Acheulean Landscape and Technological Adaptations in the Central Narmada Valley, Madhya Pradesh (INDIA)

Abstract

A BSTRACT The central Narmada Valley (CNV) provides great details about the different cultures and technologies of early hominin populations in the Indian Subcontinent. Since the late 1800s, many Palaeolithic and fossil sites have been discovered in this region. The CNV is also famously known for the only occurrence of pre-modern hominin fossils in the entire Indian Subcontinent. The current research is constrained to parts of Sehore and Hoshangabad Districts of CNV in Madhya Pradesh, India. This research presents the first comprehensive investigation of the Palaeolithic technologies in the CNV. It was achieved through distinct objectives of understanding the landscape adaptations, different technologies, and the bifacial variability in the CNV. To achieve these objectives, fieldwork was conducted in the study area from 2016 to 2019, covering an area of approximately 6716 km 2 , which led to the discovery of 26 new Palaeolithic occurrences. These include 18 Acheulean, 07 core-and-flake and 01 Middle Palaeolithic sites, and distinct associated landscape adaptative patterns were identified. For instance, most Acheulean sites were located in the Northern and Central Zones. Similarly, except for one, most core-and-flake sites are located in the Southern Zone. The Middle Palaeolithic site of Khatama is also located in the Southern Zone. The Acheulean sites are associated with different geomorphic contexts such as colluvial, fluvial, colluvio-fluvial, surface and fine sediments. Most of these Acheulean sites occur in the regolith mixed with colluvial angular clasts, indicating its use for artefact production. In contrast, most core-and- flake sites occur in surface contexts and are rarely found in stratified contexts. The artefacts at the Middle Palaeolithic occurrence of Khatama are mostly found on the surface, however, a few artefacts were observed stratified context with fine sediments. Technologically, the Acheulean is the most prominent lithic technology in the CNV, and the bifaces (miscellaneous bifaces, cleavers and handaxes) form 20.4% of the total Acheulean assemblage. The analysis of these bifaces shows evidence of specific size selection, indicating size standardisation in theAcheulean of CNV. Technologically, the Central Zone Acheulean is more refined than the Northern Zone. The analysis of overall Acheulean assemblage indicates the prominent use of simple reduction strategies for flakes and cores production. On the other hand, formal tool types are absent at most of the 'core-and-flake' sites and mainly indicate least-effort or expedient technology.