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   From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com   
      
   Bengal just got older by 22000 years   
      
   By Sebanti Sarkar   
   The Telegraph   
   telegraphindia.com   
   Tuesday, October 21, 2014   
      
   Multi-disciplinary research led by a city-based   
   archaeologist has confirmed the presence of humans in the   
   Ayodhya hills of Purulia about 42,000 years ago, a   
   finding that pushes Bengal's archaeological calendar   
   22,000 years back.   
      
   Bishnupriya Basak, who teaches archaeology at Calcutta   
   University, sealed the findings after more than 12 years   
   of intensive exploration and excavation of 25 stone-age   
   sites she had discovered between 1998 and 2000 while   
   working with the Centre for Archaeological Studies &   
   Training, Eastern India.   
      
   The breakthrough came when Basak, 47, returned to the   
   forests of the Ayodhya hills in 2011 to build on her   
   findings using a technique called Optically Stimulated   
   Luminescence (OSL) that establishes the antiquity of   
   tools of a particular age.   
      
   Before Basak's discovery, the earliest evidence of human   
   presence in Bengal was at Sagardighi, in Murshidabad. The   
   tools found there were dated to approximately 20,000   
   years ago.   
      
   "This is an extraordinary development and a breakthrough   
   in the otherwise hazy chronology of eastern India. It   
   marks a welcome trend in research. In this day and age,   
   multi-disciplinary initiatives are indispensable," said   
   Gautam Sengupta, former director-general of the   
   Archaeological Survey of India.   
      
   In the subcontinent, the earliest evidence of microlith-   
   using cultures -- hunter-gatherer populations that made   
   and used the types of light stone implements found in the   
   Ayodhya hills -- is in Metakheri, Madhya Pradesh. They   
   date back to 48,000 years ago.   
      
   Microlithic tools found at Jwalapuram, in Andhra Pradesh,   
   are from 35,000 years ago and those discovered in Sri   
   Lanka are from 25,000 years ago.   
      
   Basak's discovery was reported recently in the   
   fortnightly research journal Current Science (Vol. 107,   
   No. 11687).   
      
   Continues at:   
      
   http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141021/jsp/calcutta/story_18945978.jsp   
      
   Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi   
   Om Shanti   
      
   http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj   
      
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