Human evolution and culture change in the Indian subcontinent

Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology

Volumn , Issue 9781402055614, 2007, Pages 1-20

  Petraglia, Michael D ^a   Allchin, Bridget ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

^b Ancient India and Iran Trust   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Early hominins; Late pleistocene; Mesolithic site; Modern human; Thar desert

Indexed keywords

EID: 70350013057     PISSN: 18779077     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-5562-5_1     Document Type: Chapter

References (101)

1. Acharyya, S.K., Basu, P.K., 1993. Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its implications for correlation of Late Pleistocene alluvium. Quaternary Research 40, 10–19.
2. Acharyya, S.K., Basu, P.B., 1994. Reply to comments by S. Mishra and S.N. Rajaguru and by G.L. Badam and S.N. Rajaguru on ‘Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its implication for the correlation of Late Pleistocene alluvium’. Quaternary Research 41, 400–402.
3. Allchin, B.A., Goudie, A., Hegde, K., 1978. The Prehistory and Palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert. Academic Press, London.
4. Allchin, B., Allchin, R., 1982. The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
5. Ambrose, S., 1998. Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter and differentiation in modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 34, 623–651.
6. An, Z., Kutzbach, J.E., Prell, W.L., Porter, S.C., 2001. Evolution of Asian monsoons and phased uplift of the Himalaya-Tibetan plateau since Late Miocene times. Nature 411, 62–66.
7. Andrews, J., Singhvi, A., Kuhn, R., Dennis, P., Tandon, S.K., Dhir, R., 1998. Do stable isotope data from calcrete record late Pleistocene monsoonal climate variation in the Thar Desert of India? Quaternary Research 50, 240–251.
8. Antón, S.C., Swisher, C.C. III, 2004. Early dispersals of Homo from Africa. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 271–296.
9. Badam, G.L., 1979. Pleistocene Fauna of India. Deccan College, Pune. Bar-Yosef, O., 1998a. Early colonizations and cultural continuities in the Lower Palaeolithic of western Asia. In: Petraglia, M.D., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record. Routledge Press, London, pp. 221–279.
10. Bar-Yosef, O. 1998b. The chronology of the Middle Palaeolithic of the Levant. In: Akasawa, T., Aoki, K., Bar-Yosef, O. (Eds.), Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western Asia. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 39–57.
11. Bellwood, P. 2005. First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell, Oxford.
12. Blackwell, B.A.B., Fevrier, S., Blickstein, J.I.B., Paddayya, K., Petraglia, M., Jhaldiyal, R., Skinner, A.R. 2001. ESR dating of an Acheulean quarry site at Isampur, India. Journal of Human Evolution 40, A3.
13. Boivin, N. 2005. Orientalism, ideology and agency: examining caste in South Asian archaeology. Journal of Social Archaeology 5(2), 225–252.
14. Bowler, J.M., Johnston, H., Olley, J., Prescott, J., Roberts, R., Shawcross, W., Spooner, N., 2003. New ages for human occupation and climate change at Lake Mungo, Australia. Nature 421, 837–840.
15. Brown, P., Sutikna, T., Morwood, M.J., Soejono, R.P., Jatmiko, Wayhu Saptama, E., Rokus Awe Due, 2004. A new small bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431, 1055–1061.
16. Cann R., Stoneking, M., Wilson, A. 1987. Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature 325, 31–36.
17. Cameron, D., Patnaik, R., Sahni, A., 2004. The phylogenetic significance of the Middle Pleistocene Narmadahominincraniumfromcentral India. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14, 419–447.
18. Cavalli-Sforza, L., Menozzi, P., Piazza, A., 1994. History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
19. Chattopadhyaya, U.C., 1996. Settlement pattern and the spatial organization of subsistence and mortuary practices in the Mesolithic Ganges Valley, north-central India. World Archaeology 27(3), 461–476.
20. Cordaux, R., Aunger, R., Bentley, G., Nasidze, I., Sirajuddin, S.M., Stoneking, M., 2004a. Independent origins of Indian caste and tribal paternal lineages. Current Biology 14, 231–235.
21. Cordaux, R., Deepa, E., Vishwanathan, H., Stoneking, M. 2004b. Genetic evidence for the demic diffusion of agriculture to India. Science 304, 1125.
22. Cordaux, R., Stoneking, M., 2003. South Asia, the Andamanese and the genetic evidence for an ‘early’ human dispersal out of Africa. American Journal of Human Genetics 72, 1586–1590.
