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The Holocene and late Pleistocene environmental history of the teri (’sandy waste’ in local parlance) red sands in the southeast coastal Tamil Nadu was examined using remote sensing, stratigraphy, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. Geomorphological surveys enabled the classification of the teri red sands as, 1) inland fluvial ten, 2) coastal teri and, 3) near-coastal teri dunes. The inland teri sediments have higher clay and silty-sand component than the coastal and near-coastal teri, suggesting that these sediments were deposited by the fluvial process during a stronger winter monsoon around >15 ka. The coastal teri dunes were deposited prior to 11.4 +/- 0.9 ka, and the near-coastal dunes aggraded at around 5.6 +/- 0.4 ka. We interpret that the coastal dunes were formed during a period of lower relative sea level and the near-coastal dunes formed during a period of higher sea level. Dune reddening is post deposition occurred after 11.4 +/- 0.9 ka for the coastal ten i dunes and after 5.6 +/- 0.4 ka for the near-coastal ten i dunes. Presence of microlithic sites associated with the coastal dunes suggest that the cultures existed in the region during 11.4 +/- 0.9 ka and 5.6 +/- 0.4 ka. (C) 2012 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.