Changing trends in the study of a Paleolithic site in India: A century of research at Attirampakkam

Abstract

The above quote was made by the British geologist Robert Bruce Foote, while discussing his discovery of stone tools at the prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, Tamil Nadu, South India. Prior to this, Foote had identified the first stone tool in the subcontinent (Foote, 1866); a find which not only pushed back the known antiquity of human occupation in India, but which also generated awareness of what stone tools looked like. Thus, on 28th September 1863, when Foote and his colleague William King were investigating the ‘Stri Permatoor’ (Sriperumbudur) shale beds in the gully around ‘Atrampakkam nullah’ (Attirampakkam), King was able to recognize and pick up two “well-shaped oval implements” on a terrace of ‘quartzite shingle’ in the gully bed (Foote, 1866:3). Little did they realize that this discovery would initiate a century of research into the Paleolithic archaeology of Tamil Nadu; which was later, often referred to as constituting the ‘Madras Paleolithic industries’. Subsequent sporadic research at Attirampakkam and neighboring sites in the basin of the river Kortallaiyar (a part of the Palar river basin), led to the emergence of concepts that came to influence much of later Indian prehistory. Reviews of the Indian Lower Paleolithic, and studies in various parts of the country, invariably included references to these industries, including the site of Attirampakkam; despite the fact that only two research papers and short notes on the early excavations constituted almost all what was known of this region. This paper briefly discusses these early studies, against which ongoing excavations at Attirampakkam may be situated. The site of Attirampakkam is located around 47 km inland from the current shoreline