Bioarchaeology and Climate Change : A View from South Asian Prehistory

by Gwen Robbins Schug

• ISBN13: 9780813036670
• ISBN10: 0813036674
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-14
• Publisher: University of Florida Press

Summary

In the context of current debates about global warming, archaeology contributes important insights for understanding environmental changes in prehistory, and the consequences and responses of past populations to them. In Indian archaeology, climate change and monsoon variability are often invoked to explain major demographic transitions, cultural changes, and migrations of prehistoric populations. During the late Holocene (1400-700 B.C.), agricultural communities flourished in a semiarid region of the Indian subcontinent, until they precipitously collapsed. Gwen Robbins Schug integrates the most recent paleoclimate reconstructions with an innovative analysis of skeletal remains from one of the last abandoned villages to provide a new interpretation of the archaeological record of this period. Robbins Schug's biocultural synthesis provides us with a new way of looking at the adaptive, social, and cultural transformations that took place in this region during the first and second millennia B.C. Her work clearly and compellingly usurps the climate change paradigm, demonstrating the complexity of human-environmental transformations. This original and significant contribution to bioarchaeological research and methodology enriches our understanding of both global climate change and South Asian prehistory.

Author Biography

Gwen Robbins Schug is author of research papers on the prehistory of leprosy in India and the archaeology of the Donner Party campsite. Twice a Fulbright Fellow, she is the recipient of the William C. Strickland Outstanding Young Faculty Award at Appalachian State University, where she is assistant professor of anthropology.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xii
Ackonwledgments	p. xvii
Origins	p. 1
The Western Deccan Plateau: Environment and Climate	p. 25
Archaeology at Nevasa, Daimabad, and Inamgaon	p. 38
Demography	p. 61
Estimating Body Mass in the Subadult Skeleton	p. 82
Reconstructing Health at Nevasa, Daimabad, and Inamgaon	p. 89
Conclusion	p. 114
Burials from Daimabad: Archaeological Context and Grave Goods	p. 125
Age Estimates for Subadults in Chalcolithic Samples	p. 128
Long Bone Lengths (mm) and Stature (cm) for Individuals with Dental Age Estimates (months)	p. 143
Midshaft Femur Cross-Section Measurements for All Individuals with Intact Femur Midshafts	p. 147
Stature and Body Mass Estimates for Deccan Chalcolithic Specimens	p. 149
Notes	p. 151
Bibliography	p. 155
Index	p. 177
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