From which of the following archaeological sites has the skeleton of Homo…

2025

From which of the following archaeological sites has the skeleton of Homo erectus been found?

  1. A.

    Hathnora

  2. B.

    Amarkantak

  3. C.

    Bhimbetka

  4. D.

    Damdama

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A

Fossil evidence of early human (hominin) evolution in India is extremely rare; a site is credited with a hominin skeletal find only when actual cranial or skeletal remains, not merely stone tools or rock art, have been excavated and scientifically dated there.

In 1982, a fossilised hominin skullcap (calvarium) was excavated from river-terrace deposits at Hathnora, on the banks of the Narmada river in the Narmada Valley, Madhya Pradesh. Its discoverer classified it as Homo erectus — the name by which the "Narmada Man" fossil is still commonly described in Indian exam literature — though its precise species-level attribution (some later studies have proposed archaic Homo sapiens or Homo heidelbergensis affinities) remains debated among palaeoanthropologists. It is nonetheless the only Homo erectus-attributed skeletal find reported from the Indian subcontinent, which is why Hathnora is the site referred to in the question.

  • Amarkantak, in Madhya Pradesh, is the origin point of the Narmada and Son rivers and is known as a pilgrimage and hill-station town; no hominin skeletal fossil has been recovered here.

  • Bhimbetka, in Madhya Pradesh, is a UNESCO World Heritage rock-shelter complex known for its prehistoric rock paintings and stone-tool assemblages spanning the Palaeolithic to Mesolithic periods, but no Homo erectus skeleton has been excavated there.

  • Damdama, in Uttar Pradesh, is a Mesolithic-period site known for excavated human burial skeletons, which belong to anatomically modern Homo sapiens of a much later era, not Homo erectus.

Hence, Hathnora is the archaeological site conventionally identified as the source of the Homo erectus ("Narmada Man") skeletal find.

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