Deogarh: Evidence of a Middle Paleolithic human settlement has been discovered for the first time in Deogarh district, researchers said Monday.
A joint team from the postgraduate (PG) department of History at Government Autonomous College in Sundargarh and the Archaeological Survey of India’s Puri Circle made the rare find. The team was led by ASI Puri Circle Superintendent Dibishad Brajasundar Gadnayak, along with Assistant Professors Sakir Hussain and Jayashankar Naik of Government Autonomous College in Sundargarh.
The artefacts were unearthed near a small hill close to the OSRTC bus stand in Riamal. The findings include stone tools and cultural materials dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period. Researchers said the artefacts became visible after laterite soil was removed from the hill during the construction of a bypass road near Riamal.
The materials were found exposed in stratigraphic layers and scattered across the surface. The collection includes hand axes, Levallois cores, flakes, awls, scrapers, picks, discoids and other tools characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic age. Preliminary surveys suggest the tools are at least 60,000 to 70,000 years old, Assistant Professor Naik said Monday in Sundargarh.
