Chennai: Students and faculty members from University of Madras’s department of ancient history and archaeology have found a new Stone Age site at Kathiyavadi near Ranipet, some 120km from Chennai. During a field exploration, they found stone tools such as multi-platform and discoidal cores, scrapers, burins and notched tools crafted exclusively from quartz alongside debitage and refined microliths.The exploration was conducted under the leadership of J Soundararajan, associate professor and head (in charge), department of ancient history and archaeology. “The field investigation was undertaken to survey the region identify potential archaeological sites for excavation, but led to the discovery of a landmark open-air prehistoric site,” he said.“The diverse range of lithic artefacts found indicate continuous use of the site and technical advancement over a vast period from three lakh years to 10,000 years,” said Jinu Koshy, excavation in charge, department of ancient history and archaeology.This discovery assumes significance as earlier investigations by K Kumar at Bagaveli and Melvisharam villages identified an Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 years to 10,000 years) industry which was predominantly reliant on quartzite raw material. Similarly, another student, V Srimalini, documented rock art, tool assemblages made on quartz and Megalithic structures at Ayilam village near Ranipet.Attirampakkam site in Tiruvallur district yielded scientific data dating from 3,85,000 years to 1,75,000 years for the Middle Palaeolithic period.“This is among the first micro-regions of a continuous lithic assemblage produced entirely from quartz. Other sites yielded stone tools made of quartzite (rocks),” said Koshy.While confirming that the tools are man-made, experts said the tools could belong to the Upper Palaeolithic. Such quartz materials were extensively found and recorded in Chittoor district, adjacent to Ranipet, by renowned archaeologist M L K Murthy.“These findings establish that there are many Upper Paleolithic settlements along with Palar river valley. Further research and excavations might give new insights,” archaeologist K Rajan, former professor from Pondicherry University.New evidence shows that ancient humans from the Palaeolithic period could have lived from Palar river valley to Vaigai river valley in Tamil Nadu.
