Discerning the Late Quaternary Hominin Occupations in Koloshi, a Ferricrete Cave in South Konkan, Western India

Mihir Tanksale1*, Aditi K. Dave2, Anoop Ambili3, Soumyashree Behera3, Tejas Garge4, Akiyala Imchen5, Rhutvij Apte6, Sudhir Risbud6, Y. Prabakar Paul1, and Parth R. Chauhan1

Understanding how humans occupied and adapted to diverse, often marginal landscapes is key to reconstructing human behaviour and evolution. The Konkan region of western India is one such area, as it represents a dynamic ecological corridor between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. Located at the base of a ferricrete hillock atop the lateritic plateaus that dominate the southern half of the region, the pseudo-karstic cave of Koloshi offers a rare window into how Late Quaternary populations adapted to this rugged sub-coastal landscape, especially between ~3 ka and ~40 ka. With a complex stratigraphy comprising fine sediments and contributions from the weathering of the surrounding ferricrete, Koloshi Cave reveals a rich, unobstructed lithic sequence, typical of the Late Quaternary microblade traditions of South Asia, but a paucity of conventional anthropogenic evidence, such as hearths or faunal remains. This paper discusses ongoing work at the site, significant challenges in reconstructing human occupation and behaviour, and how they can be addressed through a multidisciplinary methodology that includes geochemistry and robust chronometric and lithic analyses. The obtained evidence thus contributes important new data to discussions surrounding the emergence, regional variability and spread of microlithic technologies across the Indian Subcontinent.