A review of Palaeolithic sites associated with gravel deposits in India

Abstract

Rivers and river-borne deposits have always been a major attraction for hominins as an important source of sustenance and settlements. Hence, fluvial deposits have long been an important source of evidence for early human occupation throughout the Old World. Apart from being an important palaeoclimatic marker, fluvial sequences have provided archaeologists with frameworks for correlation, along with Palaeolithic markers discovered within them. Moreover, given the influx of sediments eroded and deposited by Indian rivers, these could have acted as a centre of hominin activities. Palaeolithic research in India has been concentrated around some of its major river valleys, which have yielded a rich record of hominin occupation. So far, 305 Palaeolithic sites have been reported from a gravel context throughout the country, yielding Lower to Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic evidence. However, most of the derived evidence is secondary deposits and stands contested based on its contextuality. Nevertheless, its importance as a source of information about hominin activity cannot be underestimated. This review presents a provisional synthesis of all of the Indian Palaeolithic sites reported from gravel contexts, thereby presenting scope for future multidisciplinary research at these localities.