Author: UPI
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: September 8, 2003
URL: http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030908-025602-5658r.htm
Scientists report they have found
evidence of the oldest human habitation in India, dating to 2 million years,
on the banks of the Subarnarekha River.
The 30-mile stretch between Ghatshila
in the province of Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj in Orissa has reportedly yielded
tools that suggest the site could be unique in the world, with evidence
of human habitation without a break from 2 million years ago to 5,000 B.C.
Anthropologist S. Chakraborty told
the Calcutta Telegraph: "There are no signs of terra incognito (a break
in the continuum) in the Subarnarekha valley, unlike any other site in
India. Some of the heavier tools resemble those found in the East African
stone-age shelters, used by the Australopithecus."
Chakraborty said the uninterrupted
habitation could make the site more important than even the Aldovai Gorge
in East Africa, the Somme Valley of France, Stonehenge in England, the
Narmada basin in Madhya Pradesh and the Velamadurai- Pallavaram rectangle
in Tamil Nadu.
