Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c7.8

c7.8

A comparable hint of an Upper Palaeolithic horizon was detected by Commander K. R. U. Todd in a clay and gravel pit at Khandivli, 21 miles north of Bombay,³¹ though here again an admirable piece of pioneer work awaits consolidation and development. Upon the native rock, a deposit of bluish-brown clay, the Lower Clay, 3 to 50 inches thick contained rough tools and flakes 'somewhat recalling a Clacton industry' but occasionally showing more than one period of flaking. This industry approximates in kind to the pre-Soan. On the surface of the Lower Clay occurred another somewhat similar industry comprising scrapers, cores and choppers, sometimes in mint condition, with 'an early form of rostrate hand-axe'. Overlying the Lower Clay was the Lower Gravel, 1-6 feet thick, containing numerous implements of Abbevillian and Clactonian types in varying states of preservation. On the surface of the gravel were Clactonian flakes and Acheulian Fig. 13 'Series 2' from Nevasa, Pravara valley: 1, chert discoid; 2, chalcedony flake with prepared striking-platform; 3-5, chalcedony blades with blunted back and edge partly retouched; 6, tabular side-scraper, chert; 7-8, chalcedony end-scrapers; 9-10, chalcedony discoids. 1/2 handaxes in mint condition, with a number of unclassified flake-implements 'probably Acheulian in culture'. So far, all is reasonably plain sailing. In the present context it is the relationship of these lower layers to their successors that matters.