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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2025/Paper II/Prehistoric Archaeology
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2025 20 Marks Model Answer Available

Upper Palaeolithic of India — 2025 Paper II

Question · 2025 · Paper II · 20 Marks

Describe the distinctive features and distribution of Upper Palaeolithic of India.

Model Answer

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Introduction

The Indian Upper Palaeolithic is a late-Pleistocene technological phase, generally placed between about 40,000/35,000 and 10,000 BP, though its beginning and duration vary regionally. It is identified mainly by specialised blade, backed-tool and burin industries and, at a few sites, bone tools and symbolic objects. It should not be mechanically equated with the named cultural stages of European prehistory.

Distinctive features

  • Blade-based technology: Long, parallel-sided blades were detached from prepared prismatic or unidirectional cores. Retouched blades, backed blades, points, end-scrapers and burins became prominent, although flake tools continued.
  • Regional technological groups: L. K. Murty distinguished flake-blade, blade-tool, and blade-and-burin industries, demonstrating that the Indian sequence was internally diverse.
  • Raw-material selection: Quartzite remained important, but chert, chalcedony, jasper and fine quartz were increasingly used for controlled blade production and composite tools.
  • Bone technology: Billasurgam and Muchchatla Chintamani Gavi in the Kurnool caves yielded points, scrapers, perforators, chisels and spatula-like bone implements.
  • Symbolic behaviour: Patne in Maharashtra produced ostrich-eggshell beads and engraved fragments. Pigment use and some rock-art traditions have also been associated with the late Pleistocene, although many paintings are difficult to date securely.
  • Settlement and subsistence: Rock shelters, caves and open-air camps were occupied in river valleys, plateaus, semi-arid tracts and forest margins. Flexible hunting-gathering strategies anticipated the later microlithic adaptation.

Distribution and representative localities

Western and north-western India: Patne in Maharashtra is the classic stratified blade-and-burin site with ostrich-eggshell ornamentation. Pushkar and other Rajasthan localities preserve blade industries adapted to arid environments; Gujarat has sites such as Visadi.

Central India: Bhimbetka and other Vindhyan shelters, the Son-Belan valley, Baghor and localities in the Narmada and Mahanadi systems contain blade and backed-tool assemblages. Baghor I is notable for a terminal-Pleistocene ritual feature, though its exact cultural placement requires caution.

Southern India: The richest concentration occurs in the Kurnool basin and adjoining Eastern Ghats - Billasurgam, Muchchatla Chintamani Gavi, Betamcherla, Renigunta-Rallakalava and Nagarjunakonda. Karnataka localities in the Belgaum-Bijapur-Gulbarga zone also yield blade industries.

Eastern and north-eastern India: Flake-blade occurrences are reported from Singhbhum, Palamau, Odisha-Mahanadi areas and the Garo Hills, but many are surface collections with limited chronological control.

Critical appraisal and significance

The phase marks technological planning, hafting and greater symbolic expression, and documents the ecological spread of modern humans. Yet the evidence is uneven: many assemblages are undated surface finds, “Upper Palaeolithic” tools overlap with late Middle Palaeolithic and early microlithic industries, and bone or art evidence is highly localised. Jwalapuram is important for continuity of Middle Palaeolithic technology across the approximately 74 ka Toba eruption; it should not be cited as proof of microlithic or Upper Palaeolithic continuity across that event. Sites such as Langhnaj are primarily Mesolithic, while Attirampakkam is chiefly significant for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sequences.

Conclusion

The Indian Upper Palaeolithic was not a uniform culture but a set of regional late-Pleistocene adaptations centred on blades, specialised retouch and occasional bone and symbolic technologies. Its diversity provides the technological bridge between Middle Palaeolithic populations and the widespread Holocene microlithic traditions.

Diagram to draw: Map India and mark Patne, Bhimbetka/Son-Belan, Kurnool caves, Renigunta, Visadi and eastern flake-blade zones; beside it draw a prismatic core -> blade -> backed tool/burin sequence.

Selected authentic sources: M. L. K. Murty, studies of the Upper Palaeolithic in India; IGNOU/UGC modules on Indian Palaeolithic cultures; excavations at Patne, Bhimbetka and the Kurnool caves; Petraglia et al., Science (2007), and Haslam et al. on the Middle Palaeolithic-Toba sequence at Jwalapuram.

2026 Ethnoarchaeology and classical archaeology. 2026 Give the distribution of Palaeolithic sites around the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan areas, highlighting the typo-technologies of the tools. 2026 Thermoluminescence dating method. 2026 Write a detailed note on the characteristic features, chronology, geographical distribution, tool types and lifeways of Magdalenian cultural tradition of Europe.

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