A History of Agriculture in India v1.c12: Chapter 6. The Quaternary Period: The Pleistocene—The Ice Age

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c12

Language: English

v1.c12.s1 Glaciation in the Himalayas — 2 parts
v1.c12.s2 Conditions in Other Parts of the Indian Subcontinent — 2 parts
v1.c12.s3 Pleistocene Fauna — 5 parts
v1.c12.s4 Homo Erectus — 20 parts
v1.c12.s5 Palaeolithic Hunters and Food-Gatherers — 11 parts
v1.c12.s6 Neanderthal Man (Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis) — 14 parts
v1.c12.s7 Homo Sapiens Sapiens — 2 parts
v1.c12.s8 References — 2 parts

Chapter 6. The Quaternary Period: The Pleistocene—The Ice Age

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MANUFACTURE OF STONE TOOLS AND CONQUEST OF FIRE

The Quaternary, the shortest of all the geological periods and unparalleled climatically in its development of the Ice Age, commenced about a million years ago. It is subdivided into the Pleistocene (the glacial age) and the Holocene or Recent (the post-glacial age). The Holocene began about 10,000 years ago. Russian scientists, however, recognize three subdivisions of the Quaternary, namely the Eopleistocene (Q₁), the Pleistocene (Q₂) and the Epipleistocene (Holocene, Q₃). Though moraines were first discovered in the Swiss Alps in about 1800, most of the Quaternary deposits have been known for a long time as products of flood, to which Buckland in 1823 gave the name Diluvium. The Holocene was formerly known in Germany as Alluvium. Venetz in 1829 first suggested that glaciers formerly existed in northern Europe. Evidences of extensive glaciation in northern North America were found some years later. About a century ago, it was discovered that the Kashmir Valley and its adjoining northern parts were also heavily glaciated in the past (Fig. 21).

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Arctic Circle Tropic of Cancer Equator Tropic of Capricorn Antarctic Circle

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Fig. 21. The world in the middle part of the Quaternary period. The darker areas were glaciated. The Himalayan glaciers descended into lower valleys Fig. 27. Important sites from which Palaeolithic tools have been discovered in India and Pakistan. Apart from the sites shown in this map, stone tools have been discovered from numerous other places The presence of ice in the past is inferred from the occurrence of boulder clay or glacial boulders which are often scratched and angular, the polished and striated pavements caused by the movements of glaciers over them, and the glacial moraines left behind after the recession and melting of ice. Other indicators are the U-shaped valleys carved out by glaciers, the widespread glacial debris over most of the glaciated area, the terraces formed along the banks of rivers by the fast-moving waters released from the melting glaciers, and the fluctuations in the sea-level, if not due to tectonic movements. Together with these physical evidences, the alternation of the cold-loving and warmth-loving plant and animal populations in response to climatic changes provides ancillary proofs of past glaciation.

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Fig. 22. Discovery of fire and fashioning of pebble tools were the major achievements of Peking man, about half a million years ago (Reconstruction from the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh)

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Fig. 23. A comparison of the cranial sizes; chimpanzee 400 cc; Homo erectus erectus 860 cc; Sinanthropus 1,075 cc; Homo sapiens fossilis 1,300 cc; modern man 1,400 cc; Neanderthal man 1,550 cc

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Fig. 24. The most primitive Palaeolithic stone tools are choppers from Soān, Pothohar Plateau, West Panjab, Pakistan. They were cutting-tools and were used for cutting chunks of meat and to scrape hides. They are about half a million years old

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Fig. 25. Acheulian hand-axe complex from Attirampakkam, Chingleput District, Tamil Nadu, approximately 200,000 years old. A cutting-tool edged on both sides, it was used for digging, chopping and cutting

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Fig. 26. Primitive men fashioning Acheulian stone tools, about 200,000 years ago. One of them is flaying a hunted animal with a hand-axe (Reconstruction from the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh)

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INDIA PALAEOLITHIC SITES

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During the Pleistocene, there were four major glaciations, popularly known as Gunz, Mindel, Riss and Wurm. The glacial periods were separated by three interglacials of varying periods of duration. In addition to these four major glaciations, there were several periods of glacial advances and retreats and warm climate (inter-stadials) during the glacials.

Glaciation in the Himalayas

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In the lesser Himalayas of the Punjab, glaciers from the Dhaula Dhar Range spread out into piedmonts, the outflow from which reached the present level of 700 metres in the Beas Valley during the first advance. Two later advances, which did not descend to such a low level, could still transport vast blocks of granite. Glaciated land forms are recognizable in some places in the Siwalik foothills.

