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The analysis of strontium isotopes in archaeologically preserved biological tissues is most productive when these can be compared to naturally occurring variation in strontium isotope ratios across the physical landscape. Such work is in its infancy in South Asia. Here, we report on the first attempt to monitor 87Sr/86Sr variation across the Indian state of Gujarat using herbivore dung. As it incorporates plant material from throughout an individual animal's grazing range, herbivore dung averages local isotopic variation in palatable vegetation and is therefore an ideal material for use in studies involving domestic livestock. In our analysis of 125 dung samples from 38 sampling locations across the study area, 87Sr/86Sr values and geographic variation are commensurate with expectations based on regional geology. The values that we report are significantly different from those reported for both ecosystem elements and archaeological humans and livestock that have been published for other regions of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BC). No individual humans or livestock in these studies appear to have their origins in Gujarat. The present study further allows for more detailed interpretations of our previously published study of strontium isotope ratios in faunal remains from the walled Indus manufacturing center of Bagasra in Gujarat (Chase et al., 2014b). Specifically, it is now clear that while most livestock show very little movement within the period of enamel formation, their places of origin were scattered throughout central Saurashtra, adjacent to the site, suggesting that a portion of the livestock consumed at Bagasra were initially raised in the many small unexcavated villages in the area. There is little evidence for the procurement of livestock from further afield within the region and none for livestock originating outside the region. These results demonstrate that monitoring geographic 87Sr/86Sr variation using herbivore dung has the potential to significantly advance archaeological interpretation of livestock mobility in the past and is applicable anywhere that modern livestock graze on natural vegetation.

The Indian Ocean coastline is argued to have been a critical route of modern human dispersal from Africa, introducing Late Palaeolithic industries into South Asia, but a dearth of evidence has prevented a direct evaluation of this. Kachchh (Gujarat, India), located immediately east of the Indus Delta, is an important setting to appraise the Palaeolithic occupation of the western Indian coastline. Targeted survey of Late Pleistocene sediments there found widespread evidence for occupation of Kachchh during the Late Pleistocene: Middle Palaeolithic and possibly Late Acheulean lithic artifacts. The conspicuous absence of Late Palaeolithic industries in these Late Pleistocene deposits, with their presence only noted in Holocene contexts, does not support the model of modern human expansions into India with these industries via the coastal route. We evaluate these results in the context of current debates regarding Late Pleistocene hominin demography, adaptation, and expansions.

This research aims at improving our understanding of open-air archaeological surface scatters in drylands, their extension and the intensity of human activities during their occupation. To do so, the study of physico-chemical proxies is integrated to that of archaeological artefacts by means of systematic field survey combined with laboratory sedimentary analyses and a robust statistical approach. In most dry regions, archaeological survey has traditionally aimed at the collection of artefacts. When present, the study of physical and geochemical samples has been limited to excavated archaeological levels. In this work, we evaluate the archaeological significance of physico-chemical proxies from surface samples collected within and around four mid and late-Holocene surface scatters in North Gujarat, a semi-arid region located at the south-west margin of the Thar Desert in India. The four archaeological scatters are found on top of fossilised sand dunes. Archaeologically, they represent subsistence strategies based on hunting and gathering, agro-pastoralism, or a succession/mixture of the two. The four locations were systematically sampled across a linear transect. For each sampling unit, the archaeological materials were quantified and classified by means of a Linear Discriminant Analyses. Physio-chemical variables were ordinated in a PCA space and clustered through a Hierarchical Clustering. Results were displayed along the dune transect and integrated into a Correspondence Analysis. Significant differences are attested in the spatial distribution and content of Ca, P and grain size, allowing us to suggest a set of distinct cultural soilscapes that characterise the dunes of the study area: vertisols (agric horizons in interdunal lower slopes), aridisols (relict dune surfaces in the mid-slope), and anthrosols (top dune). The last show a strong correspondence with the presence of archaeological artefacts, and the different intensity of human footprint are discussed accordingly to potential past subsistence strategies and the intensity of human occupation. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA., This research arises from collaboration between the MS University of Baroda and the IMF-CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) within the framework of the North Gujarat Archaeological Project (NoGAP) and the SimulPast Project CSD2010-00034). F.C.Conesa acknowledges worked on this paper with funding from the JAE-PreDoc program (CSIC and European Social Found). A. L. Balbo worked on this paper under the Juan de la Cierva Programme (MINECO JCI-2011-10734), and with a Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation/Stiftung.

