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PREHISTORIC ORISSA
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times, if not earlier, the art of making pottery vessels was invented."
Of these stages, the palaeolithic has a geological antiquity deeply rooted in the Pleistocene. It comprises a far larger period than can be assigned to the later stages taken together, the era of which has been distinguished as the Holocene (Recent) period.
In the opinion of Sir Leonard Woolley, India is one of the richest countries in the world for remains of the earliest phases of man's existence. And, the share of Orissa in that is of no mean importance.
1. The gap originally postulated between the two Agee in Europe
vanished by the close of the last Century, when other industries were discovered sandwiched between the two and assigned to a Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age (J G D.Clerk--The Mesolothic Age in Britain, 1932). This Age was essentially a continuation of
the nomadic Palaeolithic stage. 2. A report on the work of the Arch. Sur. of India., 1939.
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