Holocene Foragers of North India: The Bioarchaeology of Mesolithic Damdama

A fresh and innovative approach to the skeletal biology of prehistoric South Asians is presented in this volume. It is the first comprehensive bioarchaeological study of an early Holocene human skeletal series from the Gangetic Plain of North India. New methods and techniques reveal insightful perspectives on the biological adaptations and affinities of the aceramic foragers from Mesolithic Damdama (ca. 8800 BP). Attention is given to archaeological context and to the geological and ecological setting in which these semi-nomadic, microlithic hunters lived and foraged. The integrative analysis of skeletal preservation includes documenting bone micro-structure and chemical composition, and a taphonomic approach to skeletal representation. Diverse methods of age and sex determination provide a firm basis for paleo-demographic analysis. Multivariate statistics refine the precision of: sex determination, stature estimation, and calculation of bio-distance from cranial and dental attributes. The large skeletal sample facilitates both statistical assessment of traits by sex within the Damdama series, and inter-site comparison of traits with nearby Mesolithic series and with key prehistoric samples from India and Pakistan. Prevalence of pathological lesions provides evidence of health and nutrition, while skeletal markers of activity yield insight into patterns of habitual behavior. These new data from Mesolithic Damdama contribute significantly to theoretical issues in anthropology, including health and subsistence, skeletal robusticity, and biological adaptation to a subtropical riparian environment.

Table of Contents:
Forewords: V. D. Misra (University of Allahabad) Kenneth A. R. Kennedy (Cornell University) Preface: John R. Lukacs (University of Oregon) and J. N. Pal (University of Allahabad) Part I. History and Context 1. Introduction: Damdama in Context:Historical Background and Research Objectives 1.1 Sarai Nahar Rai: First Impressions of Mesolithic Lake Culture 1.2 Mahadaha: Another Window on Mesolithic Lake Culture of the Ganga Plain 1.3 Bioarchaeology of Damdama: Goals and Objectives 2. Regional Context: Geology, Geography and Climate 2.1 The Geophysical Setting: Geology, Sedimentology, and Climatology of the Ganga Plains 2.2 Geological Origin, Structure and Evolution of the Indo-Gangetic Foreland Basin 2.3 Sedimentology, Geomorphology and Climatic Sequence of the Ganga Foreland Basin 2.4 Holocene Soils of the Ganga Plain: Indicators of Paleoclimate 2.5 Late Quaternary Environments of the Ganga Basin: Evidence from the Belan and Son Rivers 2.6 A Multi-proxy Approach to Late Glacial - Holocene Environments of the Mid-Ganga Plain 3. Site Context: Chronology, Ecology and Subsistence 3.1 Chronology: Controversy and Contention 3.1.1 Radiocarbon dates from accelerator mass spectrography (AMS) 3.1.2 Implications of new dates for Mesolithic adaptations 3.2 Local Environment and Ecology: Soils, Flora, and Fauna 3.2.1 Early environmental reconstructions for Mesolithic Lake Cultures 3.2.2 Botanical indicators of environment 3.2.3 Faunal indicators of environment 3.3 Mesolithic Subsistence Patterns: Evidence and Inference 3.3.1 Initial models and controversies: Mobile vs. sedentary, semi-nomadic vs. semi-sedentary 3.4 Faunal Evidence of Mesolithic Subsistence: Recent Contributions 4. Excavations and Archaeological Context (by V.D. Misra, J.N. Pal and M.C. Gupta) Part II. The Damdama Skeletal Series: Preservation and Demography 5. The Human Skeletal Sample: Preservation, Taphonomy, and Inventory 5.1 Macroscopic Preservation of Skeletons 5.2 Microscopic Preservation: Histological Structure and Elemental Composition 5.3 Human Skeletal Inventory and Assessment 5.4 Summary 6. Paleodemography I: Attribution of Age and Sex 6.1 Methods and Procedures for Determining Age and Sex 6.1.1 Age estimation 6.1.2 Sex estimation 6.2 Diagnosis of Age and Sex by Specimen 6.3 Age, Sex, and Demographic Structure: Summary Assessment and Conclusions 7. Paleodemography II: Age Estimation from Dental Histology (by Gwen Robbins Schug) 7.1 Materials and Methods 7.2 Results: Age Estimates from Cementum 7.3 Demographic Dynamics Part III. Craniometry and Dental Anthropology 8. Cranial and Mandibular Morphometrics: Descriptive and Comparative Analyses 8.1 Craniometry 8.1.1 Craniometric methods 8.1.2 Results: Craniometric measurements and variations 8.1.3 Comparative craniometry 8.2 Mandibular Morphometrics 8.2.1 Methodology 8.2.2 Morphological variation 8.2.3 Mandibular osteometry 8.3 Comparative Mandibular Morphometrics (by Greg C. Nelson) 8.3.1 Analytic methods 8.3.2 Results: Osteometric analysis 8.3.3 Discussion 9. Dental Anthropology: Inventory and Tooth Wear 9.1 Inventory of Dental Remains 9.2 Tooth Wear: Data, Analysis, and Comparison 9.2.1 Methods of assessing occlusal wear 9.2.2 Patterns of tooth wear: Age and sex 9.2.3 Inter-site variation in tooth wear 9.2.4 Wear seriation of Mesolithic specimens 9.3 Eight Grade System Wear Patterns 9.4 Unique Wear Patterns 10. Dental Pathology: Lesion Prevalence and Meaning 10.1 Dental Pathology and Behavior 10.1.1 Methods: Diagnosis and interpretation 10.2 Dental Pathology by Individual 10.2.1 Inter-site variation in dental pathology 10.3 Enamel Hypoplasia: Types and Prevalence 10.3.1 EH frequency by specimen 10.3.2 LEH frequency by tooth 10.3.3 Age at LEH formation 10.4 Dental Pathology by Tooth Count 10.4.1 Results 10.4.2 Evaluation, interpretation and comparison 10.5 Developmental Defects and Pathological Lesions 10.5.1 Tooth rotation 10.5.2 Congential absence 10.5.3 Localized enamel hypoplasia 10.6 Behavioral Inferences from Tooth Wear and Dental Pathology 11. Morphometric Dental Variation: Bio-distance and Adaptation 11.1 Dental Morphology 11.1.1 Methods 11.1.2 Variation in dental morphology at Damdama 11.1.3 Comparative analysis of dental morphology 11.1.4 All-India inter-site comparison and biodistance from dental morphology 11.2. Tooth Size at Damdama: Adaptive and Evolutionary Perspectives 11.2.1 Odontometric methods 11.2.2 Tooth size at Damdama: Crown dimensions and areas 11.2.3 Damdama tooth size in context 11.2.4 Deciduous odontometry 11.3 Dental Variation at Damdama: A Synopsis 11.3.1 Dental morphology 11.3.2 Tooth size Part IV. Post-cranial Skeletal Variation: Stature, Pathology, and Behavior 12. Post-cranial Osteometry: Stature, Robustness

About the Author :
John Lukacs is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon (Eugene, USA). His research focuses on the dental anthropology of living and prehistoric populations and on the bioarchaeology of prehistoric South Asians. Jagannath Pal is Professor, Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology at the University of Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh, India). His research centers on the prehistory of North India, including lithic technology and ceramic traditions.