Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c6.s3.41

c6.s3.41

Even the inferred bias towards river-banks may well be wrong. The picture is as likely as not to be unbalanced by the fact that river-cuttings are of their nature particularly liable to expose the buried strata on which these remote peoples had their being. No doubt, however, it is near enough to the truth. The story of these folk is a part—in years, a very long part—of the story of India; the careful and onerous investigation of their industries and environment is a primary task for Indian and Pakistani archaeology; but, for all our skill, they are doomed to remain, these pioneers, little more than 'Handaxe folk' or 'Pebble-chopper-chopping folk', little more than archaeological labels which thinly disguise the poverty of our understanding.