A Re-examination of the Palaeolithic Archaeological Record of Northern Tamil Nadu South India

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The concepts developed in the Kortallayar river basin, South India, especially those related to the ‘Madras Handaxe tradition’ of the Acheulian, and that of the relationship between culture sequences, river terraces and Pleistocene environments, determined the future course of Indian prehistoric archaeology. The present work arose out of a need to re-examine this classic area in Indian archaeology. It attempts to assign meaning to the variability seen in the Palaeolithic archaeological record of the Kortallayar river basin, and to put forward some alternative models of hominid adaptive strategies in the Middle to Late Pleistocene in this part of Northern Tamil Nadu. It includes critique of the terrace sequences proposed by previous researchers, examination of site formation processes operating in the region, regional analyses and the cautious application of an ethnographic approach to South Indian and Sri Lankan hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence strategies and their archaeological correlates.