An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s2.14

v1.c9.s2.14

The tools are made on a variety of rocks. The most common and abundantly available stones are the quartzites and sandstones from the sedimentary Vindhyan and Cuddapah formations. They occur in a variety of colours—grey, red, brown—depending on the different cementing material. The next preference is the basaltic rocks like the Deccan trap or dolerite. As is logical early man made use of these rocks wherever they were available and at this early cultural stage there was little effort of transportation of raw material from one region to another. There are however some instances where preference was shown to a particular raw material not locally available, as instanced by a jasper handaxe from MANDSAUR, chert handaxe from CHIRKI and phyllite handaxe from HUNSGI, implying some kind of transport. Limestone and chert were also used at some sites in Andhra and w. Rajasthan, where the rocks were available locally. Interestingly even granite (Bundelkhand granite in the Lalitpur area) and some metamorphic rocks (MALAPRABHA sites) were made use of. Viewing the tools made on such different material as a whole we notice a remarkable similarity in technique and form, which clearly brings out the fact that the Palaeolithic man handled varied raw material with equal efficiency.