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Of all the four major glaciations in the Jammu and Kashmir, the second was of maximum intensity with the glaciers descending the foothills. There were two glacial advances during the second glaciation and four during the fourth. The intervening interglacial periods were of much longer duration than the glacial periods. In the adjoining region of the outer Himalayas, the Siwaliks, river terraces corresponding to glacial and interglacial stages have been recognized. Various kinds of sedimentary rocks belonging to the Pleistocene are clays, silts, sandstones and loess. The clays may be varved and the silts generally laminated. Large stretches of deep alluvial terraces comprising sands, gravels and clays occur in the Satluj Valley in Hundesh beyond the central Himalayas.

Conditions in Other Parts of the Indian Subcontinent

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Peninsular India was never under glaciation, but in several of its river valleys, such as of the Narmada, the Godavari, the Krishna, and the Kortalayer, gravel beds or conglomerates are found intercalated with silts and clays. Constituting the river terraces, these alluvial deposits are believed to show events in the peninsular region corresponding to those in the glacial regions. Some of these deposits have been correlated with the glacial and interglacial phases on the testimony of animal fossils.

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Sands, silts and clays, many hundred metres thick, with occasional gravel beds and lenses of peaty matter, occur in the great alluvial tracts of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus in the depression between the peninsular and extra-peninsular regions. The deposits show a succession from the upper Eocene to the Holocene.

Pleistocene Fauna

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In the Boulder Conglomerate, the highest horizon of the Siwalik system and referable to the lower Pleistocene, the modern ox, camel and horse make their first appearance, whereas *Stegodon ganesa*, *Rhinoceros*, *Hippopotamas*, *Sivatherium*, *Hyaena* and *Felis* are the survivors from the previous faunas. *Bos acutifrons*, an extinct relative of the buffalo, lived in the Siwaliks of the Punjab during the Pleistocene. A fauna consisting of *Elephas antiquus* and *Equus namadicus*, with extinct species of *Rhinoceros*, *Hippopotamas*, *Cervus*, *Bos*, *Sus*, etc., has been found in the middle Pleistocene alluvium of the Narmada Valley.

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Bones of vertebrates of the middle Pleistocene age are sometimes found in the Godavari Valley. One of the species identified is the gigantic *Elephas antiquus* (*namadicus*) with thick and long tusks. The circumference of a tusk measured 75 centimetres at its proximal end. The animal must have been about five metres in height.

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From the upper drainage area of the Krishna, teeth of *Mastodon pandionis* have been found. Portions of the cranium and the mandible of *Rhinoceros deccanensis*, and the remains of an undetermined bovine have been obtained from the bank of the Ghataprabha near the town of Gokak in Karnataka.

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In the Narmada Valley between Hoshangabad and Narsinghpur, there are old river terraces rising some 36 metres above the stream. Mammalian bones were found from the base of the upper gravel and sand, equivalent to the Potwar silt, whereas pre-historic implements have been discovered abundantly in the layers of gravel. Fossils of the Quaternary fauna were discovered in two distinct beds. In the lower one, which also yielded pebble tools, was found a well-preserved 2.5-metre-long tusk of the *Elephas antiquus*. The upper bed contained the *Hippopotamas*, *Equus*, *Bos*, and *Bubalus*, along with late Acheulian tools made of jasper, chalcedony and fine-grained quartzite. Mammalian fossils include the following:

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*Ursus* (*Helarctos*) *namadicus* *Bubalus* (? *Buffelus*) *palaeindicus* (allied to the modern Indian buffalo) *Boselaphus namadicus* (related to the modern ‘blue bull’ or nilgai, *B. tragocamelus*), *Bos namadicus* (from the Siwaliks) *Cervus duvanceli* (allied to the modern *barasingha*) *Sus namadicus* *Hippopotamas palaeindicus* (belonging to a subgenus, now only found in Africa) *Hippopotamas namadicus* (probably from an earlier Siwalik ancestor) *Equus namadicus* (from the Siwaliks) *Rhinoceros unicornis* (a living species) *Elephas antiquus* (namadicus) (probably identical with the European *E. antiquus*) *Stegodon insignis* (Siwalik species) *Stegodon ganesa*.

Homo Erectus

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Important discoveries of *Homo erectus* have been made in the Pleistocene deposits of Java, China, Europe and Africa. These discoveries can be put into two groups. The first group includes the more primitive forms, approximately a million years old. *Homo erectus modjokertensis* from the Djetis layers in Java, *Homo erectus lantianensis* from Lantian in China, *Homo erectus capensis* from Swartkrans and *Homo erectus heidelbergensis* from Mauer in Germany belong to this first group. In the second group, their ages range from about 700,000 to 500,000 years. These include *Homo erectus erectus* from the Trinil deposits of Java, *Homo erectus pekinensis* from Chou-kou-tien in China, *Homo erectus mauritanicus* from Ternifine in North Africa, *Homo erectus leakeyi* from the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa and *Homo erectus palaeohungaricus* from Vertesszollos in Hungary.

