Complete notes on son valley in English
Que) Discuss the succession of stone age culture of the son valley.
(Or) Through light on the cultural sequence in the son valley.
(Or) Through light on the Palaeolithic cultures of son valley.
(Or) Discuss the importance of Son valley in the study of Palaeolithic cultures of India.
Son Valley
The son Valley is located Adjoining in the Northern part of mp at the adjoining of U.P. and Ganga River MP. The Valley is bordered. by Vindhya Kaimur range.
Middle Son Valley region was explored. in 1980. It was done by Professon Gr. R. Sharma and J.D. clark and they published. their work in the form of the book, that is (the name of the book) Paleo-environment and Pre-history of middle son valley. The region of the middle son Valley they covered, is situated b/w churhat and Binchi. Geology of this region there are two geological formation of this region.
i) Rock formation
ii) The formation of river son itself
this formation occur due to Vindhya kaimur region and the main rock types found are four divisions lime stone shell and sand stone.
The formation of River son itself it is classified into 4 divisions
4) khetauni
3) Bhagor
2) Patpara.
1) Sihawal
(The Sihawal is the oldest one and khetauni is the newest one.)
the Bednock of this region. belong to pre- pleistocene era and there is erosion activity found on the surface of Bedrock. And that erosion activity happend during early pleistocene phase.
After that gradually, the four of the Son River formation (sihawal, Patpara, Baghor and khetauni) happend during pleistocene to Holocene era respectively.
(1) Sihawal – The Sihawal formation is divided into two
i) Sub-unit I (the lower one) (Cemented Boulder deposition occur)
ii) Sub-unit II (the upper one) [ therefore Boulder – is a big rock]
mottled clay formation (the mix of Sand & Kankar)
the boulder formation shows wet and Humid climatic condition which was succeeded by a dry condition, (earlier condition) And the mottled clay shows inter pluvial phase and less Humid condition. And sometimes dry condition along with it.
The time period of this deposition is around, I Lakh B.P. and the culturally associated with Acheulian phase (Lower paleolithic)
2) Patpara – The Neat is patpara formation – Red colour deposition,
It is made up of Pebble sand and rounded Quartz pieces and because the quantity of Iron oxide present in it was very high. It made the colour of deposition red. this deposition is also cemented deposition.
the time period of Patpara 1 lakh to 30,000 (B.P.) and it is culturally associated with middle paleolithic.
this particular formation shows Humid condition or wet condition..
3) Baghor – This deposition is divided into two unit.
i) Sub unit-I (late Pleistocene)
it is having deposition of sand and stone pieces. the C14 dating of this deposition is about 13,000 (B.P.) old. And this unit belong to upper palaeolithic phase. it shows dry climatic condition.
ii) Sub unit-II (clay and silt deposition) –
this is dated around 10,000 B.P. and culturally belong to mesolithic phase. from this Holocene has started so it can say that it was early Holocene phase. this shows particulary less wet climatic condition.
4) khetauni – This shows middle Holocene phase. and it shows heavy rainfall condition because we have several layers of silt and clay, the time period of this phase according to C14 dating is around 5,000 B.P.
Importance of Son valley –
Son Valley is very important from the archaeological point of view.
The Middle Son river valley in north-eastern Madhya Pradesh preserves extensive alluvial deposits that accumulated during the Upper Pleistocene and probably Middle Pleistocene periods. From within these deposits, Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artefacts have been recovered, as well as microlithic and Neolithic artefacts. Thousands of faunal fossils, representing a diverse range of species, have been discovered in Pleistocene alluvial contexts at numerous localities in the valley.
The Middle Son valley preserves a long and rich record of hominin occupation from all periods of the Palaeolithic that is rarely paralleled by other sites in India.
Conclusion –
The son valley is very important to know about palaeoculture. it has different geological layers which shows different kind of climatic changes during ancient time. It gives a lot of information from palaeolithic culture to Mesolithic. It also shows the whole pleistocene era and transition of pleistocene into Holocene of its layer Baghor (site).
From Baghor (site), there is an evidence of mother godess during upper paleolithic era. which could be considered as the earliest architecture activity of Indian sub-continent.