Chennai: Archaeology students from the University of Madras have found a new Stone Age tool-making site near Vellore. Based on the tools, researchers said that it could belong to the Middle Palaeolithic period.At the foot of Leoragiri Hill, where the villages of Karigiri, Puthur and Erathangal meet, they found artefacts such as multi-platform cores, a miniature handaxe, points and notched tools, retouched flakes, microliths made from quartz material, and debitage.Srimalini V and Kavya B, postgraduate students from the department of ancient history and archaeology, University of Madras, found the site during their explorations under the guidance of J Soundararajan, head of the department. “Miniature handaxe, core and flakes represent the transition period from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Middle Palaeolithic period. This set of artefacts has the characteristics of the Middle Palaeolithic and Microlithic period,” said Jinu Koshi, excavation in charge, department of ancient history and archaeology, University of Madras.The site reveals deep temporal depth of human activity, extending back several thousand years. “This site could be a tool-making centre, as we find a huge repository of stone tools at the site. We also find stone tools of different sizes, indicating the manufacture of these tools,” Srimalini said. Researchers wanted to do further explorations to date the site.”The tools are available in different stratigraphy at the site. The flakes are larger, and there are no blades among the tools. The ancient people also used different stone sources to make tools. The large flakes removed from prepared core technique confirms that these stone tools could belong to the Middle Palaeolithic period. However, we wanted to do further studies and scientifically date them,” Jinu Koshy said.Earlier explorations by researcher K Kumar revealed prehistoric sites in the undivided Vellore district. These villages presently fall under different districts. This discovery from Vellore is recorded here for the first time. But earlier quartz finds were not mentioned in previous studies.