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Near Trinil, in central Java, Dubois found in 1891 a right upper molar, a skull cap, and a left thigh-bone with man-like characteristics. The skull cap was thick, heavy, and flattened in front, and the region above the eyes was prominent and ape-like. The tooth was man-like and the thigh-bone indicated an erect posture. Dubois named his find *Pithecanthropus erectus*. The age of these Trinil deposits has been estimated at 700,000 years.

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Von Koenigswald discovered an infant skull at Modjokerto, west Java, near Surabaya, related with Dubois's *Pithecanthropus*. This find was named *Homo modjokertensis* and probably dates back to the period between the lower Pleistocene and the middle Pleistocene. Its age is estimated at about a million years.

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Research on *Pithecanthropus* discoveries led to the conclusion that they were undoubtedly man-like skeletons, all of which belonged to the genus *Homo*, and they were described as *Homo erectus* (Dubois, 1894). This ‘early man’ was about 1.65 to 1.75 metres tall. The structure of his thigh-bone is the same as that of the modern man and proves that he had an erect posture when walking.

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The Java man is placed between *Australopithecus* and the modern man. The volume of the skull varies from find to find. *Pithecanthropus I* and *Pithecanthropus II*, from the Trinil deposits, had cranial capacities of 900 cubic centimetres and 775 cubic centimetres respectively. The average brain size is 883 cubic centimetres.

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From a cave near Chou-kou-tien, about 40 kilometres south-west of Peking, fossil teeth were found. Black named it *Sinanthropus pekinensis*. Until 1937, many skeletal remains, and teeth, of over 30 Peking man males, females, and children, were found in this area. These remains are younger than those of the Java man found in the Trinil deposits and may belong to a later phase in the middle Pleistocene. Their actual age is estimated at between 500,000 and 400,000 years. *Sinanthropus pekinensis* is now *Homo erectus pekinensis* (Black).

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The body structure of *Homo erectus pekinensis* was similar to that of the Java man. His posture was erect and he was 1.55 to 1.60 metres tall. The Peking man had a strong skull, with a thick brow-ridge. The lower jaw of *Homo erectus pekinensis* was a little lighter, but the most noticeable difference was the volume of the skull. The cranial capacity was 795-1225 cubic centimetres.

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The early men from Java, China and Lantian had very similar ways of life. Their dentition indicated that they were omnivorous. This was confirmed by the remains of animal bones and fruits which were found in their living-sites. They used stone tools, choppers and scrapers of the Soān type. The cave deposits of Chou-kou-tien contained clear evidence of the use of fire. It was the oldest domestic fire and the ash layer reached a thickness of six metres, indicating the occupation of the cave over a long period. The control of fire is the first great human achievement, for which credit goes to the Peking-man. Fire was the first step towards man's emancipation from the bondage of his environment. With fire he could endure cold, explore caves for shelter, scare away dangerous animals and cook meat (Fig. 22).

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The first European discovery of *Homo erectus* came in 1907 from the Mauer sand-pit near Heidelberg. It is called 'Heidelberg lower jaw', and dates back to the middle Pleistocene.

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Another European discovery was made in 1965 at Vertesszollos near Budapest, in Hungary, where several isolated molars and an occipital bone were found. Its age is about 600,000 years. This early man was named *Homo erectus palaeohungaricus*.

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Discoveries which confirm the existence of *Homo erectus* in Africa are from the north. In 1954 and 1955 at a site south-east of Oran, near Ternifine, three lower jaws were found. The parietal bone and teeth belonged to a young person and resembled those found at Chou-kou-tien. The Ternifine find is dated from the middle Pleistocene.

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Another important discovery comes from Swartkrans in South Africa—a lower jaw, with three molars on the left side and fragments of the upper jaw. It has been named *Homo erectus capensis*.

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*Homo erectus* was also found in the Olduvai Gorge. Leakey and his wife found a well-preserved skull without a facial skeleton in the upper layers of Bed II. Its structure indicated that it was connected with the Java man and the Peking man. The discovery included the typical tools belonging to the Abbevillian (Chellean) culture which further confirmed the dating and classification. The skull has a powerful brow-ridge, and its volume is about 1,000 cubic centimetres. It has been named *Homo erectus leakeyi*.

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Skulls were also found at Steinheim and Swanscombe. The capacity of the Steinheim skull is about 1,150 cubic centimetres, and of Swanscombe skull between 1,250 and 1,300 cubic centimetres. The capacity of the skull found at Ehringsdorf (Germany) is between 1,400 and 1,450 cubic centimetres. In the modern man, the capacity of the skull is usually between 1,350 and 1,500 cubic centimetres.

