Abstract:

Current geoarchaeological investigations at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lumbini and at the Tentative List site of Tilaurakot are offering new perspectives on the birth and early life of the Buddha together with the emergence of a major world religion.  Located in the central Nepalese Terai, an extensive alluvial sediment plain in the south of Nepal, these sites contain key stratigraphies from which optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements of soils and sediments together with supporting single entity radiocarbon measurements are providing robust chronological frameworks.  Assessment of field properties, thin section micromorphology and organic biomarkers are giving new insight into the intimate and complex relationships between natural, cultural and culturally mediated processes in the emergence of an internationally significant sacred landscape.

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