Chronology of Gujarat

Author(s): M R Majumdar
Publisher: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Page 41

PRELUDE TO HISTORY
The main tools made of Quartzite and Quarts (rarely) consist of choppers made of pebbles, hand-axes and cleavers, discoid cores and scrapers, and flakes with an occasional retouch.
In view of the various deposits discussed above, there is no doubt about the considerable antiquity of this culture. But since we have as yet no means of correlating with the known sequence in Kashmir with the Glacial periods, nor with the fossiliferous deposits of Narmadā and Godāvari, the exact chronology of this culture remains vague. But on typological grounds it can be equated with the Sohan of Punjab and dated to the Penultimate glaciation. On the basis of the astronomical theory of Milankovitch and Zeuner it can be placed to about 150,000 to 200,000 years.
Microlithic:
We have already discussed the period when the dunes were blown about in Northern and Central Gujarat. When these dunes occur in clusters, blow-outs or depressions are formed in the middle, by the whirling action of the wind. Hence when the climate changed for the better, these blow-outs became the ponds which became the centres of attraction for the next Pre-historic culture of Gujarat, characterized by the use of microliths. These consist of small implements made of semi-precious stones like agate, chalcedony, chert, jasper etc.
These microlithic sites have a very wide distribution in Gujarat and Saurāşțra. All the river-valleys and the isolated clusters of dunes around ponds supported the hunting communities. Besides, there is a concentration of these sites along the eastern stretches of Gujarat flanking the hills. In the central hilly areas of Amreli and Dhāri Prānts, Foote had recorded a large number of sites.
One of the most important sites which has been investigated by Sankalia and later by Subbarao is Lānghộaj in the Mehasana District. Here on a high mound facing the pond lived one of these hunting settlements.
A very interesting evidence of the climate of North Gujarat is provided by the remains of animals discovered there : Rhinoceros, Hog Deer, Black Buck, Indian Buffalo, Nilgāi etc. None of these animals were domesticated, confirming that these people were wild hunters. They used the shoulder-blade of rhinoceros as anvil for making their stone-tools.
About twelve human skeletors have been discovered so far, and they are being studied. The capacity of the skulls compares with that of Europoid ; but “the slight prognathism of the one skull with smooth small rounded forehead suggests negroid affinities, which belief is strengthened by the smallness of the cross-section as compared to the length of the long bones of the upper and lower extremities.”
About the age of this culture, we are not yet in a position to give an exact date; but excavations at Rangpur and Baroda roughly provide the other limit. At the former site, it precedes the appearance of the “Kathiawad Harappan culture". At Baroda and Timbervā, it precedes the Mauryan and Kşatrapa periods.
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