Deep-Time Landscape Archaeology in the Delhi NCR: Aravalli-Yamuna Corridor from the Palaeolithic to the Present

Shalaish Baisla

This paper presents the results of a landscape-scale archaeological study of the Aravalli-Yamuna corridor in India's National Capital Region. The research employs a multidisciplinary methodology to construct a long-term cultural sequence, integrating geomorphological mapping of extinct Yamuna paleochannels with systematic pedestrian survey, technological analysis of artefact assemblages from the Lower Palaeolithic through the Iron Age, documentation of petroglyphs, and recording of protohistoric to late mediaeval settlement mounds. This integrated analysis elucidates a continuous, multimillennial record of human occupation, demonstrating that settlement patterns from the earliest periods were persistently structured by the ecotone between the quartzite ridges and riverine environments. The study provides material evidence for cultural longue durée, including the strategic reuse of elevated landforms and the architectural incorporation of earlier symbolic materials, such as petroglyph-bearing stones, into later Iron Age and historic period structures. By applying this landscape approach to a corridor now subsumed by rapid metropolitan expansion, the research highlights a critical, yet vanishing, archaeological archive. It demonstrates how deep-time, interdisciplinary perspectives are essential for modelling socio-ecological resilience and understanding the full temporal depth of human-environment interactions in the Indo-Pacific region, offering a methodological framework applicable to other threatened cultural landscapes.