An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c14.s7: 9.7 Miliolites
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c14.s7
- Language
- English
9.7 Miliolites
v1.c14.s7.1
Miliolite limestones or Porbandar stones, as they are popularly called, are white, porous rocks, sufficiently hard to be useful as building material. They are composed of large proportions of calcium carbonate (up to 99%) and detrital sand. The carbonate is made up of the tests of various Foraminifera, mainly Miliolids and Rotalids and hence the rocks are named miliolites. Deposits occur mainly in Kutch and Kathiawar. Within Kathiawar they are of wide extent in the coastal area near Porbandar and Veraval and frequently attain a thickness of 30 m or more. They also occur inland near Rajkot, Junagadh and Sihor.
v1.c14.s7.2
The origin of miliolites which has an important palaeo-environmental and prehistoric relevance is a controversial question. Many workers have regarded their composition of marine carbonate fragments as evidence of their origin in a shallow, warm, littoral marine environment. Others have postulated that they are aeolianites—calcareous wind-blown deposits. Some have proposed that they could be of both marine and aeolian origin, the marine formations occurring near the sea coast and the aeolian ones occurring in inland situations. The inland deposits were produced by the deflation of marine carbonate deposits, exposed in the intertidal and supratidal zones of a warm, shallow sea. The deflated materials were transported inland by wind and deposited against topographical barriers. Such extensive aeolian activity, as is the case with the sand-dunes of n. Gujarat and Rajasthan [9.2], would have required low rainfall conditions and a slight vegetation cover possibly combined with low glacial sea-levels. Today miliolite deposits show typical honeycomb weathering on their surface.
v1.c14.s7.3
Over some of the inland deposits upper Palaeolithic [4.4] sites have been found. These sites suggest that the miliolites were formed and stabilized before the upper Palaeolithic hunters came into the picture. [In 9.8.2 the stratigraphy, from bottom upwards, is stated to be as follows: (1) a fluvial deposit with Lower Palaeolithic tools, overlain by (2) the earlier miliolite formation (M₁) which is followed by (3) another fluvial deposit with Middle Palaeolithic tools, which in turn is capped by (4) a second miliolite formation (M₂).]
v1.c14.s7.4
Agrawal, D.P., & Roy, B., 1977, in Agrawal, D.P., & Pande, B.M., ed., *Ecology & Arch. of w. India*, Delhi, pp. 217-23, and three other articles in *ibid.*, ch. 5.—K.T.M. HEGDE