South Asia has a rich Palaeolithic heritage, and chronological resolution for this record has substantially improved over the past decade as a result of focused, interdisciplinary research at a number of key sites. Expanding the spatial diversity of dated Palaeolithic sites in South Asia grows increasingly important to examine how patterns of change through time vary within and between the region’s diverse habitats. Critically, alternate models of modern human dispersals into South Asia highlight the significance of either coastal or continental routes of dispersal, but currently no coastal Palaeolithic sites directly dating to the timeframe of human expansions are known. Our previous research in Kachchh was the first study to clearly identify the presence of Palaeolithic sites in Late Pleistocene landscapes in close proximity to the Indian Ocean coastline. Here, we present the first results of surface survey and test excavation at the site of Sandhav (Kachchh, India), approximately 25 km from the modern shoreline. We characterise the geomorphology of the landscape, highlighting multiple phases of alluvial aggradation and post-depositional carbonate formation, associated with Palaeolithic artefacts. To date, excavations have tested the uppermost Pleistocene deposit, yielding a small collection of fresh Middle Palaeolithic artefacts associated with a luminescence age dating to the first half of MIS 5 (∼114 ka), which provides a minimum age for Late Acheulean artefacts in underlying units. We discuss our findings in the context of debates surrounding the timing, lithic technologies, and ecologies associated with the expansions of modern humans into South Asia.

Botanical evidence suggests that North Gujarat (India) was a primary center of plant domestication during the mid-Holocene. However, lack of systematic archaeobotanical research and significant taphonomic processes have so far hampered the possibility of substantiating this hypothesis. This paper explores the role of plants in the subsistence strategies of early-middle Holocene populations in this semiarid region and the processes leading to plant cultivation. To do so, we carry out a multiproxy archaeobotanical study —integrating macro and microbotanical remains— at two hunter-gatherer and agropastoral occupations. The results show that the progressive weakening of the Indian summer monsoon ca. 7,000 years ago compelled human populations to adopt seminomadic pastoralism and plant cultivation, which resulted in the domestication of several small millet species, pulses, and sesame.

Abundantly available catfish otoliths excavated from the ruins of the Indus civilization, in the coastal regions of Western India, are expected to preserve a detailed paleoclimatological record of the mid- to late-Holocene. In this study, we analyzed saltwater catfish otoliths recovered from the Gulf of Kutch, Western India. Stable isotopes (oxygen and carbon) and elemental ratios (Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca) were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and high-resolution laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), respectively. Oxygen isotopes of a modern otolith (δ18O) indicates the interval when the catfish would have dwelt in the sea and appear to record seasonal temperature variability with a precision of 1 C°. Calculated temperatures from δ18O of a fossil otolith dated to 4.3 cal ka BP indicates that the minimum temperature in winter was ∼2.5 C° lower than that of the present. Although comparison to alkenone results from the northwestern Arabian Sea indicates potential temperature underestimation, further measurements of modern and fossil samples would lead to more precise reconstruction of temperature history during mid- to late- Holocene.

The Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BCE), South Asia’s first urban society, underwent a momentous social transformation towards the end of the third millennium BC, that culminated in urban decline, cessation of writing, and the dissolution of interregional connectivity. These changes roughly coincide with the 4.2 ka BP climate event, a period of global climate fluctuation manifest in northwestern South Asia as a decline in summer monsoon precipitation. The regions encompassed by the Indus Civilization, however, were ecologically and socially diverse such that both local environmental effects of these climatic fluctuations and human responses to them are expected to vary considerably from region to region. In Gujarat, increased aridity has been hypothesized to have led to increased pastoral mobility. Here we evaluate this hypothesis using faunal analyses and isotopic data in faunal tooth enamel that allow us to directly monitor livestock management, diet, and mobility at a series of three archaeological sites whose occupational sequences span this period of social and climatic change. We find no evidence for significant changes in pastoral land-use practices through time in this sequence, findings that we interpret as indicating considerable resilience on the part of local pastoral producers.

