Siwalik Range, also called Siwalik Hills or Outer Himalayas, Siwalik also spelled Shiwalik, sub-Himalayan range of the northern Indian subcontinent. It extends west-northwestward for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the Tista River in Sikkim state, northeastern India, through Nepal, across northwesternIndia, and into northern Pakistan. Though only 10 miles (16 km) wide in places, the range

has an average elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet (900 to 1,200 metres). It rises abruptly from the plain of the Indus and Ganges (Ganga) rivers (south) and parallels the main range of the Himalayas (north), from which it is separated by valleys. The Siwaliks are sometimes considered to include the southern foothills of the Assam Himalayas, which extend eastward for 400 miles (640 km) across southern Bhutan to the bend of the Brahmaputra River. The range proper, to which the name Siwalik (from Sanskrit, meaning “Belonging to [the God] Shiva”) was formerly restricted, is the 200 miles (320 km) of foothills in India extending from the Ganges River at Haridwar, Uttarakhand state, northwestward to the Beas River.

Siwalik StratigraphyThe Siwalik Group is divided, in stratigraphic order, into the Kamlial, Chinji, Nagri, Dhok Parhan, and Soan formations. All of these units have been formally designated as lithostratigraphic bodies with type sections in the Porwar Plateau, but, in their original form, defined by British paleontologist G. Pilgrim in the 1930s, they were essentially fossil-mammal zones. Over t h e y e a r s , problems a r i s i n g from conflicting usage of these names for faunal units, time units, and rock units were not helped by the difficulty, prior to the recent paleo magnetic work, of accurately dating the succession.

Outside the Porwar region, other correlative and older sediments are often broadly included in "the Siwaliks," but some are, in fact, quite distinct geologically. Parts of the Manchar and the Murree formations yield equivalent (or slightly older) faunas to the Kamlial, while Dera Bugti (Baluchistan) and correlates in the nearby Zinda Pir Dome are significantly older, extending the local faunal succession back to ca. 22 Ma, The Soan Formation is correlative with the Tatrot and Pinjor formations, originally defined in the Siwalik Hills of north India (see Figure). Due to the general lack of datable volcanics (other than rare ash layers suitable for fission-track analyses), geochronometry is based on paleomagnetic correlation of longer sequences, calibrated by faunal comparisons. Continuing c h a n g e s in the calibration of geomagnetic polarity transitions result in small changes in the precise dates attributed to specific horizons, so that even the recent chart presented here was modified slightly, mainly by increasing the ages of Middle-Late M i o c e n e levels by as much as 0.5 Myr. In the Porwar Plateau, the Siwalik Group measures several km in thickness and ranges from the Early Miocene, in excess of 18 Ma, to the Pleistocene at 1.0 Ma or less. The litho logic boundaries of the formations are time-transgressive, as must be expected. The sediments represent floodplain deposition in the subduction trough below the Himalayas suture zone, where the leading edge of the Indo-Pakistan plate is descending beneath the Eurasian plate. Erosion in this highly active uplift region produced sediment in vast volumes, which was spread out and buried in the subduction basin by streams large and small. The process shifted southward to the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra floodplains in the Middle Pleistocene, when the Siwaliks zone became caught it in the suture folding. Siwaliks fossils are preserved in a variety of fluviatile sedimentary situations, but particularly in abandoned floodplain channels. The environment appears to have been characterized by subtropical climate in a low-relief terrain of braided and me andering stream channels, with a variety of vegetation types, including swamp, gallery forest, floodplain forest, wood land, and grassland.

Sivapithecus (a kind of ape, formerly known as Ramapithecus) is among many fossil finds in the Siwalik region. The Siwalik Hills are also among the richest fossil sites for large animals anywhere in Asia. The Hills had revealed that all kinds of animals lived there. They were early ancestors to

the sloth bear, Sivatherium, an ancient giraffe, Colossochelys atlas, a giant tortoise amongst other creatures. The remains of the Lower Paleolithic (ca. 500,000 to 125,000 BP) Soanian culture have been found in the Siwalik region. Contemporary to the Acheulean, the Soanian culture is named after the Soan Valley in the Siwalik Hills of Pakistan. The bearers of this culture were Homo erectus.

Wild animals like giraffe and hippopotamus, whose present natural habitat is Africa, were natives of Shivalik Hills long ago. Pre-historic fossils, recently discovered, establish this.

Consisting of about 6,000 meters of layered rocks, some as old as 25 million years, these hills contain one of the world's richest collections of mammalian fossils.

A group of students on an expedition to Shivalik Hills recently chanced to locate the relics. Students were overwhelmed to learn that the Shivalik Hills were having about 6,000 meters of layered sequence of rocks. The oldest rocks, formed about 25 million years ago, are actually Himalayas' outer mountains. And, they occupy an important place in the evolution of man.

Geologist Arun Ahluwalia, accompanying the students, found that most of the mammals in this region became extinct during the ice-age of the Pleistocene, about two million years ago. Those that survived migrated to other areas. The remains of the extinct mammals became fossils in the rock formations in Shivalik. Ahluwalia said: "In the rocks of Dakshina you have micro rocks which are typical of the estrone system. Every rock has an index of its environment. All the animals have a typical habitat. These are typical marine fossils".

The place also has a dinosaur fossil egg discovered by Paleontologist Ashu Khosla from the Shivaliks.

Worldwide attention was focused on the Shivalik Hills when a large number of fossils of Sauropods, turtles, crocodiles were found by geologists of Punjab University.

The Shivaliks are a treasure trove for the world's richest collection of mammalian fossil wood and rocks, helping to solve the mysteries of evolution of prehistoric life. Marine fossils abound in the Himalayas, since the Himalayas were once under the sea. But, excavation of dinosaur fossils made Shivalik a treasure trove.

Chandigarh's Government Museum and Art Gallery provides all information related to dinosaurs. Beside models and fiber-glass replicas, actual fossils from the personal collection of top Paleontologists are on display.

