Evidence indicates that a river flowed with phases of activity 172 thousand years ago (Picture)
New Delhi:
Researchers have found evidence of a “lost” river that flowed through the central Thar Desert near Bikaner 172,000 years ago and may have been a lifeline for human populations to inhabit the area. region.
The results, published in the Quaternary Science Reviews, represent the oldest directly dated phase of riverine activity at Nal Quarry in the central Thar Desert.
The study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, Anna University in Tamil Nadu and IIER Kolkata indicates that Stone Age populations lived in a landscape of the Thar Desert markedly different from what we encounter today.
This evidence indicates that a river flowed with phases of activity dating back about 172,000 years, near Bikaner, Rajasthan, more than 200 kilometers from the nearest modern river.
These findings predate any evidence of activity in modern streams across the Thar Desert as well as in the dry course of the Ghaggar-Hakra River, the researchers said.
The presence of a river crossing the central Thar Desert would have offered a lifeline for Paleolithic populations and potentially an important corridor for migrations, they said.
The researchers noted that the potential importance of “lost” rivers to the original inhabitants of the Thar Desert has been overlooked.
“The Thar Desert has a rich prehistory, and we have uncovered a wide range of evidence showing how Stone Age populations not only survived but thrived in these semi-arid landscapes,” said Jimbob Blinkhorn of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
“We know how important rivers can be for living in this region, but we have few details on what river systems looked like during key prehistoric times,” said Blinkhorn.
Satellite imagery studies have shown a dense network of river channels crossing the Thar Desert, the researchers said.
“These studies can indicate where rivers and streams have flowed in the past, but they cannot tell us when,” said Professor Hema Achyuthan of Anna University.
“To demonstrate the age of these canals, we had to find field evidence of riverine activity in the middle of the desert,” Ms. Achyuthan said.
The team investigated a deep deposit of river sands and gravels, which had been exposed by mining activities near the village of Nal.
The researchers were able to document different phases of river activity by studying the different deposits.
“We immediately saw evidence of a substantial and very active river system from the bottom of the river deposits, which gradually declined in strength over time,” said Ms. Achyuthan.
The researchers used a method called luminescence dating to understand when the quartz grains in the sands of the river were buried.
The results indicate that the strongest river activity in Nal occurred around 172 and 140,000 years ago, at a time when the monsoon was much weaker than today in the region.
Riverine activity continued at the site 95 to 78 thousand years ago, after which only limited evidence of the presence of a river at the site, with evidence of a brief reactivation of the channel ago. 26 thousand years, according to the study.
The river was flowing at its strongest during a phase of weak monsoon activity in the region, and may have been a lifeline for human populations allowing them to inhabit the Thar Desert, the researchers said.
The period during which this river was active also overlaps with significant changes in human behavior in the region, which were linked to the first expansions of Homo sapiens from Africa to India, they said.
“This river was flowing at a critical time for understanding human evolution in the Thar Desert, across South Asia and beyond,” Mr. Blinkhorn said.
“This suggests a landscape in which the first members of our own species, Homo sapiens, first encountered monsoons and traversed the Thar Desert may have been very different from the landscape we can see today,” he said. he adds.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
