Revisiting the Andaman Islands for Studying the Past Exploitation of Shellfish Resources, Chronology, and Paleoenvironment During the Late Holocene

Arapati Deshpande-Mukherjee*1, Sushama Deo1, Torsa Sengupta2, Ravi Bhushan3, and Anindya Sarkar2

The Andaman group of Islands located in the Bay of Bengal, known for their shell middens since their discovery in the mid nineteenth century, have been subjected to sporadic excavations by, e.g., Stoliczka (1870), Lapicque (1894), Ciprani (1955), Dutta (1962), Cooper (1985). Since the last few decades, no investigations of the shell middens have been undertaken. Considering the large-scale developmental activities due to tourism, construction, agriculture, etc., which are fast destroying the shell middens, a survey and excavation were carried out in 2018-19. In this paper, we present the results of the excavation of a shell midden at Mithakhari in south Andaman. The archaeomalacological studies combined with Stable oxygen isotope analysis and AMS dating has provided new insights into the exploitation of shellfish resources, chronology and paleoenvironment during the late Holocene period in the Andaman Islands.