13 Middle Palaeolithic Culture

Madhavi Kunneriath and Ravi Korisettar

Introduction

The credit for the first identification of the Middle Palaeolithic culture in India goes to H.D. Sankalia who discovered a flake industry comprising scrapers, points and borers made on siliceous materials like chert, chalcedony, agate and jasper in the stratified deposits (Gravel II) of the Pravara River at Nevasa in 1955 and named it ‘Series II’ of the Palaeolithic sequence of tools. Since the time of this distinct identification of the Middle Palaeolithic culture in India, a large number of sites of this culture have been located in different parts of India and the earlier discovered industries with similar features (flake tool assemblage) such as Nandur Madhmeswar on the Godavari, Kandivli region near Bombay and Kurnool region in Andhra Pradesh. The Middle Palaeolithic sites are generally distributed in the same area where the Lower Palaeolithic sites are located indicating thereby that the Middle Palaeolithic populations occupied the same areas also.

Middle Palaeolithic tools have been recorded from major part of the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and Nepal. Some regional variations in the techno-typology of artefact assemblages in different regions have been suggested. Some of the sites and groups of sites of different sizes and character have been reported in close association with sources of raw material, river gravels, etc. It has been suggested that decline in the density of tools during the post-Acheulian cultures at Bhimbetka may be due to an increasing use of tools made of organic material. Ethnographic and archaeological studies show that the predominantly scrapers were used for wood working and the artefacts were hafted in wooden or bone handles by natural mastics such as resin. More ethno-archaeological data in this direction is to be collected and analysed. There are regional variations in artefacts depending upon raw material available in the respective regions. The culture may be divided into at least three developmental phases (i) the early Middle Palaeolithic having occurrence of artefacts of Acheulian tradition (ii) Middle Palaeolithic having artefacts made on flakes detached from prepared core and discoidal cores and (iii) late Middle Palaeolithic assemblages having a blade element showing tendency towards Upper Palaeolithic is also recorded. The radiocarbon dates for the culture are generally on shell and bone which are susceptible to secondary contamination from residual radioactivity. In recent years tephrochronology and OSL dating methods have also been applied. The Middle Palaeolithic culture appears to have survived from late Mid-Pleistocene period to Upper Pleistocene period. It can be dated at least from 125 to 40 Kyr.

The Middle Palaeolithic sites can be categorized into four groups – cave and rock shelter sites, open-air workshops or factory sites, hill slopes and river sites.

Sites like Bhimbetka and Adamgarh fall in the first category while Kovalli and Devapur in Karnataka, which are located at the sources of raw material- outcrops of chert, chalcedony, jasper, agate occurring in sedimentary formations and as intertrappean beds are examples of the open-air workshop sites. River sites, sometimes located quite far away from the main river, probably serving as camp sites, with artefacts occurring in cross bedded sandy pebbly gravels, are found along the Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Yamuna and other rivers. The type site of Middle Palaeolithic culture Nevasa on Pravara and Taminhal on the Krishna are examples of this category of sites.

This Later Pleistocene culture dated on the basis of stratigraphy and palaeontology have yielded absolute dates from some sites. From western Rajasthan, 16 R at Didwana site had yielded date of 144,00 BP, 150,000 BP (TL dates of quartz grains), from Saurashtra (Gujarat), from the Hiran Valley, 56800 BP (U-Th series date of the second miliolite deposit overlying the gravel bearing Middle Palaeolithic industry)

A progressive diminution in the size of tools, change of tool types, change in the choice of raw material etc. are all cultural changes of the human behavioural pattern, that can be observed during the Middle Palaeolithic cultural period.

Fossil remains which are found in association with artefacts or in gravels morphologically similar to the tool bearing deposits are Bos namadicus, Bubalis bubalis, Equus namadicus, Elephas namadicus, etc. Middle Palaeolithic people would have probably occupied thorn-scrub types of vegetation interspersed with thickets and even forested tracts.

