Human occupation of northern India spans the Toba super-eruption ~74,000 years ago

Authors

Christopher J. Clarkson, University of Wollongong
Clair Harris
Bo Li, University of WollongongFollow
Christina Neudorf
Richard G. Roberts, University of WollongongFollow
Christine Lane
Kasih Norman, University of WollongongFollow
Jagannath Pal
Sacha Jones
Ceri Shipton
Jinu Koshy
M Gupta
D Mishra
A Dubey
Nicole Boivin
Michael Petraglia

RIS ID

141967

Publication Details

Clarkson, C., Harris, C., Li, B., Neudorf, C., Roberts, R., Lane, C., Norman, K., Pal, J., Jones, S., Shipton, C., Koshy, J., Gupta, M., Mishra, D., Dubey, A., Boivin, N. & Petraglia, M. (2020). Human occupation of northern India spans the Toba super-eruption ~74,000 years ago. Nature Communications, 11 (1),

Abstract

© 2020, Crown. 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.