First prehistoric remains in the Siwalik Hills of Western Nepal in 1985

During geo-archaeological investigations in the Siwaliks of Western Nepal (or Churia Hills as they are called here) first authentic discoveries of remains of prehistoric man have been made in Nepal. A number of prehistoric sites as well as a number of smaller localities were found during the survey in the Dang and Deokhuri valleys in Western Nepal, belonging to Stone Age people of yet unknown age and cultural provenance. These are the first definite evidences that Nepal was occupied by prehistoric man during the stone age and that hitherto unknown people of a time before the historic period did penetrate into the Nepalese mountains.The prehistoric exploration is part of a larger research programme of "Quaternary explorations in theSiwaliks of Nepal", financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and headed by Prof. Dr. GiselaFreund, Institut fur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte, Universitat Erlangen. The programme includes also geological and stratigraphical research of the Siwaliks of Nepal with the aim of building up a stratigraphical base for the Nepal Siwaliks for future detailed palaeontological research and to establish the palaeoenvironmental background of the earliest hominoids in Nepal. First palaeontological collections in the Siwaliks have been made by an American team (West et al. 1978) in Western Nepal. They had also found the first evidence of Ramapithecus in the Siwaliks: an upper left molar, found along the Tinau Khola exposures north of Butwal (Munthe et al. 1983).The prehistoric explorations, therefore, formed only a small and secondary part of the programme this Year. Most of the time in the field was used for stratigraphical work in the Siwalik Formation, the results of which are described elsewhere. It was therefore with particular joy to see that the very first

attempts at searching for prehistoric man yielded such an unexpected variety and abundance of localities.For prehistoric investigations the Kathmandu valley and the Chitwan area along the Narayan River were chosen, as well as the Dun valleys of the Rapti and the Babai Rivers in the Deokhuri and Dang valleys.Similar deposits were encountered along the foot of the mountains in the Deokhuri and Dang intermundane basins. And these were the areas which were chosen at first sight and were then investigated by foot. They consist of heavily dissected, yellow silty deposits of colluvial and alluvial character, which interfinger further riverwards with the purely alluvial, younger deposits of the river. These yellow, fine sandy and silty sediments seem to have been deposited by the many small tributaries' and lateral nallahs which have brought a considerable amount of colluvial, fine material of the weathering Siwalik sandstones and mudstones from the hills down into the valley. On these fan deposits as well as within these deposits the archaeological material was found between the river and the hills. Man must have lived here on the margin of the Dun valley, where they could overlook the valley from a slightly elevated position, and where it was not far to the water.The archaeological material from these localities seem to point not only to one cultural unit, but to several and have microlithic artifact assemblages. The macrolithic assemblages consist of flakes, cores and core scrapers and are made from quartzite, and the microlithic artifacts (flakes, cores, much waste) are made from chert, quartz and also quartzite.A number of localities, for example Lamahi, Kurepani, Dhaingaon, ( site 1, 2 and 16) seem to have affinities to a microlithic culture. They are dominated b y small flakes of chen and quartz, (but also of quartzite) and small microlithic irregular and discoidal cores, also of chert. The larger artifacts on these sites are made on quartzite and they show a typical step-retouch on their dorsal faces at the edge to the platform, whi l e their platforms are often of cortex. Tools are few, but a retouched little point, a small round scraper and a fine backed and retouched lunate are significant.These artifacts are associated on the surface with artifacts which seem at first sight to belong to a much older period. These are cores or "core scrapers" of sizes of 4 ern to 13 em (the average is 10 em), which seem to have affinities with the Soanian choppers. They are made on quartzite cobbles which are well chosen, for all of them are rather angular in shape and have one or two natural flat surfaces which render them very suitable for the particular type. of workmanship they exhibit (Fig. 1). They all have one (and sometimes two) straight, unifacial, extremely steep edges with an angle of 80· to 90·. The edge is formed by steep, shallow primary flakes and step flakes, followed by fine retouch, unifacially removed from a natural flat cortex plane of the cobble. It is a very interesting tool and similar tools have been found occasionally in the late Soanian in India. This tool type is in fact the most common tool type in the investigated area in the Dang-Deokhuri v a l l e y s and found at many of the discovered localities. At this point it is however not possible to say in what way they are connected with the other artifacts of microlithic and macrolithic appearance. It is however curious that we find them in connection with both. Another curious feature must be mentioned a t this place. The microlithic-type artifact localities are dominated in a b o u t equal parts b y chert a n d quartzite raw materials , whereas the m a c r o l i t h i c assemblages only have quartzite as their raw material and no chert. But one particular feature is common to both. They share a curious and rather unsuitable r a w m a t e r i a l , which is a very soft, fragile and very light “tuffacious” rock. Flakes as well as "core scrapers" (Fig. 2a) are made of this rock type and as such they would not be suitable for any hard work. An analysis by X-ray defraction determined th i s rock type as a soft, porous silica (type triple) (pers. comm. Prof. Dr. Bausch, Mineral. Inst. Univ. Erlangen), which may have become leached off its cementing matrix by weathering. It is supposed here that this type of weathering process must have started only after the manufacture of the artifact.

Of particular importance was the finding of two polished stone celts, especially since one comes from stratigraphical context. One was found on the silt surface and was associated with a few quartzite flakes, which may, however, have nothing to do with the celt (fig. 2 b, right). It is a lovely, flat, bu t broken piece with a sharp, splayed edge, made on a banded, indurated mudstone. And another one was found in situ at Basantapur in the yellow silt, associated with other archaeological material: some very weathered light-red potsherds, which have not been found in situ but in the directly adjoining gullies. They apparently weathered out from the same silt which embedded the celt. A number of chert and quartzite flakes were found as well in the neighborhood. These are very exciting finds and they will certainly throw light on the puzzling question of the origin and the archaeological context of the polished stone celts which have been found previously in Nepal, but disconnected with any other archaeological material and with no stratigraphical context.Interesting are also a few grindings tones on flat cobbles, found isolatedly on the surface at several places. Most of the localities show mainly artifacts of microlithic nature made of various kinds of quartzite (Fig.3 ). They consist of flakes with small platforms, which are sometimes prepared, but more commonly of cortex. Characteristic to many of them is a pronounced step flaking at the edge of the platform on the dorsal face. The cortex platform and the step flaking at the platform edge of the flakes correspond well with the steep edges of the “core scrapers" and it seems the flakes have been taken off the edge of the "core scrapers". The question therefore arises, whether the core scrapers" are in fact only cores or whether the flakes constitute resharpening flakes of the “ core scrapers". The quartzite f lakes do not show any retouch and from their appearance most of them seem to be waste flakes. However, only further work will solve these interesting questions. At one site, however, at Gidhniya in the Tui Khola valley, it seems quite evident that the chopper! "Core scraper" is a definite tool type and not a core. Here, the unifacial, steep-edged tool is the dominant artefact type and from the preliminary study of the artifact assemblage it seems quite certain that this occupation site can be placed into the palaeolithic period. But to what time and to what people and cultural period it belongs is again an open question.An isolatedly found chopper (Fig. 4a) and a handaxe-like tool are the two oldest looking tools of the discovered archaeological material and are intriguing indicat ions that may be even earlier palaeolithic man lived in the Dang-Deokhuri valleys. A short description of the most important loca l i t i e s will be given at this place. The first site complex found was Lamahi in the Deokhuri valley (Loc. 1) situated about 0, 5 km to the east of Lamahi village on small yellow silt exposures at the foot of a low Siwalik hill which juts out into the valley. Three artifact concentrations were found, scattered on dissected silt and in the dissecting gullies, site 1, 2 and 3, about 200 m apart from each other. At site 3 some artifacts were found in situ in a small silt exposure above Siwalik bedrock, at 0, 40 and 0, 90 m below the silt surface.

