Prehistoric Cultures of Odisha A Study of the Tel River Valley

One of the important features of the prehistoric studies from the early twentieth century is the utilization of ethnographic data for archaeological interpretation. The present book constitutes the original and first hand contribution to our understanding of the Prehistory and Ethno-archaeology of the Tel River valley.

The book comprises of six chapters. The first chapter defines the study area and scope of study, presents a review of research on Palaeolithic archaeology of the subcontinent, Peninsular India and the region of Odisha in general and of the study area in particular. The second chapter described the physiographic and geographic setting of Odisha with a special emphasis on the study area such as hill ranges, drainage systems, geology, soils profiles, climate, flora and fauna. The third chapter is focused on the study of the ethnographic context of Odisha especially of the Mid-Tel river Valley comprising of the tribal and agro-pastoral groups such as Kandh, Poraja, Gadaba, Saura and Munda. The fourth chapter discusses the prehistoric sites reported by previous researchers as well as those discovered by the author. Intensive and problem-oriented explorations in the Mid-Tel river valley, spanning over four seasons, resulted in the discovery of 82 new archaeological sites in different geomorphic context comprising of Acheulean & Microlithic scatters and debitage, ringstones as well as potshreds of the historical period in the surface context. In fifth chapter, the prehistoric lithic assemblages were classified and analysed using the ‘Site-Catchment’ model of archaeological theory. The sixth & concluding chapters presents the major findings of the research along with tabulated data of all the archaeological sites in the study area with their photographic records.