Recent Recovery of Unpublished Field Notes of Theodore D. McCown’s Paleoanthropological Explorations in the Narmada River System, India, 1964–1965

Abstract

The 1982 discovery of the “Narmada Man” middle Pleistocene fossil cranial remains by geologist Arun Sonakia in the Narmada valley of India raised a number of questions about the crania’s antiquity, stratigraphic context, and nature of associated lithic cultural materials. Although archaeological research had been carried out in 1964–1965 in the region by a research team led by Theodore McCown from the University of California at Berkley, Dr. McCown’s untimely death left the results of the his team’s investigations unpublished and difficult to access by other scholars. Recently recovered field notes from this archaeological project, reporting on the locations of investigated sites, some specifics of the tools recovered and their probable cultural chronologies, and other observations significant to understanding the Palaeolithic prehistory of the Narmada valley, are presented by the authors along with commentary about significance of these field notes for future research in the region.