Palaeolithic Culture of Deccan in the Upper Krishna Basin of India with Special Reference to Recent Studies

Upland Deccan is a part of the ancient landmass of Peninsular India, consisting of erosional rocky terrain drained by allochthonous and autochthonous rivers. Tectonically the region is relatively stable. All the rivers of this region are presently eroding their beds, consequently exposing the older deposits. Geomorphologically, the landscape is dominated by pediments with inselbergs, tors, and broad box-shaped valleys drained by channels with highly seasonal discharge. The present bedrock channels are ungraded with conspicuous knick points almost up to their confluence with trunk streams. Waterfalls, incised meanders, and deep coalesced potholes are significant erosional features observed in most of the streams. Regolith cover consists of laterites, vertisols, and colluvio-alluvial deposits occurring in foot slopes of pediment scarps and on the banks of bedrock streams. The exposed thickness of colluvio-alluvial deposits rarely exceeds 20 m on both banks of streams and their lateral extent is 1.5–2 km. Acheulian sites in this region have been a part of academic discourse since the early 1950s. Key Acheulian sites such as Gangapur and Chirki-on-Pravara in the Godavari Basin, Bori and Morgaon in the Bhima Basin, and Yedurwadi in the Krishna Basin have been fairly well studied; these will be discussed briefly in this paper. The main focus of this paper is the new discovery of Acheulian sites in the overlooked Upper Krishna Basin. A few unconvincing reasons such as unsuitable raw material, i.e., basalt, dense vegetation, and humid environment were cited for absence of Acheulian record in this region. The present study has successfully brought to light a number of promising Acheulian sites from the Krishna River, Bavdhan nala, and Urmodi River basins in the Satara District of Maharashtra. The Acheulian assemblages have been collected from varied geomorphic contexts such as coarse channel gravel, cobbly-rubble, breccio-conglomerate, and oligomict conglomerate. The assemblages comprise of more than 300 artifacts, dominated by cleaver-flakes. Locally available compact vesicular basalt in the form of core stones, boulders, cobbles, and blocks is the exclusive raw material exploited for manufacturing the flake based artifacts. The geomorphic contexts and typo-technological study have led to the conclusion that the study area has been occupied by the early hominids certainly since the Middle Pleistocene if not earlier. The present study is first of its kind which has established the presence of older sediments (at least of Middle Pleistocene period) associated with Acheulian artifacts in this region.