Kurnool caves
Also called: Billa Surgam caves · Topic: Prehistory: Human Origins and Stone Age Cultures · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Kurnool caves are limestone caves in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. The best known group is the Billa Surgam caves. They hold Upper Palaeolithic tools made of bone, along with the bones of many animals. They show that people lived in these caves and hunted animals near the end of the last Ice Age.
Example
In the Billa Surgam caves, Robert Bruce Foote and his son found bone tools and animal fossils in the 1880s. Bone tools are rare in Indian prehistory. That makes these caves an important example of Upper Palaeolithic cave life in south India.
Don't confuse with
- Belum caves are also in Kurnool district. They are known mainly as a long natural cave system and a tourist site, not as the main site for Upper Palaeolithic bone tools.
Related concepts
- Palaeolithic age
- Acheulian tradition
- Handaxe
- Attirampakkam
- Isampur
- Hunsgi valley
- Pallavaram
- Didwana
- Soanian culture
- Hathnora