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The major sites where the remains of *Homo erectus* have been found are shown in Fig. 28. Skirting the mountain barriers and the deserts, *Homo erectus* spread from the tropics of East Africa, northern India, Java and China to the temperate lands of Asia and Europe over a million years.

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Changes in the body activity involved in the establishment of man as a species are summed up thus by Peake and Fleure: "Increase of the period of gestation; increase of brain-growth; reduction of jaw-growth and jaw muscle, following elaboration of the hands and perfecting of the thumbs; development of stereoscopic vision and of refinement of the ear, and of the memorization of sights and sounds; all accompanied by marked alterations towards a more erect posture, which was nevertheless still imperfectly attained in the case of many early men; reduction of hair on the body; and the differentiation of labour between sexes. The reduction of jaws, connected with the evolution of the hands and implements to share their work, carried with it especially the reduction of the canine teeth previously large and interlocking, and the lower jaw was thus enabled to move far more freely instead of simply up and down and from side to side obliquely as it seems to have done among the apes. It seems likely that this increased freedom of the jaws is a factor of the elaboration of speech. An increase of size, and with it probably an increase of the periods of life both before and after birth, may be assumed to have occurred in the common stock whence man and these apes have sprung, and the tendency seems to have continued to develop in man, for the period of gestation in the latter is 280 days as against 220 or less among ancestral apes. This lengthening of the embryonic period has carried with it delay in the hardening of the skull, and so increased growth of the brain, enabling it to register more and more delicately facts of vision and hearing especially. Not only has the pre-natal period been lengthened, but the human body has become increasingly dependent for a longer time; thus the scope of maternal devotion has increased."¹

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¹Peake, H. and Fleure, H.J. *Apes and Men*, pp. 52, 61

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Fig. 28. Major sites where the remains of *Homo erectus* have been found. Skirting mountain barriers and deserts, *Homo erectus* spread from the tropics of east Africa, northern India, Java and China to temperate lands of Asia and Europe over a period of a million years

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Among females, oestrus was lost, and in its place they acquired menstruation. This led to frequent sexual intercourse, and a rapid rate of reproduction.

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In Fig. 29 a comparative idea of the sizes of skulls and brains from an ancient lemur to man can be had. Increase in the size of the brain and its complexity in man is notable (Fig. 23).

Palaeolithic Hunters and Food-Gatherers

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The notion of three Ages, viz. Stone, Bronze and Iron, was first set out by the Danish archaeologist Vedel-Simonsen in 1813. Following him, Christian Jurgensen Thomsen, the first curator of the National Museum of Danish Antiquities, Copenhagen, classified and arranged the collections into three groups, as they represented three chronologically successive ages.

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Interpreting the exact role of pre-historic archaeology, Sven Nilsson stated: ‘It demonstrated that notwithstanding apparent or partial retrogression, the human race was constantly undergoing a gradual and progressive development.’

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Subsequent scholars split up the Stone Age into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Lord Avebury split up the Palaeolithic into three subdivisions—lower, middle and upper.

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The Palaeolithic of the archaeologists corresponds with the period from the middle to the upper Pleistocene. The most striking feature of the Palaeolithic industries is their immense duration from about 500,000 to

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Fig. 29. Skulls of : 1, modern chimpanzee; 2, modern man; 3, Neanderthal man; 4, Peking man; 5, *Australopithecus* (hominid); 6, *Proconsul africanus*; 7, *Adapis parisiensis*, an ancient lemur. An increase in the size of brain and its complexity and a reduction in brow-ridges in man as compared with hominids is noteworthy (Courtesy: UNESCO)

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10,000 years ago, the end of the last glaciation. During the middle Pleistocene, the Siwalik Hills were certainly inhabited (Fig. 22) by the early man resembling the *Homo erectus pekinensis*. No actual fossil remains have been recovered, but stone tools, choppers and crude scrapers, which are 500,000 to 300,000 years old, have been discovered. The surest way to distinguish the earliest men from fellow-animals was in the acquisition of intelligence and skill for making tools. With the capacity to manufacture stone tools, man stepped into a higher plane of concentration and manipulative skill.

Pre-Soan Culture

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In the topmost gravels of the Boulder Conglomerate, the first true prehistoric tools appear in 11 localities in the Siwaliks in the Punjab. This industry has been named Pre-Soān. The tools are made of crude split pebbles and large flakes of quartzite chipped on one side, mainly with large bulbs of percussion, small striking platforms and marginal flake scars. They resemble the Cromerian flake industry of the early Palaeolithic in East Anglia, England. Their age is assigned to the last phase of the second glaciation.

