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Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Lithic Industries in the Southern Fringes of the Himalaya

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Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Lithic Industries in the Southern Fringes of the Himalaya Quaternary International xxx (2010) 1e11 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Lithic industries in the southern fringes of the Himalaya Claire Gaillard a,*, Mukesh Singh b, Anne Dambricourt Malassé a a UMR 7194 CNRS, Département de préhistoire du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France b Society for Archaeological and Anthropological Research, Chandigarh, India article info abstract Article history: The Siwalik Range especially in its western sector is known for numerous surface sites yielding large Available online xxx quantities of cobble tools. These tools have for long been considered to belong to the Lower Palaeolithic but they are sometimes associated with other apparently more evolved tool types having a transversal trimmed cutting edge. These types look like adzes/axes and are made from large flakes, split cobbles or flat cobbles. Moreover, such assemblages composed of choppers along with these adze/axe-like tools occur on geological surfaces formed in the late Pleistocene; they are probably later than these deposits in age. These assemblages compare well with the industries occurring further east in Nepal or northern South-East Asia related to the Hoabinhian industries. It is suggested that they are linked through subsistence and technical behaviours to the particular environment of the sub-Himalayan belt and its eastern extension characterised by densely forested hilly landscapes, generously irrigated by perennial streams. Besides, this region was not severely disturbed during the last glacial maximum and could have been a refuge for many animal and vegetal species. It has certainly favoured “latitudinal” circulation (precisely circulation along the geomorphological features) of human and animal populations despite the global climatic changes. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction However, lithic artefacts occur in plenty, especially in the western Siwaliks. In the sub-Himalaya region, all along the highest mountain The earliest of these artefacts are represented by a few flakes in range of the world (Fig. 1), late Pleistocene and early Holocene the Soan valley (Indus basin) dated to ca. 2 Ma (Dennell et al., 1988). human settlements are poorly known. The Neolithic begins around At the time of the first surveys in the Potwar, in the 1930s, two types 5 ka BP in the Swat Valley, with hand-made pottery associated with of lithic assemblages had been identified. The Acheulian, often rolled a lithic assemblage rich in cobble tools (Stakul, 1981), and in the and in a lower stratigraphical position, was considered as older, while Kashmir Valley it begins around 4.5 ka BP with a possible aceramic the Soanian (further sub-divided into two stages) was considered as phase at Burzahom (Agrawal, 1982; I.A.R., 1961e1962; I.A.R., later (Teilhard de Chardin, 1936, 1937). In synthesising the data 1964e1965). At the opposite end of the sub-Himalayan belt (in regarding the Lower Palaeolithic of South and East Asia, Movius a wide sense) in Northern Thailand, the Neolithic emerges in the (1944, 1948) considered the early Soanian and the Acheulian of the mid-Holocene with a local facies called Bacsonian, in continuation western Siwaliks as belonging to the same time period; in his of the Hoabinhian (see Forestier et al., 2006). Except in a few sites in conclusions he proposed a sketch of the Old World distinguishing Nepal (Corvinus, 2007), there is no trace in this 2500 km long strip two Lower Palaeolithic cultural areas: “handaxe culture” and of hills, covered with forests and generously supplied in water by “chopper-chopping tool culture”. Subsequently this concept was many streams, of the microlithic technical stage that characterises oversimplified and became “the Movius line”. Although the Acheu- the late Pleistocene and early Holocene of peninsular India. lian is acknowledged even by Movius himself in both cultural areas, this famous line is still a matter of debate (Keates, 2002; Corvinus, 2004; Petraglia and Shipton, 2008), recently leading to the “Movius * Corresponding author. Department of Prehistory, Institut de Paléontologie line sensu lato” (Norton et al., 2006; Norton and Bae, 2008)that Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France. Tel.: þ33 (0)1 55 43 27 37; fax: actually matches well with the original proposition of Movius. þ33 (0)1 43 31 22 79. