The Problem of Palaeolithic Settlements in Kerala in the Light of Recent Investigations

Environment played a vital role in the evolution of 'culture' by human beings especially in the prehistoric periods. Only in the later periods, particularly, from the Neolithic-Chalcolithic period, man could control the ill effects of the hostile environment to some extent by erecting houses, diverting rain or river waters, etc. However, in the Stone Age the early man had to adjust himself to the environment, when environment was not congenial, he abandoned the places of his activities and moved on to new places. Since the environment of the world changed in Pleistocene period a number of times, new types of fauna and flora appeared in nature, pressing the human beings to evolve new types of tools and living habits to adjust their life-style. In this lies the greatest quality of human beings which was not there in animals, that of inventiveness, due to which they kept on evolving new techniques of making tools, new means of erecting shelters or identifying and modifying the old techniques to make them suitable for their purposes. It was this human inventiveness helped the prehistoric people to occupy the river basins and hilly tracts of Kerala, as elsewhere, during the Pleistocene period.

Climate, landforms and inorganic raw materials like minerals, rocks and soil and biological variables including flora and fauna and natural and physical hazards - all have influenced in moulding the human cultures since his first appearance on the earth. Climate is the deciding factors for many other variables like flora, fauna and soil types. It also decides how man should adapt himself to his environment, viz., the problems related to his dwellings - whether it should be natural caves and rock-shelters or pit dwellings or structural ones; the problems related to selecting the habitational area - whether it is congenial for hunting or suitable for cultivation or both; and clothing.

Coming to climatic conditions of the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, Indian subcontinent has witnessed contrasting climatological zones favouring different cultures in time and space. Recent palaeolithic investigations in Nepal, west coast of India and in the Central Himalayas, on the western frontiers of the Thar desert in the Rohri Hills of Pakistan have proved prehistoric people's ability to adapt themselves to the areas of environmental hostility. Hence such early theories like areas of isolation or relative isolation in relation to the palaeolithic settlements in South Asia are now untenable. These recent discoveries indicate that there are prospects for more fieldwork in regions thus far remaining a terrae incognitae, for instance, the southern stretches of the west coast, including Kerala, the north-east hilly region and the Ganga valley proper (Settar & Korisettar 2002: 1-65).

The theory of 'environmental determinism' has now been superseded by the concept of 'environmental adaptation'. It includes both physical and behavioural adaptations to one's environment. Earlier it was considered that humankind's food, shelter, clothing and life-style and belief-system, etc. were controlled or determined by the environment. However, the recent developments in archaeology, particularly in the field of environmental archaeology, have laid more emphasis on environmental determinism which views man's life-style as being 'adapted to' the environment rather than being 'determined by' it (Evans 1978: 10). Clark (1975) aptly states: 'Economic arrangements made by prehistoric communities were not controlled by but rather were adjusted to available natural resources'.

Climate is the most important determinant factor of the distribution of the vegetation which in turn greatly influences on faunal environment including that of humankind's. Vegetation pattern of forested area is entirely different from that of open land. This discrepancy in the distribution of vegetation may also be a determinant factor of the structure and species composition of animal populations, and this has considerable repercussions on man's hunting strategies, techniques, skills, the range of species hunted, and his life-style. Since all living things require warmth and moisture in varying degree they ultimately reflect resources primarily controlled by climate (Butzer: 1971: 50). All these factors bring about seasonal migration of animals in large herds, especially, to avoid unfavourable food or thermal conditions which in turn supported the food economy of the prehistoric populations throughout the Old World. This relationship between climate and society is clearly demonstrated in the case of the Egyptian and Andean Civilizations (Hassan 1997; Binford et al. 1997).

Kerala, a hill country, being provided with ideal ecosystems, enjoys a variety of habitats - trees, open areas, lakes and rivers - which are all juxtaposed. Trees introduce a much greater number of habitable niches into an ecosystem than is the case with open habitats and the number of different species and ecological types is greater also. Recent archaeological explorations carried out by the writer along the Attingal River and hilly tracts of Mamom in Chirayinkeezh Taluk in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala proved beyond doubt that Kerala provided the palaeolithic people with congenial and hospitable environment and food and shelter for their survival in this region (Vijayakumar 2005: 160-3).

