Madras University Team Discovers Prehistoric Stone Age Site at Kathiyavadi

Students and faculty members from the University of Madras department of ancient history and archaeology have discovered a new Stone Age site at Kathiyavadi near Ranipet, approximately 120 kilometres from Chennai.

The team uncovered a range of stone tools crafted exclusively from quartz during a field exploration. The findings include multi-platform and discoidal cores, scrapers, burins, and notched tools, alongside debitage and refined microliths.

The exploration was conducted under the leadership of J Soundararajan, associate professor and head in charge of the department of ancient history and archaeology. He explained that the field investigation was initially undertaken to survey the region and identify potential archaeological sites for excavation, ultimately resulting in the discovery of the open-air prehistoric site.

According to Jinu Koshy, excavation in charge in the department, the diverse range of lithic artefacts indicates continuous human activity and technical advancement at the location over an extensive period spanning from 300,000 years to 10,000 years ago.

The discovery holds significance in contrast to earlier archaeological investigations conducted by K Kumar at the nearby villages of Bagaveli and Melvisharam. Those earlier surveys identified an Upper Palaeolithic industry dating from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago that was predominantly reliant on quartzite rather than quartz raw material.