First stone age weapon unit discovered in Karnataka

A 350,000-year-old weapons-producing centre has been discovered in Karnataka's Isampur region. This is the first time such an excavation has been made in India.

The excavation assumes special significance as it is the only occasion when several limestone weapons -- besides a large chunk of weapons -- have been excavated. All the earlier stone age weapons were made of quartzife and basalt.

The excavation was conducted by Pune's Deccan College following a chance discovery by its additional director Dr K Padya. Several such excavations have been conducted in Karnataka's Shara taluka (Gulburga district) in co-operation with Washington's Smithson University since 1970.

The centre has a total spread of 2,000 square metres. Several weapons made of limestone including knives, axes and hammers have been found. The hammers are circular stones with a diameter of about 10 to 15 cm.

The presence of a large quantity of chips -- that might have strewn across during chipping -- proves that it was a weapons-producing centre.

The fact that a large quantity of weapons were recovered from the sites in the vicinity of the weapons-producing centre indicates that the stone age man lived there.

Substantial evidence about the presence of stone age civilisation (350,000 years old) has been discovered from the 500 sq km stretch around the Isampur region. This also includes pre-stone age civilisation (350,000 to 100,000 years old), middle stone age civilisation (100,000 to 30,000 years old), post-stone age civilisation (30,000 to 8,000 years old) and medieval age civilisation (6000 BC to 2500 BC) along with iron age civilisation (1000 to 400 BC) This is a rare instance where so many civilisations have been discovered at the same site.

Compiled from the Marathi media by Prasanna Zore