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Revisiting the Joshipur Rock shelter Complex (Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh) Parth R. Chauhan1,2,3, K. Krishnan4, Ketika Garg1, Shubham Pal1, Bharti Singh1 and Avinandan Mukherjee4 1. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, Punjab, India (Email: [email protected]) 2. Stone Age Institute, Gosport, IN, USA (Email: [email protected]) 3. Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA (Email: [email protected]) 4. Department of Archaeology and Ancient Indian History, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara ‐ 390002, Gujarat, India (Email: [email protected]) Received: 27 August 2015; Accepted: 19 September 2015; Revised: 06 October 2015 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 3 (2015): 105‐127 Abstract: This paper describes a rock art complex near Joshipur north of the Narmada River in the Sehore District of Madhya Pradesh. First reported several decades ago (IAR 1975‐76), this cluster of rock shelters and overhangs forms a part of the larger complex of rock shelters in the central India. Preliminary surveys indicate that the Joshipur complex comprises at least ten rock shelters, many of which preserve rock art, microliths and bone specimens. This paper broadly describes and illustrates some of the more prominent ancient paintings and associated evidence and contextualizes its broader regional significance. Keywords: Central Narmada Basin, Joshipur Rock shelters, Rock Art, Microliths, Bones, Lithics, Sediments Introduction The Indian Subcontinent has a lengthy history of prehistoric occupation stretching back to at least 1.5 Ma (Pappu et al. 2011) and possibly even up to ~2 Ma (Dennell, 2009). This entire record represents multiple biological and technological dispersals into and within the region, presumably all from the western direction ‐ although the northeastern zone should not be ruled out; as dispersal corridors in both directions. Recent debates have centered on the timing(s) and environmental contexts of modern human arrival into the Subcontinent and associated technologies (e.g. Chauhan et al. 2015; Groucutt et al. 2015). In the case of multiple dispersals of moderns into South Asia within the last 100 kyr (Dennell and Petraglia, 2012) it is difficult to pinpoint which modern human population(s) first created rock art and art in general. This also applies to the uneven pattern of symbolic behavior in the South Asian archaeological ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 3: 2015 record (James and Petraglia, 2005). This is because the older rock art occurrences are presumably heavily faded and not well preserved and hence undatable and often undiagnostic. In the Indian Subcontinent, no well‐preserved paintings have yet been recovered in deep caves as known from Europe for example. Such deep caves are rare in South Asia and the known ones do not appear to have been inhabited or significantly exploited during prehistoric times; most of the paintings are in rock shelters and thus steadily exposed to the natural elements. South Asian rock paintings are predominantly spatially associated with microliths more than any other stone technology. Though claims have been made of some rock art to be Lower Palaeolithic in age (e.g. Bednarik, 2013), they remain controversial and no comparable supporting material has come forth from other contemporary sites. Especially at multicultural rock shelters that preserve lengthy cultural sequences, it is highly difficult to associate the rock art with a specific cultural horizon since the rock art has not been adequately dated. Thus at some rock shelters, there may be variable temporal gaps between the rock art and the spatially associated lithic assemblages (regardless of whether they are Palaeolithic or Mesolithic). Therefore it is provisionally understood that the makers of the vast majority, if not all, of the South Asian rock paintings were the same modern human groups that produced the often‐associated microlithic assemblages. Since there are very few absolute dates for any of the South Asian rock art, its age bracket is relatively wide and individual estimates disputable. South Asia’s rock art occurrences have generally been chronologically bracketed using attributes, such as, style, superimpositions, patina, theme, colours, subject matter, and archaeological evidence associated with the rock paintings. Recently, a petro glyph in the Billasurgam Cave in Andhra Pradesh was dated to the mid‐Holocene (Tacon et al. 2013) and attempts have also been made to date the rock art at Bhimbetka (Bednarik et al. 2005). Recently, some Southeast Asian rock paintings was dated to ~40 ka (Aubert et al. 2014), making them broadly contemporary with their European counterparts and invoking tantalizing possibilities of independent or parallel development of symbolic behavior. It is also broadly contemporary with the earliest microliths in South Asia (~45ka) known from Mehtakheri, Madhya Pradesh (Mishra et al. 2013). Although cultural and genetic connections between South Asia and Australasia appear to have been established rather late, the