Mesolithic microliths from Gujarat State, India.

The term 'microlith' was first coined by the English archaeologist Archibald Campbell Carlyle, to describe small retouched stone blades generally thought to have been part of a larger tool, while he was working in the Vindhya Hills of central India in the 1860s. Here these items were produced from about 45 000 years ago onwards, with Pleistocene examples being referred to as 'Late Palaeolithic' and Holocene examples as 'Mesolithic'. The term was later applied to a wide range of similar small tools at sites around the world, and became the defining tool for separating Mesolithic from earlier technologies. 

The term is now used to cover a wide range of small stone tools with a wide variety of uses, with a confusing variety of descriptions. These tools appear at different times in different places, but are found on every inhabited continent by the end of the Pleistocene. The use of these tools persisted through the Neolithic and Bronze ages, and in some parts of the world into the modern era, making their use as a dating tool limited without a good understanding of local history.

In India, these tools were used by a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples engaging in hunting, gathering, fishing, and foraging, over a long time period that saw the arrival of the first Human inhabitation of the Ganga plains, the West Bengal delta, the Indian west coast and Kerala. Microlithic tools appear to have been used for a huge range of activities during this time, but there was no single microlith-producing culture or technology, but rather a vast range of peoples making and using microlithic tools over a long period of time.

The Thar Desert, which covers large areas of Rajastan and Gujarat states in India and Sindh Province in Pakistan, contains thousands of relic dunes (dunes which have no present day source of sand) with scatters of microlithic tools on their tops. These dunes typically overlook bodies of water, such as lakes or rivers, and which may be permanent or seasonal. Studies of the local geography suggest that these waterways date to the latest Pleistocene, at which time the dunes were still active. This was associated with the development of a wetter climate, with higher rainfall and increased vegetation, which in turn stabilised the dunes. This wetter climate appears to have attracted the first hunter gatherers into the area, resulting in the microliths on the dune tops.

This was not a simple change from a dry to a wetter climate, but a gradual process with bodies of water appearing and then disappearing over a period of several thousand years, which presumably resulted in different groups of people moving into and out of the area over that time. The available evidence appears to support this, with some dunes having successions of different tool-bearing and non-tool-bearing layers up to 150 cm thick. However, few of these sites have had chronologies developed, and there has been almost no work done which correlates any of this material to material elsewhere in India.

In a paper pulished in the journal Plos One on 22 June 2022, Charusmita Gadekar of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the Milà iFontanals Institution for Research in Humanities, Juan José García-Granero, also of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the Milà i Fontanals Institution for Research in Humanities, and of the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Marco Madella of the Department of Humanities at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Institució Catalana de Recerca iEstudis Avançats, and the School of Geography, Archaeology and EnvironmentalStudies, at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Pottentavida Ajithprasad of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, examine the a lithic assemblage from Vaharvo Timbo, a dune-top archaeological site in the Patan District of Gujarat State, India.

The Vaharvo Timbo site was discovered in the 1980s, and was the subject of an excavation by the North Gujarat Archaeological Project (a collaboration between the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and the Milà i Fontanals Institution for Research in Humanities) in 2011. The site covers 52 000 m² at the top of a set of stabilised dunes in the estuary of the River Rupal. 

Two trenches were dug during the excavation, both measuring 4 x 4 m. The first of these was on the dune summit, and found a layer 135 cm deep, containing lithic tools and debitage, pieces of ochre, iron or manganese oxide nodules, Dentalium sp. (Tusk Shell) shell beads, bone points, and grinding stones, which was isotope dated to between 5600  and 5000 BC. The second trench was excavated lower on the dune slope, and uncovered a Human burial, containing a young individual and two pottery vessels in the style of the Early Harrapan Period (3300-2600 BC).

Vaharvo Timbo is located about 6 km to the south of the Loteshwar site, which was excavated by the North Gujarat Archaeological Project in 2009. The Loteshwar site produced material dated to 7168–4703 BC, which makes it one of the earliest known Holocene settlements in northwest India, including a wide range of Mesolithic stone tools, as well as traces of the consumption of Animals (principally Antelope) and Plants (principally wild grains and pulses) and charcoal.

