THE GLOBAL CONTEXT OF LOWER PALAEOLITHIC INDIAN PALAEOART (original) (raw)
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LOWER PALAEOLITHIC ROCK ART OF INDIA AND ITS GLOBAL CONTEXT
The extremely early rock art reported from two central Indian sites raises the question of how this evidence relates to that of the rest of the Old World. In exploring this issue, the currently known Lower Palaeolithic palaeoart is briefly reviewed, including beads and pendants, petroglyphs, pigment utilization, proto-figurines, engravings and manuports. This analysis suggests that, although the proposed age of the early Indian petroglyphs and other material is perhaps somewhat greater than that of comparable finds in Africa or Europe, it is not unrealistic. In particular the discovery of very similar material in southern Africa provides considerable support for the most ancient Indian finds of palaeoart, particularly as there is great consistency between three continents in the nature and composition of such material. The article also reviews India’s Lower Palaeolithic technology and chronology, so as to provide a context within which the subcontinent’s earliest art-like evidence can be situated.
2010
India has produced sufficient evidence of late late-Pleistocene art, mostly in the form of mobiliary art objects. Archaeologically they are associated with an Upper Palaeolithic industry. Besides, there are some simple forms of petroglyphs and early form of dynamic dancers and animals in rock paintings. These, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, can also be assigned to that period. Thus, the late late-Pleistocene art of India presents the beginning of motif development, creation of design and ultimately that of animal and human forms. Ultimately it laid the foundation for the rich and varied tradition of Indian rock paintings in the following period. The tentative time span of Upper Palaeolithic in India is 40,000 to 10,000 yrs BP.
The lower Paleolithic of the Indian subcontinent
Evolutionary Anthropology, 2009
This broad overview highlights the Indian subcontinent as an important and exciting source of new discoveries regarding Lower Paleolithic hominins and their biological and behavioral evolution. Broadly situated in the center of the Old World, the region arbitrarily encompasses Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bhutan; it represents the richest easternmost domain of classic Acheulean bifaces in the Old World.1 The region comprises diverse ecological zones with complex geological and climatic histories, including a bi-annual monsoon prevalent since the Miocene, all of which had major impacts on faunal and floral distributions and associated hominin adaptations.
Early Middle Palaeolithic culture in India around 385-172 ka reframes Out of Africa models
Nature, 2018
Luminescence dating at the stratified prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, India, has shown that processes signifying the end of the Acheulian culture and the emergence of a Middle Palaeolithic culture occurred at 385 ± 64 thousand years ago (ka), much earlier than conventionally presumed for South Asia. The Middle Palaeolithic continued at Attirampakkam until 172 ± 41 ka. Chronologies of Middle Palaeolithic technologies in regions distant from Africa and Europe are crucial for testing theories about the origins and early evolution of these cultures, and for understanding their association with modern humans or archaic hominins, their links with preceding Acheulian cultures and the spread of Levallois lithic technologies. The geographic location of India and its rich Middle Palaeolithic record are ideally suited to addressing these issues, but progress has been limited by the paucity of excavated sites and hominin fossils as well as by geochronological constraints. At Attirampakkam, t...