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CHAPTER - I
INTRODUCTION
The research in Indian Old Stone Age is about 125
years ©Id# The first Palaeolithic artefacts were
discovered in 1863 by Bruce Foote at Pal lava ram near
Madras* Following Bruce Foote's discoveries the basic
terminological and stratigraphies 1 framework of the
Indian Old Stone Age was provided by two major studies in
the 1930's by Canmiade and Burkitt (1930) in Kurnool
district of Andhra Pradesh and de Terra and Patterson
(1939) in northeastern India. Subsequently in the 1940's
a regional approach in the Palaeolithic research was
initiated in many parts of the country* Baring the last
three or four decades, regional researches have attracted
much more attention and importance* Besides providing a
*
firm footing to the Lower Palaeolithic culture,
studies
during this period have established the existence of
Middle and Upper Palaeolithic cultures in India.
This period also witnessed more detailed studies
in palaeoenvironments especially in Gujarat (Zeuner 1950;
Wainwright 1964), Gujarat and Rajasthan (Allchln, Goudie
and Hegde 1978), Karnataka (Joshi 1955; Pappu 1974),
Maharashtra (Raj a guru 1973; Corvinus et al. 1973) and
Sau rashtra (Lele 1972; Ma rathe 1977).
These studies In prehistory and palae©environments
during the last three decades have enhanced oar knowledge ©£
geographical distribution and regional succession of
palaeolithic cultures along with typo-technological
characteristics of the lithic industries in different
periods and their relative chronology.
Most of these studies with a few rare exceptions
were largely limited to the archaeological data collected
from secondary context mainly from fluviatile deposits*
These studies adopted a stratigraphical approach and
tried to correlate the successive Stone Age cultures with
the climatic fluctuations of the Pleistocene. As the
artefacts were found in secondary situations cultural
aspect of the Palaeolithic communities were generally
neglected. In recent years studies in Stone Age archaeology
of India have started to show a growing interest in the
identification of primary occupation sites of the different
periods and to study them as cultural systems operating
in their own ecological setting. As a result, a number
of open air occupation sites and a few cave/rock shelter
sites were discovered in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. A few of these open air
sites like Chirki (Corvinus, 1973), Hunsgi (Paddayya 1979)
in Karnataka and cave sites like Adamgarh (joshi 1973)
and Bimbetka (Misra 1980) have been excavated. Archaeolo-
16
gical evidence recove red .from these primary sites have
led to a better understanding of the behavioural patterns
of Stone Age communities operating within different
ecological settings*
Such studies the re fore, are possible only through a
thorough knew ledge of the nature of each primary settlement,
the pattern of distribution of these sites in a specific
geographical region and a reconstruction of palaeoenvironment of these sites* The present study is an attempt
in this direction* It is aimed at a study of the Stone
Age cultures of the Orsang valley from a diachronic
perspective starting from the Acheulian to the Mesolithic
cultures and to evaluate the climatic and environmental
changes through these periods in the valley, by studying
the sedimentological characteristics*
Archaeologica1 potential of the Orsang valley was
first brought to light by Foote in the 1890's (1898) by
the discovery of a few Lower Palaeolithic implements from
the gravel bed near Bahadarpur. During the same survey he
also discovered a few microliths (which he called Neoliths)
on the surface of the alluvial soil* Almost half a century
later Sank&lia revisited these prehistoric sites during
his prehistoric investigations into the main river valleys
of Gujarat (Sankalia, 1946) • His survey in Bahadarpur
area and the study of Mesolithic sites in the valley has
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been particularly useful to evaluate the nature of these
prehistoric sites. Of particular interest is his accurate
description of the stratigraphic position of the Loner
Palaeolithic (Acheulian) artefacts•
Following this, in the 1950‘s Zeuner critically
evaluated the alluvial sections of the Orsang valley along
ifith Quaternary formations in the main river systems of
central Gujarat, with a view to understand
the palaeo-
environments of the region. These studies were later
followed by Wainwright in 1960's (1964), in the lower
Narmada valley. The next important archaeological
investigation in this acfeawas carried out in 1970s by
Allchin, Goudie and Hegde, as a part of their palaeogeographical and prehistoric study of the arid and semi-arid
regions of Western India (Allchin et al. 1978)• In the
course of their survey, they discovered in addition to
many Mesolithic sites, an upper Palaeolithic site on the
top of a relict sand dune at Visadi. The site is located
about 60 kilometres east of Baroda and 5 kilometres north
of Bodeli. This was the first time an Upper Palaeolithic
occupation site was reported from Gujarat. A detailed
study of this industry was published in 1978 (Allchin
et al. 1978)
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Most of the above studies except for the latest one
by Allchin, Goudie and Hegde were confined to a general
description of the tool typology and stratigraphic
position of their occurrence, in fluviatile deposits*
Absence of information from primary sites has impeded the
cultural interpretation of the archaeological data.
