Soanian

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Quaternary Period This box: view • talk • edit
↑ Neogene
Pliocene Zanclean (5.3 - 3.6 Ma) Piacenzian (3.6 - 2.6 Ma) Gelasian (2.6 - 1.8 Ma) Pleistocene Early Pleistocene (1.8 - 0.78 Ma) Middle Pleistocene (780 - 130 ka) Late Pleistocene (130 - 10 ka) Older Dryas (14 - 13.6 ka) Allerød (13.6 - 12.9 ka) Younger Dryas (12.9 - 11.5 ka) Holocene (10 ka - present) Boreal Atlantic

The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic (ca. 500,000 to 1250,000 BP) in South Asia, contemporary to the Acheulian. It is named after the Soan Valley in the Sivalik Hills, Pakistan. The bearers of this culture were Homo erectus.

On Adiyala and Khasala about 16 km (10 miles) from Rawalpindi terrace on the bend of the river hundreds of edged pebble tools were discovered. At Chauntra hand axes and cleavers were found. No human skeletons of this age have yet been found. In the Soan River Gorge many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface. The 14 million year old fossils of gazelle, rhinoceros, crocodile, giraffe and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are in display at the Natural History Museum of Islamabad.