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BHARATIYA ASMITA PART II
the beginning of the silt phase. It was at this junction that the second of the original finds, the crude handaxe, was discovered well-embedded in the clayey conglomerate.
De Terra and Paterson reported six massive flakes and two pebble tools "in and above the Boulder Conglomerate of the high depositional surface" at five sites in the Punjab foothills (De Terra and Paterson 1939:304, Pl. XXXIII; see also Paterson and Drummond 1962:42 and 59 ). All six flakes are of quarzite and are described as "heavily worn, that is, the flake surface is smoothed and water-worm." Further, they have big, plain striking platforms at high angles (ranging from 100° to 125°); the cones of percussion are well developed, but the bulbs tend to be fit relative to the size. According to Paterson and Drummond (1962:42), the reverse surface is untouched (unprepared), except in the case of the Kallar specimen. Retouch is not readily apparent, for the edges are battered, but whether by a natural agency or through utilisation is it impossible to determine.... In the Kallar flake, several flakes have been struck from the reverse surface, indicating that the flake might be older, but the secondary work later, that is, contemporary with the conglomerate.
Their size and character leave little doubt as to their being man-made rather then caused by a natural agency. The flake was found embedded in the boulder conglomerate 5 m. above the right bank of the East Liddar at Pahlgam, at the base of the exposed part of the deposit in a place where a section nearly 400 m. long has been exposed by a road cutting; the section slopes north-northeast to south-southwest, and the boulder conglomerate is found in its central portion, the lower and upper ends containing nothing but brown silty clay.
While the boulder conglomerate is dated in Kashmir to the Second Glacial, for a number of reasons it seems preferable to regard this inassive flake, and the others reported by De Terra and Paterson from the same stratum in the Punjab foothills, as belonging to the First Interglacial (see Sankalia 1969:125). First it was during that period that the climates of the Kashmir Valley and the Himalayan foothills were more or less similar, both legions supporting a subtropical or temperate flora (e.g., pine, oak, cinnamon) and fauna (e.g., Siwaliklike elephant and other animals). Excellent records of these have been presei ved in the Lower Karewa beds in Kashmir (De Terra and Paterson 1939: 224–25; Vishnu-Mittre. Singh, and Saksena 1962:94). This similarity of climate, attributable to the comparatively low altitude at the time of the Pir Panjal range about 6,000 ft., as opposed to its present altitude of about 14,000 ft.) would have permitted the movement of early man and animals from the plains to the hills and vice versa. At the same time, a subtropical or temperate climate would have been more congenial to man than the intense cold of the Second Glacialthough here we must take into account man's capacity to adapt to extremes of climate, as is evident in the fact that sadhus live quite naked at Amarnath, which is snowbound year round. Finally, a dating to the First Interglacial would be in accord with sedimentological principles, which require some allowance for a time--lag between the manufacture of tools and their dispersal and deposition through geomorphic agencies.
If this reasoning is accepted, then the massive flake industry would the earliest in the Asia, because the First Glacial in India and its Interglacial would fall into the Lower Pleistocene. (This was also the view of Paterson and Drummond (1962 42], who, adopting a conservative attitude, placed it in the earliest Middle Pleistocene.) The other two finds of comparable age according to our present knowledge, are the pebble tools from Vertesszollos, about 50 km. west of Budap
Contaned on page No. 78
The decription is given in the words of Paterson and Drummond because these tools are now dispersed in various museums and no longer available for study.) Paterson and Drummond regarded these flakes as genuine tools and were inclined to assign the heavily rolled spe. cimens to the Lower Pleistocence (1962: 59) and the one from Kallar to the early Middle Pleistocence. Oakley (1964: 219-20), because of these peculiar features, particularly the battered cdges, doubted their genuineness.
The finds from our work in the Liddar and Sind valleys are as follows:
1. Massive flake. 25.7x16.5x6 cm. a side-flake removed from a boulder of blackish Punjal trap, with more than half its surface covered by a deep yellowish stiin. Both longitudinal sides show bold as well as step flaking, leaving roundish and flattish scars along the edges. Particularly noteworthy are two large, deep consecutive scars along the butt end on the underside and a similar large scar oppos te them on the upper surface. The former have removed the bulb of percussion, which to judge from the remaining surface was not very preminent. These flake scars give the piece a wavy edge.
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