Introducing Pandado: a newly discovered Acheulean site in the central Narmada Valley (CNV), India

ABSTRACT

The central Narmada valley (CNV) is well-known for yielding rich Paleolithic and fossil sites in the Indian Subcontinent. The earliest dated evidence in the CNV is at least 800 Ka old, and out of all Paleolithic technologies, Acheulean is most represented. In the absence of absolute dates, lithic technology has been provisionally used here as a criterion for defining the relative chrono-cultural affinities of the Paleolithic sites. Here, we present the assemblage from Pandado, a newly discovered Acheulean occurrence in the northern part of the valley. This site lies in close proximity to Pilikarar, known for its rich occurrence of Early Acheulean assemblages. Pandado is represented by two lithic localities, which has yielded 279 artifacts from surface and in situ stratified contexts. Typo-technological analysis and comparative data from other Indian Acheulean sites have been used. Based on the results, the data indicates that Pandado is closely associated with Early Acheulean technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian Subcontinent
• Central India
• Acheulean
• biface
• typo-technology

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the Archaeological Survey of India for providing the requisite permits (to Parth R. Chauhan) for survey and collections of the artifacts. We would also like to thank the Directorate of Archaeology, Archives & Museums (Government of Madhya Pradesh) for their support. Funding for this research came from the Joint “University Grant Commission -Israel Science Foundation Research Grant” (awarded to Parth R. Chauhan) under the project “The First Global Culture: Lower Paleolithic Acheulean Adaptations at the Two Ends of Asia”. We would like to thank Parth R. Chauhan for his valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Thanks are due to Nupur Tiwari, Rajesh Poojari and Dheeraj Chaudhary for their help in fieldwork and Shashi Bhushan for his help in making the map. We also thank Sayani Das from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata for the statistical analysis in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University Grant Commission -Israel Science Foundation Research Grant Application Number 2712/16.

Notes on contributors

Vivek Singh

Vivek Singh is a PhD research scholar at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, India. His research work focuses on the Palaeolithic landscape adaptations in the central Narmada Valley, Madhya Pradesh, India. He received a B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. in Anthropology from the University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, in 2013 and 2015 respectively. His primary research interest lies in the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulean technology, tool use and raw material adaptations.

Shantanu Katiyar

Shantanu Katiyar is an Erasmus Mundus master's student in the IMQP (International Masters in Quaternary Prehistory) program in Ferrara, Italy. He received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, India in 2020.