Bhopal: Sanchi Varsity Building Construction Site

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Stone tools belonging to lower Paleolithic era have been discovered at under-construction site of Sanchi University of Buddhist Indic Studies situated at Salamatpur Hill close to world famous Sanchi Stupas.

The shape of stone tools resembles axe, knife, scrapper etc. They are 10 to 15 lakh years old and takes one back to the time zone when early humans were using stone tools in daily life.

Registrar of Sanchi University Professor Alkesh Chaturvedi said four buildings were to be constructed at the site. To ensure that no ancient relic should get damaged during the construction work of university buildings, he made a formal request to former Joint Director General of Archaeological Survey of India Dr SB Ota to carry out the heritage impact study.

The team led by Dr Ota visited the site and collected the samples. According to Dr Ota, stone relics are actually implements belonging to lower Paleolithic era. They include cleavers (knife sized), choppers (in axe form), scrappers etc. They resemble those discovered in Tikoda Damdongri area of Raisen district.

Many stone tools are unfinished and it seems that they were waste part of tools made by the stone. More than 40 stone tools have been found. The stone tools were found in the southern portion of university and are made up of quartzitic sand stone of Vindhyanchal mountain category.

“We will keep recovered stone tools inside box in university building premises. The box will show details of stone tools, place they were found and how they were used by ancestors,” he said. The discovery of stone tools has shed light on how early men lived in Salamatpur hilly areas and used stone tools for survival. At present, Sanchi University is running from a temporary facility. Its building will get completed in August.