THE GEOARCHAEOLOGY OF CENTRAL KARNATAKA'S (SOUTH INDIA) RESIDUAL HILLS

Previous research in the southern Deccan region of central Karnataka, an area characterized by nearly-level plains punctuated with isolated granitic hills, has shown that the distribution of soils and landforms in the region were partly modified by ancient occupation and land use (e.g., Bauer 2010; Bauer and Morrison 2008). In this presentation I expand these previous analyses by demonstrating the degree to which Iron Age (1200-500 BCE) and Early Historic (500 BCE – CE 500) period land use altered the morphology of the granitic inselbergs themselves, the distribution of soils in the region, and impacted the geomorphological processes that have shaped this environment more generally. By combining archaeological excavation and survey results with multispectral remote sensing analyses of landform changes, I will show that geomorphological models that do not include prehistoric and early historic period land use as variables less adequately explain the current morphology of the region. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the region's landscape history must include an archaeological component.