South Asia in the prehistory (before 3500 BC). Before writing, the record is stone, bone and DNA. These articles cover human origins, the ice ages and the first farmers, up to the moment cities and script appear.
Nature, February 1, 2018: luminescence dated the end of the Acheulian at Attirampakkam, near Chennai, to 385 ± 64 ka; a Middle Paleolithic ran to 172 ka.
· 385,000 BCSandstone shelters near Bhopal hold paintings from the Mesolithic to historic times, ordered by overlap, style and weathering; the paint itself is undated.
· 8000 BCMehrgarh, Pakistan: the oldest known lost-wax casting, molars drilled 7,500 to 9,000 years ago and cotton thread in a copper bead, before the Indus cities.
· 7000 BC
