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188
1
Jijñāsā
where the sites are found in the Granitic hilly region, the quartz material for making Mesolithic tools dominate while the sites found in Quartzite area, the chert material for making the tools is preferred.
Faunal material:
The faunal material has for the first time been discovered on the Seonath river, in Mahanadi valley. They are of both varieties vertebrate fossils and invertebrate fossils. The vertebrate fossils are found from the Sandy Pebbly gravel associated with Middle Palaeolithic tools. They come from 4 sites: Nandghat' (81°48'N;21°01'E), Simga (81°42'N; 21°37'E), Somnath (81°48'N; 21°34' E) and Rajnandgaon (81°02'N:21°06' E) in form of molars, premolar, vertebrae, astragalus, ribs, phallanges and various unidentifiable bones. They are of Equus caballus, Equus namadicus, Equus asinus, Bos namadicus, bos indicus, Bubalus, bubalis, Ovis/Capra. They occur from the loose gravel and also in situ with the Middle Palaeolithic tools. (Plate.2) The invertebrate fossils come in form of freshwater molluscan shells associated with Upper Palaeolithic industry and High Level Gravel of the Seonath river valley. They are Turitella, Lymnea, Planorbis and Pila.
Vredenburg (1905) on the basis of the study of long profile of Peninsular rivers of Indian SubContinent had postulated that the Indian Peninsula was tectonically unstable and due to tectonic disturbances has developed knick points on several rivers and have developed anticlinal warping towards NNE-SSW. The Mahanadi and Seonath river change their courses suddenly and have developed meanders at several places which are an indication of tectonic disturbences during prehistoric past, even then the valley provided favourable environmental conditions for early man to settle in the valley. Thus, Mahanadi valley had favourable environmental condition during Pleistocene period for settlement in the valley. The valley had thick vegetation cover where varieties of games and fruits, roots and tubers were available and had favourable abode for early man to settele through the ages.
References: Butzer, Karl W, 1972, Environment and Archaeology, 2w edition. London. Cunningham, 1878. Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. 17. Lal, Hira, 1933. "Inscriptions in C.P and Berar," Indian Antiquary Vol.62.
Pandey, R.P., 1980, "Geomorphology and Prehistory of the Upper Mahanadi valley Central India". Bulletin of Deccan College Research Institute: 39 pp. 135-146
Pandey, R.P., 1987. Prehistoric Archaeology of Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi. Singh, R.L., 2004, India: A Regional Geography (Ed.), Varanasi. Vaidva. 1993. "Inscriptions in C.P and Berar". Indian Antiquary. Vol. 62 Verma, Bhagwan Singh, 1995, Chhattisgarh ka Itihasa. Bhopal
Vredenburg, E 1905, "Pleistocene Movement as Indicated by Irregularities of Gradients of the Narmada and other river valleys in the Indian Peninsula". Records, Geological Survey of India. Vol. 33, pp. 34-38.