Point technologies form a key component of Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age industries across the Old World. However, only limited attention has been paid to the appearance of point technologies in the South Asian context. Two recent studies have indicated that the lack of Indian point technologies that are analogous to those known from the African Middle Stone Age and Arabian Middle Palaeolithic presents the basis to reject models for modern human dispersals into India associated with Middle Palaeolithic technologies. This study examines the role point technologies play in the Middle Palaeolithic record of the Thar Desert and situates them within the wider context of South Asia and adjacent regions to the west. A synthesis of existing evidence indicates that points form a key component of Middle Palaeolithic industries in the Thar Desert. New descriptions of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts from the Thar Desert highlight the repeated presence of debitage and faconnage approaches which suggest the use of specific reduction strategies in point production, rather than opportunistic or expedient methods. These results are placed in the wider context of the role points have played in Middle Palaeolithic reduction strategies within South Asia. Given the presence of point technologies in the Thar Desert that are comparable with contemporaneous technologies in North Africa and Arabia, we suggest that Middle Palaeolithic dispersal models cannot be rejected on the basis of their absence.

Here we illustrate a ground map approach that uses orthorectified CORONA KH4B images and declassified topographical maps to study historical land-use dynamics and to help planning archaeological survey in the monsoonal semi-arid alluvial plains of North Gujarat, India. In spite of its generalized use in archaeological applications, CORONA photographs have rarely been used in Indian archaeological contexts. The methods discuss a cost-effective and integrated protocol for: (i) obtaining ground control points (GCPs) and orthorectify CORONA photographs when very high-resolution imagery or detailed topographic maps are not available; and (ii) evaluating the integration of declassified datasets into Google Earth Pro for addressing archaeological surveys in remote areas. The merging of CORONA imagery with declassified USA and the former USSR historical military maps provided a picture of the human–environment interaction in North Gujarat of the past 40 years, prior to the intense development of mechanical agriculture and regional irrigation channels. We conclude by identifying the human and climate-induced taphonomical processes that are obliterating a fragile landscape characterized by archaeological scatters located in fossilized sand dunes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BC) in Gujarat is characterized by a series of small yet monumentally walled settlements located along trade and travel corridors. The manufacture and use of typically Harappan material culture at these settlements demonstrates that many residents of these sites participated in exchange and interaction networks that linked them to distant Indus cities. Less is known, however, regarding the ways in which the residents of these sites were situated into their local landscapes. Here we combine previously published faunal analyses from the small walled settlement of Bagasra in the Indian state of Gujarat, with a preliminary investigation of intra- and inter-individual variation in the ratios of biogenic isotopes of strontium (87Sr/86Sr), carbon (δ13C), and oxygen (δ18O) in the tooth enamel of domestic animals consumed at the site. 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the teeth of sheep and goats exhibit little intra- or inter-individual variation suggesting that most were raised locally while greater inter-individual variation in the teeth of cattle suggesting that nearly half of these animals were either raised further afield or were supplied with fodder raised elsewhere. δ13C values from these same samples in the teeth of sheep and goats exhibit considerable intra-individual variation suggesting of a seasonally variable diet incorporating significant wild forage while uniformly higher values in the teeth of cattle suggest that they consumed mostly agricultural produce throughout the year. δ18O values in the teeth of both sets of domestic livestock exhibit considerable intra-individual variation commensurate with the seasonal variation in temperature and rainfall characteristic of the region while variation between taxa is consistent with observed dietary differences. Taken together, our findings provide new information regarding the ways in which the domestic animals consumed at Bagasra were raised and obtained while establishing an empirical baseline necessary for further exploration of the land-use changes that may have accompanied the emergence and decline of South Asia's first urban civilization.

The widespread distribution of Harappan material culture throughout a vast expanse of northwestern South Asia is a defining characteristic of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BC). The social dynamics responsible for this material pattern, however, are not fully understood. While top-down perspectives on interregional interaction explain some aspects of the material record in the Indian state of Gujarat, they do not explain the material diversity that we observe at Indus settlements in Gujarat. Here, we undertake a bottom-up exploration of Harappan material culture at two small, recently excavated Indus settlements in Gujarat. Our findings show that although the residents of both sites participated in the interregional economy and publically displayed a common Harappan identity, there is evidence for considerable variation in the domestic practices characteristic of each site. We interpret these to suggest that the residents of these sites were integrated into the wider Indus Civilization by way of inclusionary ideologies that served to unify socially diverse borderland communities. These findings and interpretations regarding the role of material culture in the mediation of local social dynamics in the Indus borderlands contribute to a more complete understanding of South Asia’s first urban society while offering methodological and theoretical perspectives that further the exploration of these issues in early complex societies more generally.

