Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c7.27

c7.27

The familiar lunates—crescent-shaped flakes from ⅜ inch to 1⅛ inches in length, with the natural edge of the flake as the cord and steep retouching to blunt the rear arc, to take the pressure of the thumb or to inset in wood or bone—are the most constant denominator of microlithic industries, whether in Africa or India. Splayed lunates may have been used as transverse arrowheads. Trapezoidal forms occur occasionally but are rare; and points which can fairly be likened to the numerous burins of north Africa and western Europe are very exceptional indeed, unless 'borers' are included. Triangles merge into angular lunates and scarcely deserve separate classification. Disc scrapers are relatively abundant but are not particularly characteristic of the microlithic complex. On the whole, the Indian microlithic groups make an indifferent showing beside those of Africa, Palestine and Europe. Attempts to subdivide them into categories such as 'non-geometric' and 'geometric' are a move in the right direction but are premature in the present state of the evidence. As elsewhere, a very large Fig. 14 Distribution of stone axes and microlithic industries proportion of the material consists merely of primary flakes, which in a few instances suggest use but are mostly waste.