Late Middle Palaeolithic surface sites occurring on dated sediment formations in the Thar Desert

The dominance of erosional sedimentary processes in desert regions results in Palaeolithic records rich in surface scatters. Engaging with this abundant archaeological resource, including incorporating them within absolute chronologies or schemes of environmental variability, is critical to understanding hominin habitation in arid landscapes. Extensive archaeological surveys in the Thar Desert of India and Pakistan over the past 60 years have identified a large number of Palaeolithic surface sites in a diverse range of geographic contexts. In the past twenty years, a rich Upper Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental record has been developed within the region due to the application of chronometric dating techniques. However, as yet there have been few attempts by archaeologists to survey previously dated sediment formations in the Thar Desert and capitalise upon the potential to attribute preliminary terminus post quem dates to surface sites. Surface survey has been undertaken targeting sediment deposits that may preserve evidence for hominin behaviour between Marine Isotope Stage 5 and 3, a period in which technological and demographic overhauls in hominin populations appear to occur in South Asia. Following brief review of the Palaeolithic archaeology and palaeoenvironmental history of the Thar Desert, the results of recent archaeological survey of dated sediments at Chamu, Karna and Shergarh Tri-Junction are presented. The results offer tentative evidence for the presence of late Middle Palaeolithic populations in the region, which are evaluated and discussed within the context of contemporary occupations across southern Asia.