A simple flake and core industry found from the Soan valley in Pakistan was designated Soanian. Several phases of development within the Soanian were identified early on. It was observed it lacks the typical handaxes and cleavers of the Lower Palaeolithic or Acheulian. This industry is also characterized by the absence of standardized tool types and comprises flakes without retouch (that could give rise to scrapers, typical of the Middle Paleolithic). Early workers divided the soan industry into four stages. Similar tools were also documented from the Subhimalayan terraces in north India. These are small surface collections and do not belong to datable contexts. As a result it was difficult to place the industry in the Palaeolithic succession of India, owing to its atypical nature. A detailed study carried out by P. Chouhan has made a case for this industry and suggests that the assemblage/industry can considered a part of the Middle Paleolithic as a part of the Soanian contains Levallois cores.

2. The Narmada Valley Sites

Adamgarh is a rock shelter site yielding Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in the primary context. In a sandy red clay deposit 38 artefacts made on quartzite and other fine grained stones were found during the excavation. The finished tools are: chopper, chopping tool, handaxe, scrapers, borers and points.

At Bhimbetka, a shorter cultural deposit than the preceding Acheulian (20 to 50 cm) occurs in several rock shelters. Here it is considered as a development out of the local Acheulian – and scrapers, denticulates and knives on flakes are made on a bright yellowish quartzite, available in plenty in the area. Scrapers made on flat natural slabs of stone are also found.

The central Narmada valley is one of the important areas for the study of Palaeolithic cultures. The Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in a remarkably fresh condition found in a silty deposit at Samnapur in this valley represent the primary context site. The artefacts were excavated from a rubble gravel. The site is located on the northern bank of the Narmada and the Richai Nala about 1 km northwest of the Narmada. The extension of the site was confirmed by excavating several test pits at the site which yielded scatter of artefacts. The site was extended in an area of 100 x 60 m. Excavations at the site in an area of 44 sq. m revealed more than 3000 artefacts and a small number of fragmentary fossilized animal bones. The artefacts are generally made on cherty quartzite which is available in the cherty quartzite outcrop in the neighbourhood in the form of blocks of varying sizes. Some artefacts are made of quartzite pebbles and cobbles which were available in the upper reaches of Richai Nala and some are made of dolerite which is exposed in the basaltic outcrops at Jhira Ghati over 20 km northwest of the site. Some chalcedony flakes were also found which is available as nodules in the veins of the basalt outcrop. The industry is flake based and some blades also have been found. A large number of cores, flakes and chips along with shaped tools indicate that the artefacts were manufactured at the site itself. There is no evidence of Levallois cores, however some flakes show retouch. A variety of scrapers, notches, denticulates, borers are present in the assemblage.

A reconnaissance survey in the Nimar District of Madhya Pradesh in the submergence area of the Narmada Sagar Dam has revealed several Middle Palaeolithic sites. The sites are surface occurrences on the rocky ridges and hillocks in the Deccan Trap area. Quartzite is the main raw material, although chert has also been utilized. The tools include a variety of scrapers. Explorations in the districts of Raipur and Bilaspur in the upper Mahanadi valley revealed artefacts from gravel II of the Mahanadi and its tributaries.

3. Tapi Valley, Dhule District, Maharashtra

Here the Middle Palaeolithic sites were observed on the open plains, and this seems to have been the preference for the settlements in the later phase of the Middle Palaeolithic too. Tools occur in the strata of current-bedded sandy fine gravel and current bedded sand and fine gravel. Mousterian cores recalling discoidal cores, flake tools detached from such cores like scrapers and points, retouched along the margins are found. Cylinder-hammer technique and blade technique is evidenced. It represents a formative stage of the Middle Palaeolithic with small proportion of bifaces in its assemblage, made chiefly on jasper and fine grained red basalt. Open air sites are Raypur, Bhadgaon, Dhavalivihar Pada and others situated on the Nizampur plateau. There is evidence of a Middle Palaeolithic living and factory site at Chirki, near the type site of Nevasa on Pravara.

