A southern Indian Middle Palaeolithic occupation surface sealed by the 74 ka Toba eruption: Further evidence from Jwalapuram Locality 22 (original) (raw)
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Hominins living in southern India 74,000 years ago faced a deteriorating environment, as the global climate moved from interglacial into full glacial conditions. At the same time, South Asian populations witnessed the widespread deposition of tephra from the Sumatran Toba super-eruption, the largest explosive volcanic event of the past two million years. Here we report new data on the lithic technology and environmental context for a southern Indian site with hominin occupation in association with Toba tephra deposits: Jwalapuram Locality 3 in the Jurreru Valley. Sedimentological and isotopic studies demonstrate that a cooling trend was in effect in this part of southern India prior to the eruption, and that thick deposits of ash in the Jurreru Valley supported grassland communities before more wooded conditions were re-established. Detailed technological analyses of an expanded lithic sample from Locality 3 suggest cultural continuity after the eruptive event, and comparisons with lithic core technologies elsewhere indicate that Homo sapiens cannot be ruled out as the creator of these Middle Palaeolithic assemblages.
Available online xxx a b s t r a c t A prolonged, interdisciplinary fieldwork program was initiated in India to investigate the impact of the Toba super-eruption on terrestrial ecosystems and hominins. Fieldwork was centered on the Jurreru River Valley and the Middle Son River Valley, in southern and northern India. Archaeological sites span from 140,000 years ago through to the Holocene, providing a long-term view about hominin occupation history. Primary air-fall deposits of the Young Toba Tuff (YTT) were identified and changes in terrestrial environments prior to and after the super-eruption are indicated. Prior to the Toba eruption, drying of local ecological settings was underway. The emplacement of ash on landscapes and its subsequent erosion had local ecological and hydrological effects. Although drier conditions are indicated after the deposition of the ash deposits, a mosaic of environments was present in India, indicating that animals and hominins could have survived the volcanic event. Evidence indicates that Middle Paleolithic industries in stratified contexts are present in India prior to and after the Toba super-eruption. Middle Paleolithic hominins appear to have survived the negative effects of the volcanic eruption and climatic fluctuations in the Late Pleistocene. Middle Paleolithic industries, produced from ca. 77e38,000 years ago in India, were probably manufactured by Homo sapiens.
Human occupation of northern India spans the Toba super-eruption~74,000 years ago
Nature Communications, 2020
India is located at a critical geographic crossroads for understanding the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa and into Asia and Oceania. Here we report evidence for long-term human occupation, spanning the last ~80 thousand years, at the site of Dhaba in the Middle Son River Valley of Central India. An unchanging stone tool industry is found at Dhaba spanning the Toba eruption of ~74 ka (i.e., the Youngest Toba Tuff, YTT) bracketed between ages of 79.6 ± 3.2 and 65.2 ± 3.1 ka, with the introduction of microlithic technology ~48 ka. The lithic industry from Dhaba strongly resembles stone tool assemblages from the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Arabia, and the earliest artefacts from Australia, suggesting that it is likely the product of Homo sapiens as they dispersed eastward out of Africa.
Quaternary Science Reviews
The Indian subcontinent contains a number of volcanic ash deposits representing the Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) volcanic eruption of 75,000 years ago, though relatively few localities have been reported in detail. Here, we identify tephra deposits in the Sagileru Valley, south India, in association with Palaeolithic industries. The glass shard and biotite composition of the Sagileru tephra matches that of the YTT from other terrestrial sites in India and from the Toba caldera, and are distinct from earlier large eruptions from Toba. Moreover, our survey identified rare associations between lithic artefacts and YTT deposits, making the Sagileru Valley one of the few globally identified locations with both ash and archaeology. The identification of ash deposits and stone tool assemblages in the Sagileru Valley provides another source of information for understanding Late Pleistocene climate change, depositional environments and hominin occupations of South Asia.
2019
Much discussion in recent times has been centred on the 74ka Toba super-eruption and their impacts on hominin behaviour and on regional climate. Based on the current archaeological and genetic evidence from South Asia, there exist two conflicting models (Pre-Toba model of Petraglia et al 2007 and Post-Toba model of Mellars 2006) that explain the initial modern human presence in the region. The aforementioned debates exist due to the restricted nature of the archaeological investigations in the region that focussed upon a limited range of sites, paucity of hominin fossils from South Asia and reliability of Toba ash as a chronological marker. In the light of the above-mentioned issues and debates related to the modern human presence in South Asia, Palaeolithic sites associated with Toba ash has to be approached through multidisciplinary studies to get more precise and accurate data. As a precursor to this objective, there is a need to shift the focus of investigation from 'site-specific' to 'region-specific' and document more Palaeolithic sites associated with Toba ash to obtain a comprehensive picture of hominin activities in the region around the time of the Toba "super eruption". With this background, the middle reaches of the Gundlakamma river valley was chosen for investigation as it is adjacent to Jwalapuram, where extensive studies have been carried out. Further, the region was also subjected to geological studies in the past, with several localities revealing Toba ash being reported. This paper presents our survey results from Middle Gundlakamma valley which yielded Palaeolithic sites directly associated with Youngest Toba Tuff deposits.