Distribution:
- The Upper Palaeolithic cultures are distributed in several places in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand in India.
- A vast majority of the sites inhabited by the Upper Palaeolithic folk are located in river banks in different Valleys like the Swarnamukhi, Krishna and Godavari river Valleys in Andhra Pradesh, Narmada and Banjer river Valleys in Madhya Pradesh, Krishna, Tungabhadra and Bhima river Valleys in Karnataka and Krishna river Valley in Maharashtra and Belan Valley in Maharashtra and Belan Valley in Uttar Pradesh.
- There are also cave sites like those situated at Biliasurgam Muchatlachintamanugavi Kottalapplimergavi and Peddapuvudala Badegavi in Andhra Pradesh and more in Madhya Pradesh.
Environment:
The Upper Palaeolithic existed in the Upper Pleistocene times. The climate was warm and somewhat hot. The pluvial conditions favoured heavy rainfall throughout the peninsular India.
The Palaeontological and stratigraphic evidence reveals the presence of abundant flora and several large and small animals in the environment. The excavations at the cave sites in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh yielded remains of a primate , carnivores and Felix species a rodent , Perissodactytes and articldonetyles shells and fragments of shells of ostrich eggs were found at the site of Patne in Jalgaon District in Maharashtra.
Chronology:
- There in uniformity of opinion about the chronology of the Upper Palaeolithic culture in India.
- The Upper Palaeolithic cultured in India belong to the gravel layer or red brown silt formed during the last aggradational phase of the Upper Pleistocene and underlying the block brown soil of wet phase of about 11,000 years ago.
- Sankalia (1971-73) studied the stratigraphic, typological, and faunal evidence at Patne in Maharashtra and assessed that the Upper Palaeolithic culture existed between 10,400-17,500 before present.
- De Terra and Paterson (1935), Sen and Ghosh (1962) and Misra (1972) based their researchers on stratigraphic and typo-technological evidence in the Narmada Valley and concluded that the Upper Palaeolithic in Narmada Valley thrived during the closing phase of the Upper Pleistocene.
- Sankalia (1941-64) excavated the fossil sand dunes east of Baroda in Central Gujarat and reported that the Upper Palaeolithic culture existed between 40,000 and 12,000 years ago.
- Paddayya (1968) attributed the Upper Palaeolithic in Krishna and Bhima river Valleys in Karnataka to the time period extending , from the terminal phase of upper Pleistocene and early part of Holocene.
- Issac (I960), Murthy (1963-64), Ramireddy (1979), Timmareddy (1968) and several others excavated numerous Upper Palaeolithic sites in Andhra Pradesh and estimated the time period of Upper Palaeolithic as the closing part of Upper Pleistocene.
- Sankalia (1974) thinks that the Karnataka Upper Palaeolithic culture is earlier in antiquity than its counterpart in Andhra Pradesh.
Materials:
The materials used for making the Upper Palaeolithic tools include those of stone and bone. The lithic materials consisted of mainly quartzite of coarse, medium and coarse to fine grained varieties with olive green, light green as well as pale yellow and light shades. Occasionally, block Iydiamite and milky quartz were also used. Further, jasper, chalcedony were also used. – Stone tools included blades, burins, borers, scrapers, points, borers, flake knives core flake tools and so on. People used direct and indirect pressure flaking and blunting techniques for making backed blades.
The materials used for making bone tools were mostly shafts of long bones. People made bone tools like shouldered points barbs perforator, scups, chisels, scrapers, spatulates, and needle points by three process; knocking of epiphyses and transverse cutting; longitudinal cutting; and lateral chipping and finishing.
Cultural Diversity:
The Upper Palaeolithic cultures in India show uniformities and diversities. For the sake of understanding these cultures may be divided into five zones:
- The Southern Zone : (Andhra: stone blades of burins and bone tools comparable to Magadalenian tradition and East Gravettian Central Europe)
- The South Central zone: (Karnataka: Abundant stone blades)
- The Western Peninsular zone (Maharashtra and Gujarat: blade and burin industries; and the earliest object of ornament namely ostrich egg shell fragments)
- The Central zone (Madhya Pradesh: stone blades and burins comparable to Aurignacian tradition)
- The North Eastern zone (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar: Blade and burins industries; and female figurine curved on bone)
Southern Zone
- The Southern zone is widespread in the states of Andhra Pradesh. M.L.K.Murthy (1963-64) excavated four villages located on the right bank of Rallakaluva, a tributary of river Swaramukhi, near Renigunta in Chittor District of Andhra Pradesh. Of the total number of tools excavated 13% were finished tools, 19 % were blades and the remaining 68% included burins, backed blades, awls, points, choppers, scrapers, flake, tools cores etc.,
The surface collections at same sites contained an overwhelming proportion of blades (67%), burins (16%), awls (4%), scrapers (8%), Choppers (3%) and points (2%). The tools were more akin to the East Gravellian of Central Europe. - Murthy (1970) and his associates excavated a cave site called Muchatla Chintamanugavi and found a number of Upper Palaeolithic tools. Of these, 9.70% were made on stone and the remaining 90.30% were made on bone. Majority of the stone tools contained blades (41.35%) and flake tools (26%) and the rest were cores and chips (32.65%). On the other hand, majority of the bone tools were perforators (40.41%) and the rest were shouldered points (18%), barbs (12%), scoops (9%), chisels (8%), scrapers (7%), and spatulates (5%). Apart from these stone and bone-finished tools, there were others such as bone blanks (47%), splinters (34%), worked bones (11%), broken and cut bones (7%). The large proportion of stone blades and burins show that the people lived by hunting and collection of roots and berries.
