| Subdivisions of the Quaternary Period | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Series | Stage | Age (Ma) |
| Quaternary | Holocene | 0–0.0117 | |
| Pleistocene | Tarantian (Upper) | 0.0117–0.126 | |
| Ionian (Middle) | 0.126–0.781 | ||
| Calabrian (Lower) | 0.781–1.806 | ||
| Gelasian (Lower) | 1.806–2.588 | ||
| Neogene | Pliocene | Piacenzian | older |
| In Europe and North America, the Holocene is subdivided into Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic stages of the Blytt-Sernander time scale. There are many regional subdivisions for the Upper or Late Pleistocene, usually these represent locally recognized cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) periods. The last glacial period ends with the cold Younger Dryas substage. | |||
The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic (ca. 500,000 to 125,000 BP) in the Siwalik region of the Indian subcontinent.[1] Contemporary to the Acheulean, it is named after the Soan Valley in the Sivalik Hills, Pakistan. Soanian sites are found along the Sivalik region in present-day India, Nepal and Pakistan.[2]
On Adiyala and Khasala about 16 km (9.9 mi) 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, however, tools upto two million years old have been recovered. In the Soan River Gorge many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface. 14 million year old fossils of gazelle, rhinoceros, crocodile, giraffe and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are on display at the Natural History Museum of Islamabad.
The term "Soan Culture" was first used by Hellmut De Terra in 1936,[3] however, D. N. Wadia had identified the presence of these archaeological implements in 1928.[4]
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