Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c7.2

c7.2

THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES described in the last chapter may have begun about 400,000 years ago and may have ended—to use an abrupt term for what was certainly a very long and ragged process—something under 100,000, perhaps nearer 50,000, years ago, with survivals, as in South Africa, down to relatively recent times. So far, our handaxes and pebble-choppers have offered little hint of succession or replacement, and to this sequel we must now turn, though without great hope of definition. The example of Africa shows how much can be achieved by a single generation of scientific field-workers, and India is equipping herself for a similar advance. Meanwhile the present somewhat dubious position may be summarized under two questions. First, what evidence is there for a distinctive Upper Palaeolithic phase in India, as in Africa and Europe? And, secondly, is there in India, again as elsewhere, a recognizable Mesolithic between the Old Stone Age and the New—if indeed there be a New Stone Age at all? This question involves, *inter alia*, the problem of the microlithic or small-stone industries which occur profusely in parts of the subcontinent and stoutly resist easy classification.