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Stone instruments of an antiquity ranging between one million and 1.7 million years were discovered in India, which might help to explain the migration of the hominids in south of Asia.

According to Science magazine, among the pieces found in a deposit of Attiramapakkam, in the state of Tamil Nadu, in the Indian southeast, double-edged stone axes were found, as well as cutters and other instruments of the so-called Achelense technology.

The Achelense technology is characterized by the planned and standardized manufacture of stones axes. Its distinctive elements are the bifaces (stone axes, picks and cleavers) carved in complex forms on both faces.

In Attiramapakkam, they located more than 3,500 instruments of rocks of quartzite in hand axes that began to be made some 1.6 million years ago, which can help to understand the migrations of hominids across Asia.

The cross-check of the dates of the instruments was realized from the electromagnetic measurements of the sediments that cover them.

They all presented an inverted polarity, which indicates that they were placed there before the last inversion of the magnetic terrestrial pole, which occurred between one million and 1.7 million years ago.

Other measurements of the isotopes of beryllium and aluminium suggest that the probable age of these instruments is 1.5 million years.