Large mammal fossil occurrences and associated archaeological evidence in Pleistocene contexts of peninsular India and Sri Lanka

Microliths–small, retouched, often-backed stone tools–are often interpreted to be the product of composite tools, including projectile weapons, and efficient hunting strategies by modern humans. In Europe and Africa these lithic toolkits are linked to hunting of medium- and large-sized game found in grassland or woodland settings, or as adaptations to risky environments during periods of climatic change. Here, we report on a recently excavated lithic assemblage from the Late Pleistocene cave site of Fa-Hien Lena in the tropical evergreen rainforest of Sri Lanka. Our analyses demonstrate that Fa-Hien Lena represents the earliest microlith assemblage in South Asia (c. 48,000–45,000 cal. years BP) in firm association with evidence for the procurement of small to medium size arboreal prey and rainforest plants. Moreover, our data highlight that the lithic technology of Fa-Hien Lena changed little over the long span of human occupation (c. 48,000–45,000 cal. years BP to c. 4,000 cal. years BP) indicating a successful, stable technological adaptation to the tropics. We argue that microlith assemblages were an important part of the environmental plasticity that enabled Homo sapiens to colonise and specialise in a diversity of ecological settings during its expansion within and beyond Africa. The proliferation of diverse microlithic technologies across Eurasia c. 48–45 ka was part of a flexible human ‘toolkit’ that assisted our species’ spread into all of the world’s environments, and the development of specialised technological and cultural approaches to novel ecological situations.

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Microliths in the South Asian rainforest ~45-4 ka: New insights from Fa-Hien Lena Cave, Sri Lanka

The prehistoric archaeology of Sri Lanka is of considerable significance for investigations of the evolution, dispersal and adaptation of our species within a variety of environments beyond Africa during the Late Pleistocene. 
In particular, the archaeological and fossil sequences of Sri Lanka’s ‘Microlithic tradition’, c. 38,000–3,000 cal. years BP, have yielded some of the earliest Homo sapiens fossils, microlithic technologies, osseous toolkits, and evidence for symbolic ornamentation and long-distance contacts anywhere in South Asia. The further association of the Late Pleistocene portion of these records with the tropical rainforest of Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone also makes Sri Lanka of particular interest for debates regarding the viability of tropical rainforest for early human foraging and specialization. Yet beyond mentions of its fossil evidence, the archaeology and palaeoenvironmental contexts of the ‘Microlithic tradition’ have remained little-explored in the international literature. Here we present the first critical review of this period of Sri Lankan prehistory, examining its local chronologies, the spatial and diachronic patterns of its material cultural sequence, and relating its technological and fossil record to broader international archaeological, anthropological and genetic debates.

The Sri Lankan ‘Microlithic’ Tradition c. 38,000 to 3,000 Years Ago: Tropical Technologies and Adaptations of Homo sapiens at the Southern Edge of Asia

Small, sharp, and standardized: global convergence in backed-Microlith technology

The Indian subcontinent lies on a key east-west corridor for hominin expansions across Asia, which has led to it playing a prominent role in debate surrounding the dispersal of modern humans. The current geography and ecology of the region consists of a diverse array of habitats. An examination of changes in monsoonal intensity indicates that geographic reconfiguration of ecological diversity occurred, but at a regional level, South Asia is shown to provide suitable environments for hominin occupations throughout the Late Pleistocene. Unfortunately, the fossil record of South Asia remains poor, preventing decisive resolution of modern human dispersal debates. However, in the past decade new interdisciplinary approaches to the archaeological record have overhauled the framework for understanding behavioral change during the Late Pleistocene. While the nature of the Late Acheulean to Middle Paleolithic transition remains to be resolved, it is now clear that it appears significantly later than in other Old W...

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Environments and Cultural Change in the Indian Subcontinent: Implications for the Dispersal of Homo sapiens in the Late Pleistocene

Microlithic industries, a technology associated with modern humans, as defined by the production of microblades have been found in different parts of the Indian subcontinent with the earliest date being 48 ka. The present communication reports on recent archaeological excavations of these industries from a colluvial context located in the pediment surface of Precambrian hills in Purulia, West Bengal. These are dated to 34-25 ka by optically stimulated luminescence dating and are the earliest dates for microlithic industries in eastern India. To our knowledge such dating does not exist for any prehistoric site in Bengal. The context of the sites - hill-slope colluvium - is also unique and a rarity in the subcontinent. These findings add additional inputs to the knowledge of these industries, providing supporting evidence to their antiquity.

