One of the earliest stone tools from the region, discovered by Robert Bruce Foote almost 150 years ago from various sites of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, have been put on display for the first time at the Indian Museum in Kolkata.
“Forty-two stone tools, which include hand axes, scrapers, mullers, corn crushers, pounders and celt, are being displayed at the Indian Museum’s temporary exhibition room. These tools, discovered by Foote, are the first technology developed by hominoids for sustenance as hunter gatherers,” Indian Museum director Rajesh Purohit said.
With Chennai museum
While a large number of the tools collected by Foote, considered the ‘Father of Indian Prehistory’, is with the Madras Government Museum, about 200 stone tools are in the collection of Indian Museum, which is the oldest in Asia.
The exhibition sought to highlight that the tool-making technology of the prehistoric times was one of the oldest in the world, Dr. Purohit added.
He referred to recent research publications by archaeologist Shanti Pappu, which established that tools discovered at Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu and the adjoining areas, used by the Palaeolithic population, could be dated to 1.5 million years ago.
Gift for the boss
There is also an interesting story as to how the tools landed in Kolkata, almost 1,600 km from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where they were discovered.
Professor K. Paddayya of Deccan College, who inaugurated the exhibition, said Foote came to India in 1858 as an assistant geologist with the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
It was during his visit to Kolkata to meet his superior, Thomas Oldham, who was heading the GSI then, that Foote brought these stone tools to Kolkata.
The first tool, a hand axe was found on May 30, 1863, from the Parade Ground at Pallavaram in Chennai. The discovery led Oldham to announce at a meeting of the Asiatic Society in August 1864 that his colleague had discovered stone implements from the prehistoric times from Tamil Nadu, Prof Paddayya recalled.
“These are the stone tools which Robert Bruce Foot took to Vienna from Calcutta in 1873 and they were displayed at an international exhibition of science and scientific instruments,” said Prof. Paddayya, who has done extensive research on the Palaeolithic and Neolithic cultures.
Authorities at the Indian Museum, after a painstaking search of their collection, confirmed that the GSI had donated these stone implements, discovered in batches in 1883.
Make your own tool
Sayan Bhattacharya, education officer, said that along with the exhibition, the Museum also organised a stone tool making workshop by Aviek Biswas, a fellow at the Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training.
The workshop not only demonstrated techniques of tool-making but also explained to the participants the importance of these stone tools.