Mahi Wala 1 (MW-1): a Mesolithic site in the Thal desert of Punjab (Pakistan)

The problem of the Early Holocene Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in the Indian Subcontinent is still a much debated topic in the prehistory of south Asia (Lukacs et al. 1996; Sosnowska 2010). Their presence often relies on knapped stone assemblages characterised by different types of geometric microlithic armatures1, namely lunates, triangles and trapezes, often obtained with the microburin technique. These tools were first recorded from India already around the end of the nineteenth century and were generically attributed to the beginning of the Holocene some fifty years later