A small stream runs from the Siwaliks towards the south to meet the Rapti River and is dissecting at present the silt as well as the bedrock. The silt must have been brought down from the slopes of the Siwalik Hills by the stream in the form of fine washed-out weathering debris from the Siwalik mudstones. At what time it was deposited is difficult to say. But possible charcoal remnants from the silt may eventually give some dates.

The Lamahi artifacts consist mainly of quartzite, of various kinds of chert, of milky quartz and crystal quartz. There are large quartzite flakes up to 80 mm in length with multidirectional and unidirectional primary flaking and with mainly small, plain narrow platforms. Much small step flaking on the dorsal face at the platform edge corresponds to the small step flaking on the cores and Hcorescrapers". Besides these larger flakes there is a variety of small to microlithic flake material, which is mainly made on chert and quartz but a l s o on quartzite. A beautiful backed and retouched lune t te and a scraper, resembling a thumbnail scraper, are unique at site 1 at Larnahi. Interesting are a fine, retouched quartzite point (Fig. 4b) and two small, perfect discoidal cores of chert and quartzite with sizes of 34 and 24 mm, as well as two microlithic cores.

A little away from the site 2 concentration were found a large bifacially worked core and two very large quartzite flakes, one of which is quite weathered and would at first sight be classified as an Early Stone Age flake. They were also found in the dissected gullies in the silt. It is not known to date in what connection these large artifacts are with the other artifacts at Lamahi.

Curious at all three sites at Lamahi are 5 steep-edged cores or core scrapers, 4 of which are on light, soft tuffacious material (Fig. 1a) and one on quartzite. They all show an 80· to 90· edge, which has been formed by steep shallow retouch and step flaking from a flat cortex surface of the cobble as a base. For what purpose tools made of such soft, fragile material could be used is quite an intriguing question. The artifact assemblage at Lamahi is a very curious, heterogenous industry and could, in fact, belong to not only one cultural unit. But only more detailed study will give the answers.

Another small site was found near Lamahi, but 0, 5 km to 'the west of the village (Loc. 24)

amongst dissected deep-red silts, not far away from the bridge over the Arjun River. Here, many quartzite flakes and waste pieces and one conical, discoidal core have eroded out from the silt at a level of 3 m below the actual silt surface. It seems to have been a small flaking place and therefore all material from this spot was collected, consisting of 1 discoidal core, 1 worked piece, 1 snapped flake-blade, 32 irregular waste flakes and 28 waste chips and flake-like pieces. All artifacts are made of the same fine grained quartzite. No microlithic element is apparent. The snapped blade and the discoidal core make this little assemblage interesting.

Two other small localities were found in the Deokhuri valley (Loc. 25.26), at its western end where the Siwaliks from a western and southern barrier towards the plains of the Terai. 2, 5 km west of Tapt Kund (Loc. 26) along the road a small conical core of black chert with a fine pointed flake taken off from its base was found in colluvial silt at the side of a gully, which cuts into the silt.

Just east of the village of Jalkundi within the Siwaliks (Loc. 25) before they open up into the plains, two flakes, an irregular core and a lovely double-edged, steep core scraper were found on the surface of a silted up erosional Siwalik platform with a thin pebble cover over the silt. They are all made on quartzite though most of the available cobbles and pebbles are of Siwalik sandstone. All the other localities are from the Dang valley, which is separated from the Deokhuri valley by a second range of Siwalik Hills.

Here, west of the road into Dang valley at Kurepani another site complex was found (Loc. 2), also connected with a yellow silt and apparently eroding out from the upper part of it. The silt here forms a considerable thick deposit at the foot of the Siwalik Hills and is the debris of the weathered mudstones and sandstones of the Siwaliks, brought down by the numerous gullies and small lateral streams into the broad Babai River valley. They finally became dissected by these same streams so that deep canyon-like gorges and badlands have developed upon the silts.

Site la at the Kurepani site complex is found at the edge of one of these canyon-like valleys. Many flakes and waste pieces seem to have eroded out from the uppermost pa r t of the silt, where they are found in the gullies of the badlands. The raw material of the artifacts comprises quartzite, ( very fresh and unweathered in the case of artifacts recently eroded from the silt, or rather weathered in the case of artifacts which have been lying on the surface for a longer time, as well as various kinds of chert and quartz, and again this light tuffacious material which was used at Lamahi. The Kurepani site complex resembles the one at Lamahi but differs in its composition in having more pronounced macro-type artifacts and less microlithic artifacts. Of interest is specially a more isolatedly found large "core scraper", which is made on a rectangular flat quartzite cobble simply by forming a steep unifacial edge along one straight side (Fig. 1 below). Of particular interest at Kurepani are a few fireplaces of a rather special construction. They are circular in shape, with a diameter of 67 and 70 em and have a baked mud rim around the entire circumference which bends outwards. Inside is only some ash and charcoal, nothing else could be seen from the unexcavated appearance.

The fireplaces seem to erode out from a level some 25 em below the recent surface of the silt and seem to be in association with a few artifacts of quartzite and tuffacious silica. A few weathered, l ight red potsherds, d i f ferent from the recent pottery, and may also be associated with this site. However, nothing conclusive can be said about these findings until some excavations have been carried out.

From Kurepani westwards along the southern fringe of the Dang valley and the Babai river many localities with either a few scattered artifacts or small concentrations of them were encountered, 17 in all,apart from Kurepani.

Of these most of them yielded a few larger quartzite and "tuff" flakes as well as steep-edged "core scrapers". Only two of them seem to have been larger sites. One is a site at the SW of Dhaingaon village (Loc. 16), which is a rich surface scatter. The artifacts are lying on an eroded, lime pellet-covered silt surface, 1, 60 m below the actual silt surface. The thick scatter of artifacts is about 2 0 by 20 m in extension, bordered by deeply incised gullies all around. The site is rich, but lacks

tools. It seems to have a similar appearance as Lamahi and Kurepani, with a great variety of raw material (various quartzite’s and many-colored cher t s , a n d a g a i n the s o f t tuffaciuos material). Some of the chert artifacts are of microlithic appearance, but the quartzite flakes are of large to medium size, with the characteristic step flaking at the platform edge. One small steeply retouched piece of green chert was found which looks like a miniature form of the large "cores capers", with steep retouch perpendicular f r o m a flat cortex plane. The other less rich site is Basantapur W, a few hundred meters west of the village (Loc. 12). Here, together with a few chert and quartzite flakes an interesting blade of black chert was found eroded out from the silt. It is patinated and has calcrete adhering to its surface. Here again the artifacts seem to have been eroded Out from the upper part of the silt. They are lying on an eroded silt surface, some 5 m below the actual recent silt surface, amongst residual lime and sandstone pebbles. On a slightly higher level some microlithic-type artifacts of flakes and chips made of chert and fine quartzite, a l l very small, were found on and in the silt. They all seem to derive from the silt at this very level, about a meter above the blade.

