In his brief yet deeply fulfilling life, Dr Kumar Akhilesh, Director, Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, India, established himself as a leading prehistorian with great expertise in lithic studies and experimental archaeology. He was the PI of the ongoing INQUA-HABCOM PalaeoHome multiyear project and a former Secretary of INQUA-HABCOM. His contributions to Quaternary studies in India were remarkable, with a focus on the Palaeolithic sites of Attirampakkam, Sendrayanpalayam, and others, as well as on Late Palaeolithic sites in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.  His research transformed the understanding of the Indian Acheulian and Middle Palaeolithic: their chronology, implications for hominin dispersals and behaviour, lithic reduction sequences, cultural transitions, and perspectives on cultural nomenclature. The first Indian prehistorian at Olduvai Gorge, he also collaborated on ethnoarchaeological studies of Euryale ferox, grinding stones, and hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoral groups. He championed outreach across India, Sri Lanka and South Korea, sharing his joy in prehistory and lithic knapping with children, university students and teachers. His passing is a profound loss to his family, friends, students and to the wider archaeological community.

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Shanti Pappu(1,2), Prachi Joshi(1), Sutonuka Bhattacharya(1), K. Anupama(3),

Yanni Gunnell(4), R. Premathilake(5), Mohamed Sahnouni(6,7,8), Sileshi Semaw(6), Vandana Prasad(9), Doris Barboni(10), Razika Chelli Cheheb(7).

 

1. Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, No.4 School Road, Shollinganallur, Chennai 600119, Tamil Nadu, India

2. SIAS, Krea University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, India, 5655, Central Expressway, Chengambakam, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh 517646

3. French Institute of Pondicherry, 11 St Louis Street, Pondicherry 605001, India

4. Department of Geography, Université Lumière Lyon 2, CNRS UMR 5600, France

5. Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, 407, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka

6. National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca, 3. 09002 Burgos, Spain.

7. Centre National de Recherches Préhistoriques, Anthropologiques et Historiques (CNRPAH), 3 rue Franklin Roosevelt, 16015 Algiers (Algeria).

8. Stone Age Institute & Anthropology Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

9. Director of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India

10. CEREGE, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAe, Aix en Provence, France

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@PalaeoHomeProject