Soan Culture

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The Early Soān sites in Pakistan are found in the Valley of the Soān at Adiala, Khaslakalan, Chauntra and Trap near the junction of the Soān and the Indus rivers; also in the Indus Valley at Ghariala at the confluence of the Haro and the Indus, at Khushalgarh, Makhad and Injra.

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At the beginning of the Second Interglacial, in the then gravels of Soān terraces near Rawalpindi, characteristic pebble tools were discovered by de Terra (Fig. 24). They were possibly used for cutting chunks of meat and to scrape hides. They were also used for breaking nuts and for making notches in tree trunks as an aid to climbing. They resemble the palaeoliths associated with the Peking man, and the Oldowan pebble tools from east Africa.

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De Terra and Hawkes found palaeolithic pebble tools from Chitta, near Rawalpindi, in northern Punjab, at Rampore near Jammu, and at Kargil, beyond the main Himalayan range on the trade route over the Zojila Pass. From the presence of stone flakes in localities lying across the Great Himalayan range, the interesting conclusion arises that the Himalayan passes have become much higher now (the Zojila Pass being 3,445 metres now), and when the Kargil-man flourished, the passes were much lower and migration across the Himalayan mountains was easy. Geologists are of the opinion that the passes which have become inaccessible or difficult now were low and easy and mark some of the most ancient routes trodden by the early man. That the Himalayan mountains are still rising is a common belief among geologists. They have risen appreciably since the advent of Man in northern India, and now have become a serious barrier between China, Central Asia and India. Godwin-Austen was of the opinion that since the advent of Man, the Himalayas have been thrown up by 2,440 to 3,050 metres.

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Attributable to the second interglacial age as the early Soān is another industry of equal antiquity but of a different tradition, known as the hand-axe complex. Typologically, this is similar to the lower Palaeolithic Abbevillio-Acheulian series observable in the Peninsular India, with its primary focus at Madras. Section 15 at Chauntra in the Soān Valley is in many respects the most important locality from an archaeological point of view. This is the only site in Pakistan which shows a parallel development of the Madras (hand-axe) industry of the south with the Soān flake and pebble industries.

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Palaeolithic sites on the terraces of the right bank of the Sirsa below Nalagarh were discovered by Olaf Prufer in 1951. The tools were made of light-coloured quartzite and consist of pebble tools and flake tools. The pebble tools include choppers and scrapers.

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B. B. Lal (1955) discovered pebble tools, viz. unifacial and bifacial choppers, and a few hand-axes from the river terraces of the Banganga near Haripur Guler, on the Beas near Dehra Gopipur, and at Dhaliara and Kangra.

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Y. D. Sharma (1955) discovered quartzitic palaeoliths, mainly choppers, scrapers and flakes, from Dher Majra, Dhang, Dadhi and Merhanwala along the Sirsa River, which joins the Satluj above Rupar. Similar implements were also found about 1.5 kilometres north of Daulatpur on the Beas branch of the Soān River and also showed affinity with the late Soān tradition. The existence of such artefacts in the Sirsa and the Soān valleys considerably enlarges the area of the Soān industry.

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Pebble tools were reported by Sahni and Khan (1964) from a terrace of the Ghaggar River near Chandigarh, and by Joshi and Khanna (1974) from a terrace of the Markanda in the Sirmur District, Himachal Pradesh. Recently, B. C. Verma (1975) discovered pebble tools and hand-axes in the Kheri area in the Siwaliks along the southern bank of the Sirsa River, five kilometres south of Nalagarh, in Himachal Pradesh. Associated with the stone tools were fossils of *Equus sivalensis*.

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It seems that the Paleolithic hunters roamed along the river valleys in the hilly areas of India and Pakistan. Here, apart from game, they had plenty of pebbles from which they could fashion their stone tools.

Central India

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Acheulian hand-axes and Soān-type choppers and scrapers have also been discovered from Pleistocene formations along the Narmada, at Bheraghat near Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh. They are found associated with the mid-Pleistocene *Elephas namadicus*, *Bos namadicus*, *Equus namadicus*, *Hippopotamas*, *Bubalus*, *Sus* and *Cervus*. The Soān-type tools have also been discovered in Kurnool, in Andhra Pradesh, and in Orissa, Maharashtra, northern Gujarat and southern Rajasthan. In Fig. 27 are shown the sites from which Palaeolithic tools have been discovered in India.