4. Orsang Valley, Gujarat

An early Middle Palaeolithic industry has been found within the occupation zones of the Acheulian localities here. The sites where these ‘transitional’ assemblages are found are Sagdhra (Locality I), Pipiya (Locality V) and at Baskario (Locality III a) also at Uchhet (Locality II a, IIIa) and Duma (Locality I a). Artefacts are made of fine grained quartzite and includes scrapers, miniature handaxes, retouched flakes, points and cleavers. Sub types of scrapers recovered include end scrapers and side scrapers with varieties like straight sided, convex sided and a few concave sided ones. A single example of the notched variety was also found. The presence of miniature handaxes, an important characteristic feature of the early Middle Palaeolithic of this region is indicative of its evolution from the preceding Acheulian culture.

Found in the thin upper gravel deposits, these industries have been dated to the late Middle Pleistocene to the early Upper Pleistocene, based on the geomorphological, sedimentological and palaeontological consideration

5. Rajasthan

Important sites from Rajasthan include Budha Pushkar, 16R (Didwana), Singi Talav (Didwana), Sojat, from the Chambal river basin, Navghat, Sonita, and Badoli and from Jaisalmer District, Bhojka, and Pokaran, etc. In the Barmer district, afew sites yielding Middle Palaeolithic tools are made of fine grained jasper with its source in dried up river bed. Gravel II of the Banas system at the sites of Bhutia, Hajra Kheri, Beawer and Champakheri contains tools of side scrapers on flakes, borer, points and handaxes made on chert, jasper, quartzite and sandstone. Levallois flakes and cores were also found. Although similar assemblages were noticed at Kadamli, the raw material differed here with preference was quartzite. In the Thar region, Middle Palaeolithic tools occur in reddish brown soil. This gives us a clue to the palaeoclimate which would have been with more abundant vegetation, surface water, cooler wetter humid climate. Evidence of working floors has been found at Hokra and Baridhani. The term Luni industry is used for assemblages of this culture west of the Aravallis due to more variety in stone tool types and larger number of worked flakes.

6. Eastern Region

The cultural remains from Bihar at sites of Bhimbandh and Jamalpur, include Levallois prepared and denticulated tools, side and end scrapers besides flakes on quartzite.

Industries with true scraper-point character with an absent Acheulian tradition and Levallois prepared tools on shale, limestone, quartz, etc., were brought to light in districts of Keonjhar, Dhenkanal and Sundargarh. Further east, Garo Hills have revealed the general pattern of scraper-point tradition of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic. Here the tools were made on dolerite.

Jwalapuram

The Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh has been known for the occurrence of Palaeolithic sequence of cultures. The Billasurgam region was first investigated by Robert Bruce Foote and later by K. Thimma Reddy and M.L.K. Murty. The occurrence of Palaeolithic sites was well established by their work. However, during 2002 and 2014, fresh surveys in the region especially in the Banganpalle taluk resulted in the discovery of Middle Palaeolithic sites in buried context, indicating the presence of primary sites, comparable to the well know sites of Bhimbetka and Adamgarh. Here the sites around the village of Jwalapuram the Middile Palaeolithic industry was found buried under a thick deposit of volcanic ash dated to around 74,000 years ago. This is a unique context in India where the Middle Paleolithic artefacs are buried under a marker bed that has helped in absolute dating of the culture to more than 78,000 years ago. This dating is also supported by the application of OSL (optically stimulated luminescence dating) method in the Indian context.

The Middle Palaeolithic sites are located along the seasonal stream called Jurreru, a tributary of the Kunderu river. A series of localities designated JWP1 onwards were subject to excavations. These localities also included some painted rock shelters revealing Upper Palaeolithic occupation characterized by early production of microlithic.