The most interesting find at this site however, is a fine elongate celt (76 x 28 x 13 rnm, Fig. 10 and 4b), made on a small oblong cobble. The raw material is again the soft tuffacious material which we have encountered so often. No other work than the grinding of the narrow chisel-like edge has been executed. The edge has an angle of 55· and carries parallel grindings striations on both sides, vertical to the edge.

This find is particularly valuable because of the fact that it has been found in site within the silt 0.75m below the silt surface. 4 m above the microlithic type artifacts and ~ m above the blade, it was sticking out from a vertically eroded wall of the silt. Two quartzite flakes with cortex platforms were found on the surface below the celt in the immediate vicinity and a number of very weathered and lime-encrusted Iightred potsherds were also found in the immediate vicinity in small gullies cutting into this silt. Pointing to the probability that they belong to the celt level.

Only further work can clarify whether these different tool- and artifact types belong to

different stratigraphical levels and different cultural contexts or whether they form one unit, The importance of this find at Basantapur is that we have here at last a clear evidence of a polished celt in stratigraphical position and in association with other archaeological material. Which will eventually clarify the enigma of the Nepalese polished stone axes found without any archeological context elsewhere, another very interesting small? But broken celt was found. Near Bhitabangn in the Tui Khola valley (Fig. 2b right). It was found not i" site, but on the surface in a gully of the red colluvial silts at the foot of the Siwalikson the upper edge to the Tui valley. It is not in association with any other archaeological material though a few quartzite flakes were found nearby. also on the surface of the dissected silt. The celt (4~ x 43 x 9 mm) has a splayed. Sharp edge of 3~·.made on a perfectly lovely piece of reddish. Extremely fine-banded m u d s t o n e , I t is a fragile tool. The material hardly suitable for a celt. It is like an ornament rather than a tool. Interesting may be to mention at this place the finding of a few grinding stones at three different places. One isolatedly near Pan dan pur Sou th in the valley of a khola! Cutting into the silt and another one near Dharpani on a small silt hillock. Covered with cobbles near the river (left in the field) and a third one at Bhitabang in the Tui valley in association with a few chert flakes and small cores on the silt surface. They are flat, oblong cobbles with grinding surfaces on the narrow oblong sides as well as on the surface. One of them carries striation marks on its upper surface, in spite of it being a very weathered tool, and the other has an interesting shallow rill on its upper surface, as if it was used for polishing beads.

Apart from this rather young appearing archaeological material which all seem to belong to the Holocene period, there are a few stone tools, which have a much older appearance. Of panicular interest in this respect are the large unifacial choppers or "core scrapers" (Fig. 1, 2a,) , made on quartzite cobbles which have one or two natural flat cortex surfaces, from which a straight, steep edge was formed by shallow step flakes and small retouch. They do not resemble the usual Soanian choppers, but are quite a separate type, though occasionally such tools may be found amongst the Soan choppers. The edge is much steeper, usually vertical and is made with much finer flaking. It is yet not certain, whether they are really older and belong into the palaeolithic period or whether they belong to a relatively young period. They have been found isolatedly at various places, always in connection with the silt, but also at places like Lamahi and Kurepani, in lose connection with the other artifacts.

One isolated tool, which resembles more than the others a Soanian type unifacial chopper (Fig. 3a) was found, h o w e v e r , in different c o n t e x t . It is also made on a flat-based quartzite cobble, but it has a unifacial edge with an angle of 70·, formed by shallow flaking and without any fine retouch. It was found within a sub recent, reworked cobble gravel of a khola at Pandanpur W (Loc. 18) and is covered with a lime crust.

Another very intriguing tool , also found isolatedly, but not in situ, occurred near Ranigora, south of Jhaijri in a gully (Loc. 6), which had cut its bed into the silts. It is a flat handaxe-like tool, not fresh, but rounded and rolled. The proximal pan is broken away and the existing distal pan is well worked into a handaxe-like point and both lateral edges are worked, one unifacially, the other bifacially. It seems to have been made from a large flake. A very curious, unexpected tool, indeed!

A challenging feature at this locality (Loc. 6) is that the Babai River has deposited here a cobble gravel of quanizites above alluvial silts. These silts are fluviatile in character and interfinger hill wards with the lateral silts washed down from the hills. The quartzite c o b b l e s do not derive from the surrounding Siwaliks but have been transported from the Himalayan interior. It is probable that the handaxe-Iike tool has been derived from the cobble gravel, because the slopes and the gully, in which the tool was found, are covered by derived cobbles from the above lying gravel'. Cores (16 by 13 cm) with a bifacial edge as well as a few irregularly worked pieces (which have not been taken along) were found also amongst the cobbles in the gravel.

Was this indeed a handaxe? And from where did it come? It is certainly very different from all

the other artifacts of the Dang valley and does indeed exhibit Early Stone Age features. But nothing more can be said at the moment. In India handaxes and cleavers have been found in the otherwise Soanian chopper dominated a r e a s along the Himalayan foothills. But no handaxes or cleavers have so far been found in the interior of the Himalaya.

A most interesting s i t e is Gidhniya in the Tui Khola valley (Loe. 22). This locality is a well demarcated occupation site on top of a promontory above the valley, which forms a remnant of an older ‘river terrace above a younger, lower one. The surface 'is covered by fluviatile river cobbles of quartzite. This is interesting, a s the Tui Khola only traverses Siwalik Hills and nowadays carries only cobbles of brittle Siwalik sandstones and no quartzites. Many of the cobbles are worked and the site abounds in artifacts of flakes, of choppers / “core scrapers" and cores and waste, all made from quartzite. Here, the unifacial, steep-edged “core scraper" is the dominant too l type (Fig.1). Interesting at this site are also a number of very small high-backed "core scrapers" showing the same features of a steep edge against a flat cortex surface as the larger "core scrapers", but with sizes of only 45 to 47 mm. From the preliminary study of the site and the artifact assemblage it appears that this occupation place can certainly be placed into the Paleolithic period.

A HANDAXE ASSEMBLAGE FROM WESTERN NEPAL 1991

The recently discovered early palaeolithic material comes from the southern part of Dang valley from stratified context of alluvial deposits of the Babai River, which drains the Dang valley. The site is located on the left, southern bank of the Babai River (at latitude 27° 59’ and longitude 82° 27') near a village called Jhaijri on the opposite bank of the river. The area is also called Gadari, though no village of that name exists in the neighborhood. A recent temple however, built by an Indian priest at the foot of the Siwalik hills, is referred to as that of Gadari.

The Dang valley is a wide, tectonically initiated i n t e r m o n t a n e valley (called "Dun" in the Indian Subcontinent) which came into existence during the folding of the Siwalik range of mountains in the early Pleistocene. The broad Dang Dun basin was subsequently filled with alluvial sediments, deposited by the Babai River, and with colluvial deposits from the hills. Siwalik hill ranges border the valley in the south and partly in the north, and the weathering debris of the Siwalik sediments contribute heavi ly to the alluvial fill.

