An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s1.12

v1.c9.s1.12

Subsequent discoveries, particularly in the BELAN valley (Sharma, 1973, p. 108), produced a blade-and-burin industry stratigraphically intervening between the Middle and Late Stone Ages. This has necessitated a fresh appraisal of the situation and the present trend is to revert to the terms Lower Palaeolithic, Middle Palaeolithic, Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, the succeeding Neolithic remaining unaltered. This latest (but resuscitated) terminology has been followed in this work, but for individual sites included in vol. II the ‘translation’ of the old into new terms may not have been always correct. Unless the impossible task of re-examining all the collections, particularly microlithic, is undertaken such a shortcoming will inevitably remain.