The majority of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts were made from locally occurring hard black limestone and occasionally from chert rock. A variety of typical Middle Palaeolithic flake tools, points, Levallois cores, radial cores, etc. have been documented. Excavations revealed the well preserved working floors buried under the volcanic ash. The region also preserves evidence for the continuity of the Middle Palaeolithic industry till the emergence of microlithic industry around 35,000 years ago.

Middle Palaeolithic sites in similar contexts are also found in the neighbouring Sagileru valley. The majority of sites of the Middle Palaeolithic are open air stations associated with foothills and floodplains.

7. Other Parts of the Subcontinent

The evidence for the Middle Paleolithic also comes from Afghanistan in the northwest to Bengal in the east. The Middle Paleolithic sites are not well documented from Kerala, Assam, and Bengal. The site of Darar-i-Kur, Ghar-I-Mordeh, Gusfand, Hazar, Kara Kamar II and IV Dasht-I-Nawar are the western sites on the northwestern border of the subcontinent. The cave sites of parkho-darro Malakand Hills in Pakistan and Sanghao are also important evidence of cave occupation in the region of Pakistan. The cave sites have also yielded microliths indicating a continued occupation during the Pleistocene and later.

In the Rohri Hills of Sind, Pakistan Middle Palaeolithic sites are associated with chert outcrops. The Middle Palaeolithic industry has been designated as Rohri industry. It has been observed that among other Palaeolithic and later sites the Middle Paleolithic sites are more numerous.

Arjun3 is the only known Middle Paleolithic site in Nepal. Gudrun Corvinus morethan 1300 quartzite Middle Palaeolithic artefacts. 86% of the assemblage is represented by waste products indicating the site was probably a factory site. Scrapers and chopper verity of tools have been documented. The Middle Palaeolithic status of the site is determined by the presence of Levallois, discoid and large blade cores.

The Middle Palaeolithic sites along the major rivers, rivers, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha are found in two distinctive contexts; Gravel II in the river sections and high level gravels located beyond the reach of modern day floods. The Middle Palaeolithic in this context is characterized by abundant flake tools and low percentage of cores, the raw material in the majority of instances is chert or fine grained quartzite. In Maharashtra the sites of Kharadkheda, Gangapur and Paithan in the upper Godavari valley are noteworthy for their rich assemblage of chert rock Middle Palaeolithic assemblages. In the same area, high level gravel Middle Paleolithic sites were excavated at Wadoli and Waghodi. The assemblage comprised scrapers, borers and points. In the Manjra valley, a tributary of the Godavari, in Maharashtra is also rich in Middle Paleolithic sites.

The Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Deccan Trap region are comparatively sparse. Ranala is a Middle Palaeolithic site of the region. Ranjani on the right bank of the Mina River in Pune District is a river gravel site which yielded 9 cores and 15 flakes made on dolerite dyke material. Prepared cores, disc cores and cylindrical cores indicate sophisticated flaking technology.

Numerous occurrences of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts associated with high level gravel have been reported in the middle Krishna Valley. The artefacts are made on chert. The Shorapur Doab in Karnataka is also known for the distribution of sites of the Middle Palaeolithic culture. The artefacts are made from chalcedony, chert, jasper, quartzite and agate nodules that are locally available in the region.

Most of the east coast is dominated by deltaic landforms with occasional rock promontories. Towards the western margins of the alluvial, deltaic and shore zone deposits extensive lateritic and duricrust formations are found. The Madras coast in Tamil Nadu and Vishakhapatnam coast in Andhra Pradesh are rich in Middle Palaeolithic sites.

