Les premiers peuplements d'Asie du Sud : vestiges culturels

The Lower Paleolithic of the Indian subcontinent

“…67 Excavations in this formation at Singi Talav exposed an Early Acheulean assemblage on quartzite and quartz in fresh condition, thought to be >800 Ka from regional chrono-stratigraphy. 31 Metrical and typological studies indicated a younger Acheulean facies with small bifaces and flake-dominated specimens in the upper horizons. 68 Their geological context indicated hominin adaptations to a variety of environments, including ponds, lakes, playa, sand dunes, along paleochannels, and on bedrock outcrops and wide, shallow floodplains.…”

“…28,29 Detailed information about individual sites, site clusters, and associated contextual, chronological, and behavioral interpretations can be found in numerous review publications. 3,10,11,19,21,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]…”

Soanian cores and core-tools from Toka, Northern India: Towards a new typo-technological organization

“…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, 1989). As a result, Soanian technological evolution (de Terra and Paterson, 1939) is no longer considered to be valid, although some assemblages may be broadly but tentatively distinguishable as Early or Late Soanian types (Gaillard, 2006).…”

“…Tewari et al 2002) are generally sparse (Misra, 2001;Chauhan, 2006). The Siwalik Acheulian facies occurs sporadically in exclusive contexts as well as in surface association with Soanian assemblages, a trait also noted in parts of peninsular India (de Terra and Paterson 1939;Mohapatra 1981;Jayaswal, 1982;Ghosh, 1985), and is probably older than the latter (Chauhan, 2003;Gaillard and Mishra, 2001;Gaillard, 2006). Soanian artifacts were primarily manufactured on quartzite pebbles and cobbles, and assemblages generally comprise choppers, discoids, scrapers, cores, and numerous flake types, occurring in diverse typotechnological frequencies at individual sites (see Paterson and Drummond 1962).…”

Pleistocene Palaeoart of Asia

“…Six small quartz crystals have been recovered at Singi Talav, Didwana region of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, from the base of the Lower Acheulian deposit (Gaillard et al 1983 [72,60]. Chronostratigrapically the horizon is thought to be in the order of 800 ka old (Gaillard 2006) [71]. The crystals measure from 7 to 25 mm in length, too small to have been used as tools, and they are almost entirely unmodified (Figure 18).…”