Abstract This paper is based on the field investigations conducted in the West Garo Hills of northeastern India. The work presents a brief report on the Neolithic manufacturing sites of the West Garo Hills. It addresses the various issues of lithic sequence, typological classifications, lithic technology, settlement pattern and site distribution pattern of the known sites and newly discovered sites in the West Garo Hills. Large clusters of Neolithic manufacturing sites have been located on the hilltops and hillslopes close to present-day rivers, streams, natural springs, water channels and modern Garo community habitats. Dolerite raw materials were mostly preferred for fashioning the artefacts, and manufacturing units are found close to the dyke basalt rock sources. Findings of habitation deposits or pottery are very sparse; however, evidence of plant and animal domestication, burial, bone tools, and metal use pose new hypotheses on their use owing to poor preservation. The Palaeolithic evidence and the region's transition to early farming cultures remain vague.

Abstract The Indian subcontinent today houses about one-third of the global population and is one of the most vulnerable regions to future climate variability. This region has seen changes in civilizations, kingdoms and more recently political regimes, that were intricately linked to the changing environment over the mid–late Holocene. A comparative analysis of human–environment interaction within different regions at different time scales of the Quaternary is, however, lacking. In this paper we discuss the human–environment interactions taking case studies from two diverse time periods and geographically different regions from the Indian subcontinent. First, we review and analyse the role of environmental change in the evolution of Indus civilization on the northwestern Indian subcontinent during the mid–late Holocene and secondly, we discuss the role of both the anthropogenic activities and environmental change during the Anthropocene in shaping up the Bengal Delta. Overall, during the mid–late Holocene, Indus cultural transformations were driven by natural environmental changes, whereas the anthropogenic activities in the last few centuries have modified the Bengal deltaic landscape, which has intensified the impacts of natural disasters – in both cases a change in socio-political scenarios occurred. Such studies can be used as benchmarks to understand the future response of societies to environmental changes.