The Middle Palaeolithic evidence is abundant on the Srisailam plateau in the Nallamalai hills of the Cuddapah Basin of the Eastern Ghats while the flake tool assemblages are found mixed with the Lower Palaeolithic assemblages in the open air find spots. The upper and middle reaches of the Bhavanasi, Gundlakamma and Sagileru are rich sites. The Middle Palaeolithic flake and flake blade assemblages with a considerable percentage of faceted flake element is widely found in the Bhavanasi, Tigaleru, Gundlakamma and Sagileru Valleys. The Sagileru Basin in Cuddapah District of Andhra Pradesh has yielded some important sites of the culture. The artefacts collected from the gravel II and surface sites include scrapers, points, borers, miniature handaxes and choppers along with cores, flakes and chips made on medium to fine grained quartzite. The most important site of this basin is Nandipalle. From Chittoor District also Middle Palaeolithic sites have been found. Some noteworthy sites were located in Nalgonda District. Occasional Middle Palaeolithic sites are known from southern parts of Tamil Nadu and coastal Karnataka. In the Cuddapa Basin, the Nallamalais, the Seshachalams and the Velikondas, the Middle Palaeolithic is widespread. On the northern part of the Eastern Ghats and the Visakhapatnam Coast, rock cut terraces and caves of marine origin of Riss-Wurm Interglacial period also reveal cultural remains of this industry. On the eroded rock surface at Rushikonda, Middle Palaeolithic artefacts have been found.

The Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Giddaluru area in Prakasham District of Andhra Pradesh is a type site in the Cuddappah Basin, which is rich in such sites. Akavidu and Araveetikola which yielded different types of scrapers and flakes made on quartzite, quartzitic sandstone are other examples. The explorations in the Paleru Valley in the same district have resulted in the discovery of Middle Palaeolithic sites. The artefacts mostly in fresh condition include scrapers, points, borers, choppers, discoids, handaxes, utilized flakes, flakes, blade-flakes, cores and chips. The raw material is mostly coarse grained and fine grained quartzite, but sometimes quartz is also used. The investigations and excavation at Nagarjunakonda also had revealed Middle Palaeolithic artefacts.

Recent studies in the Kortallaiyar Basin have revealed a high density of Middle Palaeolithic sites, located in the rock shelters, hillslopes, pediment surfaces along the now seasonal streams. Some of these sites have been found to be undisturbed and primary context sites. The assemblages reveal increasing use of fine grained quartzite along with other siliceous rocks. The Gudiyam rockshelter site is one of the early sites discovered in the region with stratified Middle Palaeolithic horizon. 1612 Middle Paleolithic artefacts have documented from 13 sites in the Kortallaiyar valley.

The Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in the Kortallaiyar Basin have been assigned stratigraphically to the Late Pleistocene. However, the investigators have indicated a date of 80 Kyr to the Middle Palaeolithic in the region. Quartzite, quartzitic sandstone and quartz are the principal raw materials. The Middle Palaeolithic artefacts have been reported either mixed with the Lower Palaeolithic artefacts or separately from gravel II or lateritic gravel. Medium to fine grained quartzite is the main raw material used for making the artefacts. Levalloisian and prepared core technique has been used for detaching the flakes. The tool types include miniature handaxes, cleavers, choppers, variety of scrapers and borers.

At Ramayogi Agraharam, north of Rushikonda, in the red beds between Visakhapatnam and Bhimunipatnam, excavations have revealed successive occupation of the MP, UP and the Mesolithic cultures. It is one of the important sites of the Middle Palaeolithic culture on the Vishakhapatnam coast, located about 20 km northeast of Vishakhapatnam city within a bad land topography of red sediments. The site extends approximately over 1000 sq m with artefacts concentration occurring in two large clusters. Vertical excavation in a step trench measuring 72 m into the red soil formation was done up to a depth of 8 m. The Middle Palaeolithic level is found at a depth of 3.2 m. The artefacts collected from the surface and recovered from excavation include shaped tools along with cores, flakes, blade flakes, chips and an anvil. The main raw material used for artefacts is quartzite, though some chert and Khondalite rock artefacts also have been found. The tools include handaxes (oblong, ovate, pear-shaped and lanceolate), a cleaver, choppers, discoids, scrapers (side, double side, convex, concave, round, plano-convex, concavo-convex, keel and end), points (simple, leaf shaped and tanged), knives, borers and scraper-cum-points. The knives made on blade like flakes are noteworthy tools.

