Lower Paleolithic gave way to middle Paleolithic all over the world. For quite some time it was not considered an independent cultural phase. The reason was the absence of any definite stratigraphy without which it was difficult to draw a line, of demarcation between the lower and the middle Paleolithic.
The earliest date of this cultural phase is dated around 1, 00,000 BC and it continued till around 36,000 BC. Neanderthal man is believed to have dominated this stage of human evolution.
There was hardly any clue to the existence of middle Paleolithic in India till about 1960 after which only it was recognized as a separate cultural stage. Credit goes to H. D. Santali, for establishing the independent existence of this cultural phase, which through his excavations at Nevada in 1956, was able to achieve this breakthrough.
previews.123rf.com
ADVERTISEMENTS:
During this excavation a number of flake tools, belonging to the middle Paleolithic, were discovered. Incidentally, most of the important sites of middle Paleolithic happen to be in Maharashtra region and especially, the river valleys of the Godavari
and its various tributaries.
Among such sites are Nevasa, Surgeon, Bel Pandhari and Nandur Madhmeshwar. The recent excavations in West Bengal have added the names of Banker and Perugia in this list; Madhya Pradesh is yet another addition.
Tools and Economy:
A striking feature of Indian middle Paleolithic that has drawn the attention of many archaeologists is the change in raw material for tool when the lower Paleolithic gave way to middle Paleolithic.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Earlier it was mostly Quartzite stone but for the first time tools were made on such smooth and bright rocks as flint and to a lesser extent on jasper and Chalcedony. The middle Paleolithic tool maker was dependent upon flakes.
The result of this shift from core to flake was smaller and lighter tools. These were mainly used as knives or other cutting tools. Perhaps, the present knives made on iron, steel, etc. owe their origin to these flake knives.
In different regions the following may be considered as the representative tools; different types of scrapers, point, borne, burin, hand axes, cleavers along-with some chopper—chopping tools and some blades. The presence of scrapers and borers has been disturbing many scholars.
They wonder as to what a food gathering-hunting people had been doing with such tools in their food gathering economy. H. D. Santali has expressed the view that perhaps these tools were used in fabricating some other tools made on such material as wood, bones, horns, etc. since non-litchi materials on this antiquity have not survived such tools. If this view is substantiated through concrete evidences then this controversy, too, may come to an end.
Major Sites and Remains:
In Madhya Pradesh and Bundelkhand region, the middle Paleolithic culture can be seen in its best and richest form. That is why the excavated sites of this region are considered as the best representatives of the middle Paleolithic. From this whole region the cultural remains of the middle Paleolithic have been discovered from the deposits of Narmada, Betwa, Shivni, Chambal and other rivers and tributaries.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Such cultural remains include small hand axes made on chert, cleavers, choppers and hundreds of flake tools; among the flake tools different types of scrapers may be considered as ‘representative’ tools. Bhimbhetka in the Vindhyachal of Madhya Pradesh is another very important name whose slopes and rock shelter/caves contain a rich collection of various types of cultural remains.
An eminent archaeological anthropologist V. N. Misra has done very important work in Bhimbhetka. Among the 700 odd rock shelters/caves in this region around 200 are located on Bhimbhetka hills alone. About 500 of the total rock shelters contain different types of paintings.
This region is considered to be the richest in the world in terns of number of painted rock shelters/caves. In one of the excavated sites (IIIF-23) which measures 52 sq. mts. archaeological material has been found up to a depth of four meters which can be divided into eight layers; layers 6 to 8 are later Acheulian (lower Paleolithic in the Indian context); the fifth layer yields middle Paleolithic tools; the fourth is upper Paleolithic.
It is obvious that the tools were made in the rock shelters as evidences by the presence of fabrication debris. The material used throughout was Orthoquartzite for making handaxes and cleavers; the other tools were made on yellowish quartzite which withers faster.
About five thousand tools were recovered from this site. Unfortunately, nothing has survived of the organic remains; no bones have been found yet. Lately, the Belen river valley in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) has also yielded substantial number of tools of this culture.