Map of western India showing the location of notable archaeological sites in the Thar Desert. Francesc Conesa in Gadekar et al. (2022).

The relatively recent exploration of Loteshwar and Vaharvo Timbo mean that both were excavated in a controlled manner, with the precise location of each lithic item carefully recorded, and directly related to sediment structures, and biological items from which dates can be obtained, allowing direct comparison of the sites.

Gadekar et al.'s study concentrated on the early hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Thar desert, and therefore concentrated on the material from the trench on the top of the dune, rather than the later burial. The lithic material included 5034 pieces of debitage (waste from the manufacturing of tools), 192 blades (including simple blades with parallel sides, backed blades, obliquely blunted blades, and retouched blades), 90 geometric tools (including isosceles triangles, with two equal sides, scalene triangles, without equal sides, lunates, shaped like a crescent, and trapezes, with two parallel horizontal sides and two non-parallel shorter sides), and 20 non-geometric tools (including points and double-sided scrapers). The material from which these tools were made includes chert, chalcedony, banded agate, moss agate, carnelian, bloodstone and quartz. The presence of large amounts of debitage implies that stone tools were being made at the site.

Examples of the lithic assemblage recovered from Vaharvo Timbo: (a)-(j) trapezes, (k)-(l) lunates, (m)-(p) points, (q) triangle isosceles and (r)-(z) various types of blades. Pottentavida Ajithprasad in Gadekar et al. (2022).

The microliths at Loteshwar and Vaharvo Timbo appear to have been made using similar techniques, and both at both sites the assemblage is dominated by blades. However, the Vaharvo Timbo assemblage contains a far higher proportion of retouched blades and geometric tools than that at Loteshwar. Conversely, the Loteshwar assemblage is dominated by blade flakes (flakes without uniform parallel sides like a blade), which are very rare at Vaharvo Timbo.

The Vaharvo Timbo site shows extensive evidence of tool manufacturing, as well as the exploitation of Plant and Animal resources. Ceramics are absent from the site, and, curiously, none of the tools show signs of wear, possibly implying they were being manufactured here for use elsewhere. The tools at Vaharvo Timbo appear to have been made using similar techniques to those at Loteshwar, but the range of tools is more limited. Possibly this reflects Loteshwar, which is located about 500 m from the Khari River, being a more permanent settlement, while Vaharvo Timbo was used as a base for hunting and fishing expeditions.

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A fossil Hibiscus leaf from the Early Eocene of Rajasthan, India.

The Bikaner District of Rajasthan is today located deep within the Thar Desert of northwest India. The area has an annual precipitation of 260-440 mm, with temperatures of 28-48.5°C in the summer and 5-23.2°C in the winter. However fossil evidence suggests this has not always been the case, with deposits from the Early Eocene suggesting that the district then had a warm humid climate, with some areas encroached by the sea.

In a paper published in the Journal of the Geological Society ofIndia in August 2014, Anumeha Shukla, RC Mehrota and JS Guleria of the BirbalSahni Institute of Palaeobotany describe a fossil Hibiscus leaf from the Early Eocene Marh Formation at the disused Prem Lata Gupta Clay Mine, which is northeast of Kolayat on Kolayat-Bikaner road.

The fossil is referred to the genus Kleinhovia, which currently contains two species, the extant Kleinhovia hospita, which is found in the tropics of Africa, Asia, Indonesia and Australia, and Kleinhovia basitruncata from the Early Eocene of Hokkaido. Of the two the Rajasthan specimen more closely resembles the modern species, but is placed in a new species of its own Kleinhovia bikanerensis, meaning ‘from Bikaner’.

Fossil leaf of Kleinhovia bikanerensis showing shape and size. Scale bar is 1 cm. Shukla et al. (2014).

The modern Kleinhovia hospita is an upright tree with a dense, rounded crown that produces sprays of pink flowers. It is an evergreen tree growing in warm, humid environments, unlike the arid terrain found in Bikanar today. In the Eocene the area is thought have been on or near the northern coast of an island continent, but since then India has collided with Eurasia, leading to uplift in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau, resulting in an arid and seasonal climate across much of northern India.

Modern leaf of Kleinhovia hospita showing similar shape and size as inthe fossil. Shukla et al. (2014).

