The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c13.s3.t1.25

c13.s3.t1.25

The other area where we have reasonable evidence suggesting a high antiquity is the Tinnevelly district. A chain of microlithic sites have been found along the coast. The microliths are to be found in the *teri* deposits of definite aeolian origin, though the capillary oxidisation has consolidated them.¹ This oxidisation has given a reddish colour to these dunes, owing to the movements of iron, and this seems to have affected the stone implements themselves. The whole group of these tools of quartz or crystal have a red staining ("red hydrated ferric oxide"). In some of the open sites, according to Zeuner, these tools were deposited on the lateritic 'pan', when the winds have blown the sand.