Stone Age Dwellers of South India

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Raveen

 

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Stone Age Dwellers of South India

 

In the southern-most state of India, buried deep within red soils,

and in caves and rock shelters lie stone tools- the sole evidence of

our earliest prehistoric ancestors. A series of excavations at some

of these Palaeolithic sites, has been planned in order to throw more

light on prehistoric adaptive strategies and palaeoenvironments in

South India. The first of these sites to be excavated is that of

Attrambakkam, (also known as Attirampakkam) in the state of Tamil

Nadu, South India. Excavations are under the direction of Dr. Shanti

Pappu; while geomor p h o l ogical and geochronological studies are

under the direction of Prof. Maurice Taieb and Dr.Yanni Gunnell.

 

The site of Attrambakkam (13º 13' 50" N and 79º 53' 20" E; 55 m

AMSL), is located on the bank of a tiny stream, on an old terrace of

the river Kortallayar, and 60 km from the city of Madras (Chennai),

Tamil Nadu. In the distance, around 20 km to the west of the site,

lie the Allikulli hills, where caves sheltered prehistoric

populations. Quartzites, quartzitic sandstones and quartz pebbles and

cobbles, comprising these ancient hills, were washed down by streams,

and used as raw material by hominids for manufacturing their tools.

 

Approaching the site from the village of Krishnaveram, one is struck

by the sight of thousands of ancient tools, eroding out of red

lateritic gravels, and extending over an area of more than 50,000 sq.

m. Semi-arid scrub vegetation of thorny acacia thickets provide

little shade, and red soils being unsuitable for cultivation, the

site remains the village wasteland suitable only for grazing goats.

 

The site was first discovered on a hot summer's day in 1863, by the

British geologist, Robert Bruce Foote, who was struck by the density

and richness of tools. Although sporadic investigations were carried

out by various scholars, little was published. From 1991 to 1995,

research in this region was taken up by S. Pappu who documented

numerous Stone Age sites and studied processes leading to their

formation and preservation. As a result of these preliminary surveys,

the site of Attrambakkam, was thought to be relatively undisturbed

and suitable for providing excellent information on hominid

behaviour. Test trenches were sunk here in 1999. Subsequently, one 5

x 5 m trench was opened in 2000.

 

The trenches revealed startling results. Contrary to previous

reports, Acheulian tools were found for the first time in, and on the

surface of an ancient clay bed. The site appears to have been

initially visited by Acheulian hominids, who lived on the floodplain

of a more powerful river. Their tools were sealed within thick

deposits of clay, which were reworked from older shales. This is the

first site in India, where Acheulian tools are found deeply embedded

within clay beds.

 

These tools comprise mint-fresh handaxes, cleavers, large knives,

flakes and a wide range of scrapers. The low percentage of cores and

debitage, and the high percentage of beautifully finished tools,

possibly point to the fact that hominids were exploiting this site

for very specific functions. Thus, tools were manufactured elsewhere,

and transported over a few kilometers to this site.

 

The remarkable discovery made this season (January-March 2000), is

that of animal footprints associated with these tools; occurring at

the contact layer between the clays and an overlying ferruginous

gravel bed. Seventeen round footprints (roughly 15-20 cm in diameter)

were noted; in addition to a cluster of smaller footprints of bovid

species. This is the first evidence of it's kind in India, and is of

immense value for palaeoenvironmental studies; in addition to proving

the primary nature of this site. This surface has been carefully

preserved and five footprints cut out in the areas where excavations

were continued.

 

Following a climatic change, a thick deposit of ferruginous gravel

was laid down and this deposit is rich in Late Acheulian to Middle

Palaeolithic tools. Middle Palaeolithic hominids exploited this

gravel bed for choosing suitable pebbles to manufacture their tools.

The site was then abandoned, only to be occupied much later by

hominids of the Upper Palaeolithic phase. A thick deposit of silt

sealed their occupation; till thousands of years later intense

fluvial activity resulted in intense gullying and exposure of tools.

 

Four fossil teeth, of bovids and Equus were discovered at the site.

Fossils are a rare occurrence at Indian Palaeolithic sites and thus

these finds assume great importance for palaeoenvironmental studies.

 

Studies of the stone tools, soil and fossils are in progress and

samples are being processed for obtaining dates.

 

 

 

This season's excavations were important owing to the discovery of

animal footprints in association with Acheulian artefact and the

discovery of the clay surface being the Acheulian horizon. These

factors render the site on par with other Acheulian sites in East

Africa and indicate it's immense potential for long-term study.

Further horizontal excavations at this site and in adjoining areas

bordering the main artefact scatter would throw considerable light on

what is one of the richest Palaeolithic sites in India.