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Gaillard), [email protected] However, geological and chronological contexts suggest that the (M. Singh), [email protected] (A.D. Malassé). early Soanian, at least in a number of cases, is later than the 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.06.023 Please cite this article in press as: Gaillard, C., et al., Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Lithic industries in the southern fringes of the Himalaya, Quaternary International (2010), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.06.023 2 C. Gaillard et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2010) 1e11 Fig. 1. Map of south and south-east Asia showing location of the main sites or regions mentioned in the text. Acheulian. Moreover, in central Nepal assemblages mostly the richest one and was first found at the base of the Potwar loess, comprising cobble tools are dated between 24 and 20 ka (Kadereit assigned to the Upper Pleistocene, and therefore was regarded as et al., 2007), and in eastern Nepal a rich site yielding cobble tools the youngest. It was considered as a local Middle Palaeolithic, along with adzes/axes akin to Hoabinhian types dates back to Early especially rich in cobble tools. The latter was usually occurring in Holocene (Corvinus, 1987, 1989). This latter site known as Patu is the form of rolled but very typical specimens in the basal gravel of a key for understanding the cobble tool industries of the western the Potwar loess and was considered as belonging to the underlying Siwaliks (Soanian), and probably also those of the Irrawaddy Boulder Conglomerate, the last formation of the Upper Siwaliks terraces (Anyathian) in Myanmar (Movius, 1944, 1948). Looking in (Teilhard de Chardin, 1936, 1937). a broader perspective, it appears that comparable industries are Since then many assemblages of different facies have been common further east in late Pleistocene and early Holocene collected in the Western Siwaliks (Rendell et al., 1989; Dennell, contexts, for instance in Thailand and Vietnam. They precede the 2004, 2007, 2009; Chauhan, 2007, 2008), especially between Hoabinhian tradition and progressively merge into it. At places they Indus and Sutlej (Mohapatra, 1966, Mohapatra and Singh, 1979a,b). already include some of the characteristic Hoabinhian tool types, The Acheulian, characterised by handaxes and cleavers, fits well to which are much more significant than the time-transgressive and the Acheulian’s variability known in Africa and Eurasia (Gaillard universal cobble tools. et al., 2008; Singh, in press). The Soanian has been sub-divided Recent studies of the early Soanian artefacts in the western into different evolutionary stages according to the stratigraphical Siwaliks lead to the identification of these tool types, suggesting origin and state of preservation (Terra and Paterson, 1939; Paterson that the “early” Soanian in many cases if not all probably belongs to and Drummond, 1962). However, the stratigraphical context was this later phase of the Pleistocene. The abundance of cobbles as raw severely questioned by later field studies (Rendell et al., 1989) and material along the Himalayan rivers might have prompted prehis- only two Soanian stages are now referred to (Early and Late Soa- toric populations to use them with minimal modification, just as nian), apart from a very rare Final Soanian (Mohapatra, 1974). The cobble tools and flakes. As well, the particular landscape in the hilly late Soanian mostly including flakes and cores (sometimes well environment of the Siwaliks and its frequent modifications due to organised), along with cobble tools, is technologically related to the continuous tectonic activity might have been one of the reasons for Middle Palaeolithic (Teilhard de Chardin, 1937; Movius, 1948; the originality of this tradition when compared to the sharply Paterson and Drummond, 1962; Sankalia, 1974; Karir, 1985; different contemporaneous industries in peninsular India. Lycett, 2007). It is dated to between >57 ka and 20 ka in the Sirsa valley (Fig. 2; Suresh et al., 2002). 2. Western Siwaliks The Early Soanian is represented by numerous assemblages mainly composed of cobble tools (choppers and chopping tools), From the 1930s, the Western Siwaliks became well known for flakes and cores being occasional. This industry, like the Late Soa- their rich assemblages of prehistoric industries, especially in the nian, is made from the well silicified quartzite cobbles, usually of Potwar plateau and Soan Valley (Teilhard de Chardin, 1936; Terra dark colour, transported by the Himalayan rivers from the inner and Paterson, 1939). Two technical groups were identified: mountain ranges. It displays simple technical features and there- “Sohan/Soan industry” (Soanian) and Acheulian. The former was fore has for long been assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic like the Please cite this article in press as: Gaillard, C., et al., Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Lithic industries in the southern fringes of the Himalaya, Quaternary International (2010), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.06.023 C.
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