The Madras Hand-Axe Industry (or Madras-Acheul)

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The Soān industry with its primary focus in the north produced pebble choppers and flakes and cores of Clacto-Levalloisean types, and evolved on its own lines. The other tradition is the core-tool or the hand-axe tradition with its primary focus in the peninsular portion, especially around Madras. The terrace at Attirampakkam in the Kortalayar Valley in the Chingleput District, Tamil Nadu, shows the stratigraphic evolution of the Acheulian culture. The tools are prolific. According to Krishnaswamy, ‘the hand-axes are reminiscent of very late Acheul types of Eur-Africa and even simulate Micoque forms, being thin, flat and elongated and made on flakes. Cleavers are abundant and of varied forms. Both show the Vaal technique of South Africa. Along with the dominant bifaces, there are cores and flakes exhibiting Soān technique.’²

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² Krishnaswamy, V.D. Stone Age in India, Ancient India, Jan. 1947

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The tool type of the Madras industry is pear-shaped or oval, flaked on both faces in such a way as to produce a continuous cutting edge (Fig. 25). The pointed heavy-butted hand-axes were used for digging roots and rhizomes. Some of them may have been used as lance-heads, or even thrown as bolts. The tools of the Madras Industry have been found as far south as the Cauveri and Vaigai rivers, in the west at Kandivili near Bombay and north of the Narmada, and north-east as far as the upper reaches of the Son, a tributary of the Ganges (Fig. 30). This technique of tool-making covered a vast area—India, South Africa, and western Europe.

Maharashtra

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Lately, Palaeolithic Acheulian hand-axe tools have been discovered at a number of sites in Maharashtra. Fossils of hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gaur (wild cattle), horse, deer and buffalo have been found at Patne. Fragments of an ostrich egg were discovered in association with the upper Palaeolithic tools at Patne. The eggshell had engravings of criss-cross lines. This is the earliest evidence of the upper Palaeolithic art discovered in India and has been dated to 25,000 B.P.

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The lower Palaeolithic sites in Maharashtra are Gangapur, Nandur, Madhmeshwar and Kalegaon on the Godavari River, Sakri at the Kan River, and Nevasa at the Pravara River. Besides, a number of middle Palaeolithic sites have been discovered at Godavari, Tapti, Wainganga, Krishna, Pravara, Ghod and Zarpad rivers.

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A striking feature of the distribution of Palaeolithic hand-tools in India is the predominance of chopper-type pebble tools in northern India, and of Acheulian hand-axes in southern India. Outside India, the Anyathian culture of Burma, the Choukoutienian culture of China, the Tampanian culture of Malaya and the Patjitanian culture of Java are dominated by chopper-chopping-tools. Pebble tools also occur in the pre-Stellenbosch, early Olduvan and Kafuan stages in South and East Africa. This distribution tends to suggest that even on a world-wide basis the chopper-chopping-tools on the one hand and hand-axes and cleavers on the other represent two different cultures. The chopper-type is more primitive and older than the Acheulian hand-axes.

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Sites from where Palaeolithic tools have been discovered are near rivers, small streams or lakes. Wild animals that the stone-age man hunted lived in jungles along the rivers and lakes. When they came for drinking water, Palaeolithic hunters had an opportunity to kill or trap them. Apart from wild animals, fish from lakes and rivers were also a source of food for them. These men moved in small bands and apart from hunting collected fruits, leaves of edible herbs and the roots and tubers of wild plants. For digging roots and tubers, pointed sticks and hand-axes of the Acheulian type were used.

Neanderthal Man (Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis)

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The earliest find of the Neanderthal skull is from the fortification of Gibraltar in 1848. Fragments of a skull and a skeleton were later discovered from the late Pleistocene deposits in the Neanderthal Valley near Dusseldorf in Germany. Skulls and skeletons of the Neanderthal man were subsequently discovered from various places in France, the Island of Jersey, Belgium, Spain, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, North Africa, Israel, Iran and Iraq (Fig. 32).

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From these discoveries, it appears that the Neanderthal man lived in Europe, Africa and western Asia some 72,000 years ago. He was short, had a low receding forehead, protuberant brows, long arms and bent thighs; he walked with a stoop, and had a matted coat of hair. His brain-case was large, but the brain was poorly developed. The cranial capacity was between 1,350 and 1,700 cubic centimetres with the average at about 1,400 to 1,425 cubic centimetres. He must have been strong and well-built, about 1.55 to 1.65 metres tall. His lower limbs were shorter than those of the modern man and his thigh-bones were slightly arched. He hunted a variety of animals, including cave-bears and hairy mammoths, and cooked their meat on fire.