The Hibiscus family, Malvaceae, is thought to have originated and diversified on the ancient continent of Gondwana, on or as it broke up into its component parts (South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand) and the modern distribution of Kleinhovia hospitawould seem to support this. However the only fossil described from the genus Kleinhovia to date came from the Early Eocene of Japan, which is problematic as Japan was never part of Gondwana, and in the Eocene had never been particularly close to any part of it. The presence of Kleinhovia basitruncata fits better with standing palaeobiogeographical models, in that we would expect to find fossils from the genus on at least one of the Gondwanan continents, and probably on one which it is still present, though it does not help to explain the mystery of the Japanese Kleinhovia basitruncata.

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Diptocarp wood from the northwest of India.

Diptocarps, Dipterocarpaceae, are the dominant trees of modern South and Southeast Asian rainforests, and are also found in South America, Africa and Madagascar. The group reach their maximum diversity today on the island of Bornea, where there are over 280 described species of Diptocarp, but the earliest fossil Diptocarps from Southeast Asia date back only as far as the Oligocene, whereas fossil Diptocarps appear in western India in the Early Eocene. 

Wood fossils from the Plio-Pleistocene of northwest India with African affinities.

India separated from Africa about 130 million years ago, and was effectively an island continent until its collision with Eurasia in the Middle Cenozoic. Nevertheless the modern flora and fauna of India show strong affinities... 

A new species of Hibiscus from Maui Island, Hawaii.

Hibiscus trees of the genus Hibiscadelphus are known only from the Hawaiian Islands, to which they are endemic. Like many Hawaiian plants and animals they have fared badly due to human activities, notably the introduction of non-native species that either outcompete indigenous species or modify their environment irreversibly. Of seven previously described species of...

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Toolmaking in the northeastern Thar Desert 95 600 years ago.

The Thar Desert covers over  200,000 km² of land in the northwest part of the Indian Subcontinent, straddling the border between Pakistan and India. It marks the boundary between the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East to the west and the Oriental Biogeographical Zone to the east, and thus marks an important milestone in the movement of early humans (and other hominids) from Africa into south and east Asia.

In a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews on 1 October 2013, James Blinkhorn of the Centre de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie at Université Bordeaux, Hema Achyuthan of the Department of Geology at Anna University and Michael Petraglia and Peter Ditchfield of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at the School of Archaeology at Oxford University describe a collection of Middle Palaeolithic artifacts from at
Katoati in the northeastern Thar Desert, dated to between 12 000 and 95 600 years ago.

The location of the Katoati site, as well as other similar sites in India and the Middle East. Blinkhorn et al. (2013).

Blinkhorn et al. describe the discovery of a number of stone artifacts resembling Middle Paleaolithic artifacts from Nubia, the eastern Sahara, souther Arabia and south India. The oldest of these artifacts considerably predate the oldest known previous material from the Thar Desert, which is around 60 000 years old, and the oldest previously known material from India, artifacts from Jwalapuram in southern India which date from around 78 000 years ago, strongly supporting the idea that early humans reached India via the Thar Desert rather than by another route. Furthermore maintain the same culture across the time of the Toba Eruption of about 75 000 years ago, which is theorized to have drastically reduced human numbers in the Late Pleistocene to only a few thousand individuals, suggesting that early humans in this area were able to survive this event.

(1) Tanged point (projectile tip) from Jwalapuram in southern India. (2 & 3) Tanged point from Katoati; (2) line drawing and (3) photograph. Blinkhorn et al. (2013).

The objects were buried in fluvial deposits (riverbeds) over a long period of time, with sand dune formation between them, suggesting the rivers either meandered or were not a permanent feature. They were apparently found close to where they had been made; all bar one appeared to be made from local rock; quartz, chert and sandstone. The vegetation during the period appears to have been dominated by C4 plants, suggesting an arid, subtropical grassland.

See also The earliest evidence of fire use from million year old sediments in Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province? Trying to find Peking Man, Pleistocene rock carving from Brazil; possibly the oldest art in the Americas, 20 000 year old stone huts from Kharaneh in Eastern Jordan and Fishermen targeting tuna in East Timor at least 42 000 years ago.

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