The first Indian Palaeolithic stone implement was found more than 60 years ago in a ballast pit at Pallavaram, a little to the west of the Madras-Trichinopoly road. Since then a large number of stone tools belonging to various prehistoric cultures have been discovered by several keen archaeologists, among whom Bruce Foote deserves special mention.
During the last fifteen years or so, however, little has been published from the southeast of the Peninsula, archaeological attention having been more specially focussed on the unsuspected Sumerian-like discoveries in the north. Nevertheless, both in Southeast India and
in Africa, fresh information has been collected which is very important for the elucidation of the origins and movements of prehistoric cultures.