- Issac (1960) excavated a number of other sites in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh while several others excavated many sites including Vemula in Cuddapah District, Yerragondapalem in Prakasham District and Nagaijunakonda in Nalgonda District and brought to light Upper Palaeolithic tools high lighting presence of blade and burin industries.
South-Central Zone
The south-Central 2one was spread across Karnataka. Paddayya (1970) excavated the sites of Merlabavi, Gulbhal, Benhatti, Humsgi and Salvadgi in the Shoarpur Doab situated in the South-Western corner of Gulbarga District in Krishna and Bhima river Valley in Karnataka and obtained abundant stone tool evidence of the Upper Palaeolithic culture. From layer 4, which was 10”, thick yellow brown silt and he retrieved blade tools such as blades , backed blades, burins, scrapers, points and borers.
Western Peninsular zone
The Western Peninsular zone spreads across Maharashtra and Gujarat. In 1939 Todd discovered blade and burin industry in clay deposit at Borivili and Kandvili sites near Bombay. Between 1971-73, Sankalia conducted excavations at Patna, South of Chalisgaon town in Jalgaon District and obtained classical Upper Palaeolithic tools including disc bead on an ostrich egg shell bearing an engraved criss-cross design and this is believed to be the earliest object of ornament. In Gujarat, from the fossil sand dunes ease of Baroda, Sankalia (1962) unearthed Upper Palaeolithic tools in the form of blades of burins.
Central zone
The Central zone extends across Madhya Pradesh. De. Terra and Paterson (1936) excavated the sites at Wainganga and Hoshangabad on die banks of river Narmada and found there the Upper Palaeolithic blade and burin industries. Sen and Ghosh describe and illustrated the Upper Palaeolithic (1962) factory sites near Jabalpur in the Narmada Valley. The excavations at the rock shelters al Mori in Mandosan District and the sites on the banks of river Banjer yielded the Upper Palaeolithic tools.
Mishra (1973) excavated the rock shelter III F- 23 at Bhimbetka and found burins made on thick blade flake tools and different types of scrapers. The backed blades are comparable to the micro Gavettian points of Europe. The end scrapers are comparable to these of the Aurignacian tradition of Europe.
North-Eastern zone
The North-Eastern zone runs across the southern parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. G.R.Sharma (1972) dug a site in Belan Valley in Allahabad District of Uttar Pradesh and acquired upper Palaeolithic tools including a female figurine carved on bone. Others unearthed Upper Palaeolithic tools from Bariyari in Banda District, and discovered the rock shelters with paintings at Basauli and Lekhania in Mirzapur District. Also Chaibasa, Sini, Ghatsila and Janda, areas in Singhbhum District and Dhekulia area in Palamau district in Bihar yielded tools of upper Palaeolithic cultures.
Summary:
The Upper Palaeolithic in India existed during the Pleistocene time mostly in river Valleys and in caves and rock-shelters.
The environment was rich in flora and fauna. The folk were hunters and gatherers. They worked out their tools on quartz bone and horn. The stone tools include blades and burins besides other tools. The bone tools were of wide range including eye-needles, harpoons and fishing rods. Tools were lighter. Burin scrapers were abundant.
The first ornament made out of Ostrich eggshell, the sudden appearance of female figurine and the paintings in a few rock shelters reflect art and rituals.
There was a decided step towards organizing human groups on the basis of kinship.
Habitations and worshiping places occur together.
Even though the blades and burins from various sites of India are strikingly similar to those of Western Europe and West Asia, they do not represent the firer sub-divisions of the kind in Western Europe and of West Asia. The great cave art characteristic of Europe is missing in India.