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Stone Age sites dating from 1.5 to 0.7 million years ago are densely concentrated in Central India and the southern parts of the Eastern Ghats.
The early hunter-gatherers avoided areas of heavy rainfall and dense vegetation. They preferred the semi-humid regions of the Deccan and open woodlands rich in plant and animal food resources. They also needed easy access to the right type of stone. They appear to have camped along lakes and pools, and along boulder strewn riverbeds, in rock shelters (as in Bhimbetka).
Some of the oldest sites discovered in India are in the Hunsgi and Baichba Valleys in Karnataka. Stone Age tools dating to around 1 million years ago have been found here. Hunsgi appears to have been a place where early humans manufactured tools.
The availability of a perennial water source in the form of springs, the availability of raw material in the form of limestone for tool-making, the protected nature of the valley, and the availability of a wide variety of plant and animal foods ensured continuous human occupation of this valley from the earliest times.
The tools found here consist of chopping tools, spheroids, hand axes, cleavers, scrapers, blades and flakes. They were made out of limestone and granite. These tools were most probably used for a variety of functions like hunting, killing and skinning animals, digging roots and tubers, processing plant food, and making wooden tools and weapons. A very common artefact from this region is the end scraper, a small rounded tool used to scrape hides. It usually had a bone handle.