1.20 - The Palaeolithic of South Asia

Summary

It is remarkable that investigations into the South Asian Palaeolithic commenced close on the heels of the birth of prehistory in Europe in the third quarter of the 19th century. The initiative for these investigations was taken single-handedly by Robert Bruce Foote of the Geological Survey of India; and even before the close of the century, Foote’s findings in South India had attracted considerable attention in the European scientific circles. A detailed Palaeolithic culture-sequence was worked out before the middle of the next, and in the ensuing quarter-century a vast number of Stone Age sites were reported from various parts of South Asia.

Despite these advances, the South Asian Palaeolithic found only an occasional reference in the literature on world prehistory in the second half of the 20th century. This lukewarm attitude arose from the lack of a hominin fossil record, nonrecognition of the importance of investigating primary or in situ sites and, of course, the emergence of East Africa as the major focus of interest in palaeoanthropological research. Happily, the situation has begun to change in recent years, and South Asia is once again receiving due attention in discussions on Old World prehistory (Paddayya 1984; Misra 1987; Petraglia & Korisettar 1998; Kennedy 2000; Petraglia & Allchin 2007; Gaillard et al. 2009; Dennell 2009: 336–95).