pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in the Vindhyas: a long-term perspective on climate change and its implications for sustainable development of the forestry communities
of the Vindhyas
by
Ajay Pratap, M.Phil & Ph.D. Cantab.,Project Director,
ICHR Rock Art of Mirzapur Project (2009-11),Associate Professor,
Department of History,Faculty of Social Sciences,Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi – 221 005
![Page 2: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Abstract
• This paper will discuss palaeoenviromental change in the Vindhyas, through the agency of Vindhyan Rock Paintings, which indicate benchmark changes in Vindhyan ecology during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Whereas during terminal Pleistocene the ecological balance between prehistoric human cultures and the local ecology was optimal, with low human population density, juxtaposed with and a high density of faunal populations, in a landscape verdant with thick forest cover, swamps and marshes; the development and growth of agriculture around 7-8th Millennium BCE and clearings for agriculture led to removal of forest cover from the Vindhyan Range.
• The growth of the first highland agricultural systems fuelled population growth, and coupled with climatic change (a warm period) ensuing with the Holocene, the subsequent migration of both human and faunal populations to the sub-montane regions took place.
• Excavations by archaeologists at sites like Chopani Mando, Damdama, Mahagara and Mahadaha, have established that the earliest of lowland Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements occur in the valleys of rivers like Belan, Chopan, Betwa, Sone, Ken and finally the Valley of the Ganges River itself.
• The continuing depletion of Vindhyan floral and faunal populations will make the sustainable development of this area impossible in the not too distant future. The Vindhyan ranges evidence a mountainous rural heartland of Uttar Pradesh inhabited by several forestry communities practicing agro-pastoralism, for whom the sustainable development model is indeed the only appropriate model for development. However, the march and pace of urbanization, in the Vindhyan ranges, seriously jeopardizes these subsistence economies.
![Page 3: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Fauna and Climate at Terminal Pleistocene
![Page 5: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
![Page 6: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
![Page 9: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
![Page 10: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
![Page 14: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
![Page 16: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
![Page 19: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Mukkha Dari
![Page 21: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Mukkha Dari
![Page 22: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Chuna Dari
![Page 23: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Likhaniya Dari
![Page 24: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Morhana Pahar
![Page 25: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Morhana
![Page 26: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Morhana
![Page 27: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Wyndham
![Page 28: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
![Page 29: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Images of Hunting
![Page 30: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
![Page 31: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Images of Agriculture
![Page 32: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Images of Humans and Animals Suggestive of Domestication
![Page 33: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
![Page 34: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
![Page 35: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Human Stress
![Page 36: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
![Page 37: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
![Page 38: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
![Page 39: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
![Page 40: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Decorative
![Page 41: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
![Page 42: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
![Page 43: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Images of `Plenty?’
![Page 44: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
![Page 45: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
![Page 46: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
![Page 47: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
![Page 48: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
![Page 49: Pleistocene holocene transition in the vindhyas](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022103004/55d32171bb61eb061c8b480d/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Thank You
• Ajay Pratap
• Department of History
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Banaras Hindu University