Editing Lower Paleolithic (section)

==Lower Paleolithic era by region==
;{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
;South India
{{anchor | India | indian subcontinent}}

The '''Madrasian culture''' is a prehistoric [[archaeological culture]] of the [[Indian subcontinent]], dated to the [[Lower Paleolithic]], the earliest subdivision of the [[Stone Age]]. It belongs to the [[Acheulean|Acheulian industry]], and some scholars consider the distinction between the Madrasian and the broader, regional Acheulian tradition defunct.

The Madrasian is characterized by [[Bifacial|bifacial handaxes]] and [[Cleaver (tool)|cleavers]], but also includes [[Flake tool|flake tools]], [[Microlith|microliths]] and other chopping tools. Most were made from [[quartzite]].

The Madrasian was named for its [[type site]] of [[Attirampakkam]] (then part of the [[Madras Presidency]]), and Pallavaram near to the city of Madras (now renamed as [[Chennai]]) in the state of Tamilnadu, discovered by British archaeologist and geologist [[Robert Bruce Foote]] in 1863. The oldest tools at Attirampakkam have been dated to 1.5 million years ago using [[Surface exposure dating|cosmic-ray exposure dating]].

'''North India'''

[[Guy Ellcock Pilgrim]], a British geologist and [[palaeontology|palaeontologist]], discovered 1.5 million-year-old [[Archaic humans|prehistoric human]] teeth and part of a jaw indicating that [[Peopling of India#Early hominins of the Acheulean period|ancient people]], intelligent [[Hominini|hominins]] dating as far back as 1,500,000 [[Before Present|ybp]] [[Acheulean]] period,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pappu |first1=Shanti |last2=Gunnell |first2=Yanni |last3=Akhilesh |first3=Kumar |last4=Braucher |first4=Régis |last5=Taieb |first5=Maurice |last6=Demory |first6=François |last7=Thouveny |first7=Nicolas |title=Early Pleistocene Presence of Acheulian Hominins in South India |journal=Science |date=25 March 2011 |volume=331 |issue=6024 |pages=1596–1599 |doi=10.1126/science.1200183 |pmid=21436450 |bibcode=2011Sci...331.1596P |s2cid=206531024 }}</ref> lived in the Pinjore region near [[Chandigarh]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pilgrim |first1=Guy E. |title=New Siwalik Primates and Their Bearing on the Question of the Evolution of Man and the Anthropoidea |date=1915 |isbn=978-0-404-16675-5 |pages=2–61 }}</ref> [[Quartzite]] tools of the lower Paleolithic period were excavated in this region extending from Pinjore in Haryana to [[Nalagarh]] ([[Solan district]] in Himachal Pradesh).<ref name="hargazc1">{{cite web |url=http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/hr-gaz-ch-5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108145555/http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/hr-gaz-ch-5.pdf |archive-date=8 January 2019 |title=Revenue and Disaster Management Department Haryana &#124; India }}{{full citation needed|date=October 2022}}</ref> The lands of Gujarat has been continuously inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic (c. 200,000 BP) period. Evidence of Stone Age habitation has been discovered in riverbeds of [[Sabarmati River|Sabarmati]], [[Mahi River]] and lower [[Narmada]] rivers of Gujarat.<ref name="Zeuner1950">{{cite book|author=Frederick Everard Zeuner|title=Stone Age and Pleistocene Chronology in Gujarat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1glAAAAMAAJ|year=1950|publisher=Deccan College, Postgraduate and Research Institute}}</ref>