Prehistory of the Chitrakot Falls, Central India

This monograph presents the results of intensive research undertaken by Dr. Zarine Cooper on a series of open microlithic sites in the district of Bastar, Madhya Pradesh. In conducting computer-based locational treatments of correlations of various artefact categories, Dr. Cooper has offered an incisive and objective perspective on the occurence of prehistoric stone artefacts on exposed surfaces, simultaneously exploring the potential of quantitative spatial analyses in investigating such material, which is so ubiquitous in Peninsular India. The ecological richness of the river Indravati, near the Chitrakot falls, forms the pervading theme of Dr. Cooper’s work, linking her typological and locational analyses of the microlithic sites with original ethnographic observations of the economic activities of the contemporary inhabitants of the area, namely, the Kuruk fishermen. As a result, Dr. Cooper has effectively demonstrated how ethnographic data on the economy of "semi-modernised" hunter-gatherers can be utilised to set up models to test against the archaeological record, in this case, microlithic using hunter-gatherers of an indeterminate past.