The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c13.s1.10

c13.s1.10

The next group, called the *Early Sohan*, belonging to the II Inter-glacial period, consists of a series of choppers and other scraping tools made on flat truncated pebbles. On the basis of the physical condition of the tools they have been sub-divided into three groups 'a', 'b' and 'c'.³ But the most interesting evidence is the intrusion of the typical hand axes and the increase in the number of flakes and the appearance of the technique of elaborate preparation on the core before the tool is struck off from it, ( called the 'Levallois' after the type site near Paris ). These again have been sub-divided into 'a' and 'b'. To summarize the picture, we can quote the authors, "the presence of large number of pebble tools and cores made on small pebbles is one of the most outstanding features of the Punjab......in the Soan pebble tools there can be traced a development towards smaller and more finely made types. The Soan flake industries, too, provide an excellent example of the evolution of a flake culture in a small area. In the early stages the flakes are crude......In the late Soan, alongside the simple forms, there are other flakes, showing a development in technique, with much more regular primary flaking and often with facetted platforms, denoting careful preparation of the core in a manner reminiscent of the Levalloisian".⁴