An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s1.3

v1.c19.s1.3

As stated earlier much of the Palaeolithic cultural material, almost entirely in the form of stone tools, comes from river alluvia. Rivers being a perennial or near-perennial source of water, the Palaeolithic man must no doubt have lived along the banks of major rivers and tributaries. It is from these locations that stone tools and animal bones were washed off and redeposited in river sediments. Erosion of river gravels and sands leads to the creation of tertiary sites. Thus, for example, we have extremely dense concentrations of Acheulian tools in the Gambhiri bed at Chittaur, in the Berach bed at NAGARI and in the MALAPRABHA valley at KHYAD in Karnataka. Continuing exploitation of the natural environment by evergrowing populations over last several millennia has altered the environment through deforestation and we can have little idea of what the original environments in these areas were like. We know however that the Acheulian man also lived away from river banks but near seasonal sources of water on plain ground as well as on hill slopes and tops. Thus, for instance at BARKHERA in Dt Raisen we have an exceptionally rich Acheulian site. Thousands of cleavers, handaxes, scrapers, flakes and cores lie scattered entirely in mint condition on plain ground and there is little doubt that these tools have been little disturbed since the time they were manufactured, used and discarded. Part of this site lies in a cultivated field on the e. edge of the Hoshangabad-Bhopal highway and part in a dense teak forest on the w. margin. The juxtaposition of these two parts of the site sharply illustrates the drastic change in prehistoric environment brought about by man.