Earliest Dates and Implications of Microlithic Industries of Late Pleistocene from Mahadebbera and Kana, Purulia District, West Bengal

Ancient microliths in South Asia have now been dated at least as early as 42–25 thousand years ago (ka), specifically at Mahadebbera and Kana, situated in the West Bengal area of India. This information adds substantively to scientific understanding of early human migrations and significant technological developments during the Pleistocene. Dating was possible through Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and the associated microliths and other artifacts were examined in detail. In relation to prior findings in the larger surrounding region, the new discoveries allow discussion of raw materials acquisition, possible travel routes, and other issues during a critical time of human evolutionary history.

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Earliest Dates of Microlithic Industries (42–25 ka) from West Bengal, Eastern India: New Light on Modern Human Occupation in the Indian Subcontinent

The authors present an integrated data on the Quaternary studies carried out during the 1993-95 field seasons in a lesser known area, the Tarafeni Valley in Midnapur District, West Bengal. Microliths primarily made on chert, quartzite have been found in association with colluvial deposits formed more or less contemporaneously with underlying nodular calcrete of pedogenic Oligin. Occurrence of several vertebrate fossils on the surface of the calcrete at Dhuliapur indicates Late Pleistocene age of the artefact bearing colluvial deposits. The formation of pedogenic calcrete in a sub-humid environment, with an average annual rainfall of 1600 - 2000 mm, suggests the presence of semi-aridity in Late Terminal Pleistocene period.

Late Quaternary Environment, Palaeontology and Culture of Tarafeni Valley, Midnapur District, West Bengal - A Preliminary Study

In this paper I seek to understand antiquarian practices in a colonial context in the Indian sub-continent with reference to J.H. Rivett-Carnac who was a member of the Bengal Civil Service. Covering varied subjects like ‘ancient cup marks on rocks,’ spindle whorls, votive seals or a solitary Buddha figure, Rivett-Carnac’s writings reflect an imagining of a native landscape with wide-ranging connections in myths, symbolisms and material cultures which cross-cut geographical borders. I show how an epistemology of comparative archaeology was formed through the ways in which he compared evidence recorded from different parts of India to those documented in Great Britain and northern Europe. This was held together by ideas of tribal/racial migrations. I am arguing that a distinctive form of antiquarianism was unfolding in an ambiguous, interstitial space which deconstructs any neat binaries between the colonizer and the colonized. Recent researches have argued for many antiquarianisms which this paper upholds. With his obsession of cup marks Rivett-Carnac built a new set of interconnections in late 19th century Britain where the Antiquity of man was the pivot around which debates and theories circulated. In the colony, we see some of his predecessors concerned with the megalithic tombs scattered in different parts of central and southern India. Rivett-Carnac’s methodology was less rigorous and ‘scientific’ as compared to his peers or predecessors. His obsession with cup marks followed him—as he states in his autobiography—throughout his life.

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Locating an Antiquarian Initiative in a Late 19 th Century Colonial Landscape: Rivett-Carnac and the Cultural Imagining of the Indian Sub-Continent

Through the work of amateur archaeologist Kalidas Datta, this paper explores an alternative view of archaeology in India. Datta's writings, produced between the late 1920s and the early 1960s, reconstruct the regional history of the Sundarbans, a region lying in the south 24 Parganas, West Bengal, in eastern India. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the crystallization of a nationalist reaction against British colonial rule. Datta's publications, produced outside the institutional structure of the Archaeological Survey of India, the University of Calcutta, and the local societies dedicated to promoting Bengali history and archaeology, can be used to reveal how a geographical region was transformed into a cultural entity in pre- and post-independent Bengal. This paper explores whether this transformation led to the formation of a distinct regional identity and to what extent this regional identity was important when considering the professional institutional efforts to create an ...

Bishnupriya Basak

Papers

Earliest Dates and Implications of Microlithic Industries of Late Pleistocene from Mahadebbera and Kana, Purulia District, West Bengal

Earliest Dates of Microlithic Industries (42–25 ka) from West Bengal, Eastern India: New Light on Modern Human Occupation in the Indian Subcontinent

Late Quaternary Environment, Palaeontology and Culture of Tarafeni Valley, Midnapur District, West Bengal - A Preliminary Study

Locating an Antiquarian Initiative in a Late 19 th Century Colonial Landscape: Rivett-Carnac and the Cultural Imagining of the Indian Sub-Continent

The Journey of Kalidas Datta and the Construction of Regional History in Pre- and Post-Independent Bengal, India