An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c34.214

v2.c34.214

Quaternary [9.8] fluvial deposits are confined to the main valley and are not more than 30 m thick and 2 km in lateral extent on either bank of the stream. Two cut-and-fill terraces at 15 m and 8 to 10 m above the modern bed level are commonly observed on the banks of the Ghod. The lower and the younger (mid-Holocene [9.8.4]) terrace is inset into the higher and the older (Late Pleistocene [9.8.2]) terrace. At Nirgudsar (19°58'; 74°2'), a semicarbonized wood was found in a buried (13 m below the present bed level) channel deposit of about 39000 years B.P. Two ¹⁴C dates on molluscan shells found in the cemented gravel beds exposed 1 to 3 m above the modern bed level at INAMGAON suggest that the Ghod was flowing more or less in the present channel 20000 years B.P. Another ¹⁴C date of molluscan shells found in a channel gravel occurring 8 m above the modern bed at INAMGAON shows that the aggradation phase continued till about 11000 years B.P. The Late Pleistocene aggradation was ubiquitous in the entire length and breadth of the valley and was possibly in response to climatic changes not yet properly understood. The presence of animals like *Elephas maximus*, *Bos namadicus*, *Hexaprotodon palaeindicus*, *Cervus unicolor*, *Equus namadicus*, *Bubalus* sp. and *Canis* sp. during this aggradational phase certainly suggest the existence of galleria forests on the banks of the Ghod. A few pollens of *Accacia*, *Eugenia* and *Holoptela* found in black clay bands near Inamgaon, calcretization of gravels and silts and the dominance of montmorillonite mineral in oxidized flood silts indicate hot semi-arid and seasonal climate during the late Pleistocene.