There is a vast amount of literature on the Paleolithic tool types in India, which comfortably fit in the various categories of Paleolithic tools found in Africa, Europe and elsewhere in Asia. The modern classificatory system depends on a close analysis of different morphologi-cal attributes of the tool-type concerned, which is often statistically repre-sented. Another field of statistical enquiry in this field is the inter-site variability of different assemblages.
The fossils found in different parts of the Indian region evidence the existence of those species in the prehistoric era. A good source of the possible range of animals sharing the landscape with prehistoric humans is, of course, the extensive series of Pleistocene fossil animals found in different areas. The ancestral forms of modern cattle (Bos), horse (Equus) and elephant (Elephas) abound, and along with them occur forms of buffalo, varieties of deer, nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), wild cats including lions, tigers and panthers. Interestingly, in the upper Pleistocene fossils from Susunia in Bankura, West Bengal, there is lion and in the fossils from the Kurnool caves of Andhra Pradesh there is rhino. Sheep or goat (Ovisl Capra) remains come from the upper Pleistocene contexts of the Kurnool caves and the upper Mahanadi valley. Ostrich roamed the grasslands of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and, possibly, parts of Rajasthan. The richness of the Indian fauna was impressive even 50 years ago, and looked at from this perspective, one can only marvel at the possible range and density of animals sharing the prehistoric landscape with humans. It would be interesting to know more about the Pleistocene background of the present day living higher plants of the Indian region. The blue pine is supposed to have arrived early in the Pleistocene, and out of the immigrant Cedrus libanica from west Asia emerged during this period the most majestic of trees in the Himalayas.