Riwat

33°30′N 73°12′E / 33.5°N 73.2°E / 33.5; 73.2

Riwat (

The site was discovered in 1983. The artifacts consist of flakes and cores made of quartzite. The collection of pebble tools is claimed to be 1.9 million years old and has been disputed because the artifacts weren't found in their original context.[2] The claims of the dating of the site are being continuously researched.^[3]

Discovery

Riwat was discovered by the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan, directed by

At the same time, Dennell, together with geologist Helen Rendell, decided to survey the area around Riwat for more Palaeolithic sites. They noted several finds which appeared to be older than those at Site 55, perhaps indicating a Middle Palaeolithic or even Lower Palaeolithic occupation, but conclusively demonstrating that they were made by human hands, and that they were as old as suspected, proved difficult.^[4] In 1985, Rendell and Dennell published a paper in which they argued that some of the Riwat artefacts could be dated to the Lower Palaeolithic, between 400,000 and 700,000 years ago.^[6] Later, in 1988, they selected six artefacts which they argued were as much as two million years old, and therefore the earliest evidence of humans outside of Africa known at the time.^[7][8]

Assemblage

The Lower Palaeolithic

• R001 – a core with six or seven flakes removed, in different directions, leaving only 35% of the original surface untouched. It was found in situ with the flaked surfaces embedded in the gully side, ruling out the possibility that it had been flaked after eroding out of its original context.
• R008 – a small, retouched flake.
• R010 – a small flake.
• R011 – a core with two flakes removed.
• R013 – a large flake.
• R014 – a core with one very large flake and seven smaller flakes removed, with a clear bulb of percussion.

A further seven pieces were described as possibly manufactured by hominids, but "equivocal".^[7] In 1988 Dennell and his team revisited Riwat and found another flake (R88/1) that they considered likely to be artefactual. They were also able to document that out of more than 1,000 stones in the same deposit, none were flaked (indicating that they were not deposited in an environment where natural flaking was common).^[9]

See also

• History of Pakistan
• Early human migration
• Oldowan
• Prehistoric Asia
• Madrasian culture
• Soanian
• South Asian Stone Age

References

• B. Bower, Early Tool Making: An Asian Connection, Science News (1988).
• Rendell, H. and Dennell, R.W. 1987 Thermoluminescence Dating of an Upper Pleistocene Site, Northern Pakistan. Geoarchaeology 2, 63–67.
• Roy Larick and Russell L. Ciochon, The African Emergence and Early Asian Dispersals of the Genus Homo, American Scientist (1996)
• R. W. Dennell, H. M. Rendell and E. Hailwood, Late Pliocene Artefacts from Northern Pakistan , Current Anthropology, Vol. 29, No. 3 (June 1988), pp. 495–498
• R. W. Dennell, H. M. Rendell, M. Halim, E. Moth, "A 45,000-Years-Old open-air Paleolithic Site at Riwat, Northern Pakistan", Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 19, No. 1. (Spring, 1992), pp. 17–33.