Hand-axes of the Neolithic or New Stone Age that were used by humans for hunting and digging were discovered by members of the Salem District Historical Research Centre at Sirumalai tribal hamlet in the Kalvarayan Hills recently.
A team led by the centre’s president Pon. Venkatesan and comprising epigraphist Veeragavan from Villupuram, secretary Kalaiselvan, treasurer Srinivasan and Dr. Ponambalanathan, among others, visited the Pillaiyar temple in the hamlet and found over 50 hand-axes dumped around a tree on the premises. The stones have been venerated by the tribal community, who consider them as dieties, for generations.
The team members said that the axes were made of hard rock and used by humans for butchering animals, digging tubers and roots, chopping branches and hunting. Humans roamed the forest areas in search of food and settled near rivers and waterbodies. The tools helped them gather food, the members said. The Neolithic Age in south India is said to have stretched from 6,500 B.C. to 1,400 B.C., and the discovered axes could be from around 2,000 B.C.
Robert Bruce Foote, a British geologist and archaeologist, who conducted surveys of prehistoric locations in the country and discovered Palaeolithic stone tools in 1863 at Pallavaram and in Tiruvallur district, came across the tools again in Shevaroyan Hills, Yercaud, Kalvarayan Hills, and at Bodamalai.
His findings threw light on the fact that humans had lived in various parts of the district.
Members wanted the site to be protected and the stones displayed in the museum for the benefit of the public.