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The Neanderthal men hunted mammoths, the woolly elephants of Europe. Their weapons were boulders, and spears of wood tipped with blades of flint. Hunting in a pack requires organization, planning and strategy. In this respect, they showed a great advance over Homo erectus, who probably relied on individual skill in hunting. The Neanderthal man [Figure: INDIA COMPARATIVE OCCURRENCE OF CHOPPER-CHOPPING TOOLS AND BIFACIAL HANDAXES AND CLEAVERS CHOPPER-CHOPPING TOOLS BIFACIAL HANDAXES AND CLEAVERS SITES OF OCCURRENCE 1. Guler 2. Near Nalagarh. 3. 4. in Potwar Region 5. in Chittor District 6 in Singrauli Basin 7. Deogarh 8. Near Hoshangabad 9. Near Narsinghpur 10. In Sabarmati Valley 11. In Mahi Valley 12. In Mayurbhanj 13. In Upper Godavari Valley 14. In Lower Godavari Valley 15. Near Khandivly 16. In Malaprabha Basin 17. In Lower Krishna Valley. 18. Near Giddalur 19. In Nellore District 20. 21. In Kortatalayar Valley 22. In Lower Cauveri Valley]

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Fig. 30. The comparative occurrence of chopper-chopping tools and bifacial hand-axes. Chopper-chopping-tools were more common in the Siwaliks of India and Pakistan. Bifacial hand-axes predominated in the south [Figure: Fig. 31. The Stone Age sites in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. A number of such sites have been discovered in the Kangra Valley in Himachal Pradesh and in the Valley of the Sirsa River above Chandigarh (After H.D. Sankalia)]

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also used stone-tipped arrows and buried his dead with great ceremony. In the cave of La-Chapelle-aux-Saints, the corpse was accompanied with Mousterian implements and joints of meat. His social and cultural achievements comprised middle Palaeolithic civilization.

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Gradually, however, he increased his stock of tools by adding knives, spearheads, awls, scrapers and the like, all made from chips struck from the original core of flint used in making the hand-axes. He also used the spear and the sling as his weapons. He also began to use bones and horns. To meet the growing demand for flint, he sank shafts to get at the subsurface deposits when those on the surface were exhausted. Such advances represented major steps towards a greater control over the physical environment. He made his clothing from the skins of animals, using bone needles and sinews for binding them. He could also make fire. He made the mouths of caves his permanent habitations.

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In material culture, the Neanderthal man was far ahead of the early stone-age man. The invention of fire-making gave him the most powerful weapon against wild animals. Clothing made from skins of hunted animals also symbolized advance. Progress was due largely to the challenge of the hostile environment he had to face in the last Glacial Age.

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We can appreciate the important changes that took place, as man began to eat meat, as he started using fire to prepare meat and warm himself, as he constructed his first homes and made his tools. The activities of these early Palaeolithic hunters can be deduced from the remains of animals they hunted. The remains of more than 1,000 mammoths were discovered in Predmosti in Moravia. In Solutre (France) numerous bones of wild horses were found, and in Ambrosievka (Ukraine) the remains of hundreds of bison have been discovered. These discoveries indicate organized hunts in which large parties of hunters participated. The spear was their most important weapon, and the spearheads of stone, bone, and mammoth ivory were in use. These Palaeolithic hunters also used wooden traps, fishing-nets and hooks.

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The recent discovery of nine Neanderthal skeletons from the Shanidar cave in Iraqi Kurdistan by Ralph S. Solecki has greatly improved the image of the Neanderthal man. Solecki estimates that the Shanidar cave was first occupied about 100,000 years ago, and, over a period of 60,000 years, groups of the Neanderthals made it their seasonal home. These Neanderthals were more like *Homo sapiens* in skeletal structure, and there was not much difference between them and the modern man. The discovery of the remains of lame and disabled persons from two of the caves indicates that they were kept alive by their fellows, till they met their death by an accidental rockfall. ‘These were the first stirrings of the concept of man caring for his own, a sense of belonging and family,’³ observes Solecki. Pollen analysis of the soil samples [Figure: Remains of Neanderthal Man C Mt. Carmel E Ehringsdorf M Le Moustier N Neanderthal S Steinheim

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³ Ralph S. Solecki, *Shanidar*, New York, 1971, pp. 33, 34

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Mouslerian Industries Mousteroid Industries (Age or Affinities uncertain)

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Cartographie Hallwag Berne]

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Fig. 32. The distribution of Neanderthal man (After Charles Singer *et al.*, *History of Technology*, Vol. I, 1954. The Clarendon Press, Oxford)

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around the skeletal remains of one person showed that it had pollen of eight species of flowers. This indicates that they buried their dead with flowers, and these Neanderthals were the first Flower People.

