126 Geoarchaeology of Sites to Landscapes: Current Research on Long-Term Water and Soil Management and Maladaptation, Part II
This session brings together geoarchaeological projects from around the world that study ancient water and soil or agricultural management. This session will compare techniques, timing, and evidence for adaptation to past and present environmental changes.
Monday, 20 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 214D
Islands of Anthropogenic Influence: Catena Analysis at Prehistorically Occupied (circa 3,000 BCE) and Unoccupied Residual Hills in Karnataka, South India.
Paper number: 126-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Authors
Abstract
Over 5,000 years of human occupation and land use in North Karnataka, South India, clusters on and around granitic boulder hills that rise above a now largely agricultural plain. These slowly evolving, residual bedrock hills arose from a combination of deep chemical weathering and surface erosion of an etchplain or backwearing of a pediplain and occur throughout the tropics worldwide. Inselbergs or ‘island mountains’ are biodiversity hotspots offering unique microclimates due to their marked topographic difference from the surrounding plain. Recent research on Archean-aged hills in the region indicates a connection between erosion and relief with important feedback from fluvial incision on the plain (Gunnell et al. 2007) and that prehistoric human occupation more significantly correlates with denuded hills than slope and elevation factors (Bauer 2014). Though these hills formed over geological timespans, anthropogenic landform modifications since at least the Neolithic period (circa 3000 BCE) including terracing, water retention, and mound building has altered water flows, sediment transport, and pedogenesis. This geoarchaeological study will examine catenas at unoccupied and prehistorically occupied hillsites to examine differences in the timing, pace, and extent of erosional pulses and relate them to changes in local vegetation (i.e. plant cultivation and grazing) and social response (horizontal movement of occupation across the hills) over time. Sediment samples collected from profiles will be run through a variety of analyses to relate strata across the slope and characterize the nature of transport and/or soil formation. In a current landscape where these hills offer ecological and cultural refuge, grazing grounds for herds, and inputs to surrounding agricultural fields, an empirical understanding of accumulated human-soil/sediment histories is essential for assessing trajectories of present land use.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414244
© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.