The history of the Pleistocene aggradations and degradation and of erosion and reworking of theSediments is a complex one and will not be discussed at this place, but is treated elsewhere (Corvinus, in press). Much of the older deposits from the beginning of the valley's history must have been destroyed by earlier erosion cycles, so that from Middle Pleistocene times very little seems to have been left in the valley.

Cultural remains from older periods than the late Pleistocene were not really expected in Dang and Deokhuri. Moreover, it was believed that handaxe populations did not penetrate into the Himalayas. No in situ handaxe sites have been found in the neighboring Ind ian Himalayas. But Mohapatra (1981) has recorded a number of surface occurrences of handaxes and cleavers along Siwalik Hills near the plains in the Punjab, though t hey lack any stratified context. Joshi et al. (1978) recorded Acheulian cleavers in association with choppers, but no handaxes, at the confluence of the Beas and Banganga, almost in the plains. At Pahalgam in Kashmir a handaxe and a few other early Paleolithic artifacts had been found by Sankalia (1971) and Joshi er al. (1974) in a conglomerate, supposed to be of middle Pleistocene age, in the Liddar valley.

These scanty occurrences lie however, more than 800 km to the west of Dang and moreover, apart from the Kashmir handaxe, were not found in situ and were found much nearer to the plains, i.e. within easy approach from the plains.

Therefore the discovery of handaxes in Nepal came as something of a surprise, though not wholly unexpected, as the Indian sub-continent has abundant evidences of handaxe-cleaver assemblages, although almost all are from the south of the Gangetic Plains. The Gangetic Plain, therefore, constitutes a large barrier between the handaxe population in central and southern India and the makers of the first few handaxes found now in Nepal.

For this reason these first few handaxes from Nepal have a special importance, a s they lie beyond the northern boundary of the hand axe-cleaver complex of the African and Indian tradition.

Oddly enough the author found in 1984 in the very beginning of her survey a single specimen, about1 km east of the recent locality, at Ranigora, on the surface of the heavily dissected alluvium near the river. It was a single find of a broken, handaxe-like tool (Fig. 2) which at that time was doubted by her as being an early palaeolithic implement. It was found in a gully in the dissected silts, which was overlain at this place by fluvial cobble gravel, from where the specimen may have been derived.

A number of localities, for example Lamahi, Kurepani, Dhaingaon, (site 1,2 and 16) seem to have affinities to a microlithic culture. They are dominated b y small flakes of chen and quartz, (but also of quartzite) and small microlithic irregular and discoidal cores, also of chert. The larger artifacts on these sites are made on quartzite and they show a typical step-retouch on their dorsal faces at the edge to the platform, w h i l e their platforms are often of cortex. Tools are few, but a retouched little point, a small round scraper and a fine backed and retouched lunate are significant.

These artifacts are associated on the surface with artifacts which seem at first sight to belong to a much older period. These are cores or "core scrapers" of sizes of 4 ern to 13 em (the average is 10 em), which seem to have affinities with the Soanian choppers. They are made on quartzite cobbles which are well chosen, for all of them are rather angular in shape and have one or two natural flat surfaces which render them very suitable for the particular type. of workmanship they exhibit. They all have one (and sometimes two) straight, unifacial, extremely steep edges with an angle of 80· to 90·. The edge is formed by steep, shallow primary flakes and step flakes, followed by fine retouch, unifacially removed from a natural flat cortex plane of the cobble. It is a very interesting tool and similar tools have been found occasionally in the late Soanian in India. This tool type is in fact the most common tool type in the investigated area in the Dang-Deokhuri v a l l e y s and found at many of the discovered localities. At this point it is however not possible to say in what way they are connected with the other artifacts of microlithic and macrolithic appearance. It is however curious that we find them in connection with both.

Another curious feature must be mentioned a t this place. The microlithic-type artifact localities are dominated in a b o u t equal parts b y cher t and quartzite raw materials, whereas the microlithic assemblages only have quartzite as their raw material and no chert. But one particular feature is common to

both. They share a curious and rather unsuitable r a w m a t e r i a l , which is a very soft, fragile and very light “tuffacious” rock. Flakes as well as "core scrapers" are made of this rock type and as such they would not be suitable for any hard work. An analysis by X-ray defraction determined t h i s rock type as a soft, porous silica (type triple) (pers. comm. Prof. Dr. Bausch, Mineral. Inst. Univ. Erlangen), which may have become leached off its cementing matrix by weathering. It is supposed here that this type of weathering process must have started only after the manufacture of the artifact.

Of particular importance was the finding of two polished stone celts, especially since one comes from stratigraphical context. One was found on the silt surface and was associated with a few quartzite flakes, which may, however, have nothing to do with the celt (fig. 4 b, right). It is a lovely, flat, bu t broken piece with a

sharp, splayed edge, made on a banded, indurated mudstone. And another one was found in situ at Basantapur in the yellow silt, associated with other archaeological material: some very weathered light-red

potsherds, which have not been found in situ but in the directly adjoining gullies. They apparently weathered out from the same silt which embedded the celt. A number of chert and quartzite flakes were found as well in the neighbourhood. These are very exciting finds and they will certainly throw light on the puzzling question of the origin and the archaeological context of the polished stone celts which have been found previously in Nepal, but disconnected with any other archaeological material and with no stratigraphical context. Interesting are also a few grindings tones on flat cobbles, found isolatedly on the surface at several places.

A variety of culturally different industries can be distinguished from older to younger:

1. A flake industry with levallois preparation of cores, in association with a few blades and points and scrapers, was excavated at Arjun 3 from the basal part of the upper alluvial silts of the Arjun River deposits in the Deokhuri valley. It suffices to say here, that this locality too, is quite a unique site in as much as it is of a distinct upper Paleolithic nature and is found in stratigraphically older deposits than the following sites.2. A variety of flake industries, with and without core scraper and chopper elements, were located in the upper levels of the banded silt I clay succession of the older Dun valley alluvium and in the marginal fan deposits at the hill slopes at many localities in Dang and Deokhuri. Assemblages of this kind are particularly abundant. And it seems that the people producing this industry occupied the valleys to a wide degree probably during a time of less vegetation and of a drier climate towards the end of the Pleistocene.

~

3. A heavy industry of an unusual assemblage of very large flakes and cores of a size upto 30 ern, made from large quartzite cobbles and boulders was found in a fluvial cobble-boulder gravellense w i t h i n the banded si l t /clay succession in Tui valley. It seems of an older age than t h e above mentioned flake industries as it was found, though in the same silt, but at a lower level. This site near Brakuti in the Tui valley is of particular interest as it contains 3 cultural phases at the same place: the heavy flake industry in the gravel. a rich flake/core scraper industry of the type described under 2 in the upper level of the silt, and. As the youngest phase in a grey soil on the silt, a small neolithic locality in the form of some cord-marked pottery and a fragment of a polished celt.

4. A few microlithic localities with small flakes and few microlithic tools made from chert and jaspis and other fine-grained silica and not from quartzite were found in the Deokhuri valley on surfaces of the red alluvial silts.