23. Debono, H., Goren-Inbar, N., 2001. Note of a link between Acheulian handaxes and the Levallois method. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 31, 9–23.
24. Dennell, R.W., 1998. Grasslands, tool making and the hominid colonization of southern Asia: a reconsideration. In: Petraglia, M.D., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record. Routledge Press, London, pp. 280–303.
25. Dennell, R.W., 2003. Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa? Journal of Human Evolution 45, 421–440.
26. Dennell, R.W., 2004. Early Hominin Landscapes in Northern Pakistan: Investigations in the Pabbi Hills. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 1265.
27. Dennell, R.W., 2005. Comments on ‘modern human origins and the evolution of behavior in the later Pleistocene record of South Asia’ by H.V.A. James and M.D. Petraglia. Current Anthropology, in press.
28. Dennell, R., Rendell, H., Halim, M., Moth, E., 1992. A 45,000-year-old open-air Paleolithic site at Riwat, northern Pakistan. Journal of Field Archaeology 19, 17–33.
29. Deotare, B., Kajale, M., Rajaguru, S., Basavaiah, N., 2004. Late Quaternary geomorphology, palynology and magnetic susceptibility of playas in western margin of the Indian Thar Desert. Indian Geophysical Union 8(1), 15–25.
30. Deraniyagala, S.U., 1992. The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: An Ecological Perspective. Department of the Archaeological Survey, Government of Sri Lanka, Colombo.
31. D’Errico, F., 2003. The invisible frontier: a multiple species model for the origin of behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology 12, 188– 202.
32. Dhavalikar, M.K., 1997. Indian Protohistory. Books and Books, New Delhi.
33. Endicott, P., Gilbert, M., Stringer, C., Lalueza-Fox, C., Willerslev, E., Hansen, A., Cooper, A., 2003a. The genetic origins of the Andaman Islanders. American Journal of Human Genetics 72, 178–184.
34. Flemming, N.C., 2004. Submarine prehistoric archaeology of the Indian continental shelf: a potential resource. Current Science 86, 1225–1230.
35. Forster, P., Matsumura, S., 2005. Did early humans go north or south? Science 308, 965–966.
36. Gabunia, L., Antón, S.C., Lordkipanidze, D., Vekua, A., Swisher, C.C., Justus, A., 2001. Dmanisi and dispersal. Evolutionary Anthropology 10, 158–170.
37. Gao, X., Norton, C., 2002. A critique of the Chinese ‘Middle Palaeolithic’. Antiquity 76, 397–412.
38. Hemingway, M.F., Stapert, D., 1989. Early artifacts from Pakistan? Some questions for the excavators. Current Anthropology 30, 317–322.
39. James, H.V.A., Petraglia, M.D., 2005. Modern human origins and the evolution of behavior in the later Pleistocene record of South Asia. Current Anthropology, in press.
40. Jarrige, J.-F., 1984. Chronology of the earlier periods of the Greater Indus as seen from Mehrgarh, Pakistan. In: Allchin, B. (Ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1981. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 21–28.
41. Kar, A., Singhvi, A., Rajaguru, S., Juyal, N., Thomas, J., Banerjee, D., Dhir, R., 2001. Reconstruction of the late Quaternary environment of the lower Luni plains, Thar Desert, India. Journal of Quaternary Science 16(1), 61–68.
42. Kennedy, K.A.R., 1995. Have Aryans been identified in the prehistoric skeletal record from South Asia? Biological anthropology and concepts of ancient races. In: Erdosy, G. (Ed.), The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 32–66.
43. Kennedy, K.A.R., 2000. God Apes and Fossil Men: Paleoanthropology in South Asia. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
44. Kennedy, K.A.R., Chiment, J., Disotell, T., Meyers, D., 1984. Principal-components analysis of prehisotric South Asian Crania. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 64, 105–118.
45. Kennedy, K.A.R., Sonakia, A., Climent, J., Verma, K.K., 1991. Is the Narmada hominid an Indian Homo erectus? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 86, 475–496.
46. Kenoyer, J.M. 1998. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press, Karachi.
47. Kenoyer, J., Clark, J., Pal, J., Sharma, G., 1983. An Upper Palaeolithic shrine in India? Antiquity LVII, 88–94.
48. Kivisild, T., Rootsi, S., Metspalu, M., Mastana, S., Kaldma, K., Parik, J., Metspalu, E., Adojaan, M., Tolk, H-V., Stepanov, V., Gölge, M., Usanga, E., Papiha, S.S., Cinnioǧlu, C., King, R., Cavalli-Sforza, L., Underhill, P.A., Villems, R., 2003. The genetic heritage of the earliest settlers persists both in Indian tribal and caste populations. American Journal of Human Genetics 72, 313–332.
49. Klein, R., 1999. The Human Career. Chicago University Press, Chicago. Klein, R., 2000. Archeology and the evolution of human behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology 9, 17–36.
