A team of officials led by Director of Archaeology and Museums P. Channa Reddy discovered a great deal of stone tools from the Ketavaram rock art site (India). The team which went to the place to examine the security aspects of the endangered prehistoric site stumbled upon a treasure of stone tools. In a few hours, the team collected over 20 stone tools of various sizes and shapes. Dr. Reddy said. The paintings on the rocks and finding of stone tools adjacent to it supported the assumption beyond doubt that Ketavaram had been an important place during prehistoric times.
    The pre-historic man used jasper and chert as raw material for making of the tools. The tools recovered include scrapers, borer, blades, backed blade, lunate, and points. The team observed that there was cultural continuation because a stepped well and a temple existed close to the site. Deputy Directors Kesava and Ramakrishna Rao said it was the job of experts to draw the conclusion whether the figures painted by prehistoric men and women were of ancestors, gods or tribal chiefs. The figures were drawn using red ochre. Only red coloured paintings were found at Ketavaram while leaf juice was also used to draw green coloured pictures at other places.

Source: The Hindu (7 January 2009)