earliest art in South Asia may be older if assuming modern humans arrived here first. In any case, all visible rock art is currently thought to be no older than the Upper Paleolithic period. South Asian rock art basically includes paintings using mixed pigment types, abstract engravings, etched or pecked designs and cupule marks (e.g. Pandey, 1993).The themes of the paintings and bruisings were diverse and include animals, abstract designs and depictions of humans engaged in different activities ranging from hunting to dancing. These paintings have been reported to occur in a range of colors including green and yellow pigments with red and white paintings being the most common. While pecked designs and etchings (i.e. petroglyphs) are restricted to the northernmost and southernmost geographic zones of the Subcontinent, paintings in rock shelters ‐ and on large rocky surfaces ‐ have been reported throughout the Subcontinent 106 Chauhan et al. 2015: 105‐127 (Kennedy, 2000; Neumayer, 1983; Pandey, 1993). The densest occurrences of rock art are concentrated in central and southern India with other examples of isolated but rich sites at numerous zones in between (e.g. Mathpal, 1992). The best known rock shelter complex in the Indian Subcontinent is the World Heritage Site of Bhimbetka south of Bhopal in central India. Located further south of Bhimbetka are additional well‐known painted rock shelters such as Adamgarh, the Saru Maru complex and the Pachmarhi occurrences. These sites are a part of the Narmada Basin, most famous for its rich preservation of vertebrate fossils, known since the 19th century and studied by various scholars since then (e.g. de Terra and Paterson, 1939). This river basin is also the region which has yielded the only‐known pre‐modern Homo fossil(s) in the entire Indian Subcontinent and appears to have a lengthy fluvial history spanning at least ~800 kyr (Rao et al. 1997)along with the archaeology (Patnaik et al. 2009). Prehistoric sites are found here in the form of surface scatters in sedimentary and bedrock contexts as well as in stratified occurrences. The aim of this paper is to briefly describe one of the lesser‐ known rock art complexes nearby at Joshipur and outline its regional archaeological potential and significance. The Joshipur Rock shelter Complex The concerned rock shelter complex (N 22°47’54.26” E 77°43’36.94”) is located in the southeastern part of the Sehore District of Madhya Pradesh and about 4 to 5 km slightly northeast of Hoshangabad town across the Narmada River (Fig. 1). The nearest village is Joshipur situated on the northern bank about of the Narmada River directly across Hoshangabad. As a result of previous work, at least 45 rock shelters have been documented in the immediate region between Shahganj and Pangoraria. In the 1970s, the Prehistory Branch of the Archaeological Survey of India reported numerous archaeological discoveries from both Hoshangabad and Sehore Districts of Madhya Pradesh (IAR, 1974‐75; IAR 1975‐76), following upon the earlier prehistoric surveys of de Terra and Paterson (1939). Led by K.D. Banerjee, team members included B.P. Bopardikar, P.R.K. Prasad, A.J. Nambhiraju, S.K. Gulrandhe, K.S. Venkataramaiah and B.K. Rudra. Other rockshelter groups known from this region include Mou, Talpura, Unchakhera, Bayan and Pangoraria, the latest studied being the Saru Maru complex (Simte, 2015). Shaik and Chauhan (2013) also reported a painted rockshelter at Bandarjari (10 km northeast of Saru Maru) which may have been along a trade or transit route and thus linking the rock shelters near the Narmada River with those in the Bhimbetka area. Many of these rock shelter complexes represent multi‐cultural sites indicating repeated visits and/or occupation(s) following the prehistoric occupation. For example, the site‐complex of Saru Maru also includes Buddhist stupas and may have been a monastic complex accommodating small groups of priests (Simte, 2015). At Bhimbetka, the cultural‐stratigraphic sequence ranges from the Acheulean to the Mesolithic (Misra, 1985) and at Adamgarh, up to Early Historical times (Joshi, 1978). At many of these South Asian rock art sites, prehistoric, protohistoric/Chalcolithic, Early Historical and Medieval paintings variably overlap. Such lengthy and diverse archaeological histories at individual locations reflect the 107 ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 3: 2015 geographic, ecological and socio‐cultural importance these locations had for multiple cultures over time. For example, one Joshipur rock shelter (JRS‐1) at the base of the Vindhyan Hills had been turned into a modern Hindu shrine (Fig. 2) and contains saffron flags, tridents, offered bangles, coins and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ (and names of other deities) painted in Devnagri script amongst the prehistoric paintings (Fig. 3). Likewise, one of the rock shelters at Bhimbetka has served as long‐term Hindu temple for decades and another location below a painted rock shelter at Digamber (8 km north of Hathnora) has now been turned into a Hindu temple and local ashram.

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