5. Evidences of neolithic occupation are also existent at at least 3 localities in Dang and Tui valley in grey soils forming on alluvial terraces. Cultural material includes so far only a few polished small celts and some cord-marked pottery sherds.

PREHISTORIC REMAINS IN THE SIWALIK HILLS OF PAKISTAN The first systematic search for palaeolithic sites in the sub-Himalayan region was initiated by the Yale-Cambridge Expedition (in the 1930s) in the Soan River Valley and the Potwar Plateau, located in present-day Pakistan (then part of India) (Figure 1). At the time, H. de Terra and T.T. Paterson (1939) relied heavily upon the four-fold glacial sequence developed in Europe and applied the same system in the Indian subcontinent. Their aims involved integrating the regional geology, chronology, and the associated palaeolithic material. Their efforts resulted in the location of a multitude of palaeolithic sites of varying ages and traditions, including the discovery of the Soanian tradition (named after the Soan River).

Pabbi Hills Locality 642 was discovered in 1989 during survey near the village of Baroth, and comprises a very large concentration of fossils eroding from yellow-brown silts that now form the top of a low hill immediately in front of Sandstone 12 (figs. 3 and 4). It was originally located on a small stream channel that was peripheral to any main or permanent river course. The f o s s i l s accumulated on a land s u r f a c e characterized by flash-flood conditions where pulses of sand were d e p o s i t e d , possibly as a suspended load, and subsequently became dry and desiccated. The yellow-brown silts containing the fossils overlay silty clays and fine purple clays that contain lamination lines (or a weakly developed cross-bedding), suggesting some alteration to the stream flow. Desiccation cracks are evident by their subsequent infilling of finer purple clay, and suggest periods of drying out. These cracks bisected and displaced some bones, and thus developed after fossils had been accumulated. The immediate environment of the site was probably a loop in a braided channel system where the banks of the stream were breached and the sands deposited as a suspended load at the bend of the loop.All fossil material (over 4200 specimens, including non diagnostics) was collected from the surface, which was subdivided into three main zones (A, B, C). Much of this surface material was very badly degraded and encrusted in cemented sand, but it showed that the commonest animal present was a medium-sized bovid, followed by a larger type and also Equus sivalensis and Rhinoceros sivalensis. A very small bovid, identified as gazelle, was also present, as were a few dental specimens of Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Turner 2004). Some bovid limb-bone elements were still articulated and held together by their matrix. Following the discovery of well preserved cranial specimens during the excavation, the medium and large bovids were identified as Damalops palaeindicus and Hemibos triqueticornis respectively (see below).Prior to excavation, all surface fossil material was collected. Although discovered only the previous year, a further 1000 specimens had been exposed during the intervening year. These

were collected according to the zones established in 1989.Two areas were identified as worth excavating: a small area where material was actively eroding and a larger one where the density o f fossils a p p e a r e d highest. As the sediments were very compacted, fossils were excavated by first removing most sediment around them with small picks, chisels and hammers, and then the rest of the matrix with dental picks and small brushes. Some specimens, especially if badly cracked or fragile, were removed in plaster jackets made from the type of plaster-impregnated bandages used in hospitals. All specimens were recorded three-dimensionally, g i v e n unique numbers, and plotted on plans drawn at 1: 10; orientation and dip were also recorded whenever possible.

PATERSON’S INTERPRETATIONS OF THE ACHEULIAN-SOANIAN OCCURRENCES IN THE SOAN VALLEYIn the Soan valley, Soanian artifacts occur in mixed surface contexts with Acheulian artifacts, as well as independently (de Terra and Paterson 1939). Paterson divided the technological differences with the Soanian being based on flakes, and the Acheulian (then called the “Stellenbosch”) predominantly consisting of handaxes. His conclusions were based on his experience with the Clactonian tradition (a core- and-flake industry) of Britain, and the European Paleolithic research paradigms prevalent at the time. Due to the lack of stratified sites, the team chronologically grouped the artifacts based on their condition and the Soan terrace sequence. They also put forward the idea that the Acheulian was a younger cultural „intrusion‟ into the Soanian-dominated region. However, in the ensuing decades their methodology and results were felt, by both geologists and archaeologists, to be erroneous and inapplicable in South Asia.

THE ROLE OF THE BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION TO PAKISTANThe first serious attempt at the revision of De Terra and Paterson’s work was initiated by the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan (BAMP) in the late 1970s. Through a project spanning over two decades, the BAMP team established that the Soan river „terraces‟ were actually erosional features rather than classic river terraces (Rendell et al. 1989). Therefore, Paterson‟s chronology assigned to the Paleolithic material (based on the „terrace‟ sequence) could no longer be held as valid. The BAMP team also succeeded in locating and dating sites ranging from the Lower to the Upper Paleolithic, including two Acheulian sites at Dina and Jalalpur (Rendell et al. 1989). At Dina, a handaxe was found within and underlying a quartzite conglomerate, and at Jalalpur fourteen artefacts, including two handaxes, were recovered from a gritstone/conglomerate lens (Rendell and Dennell 1985). The investigators correlated the artifact-bearing horizons with deposits that were previously dated to 700 to 400 kya through palaeomagnetism by R.G.H. Raynolds and others (Allchin 1995). The age of these Acheulian occurrences broadly correlates with several early Acheulian sites further south in peninsular India. Interestingly, the investigators did not encounter Soanian artifacts as per De Terra and Paterson’s description (see Paterson and Drummond 1962), and as such do not regard it as an independent lithic tradition (Dennell and Hurcombe 1989).

IndiaIn India, “proto-handaxes‟ or “Abbevilian‟ handaxes found alongside Soanian tools were first reported by Lal (1956) from the Beas-Banganga Valley of Himachal Pradesh.

Figure 3. Acheulian biface production techniques from boulders and cobbles.

Figure 4. Typo-morphological varieties of Soanian choppers.

A close correlation between the dimensions of the original raw material clast and the finished tool has been acknowledged by Mohapatra (1990). Therefore, from metrical analysis of bifaces (on rounded clasts) and an understanding of their reduction strategy through experimental flintknapping, one can (approximately) gauge the minimum size requirements of the original blanks. The knowledge of this ratio prior to biface production can safely allow considerable reduction of the blank or removal of the cortex without compromising the intended size of the resulting biface. For instance, some Siwalik bifaces range between 9.9 to 15.2 centimetres in length (Table 3). The minimum size of the blank would have to be proportionately larger in length and diameter, perhaps by at least 50 to 70 percent. This principle is explicit if the intention is to remove all or most of the cortex through hard-hammer percussion, unless they were made on large flakes derived from boulders. These differences in the size and reduction strategies, along with selective exploitation of the raw material in the Siwalik region have been previously studied by Mohapatra (1990). However, utilizing soft-hammer or hammer-on-anvil rather than hard-hammer techniques may allow the use of slightly smaller cobbles since the former techniques permit a greater degree of flaking precision. The correlation between raw- material size and

form and the absence of bifaces has also been emphasized from studies on other lithic industries, such as the Clactonian in Britain.