Therefore, the
study was initiated with the following
objectives*
Cl) To identify primary Stone Age sites in the
valley.
(2) To study the land-use-pattern in different
periods in their proper environmental setting.
(3) To study the palaeoenvironments as reflected in
the Quaternary formations and geomorphologica1
features with a view to evaluate the environmental
changes during the successive periods pertaining
to Stone Age cultures •
(4) To evaluate artefact assemblages in the exact
georaorphic context in which they occur so aa to
understand the valley in terms of its ecological
and subsistence systems•
First requisite to answer these quarries was to locate
primary Palaeolithic settlements in the Orsang valley by
systematic field survey. A study of the occassIona1ly
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collected Palaeolithic artefacts and associated gravel
sediments from the section exposed toy the Orsamg showed
that most of these tools were not much abraded, thereby
indicating their very-short-distance transportation toy
the river. This held ©at a possibility of locating their
original place of mama facta re and ase within the premises
of the valley. Therefore an intensive survey by foot was
carried ©at within an area of about 200 Sq. kilometres.
This region falls in the middle Orsang valley between
Bodeli and Sankheda and bounded by 22° 10* - 20° 20* H. and
73° 33' and 73° 451* Two reasons that weighed important
in the selection of this area ares (i) the occurrence of
rather fresh Palaeolithic artefacts in the loose pebbly
gravel deposit of the Orsang section,and (il) the piedmont
of the rocky ridges in the northern margin of the valley,
held out a possibility of the occurrence of primary sites
in a relatively undisturbed condition. The northern margin
of the valley is about 8 to 10 Km away from the main river
channel* which is well within the general extraction
territory or territory size of the foraging communities
(Jarman 1972).
The exploratory survey carried out in this area has
resulted in the discovery of 32 primary localities of the
Acheulian period, 4 early Middle Palaeolithic localities
and 20 Mesolithic sites. As has been expected the primary
I
*
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Acheulian localities are all located in the piedmont of
the northern escarpment; whereas the Mesolithic sites are
located in the alluvial plain as well* The thesis is
mainly based on the archaeological data collected from
these primary sites and environmental data collected
from the alluvial and aeolian formations within the valley.
Interpretation of the cultural evidence entails an
essential understanding, as accurate as possible of the
environmental and ecological setting (Clark 1960,70)• In
order to understand the environmental setting of the valley
during different periods, sediraentological characteristics
of the Quatemary formations, geomorphological features
of the valley and parameters of the present environment
are analysed. This has led to the recognition of the
seasonality of the climate and corresponding variation in
in the environmental resources of the valley.
/
What effect these seasonal variations of food and
water resources had in the life of hunter-gatherer
communities of different periods in the rigion? The
nature and distribution pattern of the sites in the
piedmont of the northern escarpment and along the main
channel of the Orsang river indicates that the seasonal
availability of water was one of the decisive factors that
had controlled the formation of these sites* As the valley
has not yielded any biological remains indicative of the
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plants and animals exploited by the Palaeolithic and
Mesolithic communities, the data of the present day
edible plant and animal foods and their seasonal avai­
lability in the valley have been taken into consideration
for reconstructing the subsistence patterns of the hunter
gatherer communities• Finally an attempt has been made to
correlate the environmental and archaeological evidence
in order to understand the ecological and subsistence
systems during the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods.