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Paleolithic South Asia
The South Asian Stone Age spans the prehistoric age from the earliest use of stone tools in the Paleolithic period to the rise of agriculture, domestication, and pottery in the Neolithic period across present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. As in other parts of the world, in South Asia, the divisions of the Stone Age into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods do not carry precise chronological boundaries; instead, they describe broad phases of technological and cultural development based on the tools and artifacts found at various archaeological sites. The Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) in South Asia began as early as 2.6 million years ago (Ma) based on the earliest known sites with hominin activity, namely the Siwalik Hills of northwestern India. The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) is defined as a transitional phase following the end of the Last Glacial Period, beginning around 10000 BCE. The Neolithic (New Stone Age), starting around 7000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by Hominini, hominins, 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene, 11,650 Before Present#Radiocarbon calibration, cal Before Present, BP. The Paleolithic Age in Europe preceded the Mesolithic Age, although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as band society, bands and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic Age is characterized by the use of Knapping, knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acheulean
Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo erectus'' and derived species such as ''Homo heidelbergensis''. Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe, and are typically found with ''Homo erectus'' remains. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed about 2 million years ago, derived from the more primitive Oldowan technology associated with ''Homo habilis''. The Acheulean includes at least the early part of the Middle Paleolithic. Its end is not well defined; if Sangoan (also known as Epi-Acheulean) is included, it may be taken to last until as late as 130,000 years ago. In Europe and Western Asia, early Neanderthals adopted Acheulean technology, transitioning to Mouste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riwat
Riwat ( Rawat, Murree) is a Paleolithic site in Punjab, northern Pakistan. Another site, called Riwat Site 55, shows a later occupation dated to around 45,000 years ago. Site The site was discovered in 1983. The artifacts consist of flakes and cores made of quartzite. The collection of pebble tools is claimed to be 1.9 million years old and has been disputed because the artifacts weren't found in their original context. The claims of the dating of the site are being continuously researched. Discovery Riwat was discovered by the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan, directed by F. Raymond Allchin and Bridget Allchin (1977–1987), and Robin Dennell (1988–1999). In the early 1980s, the mission set out to investigate the earliest periods in the prehistory of Pakistan, which at that point were only poorly understood, based on the work of Helmut de Terra and T. T. Paterson in the 1930s. One of the localities described by de Terra and Paterson was a place near the vill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lomekwi
Lomekwi is an archaeological site located on the west bank of Turkana Lake in Kenya. It is an important milestone in the history of human archaeology. An archaeological team from Stony Brook University in the United States discovered traces of Lomekwi by chance in July 2011, and made substantial progress four years after in-depth excavations. Artifacts excavated from Lomekwi date back to 3.3 million years ago, completely overturning the history of human use and tool making and advancing it by about 500,000 years. The most conspicuous among these cultural relics is a large stone tool with obvious traces of human processing. It looks like a cutting board, but its exact purpose is not clear yet. The artifacts from Lomekwi have a unique production method and are an independent production style. The archaeological team calls it Lomekwian. These tools, which are not highly processed, completely distinguish Australopithecus from other primates, and it is highly likely that ancient h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dikika
The Dikika is an area of the Afar Region of Ethiopia. A hominin fossil named Selam, a specimen of the ''Australopithecus afarensis'' species, was found in this area. Papers also propose the earliest evidence of stone tool use at this site in the form of cut marks on animal bone. However there has been argument about this proposal. Dikika is located in Mille woreda.Based on the map of the findsite printed in Alemseged, Z. et al. A new hominin from the Basal Member of the Hadar Formation, Dikika, and its geological context. ''J. Hum. Evol.'' 49 (2005), 499–514. Dikika is also given to name a basal member of the Hadar formation, a series of sedimentary rocks deposited approximately 3.4 million years ago, which have been exposed by the erosive action of the Awash River } The Awash River (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo language, Oromo: ''Awaash OR Hawaas'', Amharic: ዐዋሽ, Afar language, Afar: ''Hawaash We'ayot'', Somali language, Somali: ''Webiga Dir'', Italian language, It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taphonomic
Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term ''taphonomy'' (from Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms from the biosphere to the lithosphere. The term taphomorph is used to describe fossil structures that represent poorly-preserved, deteriorated remains of a mixture of taxonomic groups, rather than of a single one. Description Taphonomic phenomena are grouped into two phases: biostratinomy, events that occur between death of the organism and the burial; and diagenesis, events that occur after the burial. Since Efremov's definition, taphonomy has expanded to include the fossilization of organic and inorganic materials through both cultural and environmental influences. Taphonomy is now most widely defined as the study of what happens to objects after they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stegodon
''Stegodon'' (from the Ancient Greek στέγω (''stégō''), meaning "to cover", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth", named for the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae. Like elephants, ''Stegodon'' had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids. Fossils of the genus are known from Africa and across much of Asia, as far southeast as Timor (with a single record in southeast Europe). The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic ''Stegolophodon,'' subsequently migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene, ''Stegodon'' persisted in South, Southeast and Eastern Asia into the Late Pleisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleomagnetic Dating
Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is provided by tools such as paleomagnetism and stable isotope ratios. By combining multiple geochronological (and biostratigraphic) indicators the precision of the recovered age can be improved. Geochronology is different in application from biostratigraphy, which is the science of assigning sedimentary rocks to a known geological period via describing, cataloging and comparing fossil floral and faunal assemblages. Biostratigraphy does not ''directly'' provide an absolute age determination of a rock, but merely places it within an ''interval'' of time at which that fossil assemblage is known to have coexisted. Both disciplines work together hand in hand, however, to the point where they share the same system of naming strata (rock layers) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yves Coppens
Yves Coppens (9 August 1934 – 22 June 2022) was a French anthropologist and co-discoverer of "Lucy". A graduate from the University of Rennes and the Sorbonne, he studied ancient hominids and had multiple published works on this topic, and also produced a film. In October 2014, Coppens was named an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis. Scientific work He was Professor at the College de France, which is considered to be France's most prestigious research establishment. Richard Dawkins makes the following observation in ''The Ancestor's Tale'': "Incidentally, I don't know what to make of the fact that in his native France, Yves Coppens is widely cited as the discoverer of Lucy, even as the 'father' of Lucy. In the English-speaking world, this important discovery is universally attributed to Donald Johanson". This confusion is because Coppens was the former director of the Hadar expedition. Donald Johanson, who led the 1974 expedition, was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chandigarh, India
Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the States of india, states of Punjab, India, Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Sivalik, Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the remaining directions. Chandigarh constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which also includes the adjacent Satellite city, satellite cities of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab. It is located 260 km (162 miles) northwest of New Delhi and 229 km (143 miles) southeast of Amritsar and 104 km (64 miles) southwest of Shimla. Chandigarh is one of the earliest planned cities in History of the Republic of India (1947–present), post independence India and is internationally known for its architecture and urban design. The master plan of the city was prepared by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, which built upon earlier plans created by the Polish archite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siwalik
The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Paleolithic archaeological culture. Geography The Sivalik Hills are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is wide with an average elevation of . Between the Teesta and Raidāk Rivers in Assam is a gap of about . They are well known for their Neogene and Pleistocene aged vertebrate fossils. Geology Geologically, the Sivalik Hills belong to the Tertiary deposits of the outer Himalayas. They are chiefly composed of sandstone and conglomerate rock formations, which are the solidified detritus of the Himalayas to their north; they are poorly consolidated. The sedimentary rocks comprising the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masol (paleontology)
Masol is a Paleontology, paleontological-Archaeology, archaeological site in the Shivalik Frontal Range of the Sub-Himalayan Range, sub-Himalayan foothills of northwestern India, in the state of Punjab, India, Punjab, a few kilometers north of Chandigarh. It dates from the end of the Pliocene. The fossiliferous formation called "Quranwala zone"(upper limit around 2.7 million years, lower limit 2.95 million years ago) provides stone tools (choppers, flakes), some in situ with cut marks and percussion marks on fossil bones in the lower layers. It represents the oldest paleontological record of hominin activities located outside of Africa. The majority of the site is composed of sandstone, sand, and silt, which, through time, has eroded due to wind and water action. Such geological action has contributed significantly to the natural excavation of the area. References {{reflist Paleolithic sites Chandigarh Pliocene Homo fossils Punjab, India Himalayas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