Table 3: Average length dimensions for some bifaces from select Acheulian sites in the Siwalik region.

Differences in artifact density and raw material availability

The raw material utilized for the production of both Siwalik Acheulian and Soanian artifacts was the same- quartzite pebbles, cobbles, and boulders. However, general field observations reveal that quartzite pebbles and cobbles are much more abundant than boulders in the Siwalik ecozone. This differentiation in clast size may have also existed during hominid occupation of the region. If this is true, the amount of sizeable clasts (large cobbles and boulders) available for the production of classic Acheulian bifaces would have been inadequate. This scant availability of large blanks may explain the low number of Siwalik Acheulian sites. Furthermore, the low density of artifacts at all Siwalik Acheulian localities demonstrates that the bifaces were manufactured elsewhere but utilized and abandoned in the Siwalik region. This observation is confirmed by the absence of debit age, biface-thinning flakes, and cores. Factory/workshop sites of the Acheulian tradition have not yet been reported from anywhere in the Siwalik region. In contrast, high-density factory sites of the Soanian tradition have been observed by de Terra and Paterson (1939; Paterson and Drummond 1962) in Pakistan and recently by the author in India. Although smaller artifacts are prone to surface transport through erosion and heavy monsoon rains, notably at low-density sites (Chauhan and Gill 2002), this processes cannot be taken for granted at all known sites. This difference in artifact density may be explained in part through a change in the availability of raw material.

Prior to the formation (and concluding depositional phases) of the Boulder Conglomerate Formation, the availability of suitable raw material in the Siwalik region was minimal. The Boulder Conglomerate formed over a long period of time through fan formation which was critically dependent on the upliftment of the Lesser Himalayas to the north, the source of the conglomerates. For example, Mohapatra (1990) states that the Siwalik Frontal Range area was still receiving the conglomeratic material and simultaneously rising between 0.35 and 0.2 myr ago. Moreover, when the Formation subsequently became prominent in the region, quartzite nodules were not available consistently throughout the hill range. Other sources of the same raw material (i.e., in uplifted palaeo channels within other Siwalik formations, in the small channels emanating from the hills, dun terraces, and so on) most probably became available only after 0.2 myr ago, when Boulder Conglomerate sedimentation was in its terminal phase (Mohapatra 1990). However, this broad generalization is made complicated due to the time-transgressive nature of the Boulder Conglomerate and needs to be supported through intensive mapping and dating of such sediments. Its genesis, development and age as a litho logical unit varies from region to region, primarily owing to an intense but sporadic tectonic history. In fact, various

exposures visible today did not form a continuous, contemporaneous landscape during hominid occupation. This latter observation plays a meaningful role in assigning a relative chronology to the Paleolithic material in the Siwalik Hills.Despite the difference in edge-angles and a compromise in overall functional efficiency, Soanian tool-types may have gradually replaced Acheulian core-tools at a functional level owing to the meagre availability of large nodules or clasts for biface production. For instance, Schick and Tooth (1993) have demonstrated through feasibility experiments that different tool- types were utilized by early hominids to achieve different tasks. Interestingly, all activities mentioned by them, including hide slitting and scraping, heavy and light-duty butchery, bone breaking, nut cracking, and heavy and light-duty woodworking, can be accomplished through the use of bifacial and/or non-bifacial tool-types. Although they have compared the Oldowan with the Acheulian in East African palaeoecological and archaeological contexts, such concepts may also be applicable to the Soanian.

For instance, Soanian bifacial and bimarginal choppers can (probably) functionally replace Acheulian handaxes. Large flakes from boulders and unifacial and unimarginal choppers may be able to replace Acheulian cleavers in the same manner. In fact, the Siwalik Acheulian may have chronologically overlapped (briefly) with the Soanian at one point in time before the latter became the predominant lithic tradition in the region. In addition, both Soanian sites and late Acheulian assemblages in general, appear to share advanced tool-types such as Levallois flakes/cores and distinct scraper types. These advanced features and tool-types are markedly absent in the Siwalik Acheulian facies, hence hinting at its own older antiquity. In light of these techno-functional similarities, the Soanian may be regarded as a sub-Himalayan „variant‟ of the late Acheulian and understood in terms of a change in planning behavior in an evolving landscape.

CONCLUSIONConsidering our present state of knowledge of the Siwalik palaeolithic record, understanding the Acheulian-Soanian dichotomy continues to be a highly challenging endeavour. The hypothesis presented above, involving the Siwalik Acheulian‟s technological and temporal attributes, can only be conjectural at this stage and more intensive investigations are needed to support or challenge it. Without the recovery of primary stratified sites, larger numbers of artefacts, suitable material for absolute dating, and associated hominid fossils, our knowledge pertaining to

hominid identity, the timing of colonisation, site-catchment, ecological adaptations, behavioural and technological changes, and mobility patterns (among others) in the Siwaliks will continue to remain fragmentary. Until then, the abundant surface sites warrant considerable attention and can confidently reveal such valuable aspects of hominid behaviour as ecological preferences, artefact-processing trajectories, tool-type frequencies, and overall strategies to raw material exploitation. Overall, the „chrono-techno-geographical‟ differences between all palaeolithic sites in the Siwaliks strongly display varied subsistence strategies and a change in environmental adaptations through time.

References

Acharyya, S.K. 1994. The Cenozoic Foreland basin and tectonics of the Eastern Sub- Himalaya: Problems and prospects. In Kumar, R. and Ghosh S.K. (eds.) Siwalik Foreland Basin of Himalaya. Himalayan Geology 15. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Allchin, B. 1995. Early Human occupation in the Northern Punjab, Pakistan: an overview of the Potwar Project of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan (1981 – 1991). In Wadia, S., Korisettar, R. and Kale, V. S. (eds.) Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India. Bangalore: Geological Society of India,150-167.

Chauhan, P.R. and G.S. Gill. 2002. The impact of geological and anthropogenic processes onPrehistoric sites on Siwalik slopes: A case study. Bulletin of the Indian Geologists’ Association35 (2): 71-81. Department of Geology, Chandigarh: Panjab University.

Chopra, S.R.K. 1979. (ed.) Early Man in Northwest India. New Delhi: Allied Publishers. Clark, J.G.D. 1977

World Prehistory: a New Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Corvinus, G. 1990. A note on the discovery of handaxes in Nepal. Man and Environment 15 (2): 9-11.

Corvinus, G. 1995. Quaternary stratigraphy of the Intermontane Dun Valleys of Dang-Deokhuri and associated Prehistoric settlements in Western Nepal. In Wadia, S., Korisettar, R., and Kale, V. S. (eds.) Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India. Bangalore: Geological Society of India: 124-149.