50. Korisettar, R., Rajaguru, S., 1998. Quaternary stratigraphy, palaeoclimate and the Lower Palaeolithic of India. In: Petraglia, M.D., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record. Routledge Press, London, pp. 304–342.
51. Korisettar, R., Venkatasubbaiah, P.C., Fuller, D.Q., 2002. Brahmagiri and beyond: the archaeology of the southern Neolithic. In: Settar, S., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Prehistory, Volume 1. Indian Council of Historical Research and Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 150–237.
52. Lahr, M.M., Foley, R., 1994. Multiple dispersals and modern human origins. Evolutionary Anthropology 3, 48–60.
53. Lal, B.B., 1997. The Earliest Civilization of South Asia. Aryan Books International, New Delhi.
54. Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C., 1997. Politics and archaeology. Colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, and archaeology, Part I. The Review of Archaeology 18(2), 1–14.
55. Lukacs, J.R., 2002. Hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and agriculturalists in prehistoric India: a biocultural perspective on trade and subsistence. In: Morrison, K., Junker, L. (Eds.), Forager Traders in South and Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 41–61.
56. Macaulay, V., Hill, C., Achilli, A., Rengo, C., Clarke, D., Meehan, W., Blackburn, J., Semino, O., Scozzari, R., Cruciani, F., Taha, A., Shaari, N.K., Maripa Raja, J., Ismail, P., Zainuddin, Z., Goodwin, W., Bulbeck, D., Bandelt, H.-J., Oppenheimer, S., Torroni, A., Richards, M., 2005. Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308, 1034–1036.
57. MacNeish, R.S., 1992. The Origins of Agriculture. University of Oklahoma, Norman.
58. Marathe, A.R., 1981. Geoarchaeology of the Hiran Valley, Saurashtra, India. Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Poona.
59. McBrearty, S., Brooks, A., 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39, 453–563.
60. Mellars, P., 2005. The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 14, 12–27.
61. Metspalu, M., Kivisild, T., Metspalu, E., Parik, J., Hudjashov, G., Kaldma, K., Serk, P., Karmin, M., Behar, D.M., Gilbert, M.T.P., Endicott, P., Mastana, S., Papiha, S.S., Skorecki, K., Torroni, A., Villems, R., 2004. Most of the extant mtDNA boundaries in South and Southwest Asia were likely shaped during the initial settlement of Eurasia by anatomically modern humans. BMC Genetics 5, 26.
62. Misra, V.N., 1985. The Acheulean succession at Bhimbetka, central India. In: Misra, V.N., Bellwood, P. (Eds.), Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory. Oxford IBH, New Delhi, pp. 35–47.
63. Misra, V.N., 1989. Stone Age India: an ecological perspective. Man and Environment XIV(1), 17–64.
64. Misra, V.N., 1995. Geoarchaeology of the Thar Desert, north west India. In: Wadia, S., Korisettar, R., Kale, V.S. (Eds.), Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India. Geological Society of India, Bangalore, pp. 210–230.
65. Misra, V.N., Bellwood, P. (Eds.), 1985. Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory. Oxford IBH, New Delhi.
66. Mishra, S., Rajaguru, S.N., 1994. Comment on ‘Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its implication for the correlation of Late Pleistocene alluvium’. Quaternary Research 41, 396–397.
67. O’Connell, J.F., Allen, J., 2004. Dating the colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea): a review of recent research. Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 835–853.
68. Paddayya, K., 1982. Achuelian Culture of Hunsgi Valley. Deccan College, Pune.
69. Paddayya, K., Petraglia, M.D., 1997. Isampur: an Acheulian workshop in the Hunsgi Valley, Gulbarga District, Karnataka. Man and Environment 22, 95–100.
70. Pal, J.N., 1992. Mesolithic human burials in the Ganga Plain, north India. Man and Environment 17(2), 35–44.
71. Pal, J.N., 1994. Mesolithic settlements in the Ganga Plain. Man and Environment 19, 91–101.
72. Panja, S., 2002. Research on the Deccan Chalcolithic. In: Settar, S., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Prehistory, Volume 1. Indian Council of Historical Research and Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 263–76.
73. Pappu, R.S., 2001. Acheulian Culture in Peninsular India. D.K. Printworld Ltd., New Delhi.
74. Pappu, S., Gunnell, Y., Taieb, M., Brugal, J.-P., Touchard, Y., 2003. Excavations at the Palaeolithic site of Attirampakkam, south India: preliminary findings. Current Anthropology 44, 591–598.
