| Abstract: |
A number of hitherto unknown stone age industries were discovered during geological-palaeontological Siwalik research since 1984 in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal. In western Nepal in the Dun valleys of Dang and Deokhuri they include rare early palaeolithic remains in the form of bifacial tools (handaxes and other bifacial tools in the Indian tradition) at Gadari in Dang, an upper palaeolithic site with blades and levallois elements at Arjun 3 in Deokhuri, many sites of various flake industries, often in association with choppers and corescrapers, several microlithic sites and some neolithic remains (Corvinus, 1985). A very interesting and extremely rich open air site was found in 1985 in eastern Nepal in red soils on the highest river terrace along the Rato Khola (stream) near Patu, which has all together a very different tool complex than the site from the Dun valleys in western Nepal (Corvinus 1987, 1989). They include, besides pebble tools of unifacial choppers and corescrapers, a variety of bifacial and unifacial adzes and adze-like tools, scrapers, unifaces made on flat cobbles and split cobbles, and only very few flake tools. A particular characteristic of the adzes and adze-like tools from Patu is that they often possess a very pronounced gloss at their transversal working edges indicating heavy usage for bamboo work. No ground-edged tools nor polished axes were found in association with the tools of Patu. Three C-14 dates give a minimum age of around 7000 BP. The bifacial and unifacial tools show certain resemblances to unifacial and bifacial axes from Hoabinhian caves in North Vietnam, particularly from Colani's cave Mi Te and Sao Dong and the recently excavated caves of Xom Thai and Hang Muoi. But the differences will be discussed. Patu is a separate industry of early Holocene age with a mesolithic, macrolithic stone tool assemblage of its own.
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