What is Movius Line?
[[File:Biface Extension.png|thumb|250px|The Movius Line]] The '''Movius Line''' is a theoretical line drawn across northern [[India]]. It was proposed by the [[Americans|American]] [[archaeologist]] [[Hallam L. Movius]] in 1948 to show a technological difference between the early prehistoric tool technologies of the east and the west of the [[Old World]]. Movius noticed that the [[palaeolithic]] [[stone tools]] from sites east of northern India never contained [[handaxe]]s. They had less formal implements known as [[chopping tool]]s.<ref>Callow P. 1994. The Olduvai bifaces: technology and raw materials. In M.D. Leakey & D.A. Roe (eds) ''Olduvai Gorge'' vol 5. Cambridge. p235-253.</ref> These were sometimes as extensively worked as the [[Acheulean]] tools from further west, but could not be described as true handaxes. Movius then drew a line on a map of India to show where the difference occurred, dividing the tools of Africa, Europe and Western and Southern Asia from those of Eastern and South-eastern Asia. Fossil evidence also suggests a difference in the evolutionary development of the people who made the two different tool types across the Movius Line. The line is still in use as a distinction between the two traditions. The existence of the line, in terms of stone tool technology and [[human evolution]], is still not explained. == References == {{reflist}} [[Category:Cutting tools]] [[Category:Stone Age]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in India]]