75. Petraglia, M.D., 1998. The Lower Paleolithic of India and its bearing on the Asian record. In: Petraglia, M.D., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record. Routledge, New York, pp. 343–390.
76. Petraglia, M., LaPorta, P., Paddayya, K., 1999. The first Acheulean quarry in India: stone tool manufacture, biface morphology, and behaviors. Journal of Anthropological Research 55, 39–70.
77. Petraglia, M.D, J. Schuldenrein, Korisettar, R., 2003. Landscapes, activity, and the Acheulean to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Kaladgi Basin, India. Journal of Eurasian Prehistory 1(2), 3–24.
78. Petraglia, M.D., Shipton, C., Paddayya, K., 2005. Life and mind in the Acheulean: a case study from India. In: Gamble, C., Porr, M. (Eds.), The Hominid Individual in Context. Routledge, London, pp. 197–219.
79. Plummer, T. 2004. Flaked stones and old bones: biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125 (S39), 118–164.
80. Possehl, G.L., 1976. Lothal: a gateway settlement of the Harappan Civilization. In: Kennedy, K.A.R., Possehl, G.L. (Eds.), Ecological Backgrounds of South Asian Prehistory. Occasional Papers and Theses No. 4, Cornell South Asia Program, Ithaca, pp. 118–31.
81. Possehl, G.L., 1999. Indus Age: The Beginnings. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
82. Ratnagar, S., 2004. Archaeology at the heart of political confrontation: the case of Ayodhya. Current Anthropology 45, 239–59.
83. Rendell, H.M., Dennell, R.W., Halim, M., 1989. Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Investigations in the Soan Valley, Northern Pakistan. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 544.
84. Renfrew, C., 1987. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
85. Rettalack, G.J., 1995. Palaeosols of the Siwalik Group as a 15 Ma record of South Asia palaeoclimate. In: Wadia, S., Korisettar, R., Kale, V.S. (Eds.), Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India. Geological Society of India, Bangalore, pp. 123–135.
86. Rightmire, G.P., 2001. Comparison of Middle Pleistocene hominids from Africa and Asia. In: Barham, L., Robson-Brown, K. (Eds.), Human Roots: Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene. Western Academic and Specialist Press, Bristol, pp. 123–135.
87. Sali, S.A., 1989. The Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures of Maharashtra. Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune.
88. Sankalia, H.D., 1974. Prehistory and Protohistory of India and Pakistan. Poona: Deccan College.
89. Settar, S., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), 2002. Indian Archaeology in Retrospect (Volumes 1–4). Indian Council of Historical Research and Manohar Publishers, New Delhi.
90. Shane, P., Westgate, J., Williams, M., Korisettar, R., 1995. New geochemical evidence for the youngest Toba tuff in India. Quaternary Research 44, 200–204.
91. Sharma, G.R., 1980. History to Prehistory: Archaeology of the Ganga Valley and the Vindhyas. University of Allahabad, Allahabad.
92. Sharma, G. R. 1973. Mesolithic Lake Cultures in the Ganga Valley, India. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 39, 129–146.
93. Shea, J., 2003. The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant. Journal of World Prehistory 17, 313–394.
94. Singh, P., 2002. The Neolithic cultures of northern and eastern India. In: Settar, S., Korisettar, R. (Eds.), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Prehistory, Volume 1. Indian Council of Historical Research and Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 127–150.
95. Sonakia, A., 1985. Skull cap of an early man from the Narmada valley alluvium (Pleistocene) of central India. American Anthropologist 87, 612–616.
96. Stringer, C., 2000. Coasting out of Africa. Nature 405, 24–27.
97. Stringer, C., 2001. The morphological and behavioural origins of modern humans. In: Crow, T. (Ed.), The Speciation of Modern Homo sapiens. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 23–30.
98. Swisher, C.C. III, Curtis, G.H., Jacob, T., Getty, A.G., Suprijo, A., Widiasmoro, 1994. Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263, 1118–1121.
99. Thangaraj, K., Chaubey, G., Kivisild, T., Reddy, A.G., Singh, V.K., Rasalkar, A.A., Singh, L., 2005. Reconstructing the origin of Andaman Islanders. Science 308, 996.
100. Westgate, J.A., Shane, P.A.R., Pearce, N.J.G., Perkins, W.T., Korisettar, R., Chesner, C.A., Williams, M.A.J., Acharyya, S.K., 1998. All Toba Tephra Occurrences across Peninsular India Belong to the 75,00 yr B.P. Eruption. Quaternary Research 50, 107–112.
101. White, M., Ashton, N., 2003. Lower Palaeolithic core technology and the origins of the Levallois method in North Western Europe. Current Anthropology 44, 598–609.