Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c7.s7.1

c7.s7.1

Before turning to the tool-types, one other point needs clarification. These tools are often found in fields with black or brown soil (as in Central India around Maheshwar, Kasrawad, Choli and Kurnool), and therefore it was at one time thought that these being surface occurrences, are late. Very often the tools occurred together with microliths. Hence they were thought to be microlithic. Careful observations in three regions—parts of Maharashtra, Central India, and Andhra—have shown that wherever the soil cover is thin and immediately overlies the gravels, or wherever there are veins of jasper and chert, with factory sites, as for instance at Dongargaon and Choli near Maheshwar, or Khadki Mata near Mandasor, the black soil which is a later formation—is full of nodules, cores, and large flakes and tools of Middle Palaeolithic industry.13c