Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c7.49

c7.49

Their material is derived from the Eocene limestone of the locality and is as true a flint as can be found in the sub-continent. The cores, flakes and implements occur on hill-tops, either on or close to the surface, and include both unpatinated examples and others showing degrees of patination which have been thought, without emphasis, to indicate a time-scale. Amongst much waste, the Sukkur series comprises broad and narrow blades, all somewhat crude and thick, with rare retouching down one or both sides and sometimes with a natural ‘back’ or cortex; flakes either with lengthwise or with convergent primary flaking; a few ‘plane’ scrapers with steep trimming; a few conical cores showing long, narrow, shallow flake-scars, like the cores typical of the Indus Civilization; and occasional axe-like cores bearing a superficial resemblance to Acheulian handaxes but differing from them in technique as in date. The Rohri sites produce large quantities of blade cores, mostly conical, and a multitude of crude and irregular blades which may be regarded as 'export rejects'. It is sufficiently evident from the careful preparation shown by some of the cores that blades of good quality were also made, comparable more nearly with the better examples from the Civilization. These better blades were presumably dispersed by trade.