Late Middle Palaeolithic Red Ochre Use at Torajunga, an Open‐Air Site in the Bargarh Upland, Odisha, India: Evidence for Long Distance Contact and Advanced Cognition Pradeep K. Behera 1 and Neena Thakur 1 1 . Post Graduate Department of History, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Burla ‐ 768 019, Odisha, India (Email: pkbehra@rediff.com) Received: 16 July 2018; Revised: 08 September 2018; Accepted: 01 October 2018 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6 (2018): 129‐147 Abstract: Red ochre or hydrated iron oxide is one of the most common mineral pigments, used by Homo sapiens since the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age times or even earlier. Use of red ochre is often considered as important proxy of modern human behaviour, symbolism and increased cognitive and communicative abilities in the prehistoric material records. Our recent investigation at the open‐air site of Torajunga in the Bargarh Upland of Odisha, brought to light utilized block/lumps of red ochre with distinct marks of rubbing/grinding on their surface associated with a late Middle Palaeolithic sedimentary context. The lithic assemblage contained a few backed tools, including lunates and points. The nearest source of red ochre lies more than sixty kilometers further north of the site in the Permian‐ Triassic Kamthi Formation. The present evidence suggests that the late Pleistocene microlith using communities of this area imported red ochre from distant sources, while they exploited locally available chert and other raw material for manufacturing lithic tools. Use of red ochre is frequently attributed to ritualistic and/or non‐utilitarian behaviour of the early hominins. This paper considers to discuss the temporal and contextual significance of the occurrence of red ochre in the late Middle Palaeolithic assemblage at Torajunga. Keywords: Torajunga, Lithic Assemblages, Late Pleistocene, Red Ochre, Late Middle Palaeolithic, Microliths, Modern Human Introduction A great deal of discussion has recently been focussed on the nature of human behavioural evolution in the Late Pleistocene period across the world. Very often use of red ochre/iron oxide is considered as one of the indicators of development of early symbolic behaviour among the modern hominins (Chase and Dibble 1987: 263‐296, Mellars 1989: 349‐385, Chase 1994: 627‐629, Klein 2000: 17‐36, McBrearty and Brooks 2000: 453‐563, D’Errico et al 2005: 3‐24, James and Petraglia 2005: 3‐27, Marean and Assefa 2005: 93‐129, etc.). Red ochre is generally haematite (α‐Fe2O3) with a red to red‐ brown streak and a hexagonal crystal system (Schwertmann and Cornell 1991). Since at