Recent excavations at Shikarpur, a fortified Harappan site situated near the Gulf of Kuchchh in Gujarat, Western India, brought to light a large collection of Rohri chert blades. Chert found in the Rohri hill near Sukkur in Sindh, central Pakistan is distinctive and easily identifiable. The wide distribution of standardized Rohri chert blades is often regarded as a testimony to the Harappan efficiency in long distance trade and craft production. The possibility of localized production of Rohri chert blades in Gujarat is often negated due to the constraints of raw-material availability. The absence of Rohri chert working debitage from most of the sites in Gujarat, has lent support to this position. The Shikarpur Rohri blade assemblage however incorporates more than 650 blades, a large fluted blade-core and a few Rohri chert debitage. These have led the excavators to suggest that some of the blades found at Shikarpur were locally produced from raw materials brought to the site from the Rohri hills. Typo-technological features of the Rohri chert assemblage from Shikarpur have been analysed in this background. These along with metrical features of the assemblage are compared with Rohri chert assemblages from other major Harappan sites in the region to check the validity of the proposed ‘limited local production’.

The exploitation of lithic resources was an important aspect of prehistoric resource exploitation strategies and adaptation. Research has mostly focused on technological and spatial aspects of lithic factory sites, often overlooking how these sites were integrated within local socioecological dynamics in terms of food acquisition and consumption. The aim of this paper is to study plant consumption at Datrana, a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat, India, in order to understand its occupants’ subsistence strategies. The results of archaeobotanical, mineralogical and soil pH analyses show that the occupants of this factory site were consuming local crops but not processing them, suggesting that either (a) food was being processed in other areas of the site or (b) it was acquired in a ‘ready-to-consume’ state from local food-producing communities. This study highlights the integration of a lithic factory site within its surrounding cultural and natural landscape, offering an example of how the inhabitants of a workshop interacted with local communities to acquire food resources.

Understanding the patterns and processes underlying the heterogeneous distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) across communities of natural resource users is a growing research topic. However, social organization as a factor potentially shaping TEK intracultural distribution has received scant attention. Here, we analyze the role played by kinship groups—namely, patrilineal lineages and segments—in shaping bodies of TEK among a group of seminomadic pastoralists in India. We use two quantitative approaches (score based and similarity based) to analyze variations in four TEK domains: soils, ethnoveterinary, breeds, and ethnobotany. We find that kinship groups share divergent bodies of knowledge, a finding that we interpret in light of the social organization of migration, in which kinship provides a privileged basis that structures migratory groups and, as such, favors the constitution of shared bodies of knowledge. We conclude by advocating for a better inclusion of the organizational features that structure the collective life of local communities in research aiming at understanding TEK dynamics., The research was funded by the former Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation through the CONSOLIDER SimulPast project (“Simulating the Past to Understand Human Behaviour,” CSD2010-00034).

Spatio-temporal understanding of past domestic activities is a key aspect of archaeological reasoning. The identification of markers of particular anthropic actions through time has become a fundamental issue. Chemical analyses of archaeological floors are an essential tool to investigate and identify anthropic markers of past human activities. This paper explores the relative spatial variability of chemical residues of floors in an ethnographic context to provide a constructive basis to experiment with spatial analysis for the detection and interpretation of anthropic activity markers. These markers are recognised as anomalies and tendencies in the relative spatial distribution of chemical residues embedded in the floor. The experiment has been carried out in a controlled environment and serves to test the methods and assumptions to be used in archaeological contexts. Spatial interpolations (IDW, Map Algebra and PCA) were performed and allowed the identification of anomalies in the distribution of residues that can be associated with specific activities (fuel use, food preparation and consumption, use of fireplaces). Geostatistics (Ordinary and Regression Kriging) was used in order to contribute to the identification of trends related to the use of space and the connected activities (e.g. inner versus outer space, storage versus cooking). The results show how the integration of different techniques can improve data interpretation, Bernardo Rondelli has worked on this research on a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (SB2009-060) and on a contract from SimulPast Consolider Ingenio Project (CSD2010-00034), Carla Lancelotti on a contract from AGRIWESTMED (ERC-2008 AdG 230561), Andrea Balbo on contracts from JAEDoc-ESF (MICINN), CSD2010-00034 and JdC. The NoGAP project research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (HAR2010-16052) and by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Proyectos Arqueológicos en el Exterior). The spot tests were carried out as part of the activities of the ERAAUB research group (SGR2009-01173), in the framework of the project PROFOLANT (PIEF-GA-2009-235863, IEF-MC Actions) and the project LRCWMED (HAR2009-08290)

