The First Acheulian Quarry in India: Stone Tool Manufacture, Biface Morphology, and Behaviors

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Abstract
An Acheulian quarry was recently identified in the Hunsgi Valley, India. An Acheulian quarry has never been described before on the Indian subcontinent, and this is a site type that has rarely been investigated anywhere in the Old World. The Isampur quarry is at a siliceous limestone bedrock source. Surface survey and test excavations have revealed Acheulian assemblages, including a high density of chipped stone waste (i.e., cores, flakes, chunks), bifacial tools (i.e., bifaces, cleavers), and hammerstones. Petrofabric analysis of the limestone beds and study of artifact attributes indicate that hominids practiced standardized biface manufacturing methods at this quarry. Handaxes were made parallel to moderately thick tabular slabs, the handaxe tips and butts often intersecting with joints. Cleavers were made on side-struck flakes from thick cores, which were derived from the thickest limestone beds. The dorsal surface of the side-struck cleavers was often subparallel to a bedding plane, and the bit was inclined into a cleavage scar or joint. The steps involved in biface manufacture prior to and during the reduction process indicate that a significant degree of planning was employed, an important observation given our lack of understanding of Middle Pleistocene hominid cognition. Repeated manufacture of certain tool types and discard of minimally retouched bifaces across the valley floors indicate relations between raw materials and behaviors that we do not yet fully comprehend.

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