Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c6.s8.2

c6.s8.2

Further south, around Madras where the first discoveries were made by BRUCE FOOTE in 1863 the work by PATERSON and KRISHNASWAMI has clarified the general picture of the Early Stone Age Cultures. Here the coastal plain was formed by laterite as in Orissa and elsewhere on the East Coast during the Early Pleistocene times. Over this was deposited by the Kortalayar or the old Palar river a white boulder conglomerate as at Vadamadurai. This was covered by the detrital laterite. The old river valley was then dissected and three terraces at a height of 60, 20 and 8 feet respectively were created. With these and the earlier boulder conglomerate the tools were related and thus an evolution in the Early Palaeolithic Culture is postulated.