Prehistoric Research in the Indian Subcontinent is, on the one hand, a commemoration of the 150 years of the study of Indian prehistory, whose beginnings stretch back to Robert Bruce Foote's discovery of the famous sites of Pallavaram and Attirampakkam in 1863, and, on the other a timely study of recent researches in the prehistory of the subcontinent.
The first three essays in this volume are valuable in their critical stocktaking of prehistoric research, palaeontological studies, and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in the subcontinent. The regional and subregional variations of prehistoric cultures are brought out by focusing on a variety of areas like the Son Valley, the Narmada, the Hunsgi Valley, the Teri dune sites, and the central Ganga valley. Essays on lesser known areas like the Ayodhya hill region of West Bengal, cave sites in the limestone karst zone of Nagaland, and the Chakalpunji area in north-eastern Bangladesh add to our knowledge.
