Reconstruction of the late Quaternary environment of the lower Luni Plains, Thar Desert, India

The southern dispersal hypothesis and the South Asian archaeological record: Examination of dispersal routes through GIS analysis

“…Major terrestrial features, such as the Indus and Ganges Rivers and tributaries, have shifted their locations across the landscape (Chattopadhyaya, 1996;Schuldenrein, 2002), and produced extensive Holocene-aged deposits that overlie earlier Pleistocene-aged ones. Uplift and regional aridity have changed the activity patterns of fresh water sources, and either increased or decreased sediment loads in major drainages (Bhandari et al, 2005;Enzel et al, 1999;Kar et al, 2001;Srivastava et al, 2003). These and other changes suggest that environmental dynamism and localized transitions are the norm for South Asia, and modern reconstructions must take these paleogeographic features into account as much as possible.…”

“…Seasonal and spatial Xuctuations are known to have occurred episodically in the past, opening up some of the more extreme environments to habitation during brief periods (Korisettar and Ramesh, 2002;Von Rad et al, 1999). Archaeological sites in the Thar Desert demonstrate periods of wet conditions (Andrews et al, 1998;Deotare et al, 2004;Kar et al, 2001;Misra, 1995). Episodic monsoon activity had a variety of eVects on the river systems of the subcontinent.…”

Mid–late Holocene hydrological changes in the Mahi River, arid western India

“…Studies of the sedimentary record carried out in desert margins have shown the fluvial regime to respond to the waning and waxing of the southwest monsoon during the Late Pleistocene (Tandon et al, 1997;Khadkikar et al, 1999;Juyal et al, 2000;Kar et al, 2001;Srivastava et al, 2001). This has provided the basis for interpreting the Holocene climate and flow regime records in these areas.…”

Climatic Frameworks: Legacies from the Past

“…Chawla, Dhir and Singhvi, 1992;Singhvi et al, 1994) and fluvial systems (e.g. Kar et al, 2001) as well as the lacustrine system response (Enzel et al, 1995) have made a significant contribution to the reconstruction of fluctuating environmental conditions through the last glacial. Luminescence dates from relict and active dunes within the Thar Desert have been used to interpret major periods of dune construction at 115-100 kyr, ∼75 kyr, ∼55 kyr, ∼30 kyr and 11-13 kyr (Singhvi and Kar, 2004;Singhvi and Porat, 2008).…”