Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Dr Prachi Virag Sontakke, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, prachivs@bhu.ac.in
Dr Shantanu Vaidya, Deccan College and Post Graduate Research Institute, Pune, India, shantanu.vaidya@dcpune.ac.in
Gopesh Jha, Dept of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany & Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany, gjha@gea.mpg.de
Climate change has long been recognised as a crucial catalyst for biological evolution and cultural advancements in human history. While its significance in shaping our species’ adaptability and ingenuity is acknowledged, a deeper understanding of the how, what, when, and why remains elusive. Current models of human-climate-environment interplay in archaeological contexts often lead to oversimplistic ideas of environmental determinism, failing to capture the nuanced reality. The highly diverse and mosaic environments of South Asia present a particularly complicated story of these relationships. The region’s long archaeological record attests to its persistent attraction for human occupation, with evidence suggesting the presence of stable habitats or climatic refugia that provided ecological and cultural continuity, even during extreme events such as the ~74ka Toba super-eruption and the Younger Dryas.
This session’s key objectives are to understand the diverse scenarios of human-climate-environment interplay in South Asia and to test the nature and level of synchronicity among these processes. We will examine diverse case studies using various proxies to paint a regional picture of human ecology and environment. The session will concentrate on comprehensive studies that utilise archaeological, scientific, epigraphic and literary evidence to explore how ancient cultures perceived, recorded, and interacted with their environment.
Papers:
Zooarchaeological Proxies as Palaeoenvironmental Index in Prehistoric Middle Ganga Plain and Vindhyas, India
Dr Prachi Virag Sontakke, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
The Middle Ganga Plain and Vindhyas together represent binary geological configurations encompassing both hills and the alluvial flood plains. No wonder it was an area of attraction for Stone Age hunter-gatherers and early farmers, who have left behind their imprints in the archaeological record of the region. Palaeoenvironmental research nowadays is thriving in archaeology and knowledge regarding palaeoenvironments has also expanded impressively. The field has seen a proliferation of new techniques and tools for gathering information about past environments. Nevertheless, many sources are still not fully tapped as sources for such an enterprise. The same is the case regarding the utility of faunal remains in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Though the palaeozoologists themselves have long used taxa represented by ancient faunal remains to reconstruct palaeoenvironments, in Indian archaeology, their role was rather during the last century. It has become increasingly apparent in the past two decades that the palaeozoological record comprises an archive of results concerning how biota responds to environmental change. This, along with the growing interest in the study of ancient environment, has led to the use of archaeozoological sources as an important proxy for palaeoenvironmental studies. The current study represents one such work where data from archaeozoological sources has been utilised to study the palaeoenvironment in the Middle Ganga Plain and Vindhyas, India. This paper provides an overview of the growing body of research on palaeoenvironmental records from archaeo-faunal contexts.
Late-Quaternary Human Adaptation and Technologies in North-Central India: A Case Study on the Site Chopanimando
Gargi Chatterjee, Dept of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
Amit Singh, Dept of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
North-Central India incorporates the southern part of the central Uttar-Pradesh and its adjoining part of the northern Madhya-Pradesh in India. Geographically the Vindhyan range, Son Valley and Belan Valley, along with their tributaries, are the important units of this part of the country. The site Chopanimando is situated in Belan Valley, on the terrace of old channel of the river. It was occupied by early-humans during the transitional phase of the terminal-Pleistocene and early-Holocene, which culturally incorporates the Upper Palaeolithic, the transition of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, the Mesolithic and the transition of Mesolithic and Neolithic. It was a time of a huge environmental transformation when the site was occupied and reflected through its cultural material, primarily the stone tools. Therefore, the attribute analysis of the tools from the site could be interpreted in terms of human adaptation towards changing environmental conditions. The present exercise will shed light on the attributes and statistical analysis of the lithics collected from the surface of the site Chopanimando and correlations made with previous microwear and phytolith analysis results from the site (Sinha 2012; Tulika and Sinha 2014).
Crystallographic Study of Vertebrate Fossils from the Central Narmada Valley, India
Sakina Halvadwala, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India
The Narmada River originates in eastern Madhya Pradesh near Amarkantak (200 40′ N, 81 46′ E), and travels through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat before emptying into the Gulf of Cambay in the Arabian Sea, close to Baruch in Gujarat. Numerous fossil discoveries in the region include various mammals, reptiles, fishes, amphibians, and molluscan shells. In addition to being a rare mid-continental location in the Old World, the Narmada Valley has traditionally served as a line delineating Northern and Southern India. This valley has produced countless animal fossils, as well as a few human fossils. This has been a crucial route for the movement of both faunal migrations from the north to the south and the transmission of the monsoons from the southeast to the northwest. The present work examines the crystallisation index of the faunal fossils from three (Barmanghat, Talayyaghat, Devakachar) localities in the Central Narmada valley falling within the region of Madhya Pradesh. Fossil samples were subjected to X-Ray diffraction in order to calculate the crystallisation index as a direct indicator of the degree of fossilisation. The materials of the Narmada River valley have been studied extensively by previous scholars; however, this study is first attempt to study the fossils using scientific technique such as XRD.
Adapting to Nature: Settlement Pattern Dynamics vis-a vis Climatic Changes: A Case Study of Kashi
Dr Virag G. Sontakke, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Deepesh Singh, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
During the last few decades hydrographers, geographers and geologists have applied their specialised knowledge to the study of geophysical systems in the Kashi region. The time, therefore, seems ripe to undertake an inter disciplinary study to position the site selection-expansion-exploitation-desertion process in the context of regional environmental shifts. It is proposed here that climatic factors may have driven cultural adaptations and innovations in ancient settlements across Kashi. Identification of signatures of such influences in human response, such as construction of kundas to tackle water scarcity, shifting of settlements to favourable location etc., constitutes an important aim of this study. By integrating archaeological records, literary data and palaeoenvironmental proxies, this study aims to establish a correlation between climate variations and settlement responses in ancient Kashi to examine how changes in river courses, monsoon intensity and temperature fluctuations shaped habitation and sustainability of settlements in ancient Kashi.