Corvinus, G. 1996. The Prehistory of Nepal after 10 years of research. Indo-Pacific PrehistoryAssociation Bulletin I, 14: 43-55.

Corvinus, G. and L.N. Rimal. 2001. Biostratigraphy and geology of the Neogene Siwalik Group of the Surai Khola and Rato Khola areas in Nepal. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 165: 251-279.

Dennell, R.W. 1986. A Reply to R.K. Ganjoo- On Lower Palaeolithic artefacts from Pakistan.Current Anthropology 27(2): 152-153.

Dennell, R.W. and L. Hurcombe. 1989. Paterson, the British Clactonian and the Soan flake industry: A re-evaluation of the Early palaeolithic of Northern Pakistan. In Jarrige, C. (ed.) South Asian Archaeology, Part I. Madison: Prehistory Press.

de Terra, H. and T.T. Paterson. 1939. Studies on the Ice Age in India and Associated HumanCultures. Washington: Carnegie Institute 493.

Gaillard, C. 1995. An Early Soan assemblage from the Siwaliks: A comparison of processing sequences between this assemblage and an Acheulian assemblage from Rajasthan In: Wadia, S., Korisettar, R. and V.S. Kale (eds.) Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India. Bangalore: Geological Society of India, 231-245.

Gaillard, C. 1996. Processing sequences in the Indian Lower Palaeolithic: Examples from theAcheulian and the Soanian. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin Volume I,14: 57-67.

Gill, W.D. 1951. The stratigraphy of the Siwalik series in the northern Potwar Punjab, Pakistan.Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 107 (4): 375-394.

Howard, A.D. 1994. Badlands. In Abrahams, A.D. and Parsons, A.J. (eds.) Geomorphology ofDesert Environments. London: Chapman & Hall.

Isaac, G.L. 1997. (ed.) Koobi Fora Research Project- Volume 5 (Plio-PleistoceneArchaeology). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Joshi, R.V. 1967-8. Early Stone Age discoveries in the Beas-Banganga region. Cultural Forum

9 (1-2): 96-99.

Karir, B.S. 1985. Geomorphology and Stone Age Culture of Northwestern India. Delhi:Sundeep Prakashan.

Kumar, S., S.G. Wesnousky, T.K. Rockwell, D. Ragona, V.C. Thakur, and G.G. Seitz. 2001. Earthquake recurrence and rupture dynamics of Himalayan Frontal Thrust, India. Science 294:2328-2331.

Lal, B.B. 1956. Palaeoliths from the Beas and Banganga Valleys, Punjab. Ancient India 12: 58-92.

Larick, R. and R.L. Ciochon. 1996. The African emergence and Early Asian dispersals of the Genus Homo. American Scientist (The Magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society). November-December.

Leakey, M. 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Volume 3. Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960-1963.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mishra, S. 1995. Chronology of the Indian Stone Age: The impact of recent Absolute andRelative dating attempts. Man and Environment XX (2): 11-16.

Misra, V.N. and M.S. Mate. 1995. (eds.) Indian Prehistory: 1964. Pune: Deccan College Post- graduate and Research Institute.

Mohapatra, G.C. 1976. Geotectonic Developments, Sub-Himalayan lithic complex and Post- Siwalik sediments. In Ghosh, A. K. (ed.). Perspectives in Palaeoanthropology. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhayay.

Mohapatra, G.C. 1981. Acheulian Discoveries in the Siwalik Frontal Range. CurrentAnthropology Volume 22, No. 4: 433-435.

Mohapatra, G.C. 1990. Soanian-Acheulian Relationship. Bulletin of Deccan CollegePostgraduate & Research Institute Volume 49: 251-259.

Mohapatra, G.C. & Singh, M. 1979. Stratified Occurrence of Lithic Artifacts in the Siwalik Frontal Range of Western Sub-Himalaya. Panjab University Research Bulletin (Arts) Volume X. Nos. 1-2, April-October, 1979. India.

Mukerji, A.B. 1976. Geomorphological study of Choe terraces of the Chandigarh Siwalik hills, India. Himalayan Geology 5: 302-326.

Nakata, T. 1972. Geomorphic History and Crustal Movements of the Foot-Hills of theHimalayas. Japan: Publication. Instt. of Geography, Faculty of Science, Tohoku Univ, 39-120.

Paterson, T.T. and J.H.J. Drummond. 1962. Soan, the Palaeolithic of Pakistan. Karachi: Department of Archaeology, Government of Pakistan.

Powers, M.P., R.J. Lillie, and R.S. Yeats. 1998. Structure and shortening of the Kangra and

Dehra Dun reentrants, Sub-Himalaya, India. Geological Society of America Bulletin 110: 1010-1027.

Prasad, K.N. 2001. An Introduction to the Mammalian Fauna of the Siwalik System. Chennai: Prasad Publications.

Ray, R. and A.K. Ghosh. 1981. Position of Palaeolithic culture of Northern India. Proceedings of Field

Conference Neogene-Quaternary Boundary India (1979). Geological Survey of India, Calcutta, 143-150.

Rendell, H. and R.W. Dennell. 1985. Dated Lower Palaeolithic artefacts. Current Anthropology26 (3): 393.

Rendell, H.M., Dennell, R.W., and M.A. Halim. 1989. Pleistocene and Palaeolithic investigations in the Soan Valley, Northern Pakistan. In Allchin, F.R., Allchin, B., and Ashfaque, S.M. (eds.) British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan Series 2. Oxford: British Archaeological Report (International Series) 544.

Sali, S.A. 1990. Stone Age India. Aurangabad: Shankar Publishers.

Schick, K.D. and N. Toth. 1993. Making Silent Stones Speak- Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sen, D. 1954. Lower Palaeolithic culture-complex and chronology in India. Man in India 34 (2):121-149.

Sharma, J.C. 1977. Palaeolithic tools from Pleistocene deposits in Panjab, India. CurrentAnthropology 18 (1): 94-95.

Stiles, D. 1978. Palaeolithic artefacts in Siwalik and Post-Siwalik deposits of Northern Pakistan.Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers (1) S3-S4: 129-148.

Sullivan III, A.P. 1992. Investigating the archaeological consequences of Short-duration occupations. American Antiquity 57(1): 99-115.

Suresh, N., Bagati, T.N., Thakur, V.C., Kumar, R. and S.J. Sangode. 2002. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of alluvial fan deposits of Pinjaur Dun, NW sub-Himalaya. Current Science 82 (10): 1276-1274.

Tainter, J.A. 1979. The Mountainair lithic scatters: Settlement patterns and significance evaluation of low density surface sites. Journal of Field Archaeology 6: 463-469.

Verma, B.C. 1975. Occurrence of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts in the Pinjor Member (LowerPleistocene) of Himachal Pradesh. Journal of the Geological Society of India 16 (4).

White, M.J. 2000. The Clactonian question: On the interpretation of core-and-flake assemblages in the British Lower Palaeolithic. Journal of World Prehistory 14 (1): 1-63.