Mamom (N: 8^o 40' 15.4"; E: 76^o 49' 47.5") is a typical Palaeolithic primary site in Kerala. The hilly region provided very suitable environment for prehistoric habitation and rich floral and faunal materials for subsistence. The rock-shelters are situated on the highest point of the eastern part of the hill. From the top of these rocks is visible the Arabian Sea, lying about 20 km away from the site. Thus the site provided a high vantage point to the prehistoric man for surveillance. There is a small ephemeral stream nearby called Mamom River. The explorations revealed two rock-shelters and a Megalithic cist burial. One of the rock-shelters is facing east which is a very suitable orientation for using daylight for maximum number of hours. The bigger rock shelter measures 20x18 ft. and has broken tallus from the ceiling of the cave forming the floor. Several Lower Palaeolithic implements have been found lying on the surface adjacent to the rock-shelter. Both massive and medium-sized flakes were utilized for fashioning the tools. The large implements are of massive high-angled flakes. The raw material used here is gneissic-leptynite or a variety of granite. The distinct feature of this site is that the river-worn pebbles were never used for fashioning the tools.

Tool repertoire from Mamom consists of handaxes, scrapers of various types, cleaver-cum-scrapers, backed knives, pen-knives, borers, etc. Some of the tools are Middle Palaeolithic in nature suggesting considerable diminution in their size. Lower Palaeolithic tools from Mamom reveal a gradual progress in tool technology. All the tools are provided with suitable 'finger notches' which facilitated precision grip. However, these tools might not have been used for big game hunting. They might have been used for cutting carcasses of hunted animals, piercing the hide, removing fur from the hide, and splitting bones to take out bone marrows.

In the light of the present discovery, it seems that the Palaeolihtic cultures of south Kerala are entirely different from those of north Kerala. In the north, tools were mainly made on river-worn pebbles with stray occurrence of nodules; whereas in the south the tools were fashioned on flakes. The core tools of the north were essentially of chopper-chopping tradition similar to those of Konkan LPL industry and quartz was the main raw material used in that region (Rajendran: 1989). On the contrary, Mamomian industry of the south is essentially a flake tool industry having all the characteristic features of the Lower Palaeolithic industries of other parts of India. For example, Lower Palaeolithic tools with typical 'finger notches' have been recovered from the famous prehistoric sites at Anangpur near Delhi and at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. Some of the LPL tools from Anangpur have parallels in Mamomian industry.

In conclusion, the vicinity of Mamom was the promised land of the prehistoric people which provided them with rich floral and faunal assemblages, suitable raw materials for fashioning the tools, rivers and channels for supplying water, high vantage points for surveillance of the game and suitably spacious rock-shelters to provide a comfortable living.

References

Binford, M.W., A.L. Kolata, M. Brenner, J.W. Janusek, M.T. Seddon, M. Abbot and J.H. Curtis. 1997. Climate variation and the rise and fall of an Andean Civilization. Quaternary Research 47: 235-248.

Butzer, K.W. 1971. Environment and Archaeology. Chicago: Aldine.

Clark, J.G.D. 1975. The Earlier Stone Age Settlement of Scandinavia. London: Cambridge University Press.

Evans, J. G. 1978. An Introduction to Environmental Archaeology. New York: Cornell University Press.

Hassan, F.A. 1997. The dynamics of a riverine civilization: a geoarchaeological perspective on the Nile Valley, Egypt. World Archaeology 29(1): 51-74.

Korisettar, R. 2002. The Archaeology of the South Asian Lower Palaeolithic: History and Current Status. In Prehistory : Archaeology of South Asia. (Eds.) S. Settar and Ravi Korisettar. Pp.1-65. New Delhi: Manohar.

Rajendran, P. 1989. The Prehistoric Cultures and Environments of Kerala. New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company.

Vijayakumar, S. 2005. Palaeolithic Tools from Mamom, Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala. Puratattva (35). Pp. 160-3.