The difficulties of determining the approximate antiquity of Lower Palaeolithic petroglyphs in India

The EIP Project has produced unambiguous evidence of Lower Palaeolithic petroglyphs in the excavations at Bhimbetka and Daraki-Chattan in central India. In order to obtain absolute dates, efforts have been made, through IFRAO and involving Indian and Australian scientists, to meet the challenge since 2001. We have tried OSL dating of the sediments from the excavated sections at both sites, AMS 14C dating of amorphous silica, U-Th series dating of ferromanganeous accretions deposited on petroglyphs and stratified boulders and microerosion dating of cupules. We encountered a variety of problems while employing these methods and could not obtain satisfactory results. We are also exploring the potential of using the 26Al-10Be cosmogenic radiation method to date sediments obtained from the excavations of Lower Palaeolithic strata yielding exfoliated petroglyphs at Daraki- Chattan. The paper deals with the problems faced and the taphonomic issues encountered in this project.