Processing sequences in the Indian Lower Palaeolithic: examples from the Acheulian and the Soanian

Abstract

During the Palaeolithic and especially during the Lower Palaeolithic, the prehistoric people of India were making and using two different types of lithic assemblages. To the south of the Indo-Gangetic basin their cultural remains belong to the Acheulian, characterized by the presence of Handaxes, sometimes cleavers, and by small tools on flakes or other pieces of stone. To the north of the Indo-Gangetic basin, in the Siwaliks, most of the sites yield Soanian lithic material comprising a majority of cobble tools with no typical handaxes. Flakes and small tools are rare. These two technical traditions evolved separately during the entire Palaeolithic and may be considered as two different technologies, but in both of them three processing sequences can be distinguished which are quite comprarable from one tradition to the other. The organisation of the processing sequences appears to be independent of cultural tradition. From this point of view, case studies of an Acheulian assemblage from Rajasthan and a Soanian assemblage from the western Siwaliks reveal clear similarities.