A recent study of the Quranwala Zone (QZ) of the north-west sub-Himalayas, India, presents evidence for anthropic activity during the Pliocene that includes a number of stone tools found in association with fossil animal bones with cut marks. Based on the date of the Pliocene rock outcrop, the tools and bones are suggested to date from 2.6 Ma (Gaillard et al. 2016). There is, however, a question mark over the context of these tools within an outcrop of Pliocene rocks and, hence, over the date of these tools and the fossil bones. The trench from which they were excavated at Masol 2 (Gaillard et al.2016: fig. 3) lies in a depression at the bottom of a slope; the description provided in section 2 of the paper by Gaillard et al. (2016) suggests that the stone tools may not have been in situ within the Pliocene levels, but had accumulated there and were mixed with the fragments of fossil bone due to geological processes. Moreover, many of the stone tools, such as the ‘simple choppers’ found in association with the fossil animal bones (Gaillard et al.2016: figs 6, 8, 9), are usually found on much more recent sites and are therefore unlikely to date from 2.6 Ma.
and in the intermontane dun valleys. 14-16 Most of the workers in India 14,16,17 relied heavily on de Terra and Paterson's work, 1 ultimately resulting in oversimplified and confusing cultural interpretations. 18 A general view was presented that the Early-Soan consisted of heavy duty tools with the dominance of choppers and in the Late-Soan, the occurrence of flakes/flaketools increased and the tools became smaller in size. 1,19,20 The Late-Soan of the Soan valley of north Pakistan is also considered to be belonging to South Asian Middle palaeolithic tradition in typological terms. 21,22 The typochronological distinction between Early and Late-Soan is still not clear because both the tool-types mixed with each other have only been reported in un-datable surface contexts. Doubts about de Terra and Paterson's observations first surfaced only through the works of Gill & Sankalia. 23,24 The stratigraphical context of the Soanian industries as first specified by de Terra & Paterson 1 was severely questioned by later field studies Rendell et al. 10 The Soan River 'terraces' as observed by de Terra and Paterson were proven to be erosional features rather than true river terraces Rendell et al. 10 As a result, Soanian technological evolution de Terra & Paterson 1 is no longer considered to be valid. 10,25,26 There is no evidence of discrete 'Early' or 'Late' Soan entities since the Soanian tools including both large and small types and with varying flake contents have also been found recently even from very young sites. 27-32
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