Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.s21: History of Prehistoric Archaeology
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.s21
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History of Prehistoric Archaeology
c4.s21.1
The study of the Stone Ages is now over 100 years old in India, almost of the same age as in Western Europe and England. In these countries a suitable atmosphere was created around 1850 for the foundation of prehistoric archaeology. Though the interest in old objects—antiquarianism—was quite old, and though occasional discoveries of Stone Age tools had been reported from England and Germany as far back as 1715 and 1771 respectively,¹⁵ very few scholars including geologists were prepared to accept that the world was much older than 4,004 B.C. according to the interpretation of Old Testament.¹⁶ The geologists then believed that the various rock formations on the earth were not due to certain set principles, but sudden catastrophies. Hence the earlier discoveries of stone tools in association with bones of extinct animals went either unnoticed or were looked upon with suspicion.
c4.s21.2
¹⁵ See, DANIEL, GLYN, A Hundred Years of Archaeology, (London, 1950), p. 27. This is a most informative book and has been used in reviewing the development in Europe.
c4.s21.3
¹⁶ This was the view (interpretation) of Archbishop USSHER and was printed in the margins of the authorized version of the Bible. Bishop LIGHTFOOT calculated the exact time to be 9 a.m., 23rd October, 4004 B.C., whereas DR. MARGARET MURRAY has suggested 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March, 21, 4004, B.C. in Antiquity, 1901, p. 8.