Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c11: Appendix B: Sequence of Terraces and Lithic Industries on the Narmada and their Correlation with the Rest of India

Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c11

Language: English

Appendix B: Sequence of Terraces and Lithic Industries on the Narmada and their Correlation with the Rest of India

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(Figs. 129-130 and Plate XXXVI and Table)

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From our previous observations at Maheshwar (above pp. 51 and 80) and the recent ones around Hoshangabad and Narsimhapur:

1. just near the Rest House and secondly below Girls' Training College,
2. Dongarwada,
3. Bandraban,
4. At Devkachar, about 7 miles from Narsimhapur, on the river Sedh (Sehr), 5. Sagauna Ghat on the confluence of the river Sedh, Varureva, Umar and the Narmada,
6. Barman Ghat, about 12 miles from Narsimhapur, on the Narmada,
7. Mahadeo Piparia,

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it may now confidently be said that the sections given by DE TERRA are reconstructions based on very careful observation. For nowhere a complete stratigraphical sequence seems to have been preserved as in the Mahismati Nala at Maheshwar. Thus at (a) Hoshangabad a pebble gravel is capped by a thick silt deposit, but at places it rests on a reddish (pinkish) concretionary clay. At locality (b) a thick—over 8 ft—wide terrace of pebble gravel is exposed. This seems to be the course basal gravel though at places it seems to have been overlaid by the second pebbly gravel.

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Similar is the case at Dongarwada. But here further downwards towards Hasalpur the high silt cliff is eroded and filled in by blackish silt which forms a distinct low terrace. This phenomenon can be seen at Hoshangabad as well, but a little upstream beyond the temporary causeway.

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At Devkachar the pebble-gravel is completely eroded and the new sandy chalcedony gravel rests directly over the reddish concretionary clay and is capped by a light grey silt which again shows up as a distinct terrace on the opposite bank. Its gravel is being eroded and lies loose in the bed and so a little to the right (as one descends) one may see only the four silts: the lowest reddish concretionary capped by a brownish one and forming the topmost terrace; the eroded portion of the latter covered by a light grey one, and where both these are removed, a blackish silt rests on the reddish silt. This may be shown thus:

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Opposite the Sagauna Ghat, however, no earlier pebble gravels are exposed but on both the banks there is a thick—over 15 ft.—highly cemented gravel of trap and chalcedony, intercalated by yellowish sandy partings, resting over a laminated clay and capped by light grey silt. Here again this forms a distinct terrace, about 35-40 ft. in height, whereas the topmost is over 60 ft., and the youngest about 10-15 ft. This gravel contains Middle Stone Age (Series II) tools, rolled as well as fresh. There is no doubt that this is the principal horizon of these tools. It is also fossiliferous and where its silt-cover is thinner as one goes in the interior, a little away from the river, the fossils get ploughed up in fields on the Varurewa river, about a mile from Devkachar. (These incidentally are collected by the villagers and passed on to hurried "discoverers"

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PALAEOLITHIC SITES ON THE NARMADA MENTIONED IN APPENDIX B

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on payment. Otherwise it is not possible to collect a large number and that too big bones, in a brief visit. For it took us more than three hours to chisel out a shoulder blade from the cemented gravel at Sagauna Ghat).

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At Barman Ghat again this gravel occurs and is being eroded. It is full of tools. But about half a mile upstream lies a greenish quartzite in the bed where one finds huge cores, flakes, and cleavers on side-flakes and occasional handaxes, all made on the spot, indicating that this was a factory site of the Early Stone Age man. Similar seems to be the case at Bandraban, where a brownish quartzite lies athwart the bed.

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Thus the stratigraphy on this part of the Narmada and its tributaries conforms very well with our observations at Maheshwar. If somewhere, for instance near the Girls' Training College at Hoshangabad, or at Mahadev Piparia, the earliest coarse or pebble gravel is isolated and if this yields on a careful digging early Abbevillian types of handaxes, and high-angled flakes and the second pebble gravel these as well as Acheulian handaxes and cleavers, then we may propose the following stratigraphical and tool sequence on the Narmada.

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V Chalcolithic Blade Industry

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IV Black soil—Microliths as at Adamgarh

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III { (f) Light Grey Silt
(e) Chalcedony Gravel—Middle Stone Age Tools¹

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¹ Though it has been said by KHATRI and others that Series II tools are found in Gravel II, still it appears that these are very likely a washed out material. For we also found a large scraper superficially embedded in a pebble gravel at Hoshangabad.

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II { (d) Brownish Silt
(c) Pebble Gravel—Acheulian Handaxes

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I { (b) Reddish Concretionary Silt
(a) Basal Gravel²—Clactonian Flakes and Abbevillian Handaxes.

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² No reference is made here to the occurrence of laterite which has been discussed by DE TERRA, op. cit., p. and KHATRI, A. P., "Stone Age—Narmada Valley", Anthropos, Vol. 56, 1961, p. 521. For none, except eroded blocks at Dongarwada, was noticed by us.

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Thus Narmada alone and possibly Vaddamadurai on the Kortalyar may give us the earliest handaxe industry in India.

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This Narmada sequence may be correlated with other regions as shown on p. 287.

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| NARMADA | Sequence of Lithic Industries | GUJARAT | | | | OTHER PARTS OF INDIA | | | | | | |
| Stratigraphy | | Sabarmati | Saurashtra | Maharashtra | Mysore | Andhra | Madras | Orissa | Bihar-W. Bengal | Punjab (E.W.) | Uttar Pradesh | Madhya Pradesh (excluding Narmada) | Rajasthan |
| V | Black Soil or Yellow Silt | Neolithic-Chalcolithic | X | V | V | V | V (West) | V | V | V | V (?) | V | V |
| IV | Black Silt | Microliths | Laughnaj | IV | IV (Surface) | Surface (caves) | Surface | Surface | Surface | Birbhanpur | IV (Caves & rockshelters) | IV | IV |
| III | Trap and Chalcedony Gravel | Middle Stone Age | Not Known | III | III | III | III | III | III | III | III | III | III | III |
| II | Pebble Gravel | Acheulian | II | II | II | II | II | II | II | II | II | II | II |
| I | Basal Pebble Gravel | Abbevillian | — | X | X | X | X | I (?) | X | X | I | X | X |