NEW DELHI, APRIL 8. In a find that is bound to upset theories
about ancient man, the world's largest and probably oldest known fossil of a
mammoth has been discovered in an area less than 20 km south of Srinagar.


While the fossil of the giant elephant was discovered about
eight months ago, what surprised historians and archaeologists alike is that some
stone tools, suspected to belong to the early Pleistocene period (between
60,000 to two million years old), were also been found in the area.

The Archaeological Survey of India director, Gen. Komal Anand,
acknowledged that "it would indeed be a revolutionary discovery
for south Asia if the tools turn out to be stone age tools and are related
to the firm geological horizon of some phase of the early Pleistocene
period."

Dr A.M. Dar and Mr. M.S. Lone of the Geology Department of the
Degree College of Sopore, accompanied by some students, made the
discovery on August 30 last while on a field trip in Galander village of
Pampore tehsil.

Prof. G.M. Bhat of the Jammu University's Geology Department
(then on deputation in Kashmir University) said he was asked to examine
the find the following day, and confirmed that it was a mammoth.

Further digging established that the fossil was indeed the
largest-ever known and had a trunk running 14 to 16 feet and tusks, which were up
to eight and a half inches long and belonged to the Proboscidian group of
mammals. One skull and two tusks were found.

Over a month-long period from early October, a total of 57 stone
tools made of basalt rock were found, establishing the theory that ancient
man was using tools even in the early Pleistocene period.

However, carbon-dating of the tools is under process to
establish the actual age of the tools, Prof. Bhat said , while confirming that the
samples were being examined in various laboratories in India and the United
States.