Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c7.s6: Nevasian
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c7.s6
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Nevasian
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For this reason, it has been proposed to call the assemblage and the cultural stage it signifies "Middle Palaeolithic," or "Nevasian" after the type site, Nevasa.⁹ The term "Middle Palaeolithic" has both a chronological and typo-technological significance, and has nothing to do with the European term and culture "Middle Palaeolithic" or even the African, with both of which some of its tool types show a certain amount of resemblance.
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⁹ BANERJEE, K. D., op. cit., p. 135.
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Fig. 36. Section on the Pravara at Hathi Well site, near Nevasa (suggested reconstruction).
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*Middle Palaeolithic or Middle Stone Age (?)*
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It has been urged¹⁰ that the term "Middle Palaeolithic"¹¹ should not be used for this industry, for it immediately makes one compare it with its namesake in Europe, and the term "Middle Stone Age" be used instead. In the first place, the term "Middle Palaeolithic" may by usage remind one of the European, but these are most simple, common terms, and not like the words "Acheulian" or "Aurignacian," after a particular French site which connote a particular type of culture, that their use should be confined to Europe. The alternative suggestion "Middle Stone Age" is also in imitation of an African practice, and thus not free from similar objection. Moreover, the African analogy does not help, because there the term "connotes a large group of cultures, differing from region to region and with different names, but all having a great deal in common with regard to technique and typology...."¹² Secondly, there is a "lack of sufficient stratigraphical evidence," whereas in India, the stratigraphical position restricts it to the "middle gravels," which succeed the Middle Pleistocene, almost everywhere, and on the present palaeontological evidence can be dated to the Middle Pleistocene, but may be placed in the early Late Pleistocene. According to one suggestion,¹³ the industry might be regarded as a "Flake Culture" of the Lower Palaeolithic. This suggestion satisfies the palaeontological evidence, but not the stratigraphical and typo-technological. Until better, more positive, evidence is available to place the culture later (or earlier?), this new Stone Age Culture should be called "Indian Middle Palaeolithic" or "Nevasian." It falls in the early Late Pleistocene period, when under a wet phase, practically all over the the Peninsular India, the rivers deposited over or against the older gravel or silt, a comparatively finer gravel. This formation occurs as a low Terrace (T2) at Maheshwar, Nevasa, Mehenduri, Nandur Madhmeshwar, and Tandrepadu, opposite Kurnool. In the last region, there are other sites, where too this second deposit occurs banked up against the older, but not as a distinct broad terrace. *(Figs 36-37.)*
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¹⁰ SUBBARAO, B., *The Personality of India*, 2nd Ed. Baroda, 1958, p. 39 and after him ALLCHIN, BRIDGET, "The Indian Middle Stone Age: Some New Sites in Central and Southern India, and their Implications" in the *Bulletin of the London Institute of Archaeology* Number, II (1959), p. 1 (of the reprint).
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¹¹ There is in fact no logical contradiction between the terms "Middle Stone Age" and "Middle Palaeolithic". In the former, the entire Stone Age is divided into three subperiods: (i) Early Stone Age, (ii) Middle Stone Age and (iii) Late Stone Age. In the latter, the Old Stone Age itself is divided into three sub-periods: (i) Early or Lower Palaeolithic, (ii) Middle Palaeolithic and (iii) Late or Upper Palaeolithic. Thus the former is more extensive in its connotation and applications. The latter has a limited and precise meaning. The difficulty arises when the Early Stone Age is equated with the Early or Lower Palaeolithic, and the Middle Stone Age with the Mesolithic, which is regarded as a transitional period between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic. The propounders of the term "Middle Stone Age" think that there is no sufficient evidence to place the recently discovered industry or industries (to be described) in the Palaeolithic period or within the Middle or Late Pleistocene. And therefore it is advisable to have a term of wider connotation. For the reasons mentioned, it is, I think, unnecessary to adopt a term which is not precise. For if it is agreed that the industry denoted by Series II falls within the Pleistocene and is thus Palaeolithic, and its earliest occurrence is in the middle gravels, and in character the industry is not only different from the earlier handaxe industry, but has its own individuality and further leads on to the blade industries of the succeeding period, then the name "Middle Palaeolithic" admirably brings out its stratigraphical horizon and cultural stage.
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¹² MALAN, B. D., "The Term 'Middle Stone Age'" in the *Proceedings of the Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory*, 1955, pp. 223-27.
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¹³ Prof. F. E. ZEUNER in his Report on Dr. K. D. BANERJEE'S thesis in *Archaeology on the Middle Palaeolithic Industries of the Deccan*, submitted for the Ph.D. degree of the Poona University in 1957.
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*Evidence*
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The palaeontological evidence is not negligible, though based on one solitary find only and confined to one river valley. At Kalegaon, the tools were in close association with—actually embedded in the skull and horn of *Bos namadicus* Falconer, found in a 8-10 ft. thick, well cemented gravel, consisting of tiny trap pebbles, chunks of agate, chalcedony etc. Other fossil remains have also been found by a member of the Geological Survey of India from the same region in 1959-60, but not yet reported, whereas Dr. KHATRI reports similar discoveries on the Narmada at Devkachar and Barman Ghat.13a
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13a Likewise tools with remains of *Bos* and *Elephas* have been reported from stratified deposits at Siddeswar in Parbhani District and some unidentified fossils on the Wardha at Walgaon in Wardha and Amaroti Districts. *I.A.R.*, 1960-61, pp. 63-64.
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The composition of the gravel elsewhere is similar, though not fossiliferous. In Kurnool, and elsewhere on the East Coast, where the gravels are reddish owing to staining or lateritization, the same distinction, between the older, old and comparatively recent gravels can be made.
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Thus lithologically and stratigraphically the gravels that yielded Middle Palaeolithic tools have a distinct individuality.13b
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13b This is also the observation of Dr. JOSHI in the Kopra Valley, Damoh region. *A.I.*, No. 17 (1961), p. 21.