A borer-cum-scraper on dark greenish felsite was discovered from Naravi in Beltangadi taluk in Dakshina Kannada District in 1982 by a team of Indian and Japanese geographers. This tool was made using the Levallois technique.

8. The Yamuna Valley, Northern Vindhyan Slopes

Middle Palaeolithic stone and bone artefacts are documented from a stratigraphically constrained sediment horizon at the Kalpi section of the Yamuna river. This sediment horizon has been dated by Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) technique to around 45kyr. The lithic artefacts are made on quartzite pebbles, and consist of pebble tools, cores, un-retouched pebbles, broken pebbles, atypical points, side-scrapers, and chips. The bone artefacts which show charring evidence, exceed the lithic artefacts in number and are found spread over a few hundred sq. m. They include end-scraper, point, notched tool, burin, atypical end scraper and bones with cut marks besides a large mammal vertebra and animal skull showing cut marks used as anvil, and a triangular point with a fire hardened tip. A 3.54 m long elephant tusk and 1 m long elephant shoulder blade were recovered. Rich faunal remains in his horizon indicate a humid climate with strong monsoon around 40-45kyr also deduced from mineralogical-geochemical data.

The Middle Paleolithic industry of the Belan valley includes scrapers, points, borers, blades, spheroids, etc. Quartzite and chert are the chief raw materials for tools.

86 Middle Palaeolithic sites have documented from the Son valley. The assemblage consists of handaxes, discoids, scrapers, points, borers, etc.

9. Discussion

On the basis of the above account it can be suggested the current evidence of the Middle Paleolithic in India can be placed in the Later Pleistocene time period, 250,000-10,000 years ago. Outside the Indian subcontinent this period witnessed the origin and spread of Homo sapiens (anatomically modern humans). Developments in the field of ancient DNA studies have given rise to the new field of molecular archaeology where mitochondrial DNA from fossils hominins (both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals) is extracted and mapped for a study of population history, human expansion, etc. These studies have placed the origin of Homo sapiens in Africa around 200,000 years ago and that first evidence of behavioural modernity occurs in Africa during the later Pleistocene. S. McBreaty and Alison Brooks have given a checklist of traits that help us identify evidence for behavioural modernity in the archaeological record of the later Pleistocene. Items of behavioural modernity include specialized projectile points (Aterian type) blades, microliths from high quality rocks such as cryptocrystalline silica, use of bone for artefacts, art, artefact styles and standardization etc. A reanalysis of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages has helped in identifying the presence of projectile points or shouldered points. They are found at Jwalapuram, Nevasa, Bhimbetka and other southern Indian sites. In Africa the roots of some of these traits are recorded in the Middle Stone Age. While the African Middle Stone Age is associated with the Homo sapiens in Europe it is associated with the Neanderthals. Therefore the evidence from the Indian subcontinent assumes importance in terms of its place in the human expansions out of Africa, the distinctiveness of the Middle Paleolithic or its affinities with contemporary technologies outside of the subcontinent.

So far no hominin remains have been found in the context of Middle Paleolithic in the Indian subcontinent. There are very few excavated Middle Palaeolithic sites in India. Middle Paleolithic artefacts from buried contexts are known only from a couple sites, such as Didwana (16R) (Rajasthan), Samnapur, Bhimbetka IIIF-23, Adamgarh (Madhya Pradesh), Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu), Jwalapuram (Andhra Pradesh) for example. The majority of sites are known from fluvial and surface contexts. Some of the buried context sites have provided important information on settlement patterns and landscape use, technology, changes in palaeoenvironment and chronology.