The study of the technology underlying pre-industrial storage structures has an interest from an anthropological and archaeological perspective, in terms of the evolution of key cultural and cognitive capabilities, often related to the transition to food production. Microarchaeological techniques offer a unique perspective on the study of pre-industrial storing technologies. In this work, examples are presented from two archaeological contexts in different climatic and socio-ecological situations during the Holocene in S Asia and SW Europe. Microarchaeological techniques used in this study include micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and phytolith analyses. The comparative study of two pits highlights key aspects of the decision-making process involved in technological solutions of storage: • The choice of a location for the construction of a given storage facility is highly affected by contextual climatic, microclimatic, soil and bioturbative factors • The time taken to consume stored foodstuffs seems to affect technological investment as much as the intrinsic conservation requirements of the stored taxa • The use of fire to hygienise pits implies that such structures were not conceived for single use • Pre-industrial storage systems can be seen as modular structures, which components (e.g. topographical location, sediment type, lining type, hygienisation techniques and cover) can be recombined to improve storage performance for different climatic settings and foodstuffs.

The present work aims at setting the bases for the critical study of settlement patterns and resource management among Holocene hunteregatherer and agro-pastoral groups in arid margins. The case study is set on the SWmargin of the Thar Desert, in N Gujarat, an ecotone sensitive to the slightest shifts in precipitation patterns (Indian Summer Monsoon). The potential significance of published and newly acquired archaeological information is discussed in the light of physiographical data collected from satellite imagery and field exploration. The review of available and newly acquired records includes: (a) The integration of field and remote observation of regional traits and (b) The definition of active morphological processes that may bias archaeological preservation and visibility. A synthetic geoarchaeological map of the study area is proposed that integrates physiographical and archaeological evidence at the regional scale. The potential significance of the archaeological evidence in the region (i.e. presence/absence/concentration of archaeological materials in different physiographical units) is discussed in terms of preservation and visibility. At this stage, results are considered at the regional level of macroscopic units. The results constitute the first step towards the full multi-scalar integration of landscape architectures, stratified archaeological sites and surface sediments at regional and local levels, This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN: I+D HAR2010-16052 and CONSOLIDER-Ingenio 2010-00034), the Spanish Ministry of Culture (Excavaciones Arqueológicas al Exterior) and the MS University of Baroda (India). AB was funded via JAEDoc program and FC by JAEPreDoc program (Spanish National Research Council and European Social Found), BR was funded by MICINN (SB2009-060). CL is a member of AGRIWESTMED Project. Archaeological data derive from research carried out at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSBU Baroda), the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN Kyoto) and the Institució Milà i Fontanals (IMF-CSIC Barcelona). Access to Landsat, ASTER images and DEMs was granted by NASA-USGS servers (Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center – LP DAAC – United States Geological Survey – USGS – Earth Resources Observation and Science Center - EROS) (lpdaac.usgs.gov). Access to GoogleEarthPro was granted via the GoogleEarth Outreach Program (earth.google.com/outreach)

Hunter-gatherer societies have distinct social perceptions and practices which are expressed in unique use of space and material deposition patterns. However, the identification of archaeological evidence associated with hunter-gatherer activity is often challenging, especially in tropical environments such as rainforests. We present an integrated study combining ethnoarchaeology and geoarchaeology in order to study archaeological site formation processes related to hunter-gatherers' ways of living in tropical forests. Ethnographic data was collected from an habitation site of contemporary hunter-gatherers in the forests of South India, aimed at studying how everyday activities and way of living dictate patterns of material deposition. Ethnoarchaeological excavations of abandoned open-air sites and a rock-shelter of the same group located deep in the forests, involved field observations and sampling of sediments from the abandoned sites and the contemporary site. Laboratory analyses included geochemical analysis (i.e., FTIR, ICP-AES), phytolith concentration analysis and soil micromorphology. The results present a dynamic spatial deposition pattern of macroscopic, microscopic and chemical materials, which stem from the distinctive ways of living and use of space by hunter-gatherers. This study shows that postdepositional processes in tropical forests result in poor preservation of archaeological materials due to acidic conditions and intensive biological activity within the sediments. Yet, the multiple laboratory-based analyses were able to trace evidence for activity surfaces and their maintenance practices as well as localized concentrations of activity remains such as the use of plants, metals, hearths and construction materials., The research leading to these results has received funding form the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions—http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA agreement n° 623293 granted to DF at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.