The earliest evidence of Palaeolithic tools in India is from Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu, sixty-nine kilometres from Chennai, and dated to around 1.5 million years ago (that is, 1.2 million years before modern humans emerged). The Hunsgi–Baichbal valley in northern Karnataka (around 1.2 million years ago), the Middle Son valley in Madhya Pradesh, the Shivalik Hills in the outer Himalaya – the subcontinent is littered with evidence of the widespread presence of archaic humans much before modern humans set foot in the region or even evolved.
