An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s3.3

v1.c9.s3.3

As stated above, at several river sites the artefacts occur in a gravel deposit overlying or resting against another and earlier gravel formation with Lower Palaeolithic tools. At some places each of these gravels is associated with a silt formation, so that one can speak of two cycles of gravel-and-silt deposits. Some inferences about palaeoclimate have been made on the basis of these deposits (Sankalia, 1964): coarse sediments like gravels could only have been formed when the river had a higher competence, suggesting a wet climate, while silt deposits were formed during a dry phase; the culture has thus been considered to have flourished during a wet period following a dry phase. But such inferences have to be viewed with caution because, apart from climate, several other factors like the nature and source of debris supply, local topography and even vegetation govern the formation of river deposits. Sedimentological studies of the river deposits from certain parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat clearly show that there is no justification for postulating distinct wet and dry climatic cycles during the Late Pleistocene (Rajaguru, 1973). Basing on the relatively high proportion (25%) of kaolinite and the mature character of the silt deposits from the Pune region, Rajaguru suggests that the region might have experienced 20 to 25% higher rainfall, i.e. an average annual rainfall of about 900 mm as against the present-day average of about 700 mm. But he emphasizes that such fluctuations are only a matter of degree and not of kind. In other words the climate during the Late Pleistocene did not differ markedly from the present semi-arid climate, particularly in the Deccan peninsula. However the geomorphological and pedological data obtained from w. India, particularly w. Rajasthan, where the Middle Palaeolithic artefacts occur in a pebbly conglomerate, prove that the culture flourished during a wet phase, following which a distinct dry phase set in, leading to the formation of sand-dunes and associated phenomena (Goudie, 1973) [cf. 9.2]. In many parts of Saurashtra Middle Palaeolithic tools have been found in fluvial gravels overlain by miliolite [9.7] formations of fluvio-marine origin. This would mean that the Middle Palaeolithic man of this area witnessed a minor phase of marine transgression (information from S.N. Rajaguru).