Luminescence dating at the stratified prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, India, has shown that processes signifying the end of the Acheulian culture and the emergence of a Middle Palaeolithic culture occurred at 385 ± 64 thousand years ago (ka), much earlier than conventionally presumed for South Asia. The Middle Palaeolithic continued at Attirampakkam until 172 ± 41 ka. Chronologies of Middle Palaeolithic technologies in regions distant from Africa and Europe are crucial for testing theories about the origins and early evolution of these cultures, and for understanding their association with modern humans or archaic hominins, their links with preceding Acheulian cultures and the spread of Levallois lithic technologies. The geographic location of India and its rich Middle Palaeolithic record are ideally suited to addressing these issues, but progress has been limited by the paucity of excavated sites and hominin fossils as well as by geochronological constraints. At Attirampakkam, the gradual disuse of bifaces, the predominance of small tools, the appearance of distinctive and diverse Levallois flake and point strategies, and the blade component all highlight a notable shift away from the preceding Acheulian large-flake technologies. These findings document a process of substantial behavioural change that occurred in India at 385 ± 64 ka and establish its contemporaneity with similar processes recorded in Africa and Europe. This suggests complex interactions between local developments and ongoing global transformations. Together, these observations call for a re-evaluation of models that restrict the origins of Indian Middle Palaeolithic culture to the incidence of modern human dispersals after approximately 125 ka.
Abstract-A stony meteorite fell at Itawa Bhopji, Rajasthan, India on 2000 May 30. This is the fifth recorded fall in a small area of Rajasthan during the past decade. The meteorite is an ordinary chondrite with light clasts in a dark matrix, consisting of a mixture of equilibrated (mainly type 5) and unequilibrated components. Olivine is Fa24-26 and pyroxene FS 20-22 but, within the unequilibrated components, olivine (Fa5-29) and low calcium pyroxene (FS 5-37) are highly variable. Based on petrographic studies and chemical analyses, it is classified as L(3-5) regolith breccia. Studies of various cosmogenic records, including several gamma-emitting radionuclides varying in half-life from 5.6 day 52Mn to 0.73 Ma 26AI, tracks and rare gases have been carried out. The exposure age of the meteorite is estimated from cosmogenic components ofrare gases to be 19.6 Ma. The track density varies by a factor of -3 (from 4 to 12 x 10 6/cm2) within the meteorite, indicating a preatmospheric body of -9 ern radius (corresponding to a meteoroid mass of -11 kg) and small ablation (1.5 to 3.6 ern). Trapped components in various rare gases are high and the solar component is present in the dark portion of the meteorite. Large excess of neutron-produced 82Kr and 128Xe in both the light and the dark lithology but very low 60Co, indicating low neutron fluxes received by the meteoroid in the interplanetary space, are clear signatures of an additional irradiation on the parent body.
Detailed geomorphological investigation supported by field stratigraphy and optical dating enabled us to identify three major events of glaciation in the eastern Zanskar Himalaya (Sarchu Plain). The oldest and most extensive glaciation is the Sarchu Glaciation Stage‐1 (SGS‐1) that pre‐dates the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and is assigned to the cold and wet Marine Isotope Stage‐4 (MIS‐4). The second glacial advance (SGS‐2) is optically dated to ∼20 ka and the youngest SGS‐3 is assigned to the 8.2 ka cooling event. Evidence of deglaciation is preserved as outwash terrace gravels and is assigned to the pluvial MIS‐3 and the early Holocene (∼9 ka). Increased strength of westerlies (winter precipitation) and associated temperature decline were responsible for driving the glaciation in the study area, a conclusion that accords well with modern meteorological data showing a reasonable correlation between the modern equilibrium line altitude, enhanced mid‐latitude westerlies (winter precipitation) and winter temperatures. The phases of deglaciation occurred during periods of warmer climatic excursions. Overall a broad correspondence between the Sarchu Plain glaciation phases and northern latitude ice sheet dynamics is suggested, implying that the glaciers in the trajectory of the mid‐latitude westerlies are likely to respond in phase with northern latitude glaciation.
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