206 FOOTE: GEOLOGY OF THE BELLARY DISTRICT. 



This is a great misapprehension, the material is far too extensively" 

 stained, and would require crushing and hand-picking to an extent that 

 would render it far too expensive a material for practical purposes 

 (see page 120). 



CHAPTER XI. 



PREHISTORIC ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



It may not be uninteresting to say a few words about the evi- 

 dences met with of the use of many kinds of stone by the earliest 

 inhabitants of this part of the world. 



There is plentiful evidence that this part of India was occupied 

 by a succession of peoples w T ho had attained to very different grades 

 of civilization, each succession showing a great advance on its prede* 

 cessors, but there is not sufficient evidence at present to determine 

 the racial affinities of these several peoples with any precision, and to 

 prove, or disprove, whether there was any descent among them. 



The existence of three principal stages of civilization may however 

 be considered as distinctly established for the 



Three stages of civi- 



lization traceable. prehistoric times of the Bellary country; these 



Paleolithic stage ^^ ^ following . ^ A pafeoli thic stage, 



when the only implements made (as far as is known) consisted of 

 hard stone chipped roughly into shapes useful for cutting and thrust- 

 ing, and possibly for hammering, the favourite shapes being ovals 

 of various proportions, varying from almost true circles to very 

 elongate lanceolate forms that might be termed spear heads. A much 

 rarer type is oval at one end and has a broad axe-like edge at the other 

 end. Such implements are at present the only known traces of this 

 ancient people. 



2. A neolithic stage, when the implements were in the first stage 

 chipped, but more carefully, into the required 

 shapes, then picked and ground to sharp edges 

 or all over, as the case might be, and finally polished to a high 

 degree. They differed in type as a rule from the palaeolithic imple- 

 ments, the great majority having the cutting edge at their broad end, 

 ( 206 ) 