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

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Particularly important are the remains of the Neanderthals found at Mugharet et-Tabun and Mugharet es-Skhul near Mount Carmel in Israel. Many skeletal remains from the sites in Israel show clearly developed characteristics similar to those of the modern man. The thigh-bones are straight and quite long. The brow-ridge is still fairly prominent. The example of the Neanderthal man from Israel indicates how *Homo sapiens neanderthalensis* developed into the present-day form of *Homo sapiens sapiens*, who first appeared at the end of the first Wurm Glaciation about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. This early type of man shows no marked differences in the skeleton, including the structure of the skull, from the modern man. Even the capacity of the skull had reached the same level as that of the modern man. The only noticeable morphological differences can be found in the geologically early discoveries, which showed that the early man had a more robust body structure than the modern man. The most famous sites of this man are: *Cro-Magnon*, *Cro-Magnon-man*, and *Combe Capelle* in France; *Oberkassel* in Germany, *Predmosti*, *Mladec* and *Dolni Vestonice* in Moravia, as well as a number of other sites.

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About 25,000 years ago, the glacial climate in Europe improved slightly for a while. The Neanderthal man unaccountably passed out of the Pleistocene picture and his place was taken by the Cro-Magnon-man, the modern species, *Homo sapiens*. More than 100 specimens of Cro-Magnon-man have been collected in western and central Europe. His cranial capacity was equal to that of the present-day man. In the evolution of brain we notice the upward march of living matter from the scattered nerve cells of coelentrates to the highly complex human brain, which is one of nature's marvels and is the seat of soul or spirit of man. As Jacquetta Hawkes sums up, 'Throughout this vast stretch of time the increase in the size and complexity of the neo-pallium or New Brain makes the central theme; in the fossil skulls which are our principal record for the human epic we see the forehead and vault rising, their capacity swelling. Here, housed within the curved bone plates of the skull, is the most subtle and complex instrument in the world, which, at the command of the whole man, has created the rich and varied cultures, the superb individual works of art, the inspiring if never final systems of thought, that make the history of mankind.'

References

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Boule, M. and Vollois, H.V. *Fossil Men*, New York, 1957 De Terra, H. 'The Siwaliks of India and Early Man', *Early Man* (ed by C.G. MacCurdy), pp. 257-268, Philadelphia, 1937 De Terra, H., Teilhard de Chardin and Hawkes, J. & Chr. 'Palaeolithic Human Industries in the North-West Punjab and Kashmir and their Geological Significance', *Mem. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci.*, VIII, 1934 De Terra, H. and Teilhard de Chardin, P. 'Observation on the Upper Siwalik Formation and Later Pleistocene Deposits in India', *Proc, Amer. Phil. Soc.*, LXXVI, 791-822, 1936 Edey, M.A. *The Missing Link*, New York, 1973 Goodall, V. *The Quest for Man*, London, 1975 Hawkes, J. and Woolley, L. *History of Mankind*, Vol. I, UNESCO, 1963 Jelinek, J. *The Evolution of Man*, London, 1975 Johanson, D.C. *Family of Early Man*, *National Geographic*, December 1976 Joshi, R.V. 'Stone Age Maharashtra', in *Dawn of Civilization in Maharashtra*, Bombay, 1975 Khatri, A.P. 'The Pleistocene Mammalian Fossils of the Narmada River Valley and their Horizons', *Asian Perspectives*, IX, pp. 113-33, 1966 Khatri, A.P. 'Origin and Development of the Handaxe in the Narmada Valley', *Centenary Volume of Prehistoric Research in India*, Calcutta University, pp. 96-121, 1966 Khatri, A.P. 'Stone Age and Pleistocene Chronology of the Narmada Valley (Centeral India)', *Anthropos*, Vol. 56, pp. 519-30, 1961 Krishnan, M.S. *Geology of India and Burma*, Madras, 1943

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Krishnaswami, V.D. ‘Prehistoric Man round Madras, *Proc. Indian Acad. Sciences*, Madras Meeting, 1938 Krishnaswami, V.D. Stone Age in India, *Ancient India*, No. 3, 1947 Lal, B.B. Palaeoliths from the Beas and Banganga Valleys, Punjab, *Ancient India*, No 12, 1956 Leakey, L.S.B. *The Stone Age of Africa*, Oxford, 1936 Peake, H. and Fleure, H.J. *Apes and Men*, Oxford, 1927 Randhawa, M.S. *et al.* *Evolution of Life*, New Delhi, 1969 Sahni, M.R. and Khan, E. Stratigraphy, Structure and Correlation of the Upper Siwaliks East of Chandigarh, *Jour. Pal. Soc India*, V, 1964 Todd, K.R.U. ‘Prehistoric Man Round Bombay’ *Proc. Prehist. Soc. East Anglia*, VII, 35-42, Ispwich, 1932 Verma, B.C. Occurrence of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts in the Pinjor Member (Lower Pleistocene) of Himachal Pradesh, *Jour. Geol. Soc. of India*, Vol. 16 No. 4, 1975 White, E. and Brown, D. *The First Man*, New York, 1973 Zeuner, F.E. *Dating the Past; an Introduction to Geochronology*, London, 1946