The Light at the End of the Tunnel: How Luminescence can Help Understand the Palaeoenvironment of the Northern Himalayas

Ningnung Jakoinao

The Karewa formations of Kashmir are known for their rich fossil record, including mammalian taxa such as Bos, Elephas, Cervus, Canis, and others. While these fossils and various other proxies — such as palynology, sedimentology, and stable isotope analysis — have been investigated in past studies, the chronology of these sections is not yet well established. Past efforts have utilised luminescence to estimate the ages of a few deposits and have provided a chronological framework that can be correlated to other proxies. The same needs to be done for other Pleistocene sections across the valley. Constraining the ages of stratigraphic layers can provide robust temporal context for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and faunal ecology. Recent fieldwork in the valley, as part of the author’s doctoral research, has helped identify fossiliferous beds in Samboora, Pulwama. These exposed sections in the Upper Karewas contain various in-situ and ex-situ fossils, predominantly proboscideans. Numerous specimens have been recovered over five field seasons since 2023, and sediment samples have been collected from spatially associated sections. Taxonomic and taphonomic investigations, along with sediment analyses, will provide important palaeoenvironmental data. Luminescence samples collected from these sections have yielded preliminary ages of ~30-200 ka. Further samples collected from trenches and sections need to be analysed to establish an accurate chronology of these exposures, which, in turn, can further substantiate the multiproxy methodologies incorporated in this study.