Interrelation between Palaeolithic and faunal remains in the central Narmada Valley, India

Abstract

Abstract Whether scavenging or hunting, the consumption of large mammals is very prominent in the history of humankind. During the Lower Palaeolithic period, the abundance of large cutting tools found indicates increased meat consumption. Evidence has demonstrated this at various African and European sites where direct links between lithic and faunal assemblages have been made, for instance cut-marked bones and use-wear studies. On the Indian Subcontinent, there is a lack of direct evidence on animal remains in archaeological contexts (with one exception); however, there are numerous sites where animal fossils and lithic artefacts occur in shared contextual associations. The present paper is concerned with the relationships between the lithic and faunal assemblages in archaeological contexts, particularly the occurrence of bifaces and large mammalian fossils in Lower Palaeolithic assemblages with specific reference to the central Indian zone. Without the confirmation of anthropogenic signatures on Pleistocene faunal remains, it is not easy to assess whether a particular assemblage has the contemporaneous deposition of the two datasets or not. Here, we present a review of archaeological and faunal records in the central Narmada Valley and explore the possible associative evidence of human–animal interactions.