 

 

 

 

Raveen (@ user1533.lv.sprint-hsd.net) on: Wed Sep 6 17:07:17

EDT 2000

 

 

Stone Age Dwellers of India's Deep South

 

Shanti Pappu, spappu

 

In the southern most state of India, buried within red sands, and in

caves and rock shelters lie stone tools- evidence of our earliest

ancestors. What tools did these early hominds make? How did they

live? What was their environment like? Read on......For more

information check out the main paper.

 

In the search for evidence of our earliest ancestors in the Indian

subcontinent, no area has attracted greater attention than the hills

and plains of Tamil Nadu. The story of this odyssey into our

prehistoric past began in 1863 at the hamlet of Pallavaram, a suburb

of Madras, where a spectacular discovery was made by the British

geologist Robert Bruce Foote. The discovery was that of a stone tool:

a 'cleaver' manufactured, used and discarded by early hominids who

inhabited this region. At one stroke, this discovery pushed back the

antiquity of man in Tamil Nadu to more than half a million years ago;

and placed this region on the world map of prehistoric cultures. In

particular. the district of Chingleput, northern Tamil Nadu was, as

in Bruce Foote's own words, "specially interesting containing the

most numerous and important traces of palaeolithic man known in

Southern India."

 

The Age of Discovery

 

The early history of research in Tamil Nadu must be viewed in the

light of discoveries in 19th century England and France; namely the

investigations of Darwin, Lyell, De Mortillet, Boucher de Perthe,

John Evans and others into the fossil and cultural evidence of early

man in the distant prehistoric past. As a result of these studies a

phase in prehistory was defined; the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age; a

time when tools of stone, bone and wood were used for hunting and

gathering wild plant and animal resources.

 

This was further subdivided into the Lower, Middle and Upper

Palaeolithic phases based an differences in hominid species and their

material culture. These phases occurred during the Pleistocene, a

period ranging from almost two million years ago to about ten

thousand years ago and characterised by great ice ages and climatic

fluctuations and during which we evolved into our modem human form

with all its complex cultural manifestations.

 

Bruce Foote along with his colleague William King explored the

environs surrounding Madras and discovered, documented, and analysed

tools from numerous Palaeolithic sites such as Poondi and

Attrambakkam among others in the Chingleput and North Arcot districts

of northern Tamil Nadu. He believed that "The discovery that certain

of the more recent formations in Southern India contain stone

implements of undoubtedly human manufacture and of the same type

precisely as flint weapons now creating so much interest in various

parts of Europe. cannot fail to excite some attention among students

of Geology, Ethnology and Archaeology."

 

Foote also worked out the geology of various formations in which

stone tools were found and further attempted to understand the

environmental context in which these tool makers lived.

Prehistoric "tribes", he thought, must have necessarily

been "..hunters, fishermen and searchers after roots and fruits..,

and thus they supplied themselves .. with weapons to contend against

formidable wild beasts and to hunt for game... with implements such

as axes, adzes, hoes and wedges wherewith to ameliorate their general

condition." His accurate and insightful comments an topics as wide

ranging as the geology of Madras, the geographical and sedimentary

contexts of the artifacts, the technique of manufacture and use of

these tools, as well as ideas on palaeolithic lifestyles are yet to

be surpassed by any prehistorian in India today.

 

With the death of Foote in 1912, prehistoric research came to a

virtual standstill in Tamil Nadu. It was only in the 1930's when the

prehistorians, V. D. Krishnaswami and T.T. Paterson, turned their

attention once more to the Kortallayar basin that new ideas were

brought in. Krishnaswami saw his aim as that of establishing the "..

cultural heritage of India on a firm basis.." and placing it in the

proper perspective of changes in prehistory occurring all over the

world. He emphasised the importance of the integration of geology and

other sciences in interpreting the archaeological record in the

Kortallayar valley of Tamil Nadu. Focusing attention on the

geological context of the artifacts, these early workers attempted to

place them in a chronological framework by dating the sediments in

which they were found. They believed that the Kortallayar had over

long periods of time formed a series of four terraces which

represented the older flood plains of the river. The artifacts found

in each of these terraces could therefore be dated on a relative

basis with the older tools lying on the oldest terrace and so forth

down to the youngest artifacts on the youngest terrace. Each terrace

was correlated with alternating wet and dry phases of the

Pleistocene. Later workers such as K.V. Soundara Rajan of the

Archaeological Survey of India and A. Swami of Madras University

followed this scheme with minor modifications. The Lower Palaeolithic

industry found here attained international fame as the "Madras

Handaxe Tradition" characterised by beautifully trimmed handaxes and

other carefully made stone tools.

 

Subsequently the Archaeological Survey of India conducted excavations

at the sites of Attrambakkam. Poondi, Neyvelli. Vadamadurai and at

the cave site of Gudiyam under the direction of K.D. Bannerjee during

the Sixties and Seventies. Unfortunately, the lack of published

excavation reports shrouded their work in darkness

 

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