THE GLOBAL CONTEXT OF LOWER PALAEOLITHIC INDIAN PALAEOART (original) (raw)
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.
A Bibliography of Indian Archaeology (Prehistoric, Protohistoric and Early Historic Periods)
New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 2011
The volume on A Bibliography of Indian Archaeology (Prehistoric, Protohistoric and Early Historic Periods) consists of 12,045 entries over 428 pages and published in 2011 by the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. We have taken approximately 100 edited volumes, 500 annual/bi-annuals, quarterly journals and thousands of books into consideration for this work. It is indexed by author, country, region, people, geographical division, state, union territories, culture, culture area, cultural period, subject, mixed subject, site valley/basin and people. The volume is economical that can reach to the people who generally do not get a chance to see the original reference works. Here they can at least see the reference to the subject of their interest and then try to procure the same either by post or by coming to the cities for short period where living cost is unaffordable for a common men but original books are available.
Typological context of the Lower Palaeolithic lithics from Daraki-Chattan Cave, India
In addition to housing some of the oldest known rock art in the world, Daraki-Chattan is also an important Palaeolithic site because it is one of the very few Indian locations where Mode 1 (pre-Acheulian) occupation evidence has been excavated in a stratified context. Overlain by a typical Acheulian with hand-axes, this deposit has yielded very simple, Oldowan-like stone artefacts made mostly of the local quartzite. Here we provide a brief description and of these tools, including several hammerstones that are presumed to have been used in the creation of some of the numerous cupules on the cave walls. We consider not only the typology of this assemblage, but also place it within the context of the Lower Palaeolithic of India.
Studies in Prehistory and Ethnoarchaeology of South Asia (in honour of V.N. Misra)
New Delhi: Research India Press, 2012
This is a combined updated Indian edition of my previous two books Gurudakshina published in 2005 and 2007. The volume is purposely designed in such a way that all the papers are based on the Ph.D. dissertations (22) of the contributors, and divided into two parts; Part I covers the gist of the thesis, and Part II covers the changes and improvements which the author would have made if he/she were to do the same research today. It makes available to scholars all of the research done under guidance of one of the leading archaeologists of the country and also give some idea of the kind of research that has been carried out at Deccan College. The 22 papers in the volume cover a period from the Palaeolithic to the early historic period in India. There is also one paper each on the early historic period of Bangladesh and Nepal. Region-wise in India, four papers are related to the south; three to north; two to the centre; four to west; one to northwest; and five to the east. Thus, one not limited to a particular region. In terms of cultural periods, six papers are cover prehistory (i.e. Paleolithic and Mesolithic); three to Protohistory; three Prehistory and Protohistory together; one to Rock Art; six the Early Historic; one to Archaeozoology; and one to Ethnoarchaeology. One covers the period from the prehistoric to the early historic. In addition, there are three papers evaluating Prof. V.N. Misra as an archaeologist and his contributions.