Chronology

Both relative and absolute dating methods have been applied for dating the Later Pleistocene sites, including the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in India. Multiple dating methods such as uranium series, thermoluminescence and radiocarbon methods have been applied at Didwana for the 19 m section of 16R in Rajasthan. Here archaeological assemblages identified as Middle Palaeolithic are dated to greater than 150,000 years ago. Similarly a Middle Palaeolithic scraper based industry from Patpara in Son valley (Madhya Pradesh) is dated to less than 103,000 years ago. The dating of miliolites in the Hiran valley, Saurashtra (Gujarat) places the Middle Palaeolithic around 70,000 years ago. Tephrochronlogy and OSL dating of the Jwalapuram Middle Paleolithic assemblage places the age around 80,000 years ago. In the Kaladgi Basin of Karnataka and at Bhimbetka (IIIF-23) the Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are found overlying the late Acheulian.

Typology and Technology

The distinctive features of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic are (a) a decrease in the size of the artefacts, (b) shift from large Acheulian bifaces to smaller specialized tools, (c) an increase in the prepared core technique and (d) preference to fine grained raw materials such as chert, jasper, chalcedony, flint, quartz, etc.

Flake based assemblages consisting of prepared cores, retouched flakes (scrapers), diminutive handaxes generally characterize the Middle Paleolithic in India. Scrapers are the dominant tool form of the Middle Paleolithic and points are also documented from a series of sites as well. Diminutive handaxes are also documented from a large number of sites across the Indian subcontinent. Knives, denticulates and borers through present are rare in the Middle Palaeolithic There is considerable spatial variation in the presence and frequency of these assemblages across the Indian subcontinent. The majority of the Middle Palaeolithic industries are produced on flakes struck from prepared cores. At some sites there are indications of that the prepared core technology evolved from the Late Acheulian, for example Lakhmapur in the Kaladgi Basin of Karnataka. Levallois and Mousterian (discoidal core) techniques are most common, also cylindrical core technique is also recorded. Flakes were also detached from amorphous cores and natural spalls. The work of Gudrun Corvinus in Nepal is important. She has documented the occurrence of Middle Palaeolithic industries in the valley where the industry is dominated by blade and flake-blade components. Flake-blade cores are also known from Patpara in north central India and Kortallaiyar valley sites. Unidirectional cores from sites in Rajasthan also suggest production of blades and blanks.

10. Conclusion

The Middle Paleolithic hominins occupied similar ecological zones as their predecessors with expansion into new areas such as southern Tamil Nadu.

In summary it can stated that the Middle Paleolithic succeeds the Lower Paleolithic in India as elsewhere in the old world. It is dominantly represented by scraper, borer, points made from high quality raw materials such as chert, agate, jasper, though other rock types were used. The authors of the Middle Palaeolithic are said to be early modern humans, whose origins is dated to 200,000 years in Africa. At present there is an ongoing debate whether the Middle Palaeolithic culture outside of Africa indicates early expansion of modern humans out of Africa or it was in situ evolution from the Late Acheulian archaic hominins. Buried context sites, though few, have provided new insights to our understanding of human behaviour and adaptations to regional environments. Multiple dating techniques are now available for establishing absolute chronology of the Middle Palaeolithic culture. It is now dated to at least 80, 000 years ago. Typo-technological studies have shown affinities of Indian Middle Palaeolithic to the African Middle Stone Age.

Most of the Indian Middle Paleolithic is undated, and much needs to be done to establish its duration as well as its internal phasing. The main marker horizon in India is the ash that resuted from the eruption of Toba, Sumatra ca. 75 Kyr. The earlier part of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic extends back to at least 150 Kyr at 16R dune site in Rajasthan. On stratigraphic grounds, Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are found overlying Acheulian ones at several sites. Middle Palaeolithic sites are now known from Nepal in the north to Kortallaiyar valley in the south. A few of them have been excavated.

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