Narmada basin extends over states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh having an area of 98,796 Sq.km which is nearly 3% of the total geographical area of the country with maximum length and width of 923 & 161 km. It lies between 72°38’ to 81°43’ east longitudes and 21°27’ to 23°37’ north latitudes. It is bounded by the Vindhyas on the north, by the Maikala range on the east, by the Satpuras on the south and by the Arabian Sea on the west. Narmada is the largest west flowing river of the peninsular India. It rises from Maikala range near Amarkantak in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh, at an elevation of about 1057 m.
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Study of Narmada Basin is important because of its geographical location which is very strategic for migration of animal population from North to South and East to West. It is not only rich in fossils and archaeological sites, but it has a long history of human occupation. Excavations at Narmada basin has yielded evidences of human settlements from the Lower Palaeolithic period and continued till the present times.
Significance
1) Lowe Palaeolithic sites of Hathnora, Hoshangabad and Narsinghapur In the central Narmada valley, the basal the gravel yielded unworn or fresh Acheulian tools along with heavily rolled Abbevillian hand axes, choppers on pebbles and large massive flakes This indicates that the latter tools are earlier than Acheulian tools. The fresh condition of the Acheulian tools indicate that they got incorporated in the gravel while it was being deposited by the Narmada. This suggests that the basal gravel of the lower group was deposited when the lower Palaeolithic man here was manufacturing Acheulian type of tools. It follows then that the heavily rolled Abbevillian hand-axes and the pebble choppers and large flakes were manufactured before the beginning of the deposition of the basal gravel. This group of tools has, therefore, been placed earlier in date than that of the Acheulian. On the whole the Narmada valley is a meeting places for both chopper(Sohan) and hand axe(Madrasian)
industries.
The excavations conducted in 1963 at Mahadev piparia yield 860specimens. The collection consisted of 184 choppers, 98scraper, 22 Hand axes, 17clevers, 325 Flakes, 95Cores.
2) Narmada Man
More significant is the discovery of skull cap of Pre-historic man in middle Pleistocene deposits at Hathnora in Hoshangabad district. This discovery is very important since this is the only instance in India, where we have the skeletal remains of Palaeolithic man though his tools are available from numerous sites. On December 5, 1982, the geologist Arun Sonakia discovered the only known fossil of a human ancestor from South Asia on the banks of the Narmada. The place was Hathnora village in Sehore district, nearly 35 kilometres east of Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. The discovery changed the face of human origin studies in South Asia.
The Narmada human, a fossil skull, belongs to the ancestor category of Homo erectus, who inhabited the earth from 1.8 million to 200,000 years ago and preceded Homo sapiens. Sonakia puts the age of the fossil at 500,000 to 600,000 years citing animals that he found along with the fossil, features of the fossil skull and palaeo-magnetic dating studies done at the Geological Survey of India (he was Director of its palaeontology division). He thinks the fossil individual may have been 25
to 30 years old. Some paleoanthropologists think that the Narmada specimen may be a late evolved form of Homo erectus
3) Middle Palaeolithic
The Middle Palaeolithic artefacts of the Narmada valley are made mostly on quartzite, but some are also made on fine-grained siliceous stones. The finished tools made on fine grained stones are more than those made on quartzite. Various types of side scrapers are found at the sites of Mahadeo Piparia by S.G. Supekar and Adamgarh by R.V. Joshi. The Levalloisian character is quite frequent and the blade element is also at times. Survival of hand axes and chopper elements is seen at the site of Adamgarh.
Certain Middle Palaeolithic assemblages have also been recovered from within sandy gravels overlying silts, which often cap cobbly-pebbley horizons, such as at Samnapur in the Narmada Basin. The sites of Devakachar and Burman Ghat on the Narmada have yielded animal fossils in association with artefacts or in gravels morphologically similar to the tool-bearing gravel. The species represented are the Bos namadicus Falconer, Bubalus bubalis L., Stegodon insignis, Elephas namadicus and Equus namadicus. It is quite likely that some of these animals were hunted by the Middle Palaeolithic man.
4) Upper Palaeolithic
Mehtakheri (Upper Palaeolithic) was discovered and excavated by Dr. S. Mishra of Deccan College, Pune, Shri S. B. Otta of Archaeological Survey of India, and Shri B P Bhopardikar of Archaeological Survey of India respectively. Upper Palaeolithic artefacts are found in situ in yellow silt. The Upper Palaeolithic industry consists of nodules, trimmed nodules, blades, backed blades, cores, waste flakes etc. These stone artefacts are predominantly made of chalcedony and chert but a few of quartzite are also found.