07-10-2007, 12:44 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Modern humans reached India early
N. Gopal Raj
Evidence found in excavations by international team of scientists at Jwalapuram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh
http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/09/stories/...141300.htm
â Photo: Ravi Korisettar
Ravi Korisettar and Michael Petraglia (in the foreground) at one of the excavation sites.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the course of archaeological excavations at Jwalapuram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, an international team of scientists has found evidence that anatomically modern humans are likely to have reached India before a massive volcanic eruption in what is today Indonesia occurred tens of thousands of years ago.
âSuper-eruptionâ
The âsuper-eruptionâ of the Toba volcano in Sumatra some 74,000 years ago was the largest volcanic event to have occurred in the last two million years and the ash thrown up high into the atmosphere by that cataclysmic explosion reached India too, said Ravi Korisettar of the Department of History and Archaeology at Karnatak University in Dharwad, Karnataka.
During five years of excavations at Jwalapuram, Indian, British, and Australians scientists unearthed fine stone flakes that had been turned into tools for various purposes.
The stone tools were to be found in layers of earth above as well as below the fine ash from the Toba super-eruption, the scientists noted in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Science.
âVolcanic winterâ
It had been thought that the vast amounts of volcanic ash flung into the atmosphere by the eruption could have blocked sunlight and produced a âvolcanic winterâ that decimated the humans living then. But the evidence from the Jwalapuram excavations, however, suggests that the volcanic eruption did not have such a catastrophic impact on the early human population there.
Stone tools
The stone tools also pointed to a more exciting possibility. The stone tool assemblages found in Jwalapuram were âvery similar to ones that we see produced in Africa at the same time,â said Michael Petraglia of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K, the first author of the paper.
Those stone tools in Africa had been produced by modern humans.
âCloser affinitiesâ
In the Science paper, the researchers noted that the techniques used for making the stone tools at Jwalapuram suggested âcloser affinitiesâ to African Middle Stone Ages traditions than to contemporaneous Eurasian ones. T his finding is significant because genetic studies of tell-tale patterns in the DNA of people living in various parts of the world have supported the view that all modern humans arose in Africa.
It is believed that these modern humans then migrated out of Africa and settled all across the globe.
âSo what we are saying is that modern humans probably dispersed from Africa into India at a very early date, earlier than anyone has suggested before,â Dr. Petraglia told this correspomndent.
There is a hypothesis that modern humans could have taken the âsouthern route of dispersal,â utilising the coastlines to travel from Africa, through Arabia, across the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia and finally into Australia, he said. The presence of modern humans in India at the time of the Toba super-eruption would be consistent with humans having used the southern route, but would remain speculative till further excavations were carried out in the Indian subcontinent and Arabian peninsula, remarked the scientists in their journal paper.
Key role
India has a played a key role in the migration of modern humans out of Africa, says K. Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad. In a paper published in Science two years ago, Dr. Thangaraj and others held that genetic lineages to be found among Andaman islanders supported an out-of-Africa migration by modern humans some 50,0000 to 70,000 years ago.
Archaeological data
Dr. Korisettar is, however, sceptical about modern humans opting for a coastal route for their migration.
There was currently no archaeological evidence of such ancient human migrations along Indiaâs west coast and into southern Tamil Nadu. Rather, the available archaeological data favoured a continental route whereby early humans came through the Bolan and Khyber passes to the north-western parts of the Indian subcontinent and then into Rajasthan before dispersing to other parts of the country, he added.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
N. Gopal Raj
Evidence found in excavations by international team of scientists at Jwalapuram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh
http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/09/stories/...141300.htm
â Photo: Ravi Korisettar
Ravi Korisettar and Michael Petraglia (in the foreground) at one of the excavation sites.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the course of archaeological excavations at Jwalapuram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, an international team of scientists has found evidence that anatomically modern humans are likely to have reached India before a massive volcanic eruption in what is today Indonesia occurred tens of thousands of years ago.
âSuper-eruptionâ
The âsuper-eruptionâ of the Toba volcano in Sumatra some 74,000 years ago was the largest volcanic event to have occurred in the last two million years and the ash thrown up high into the atmosphere by that cataclysmic explosion reached India too, said Ravi Korisettar of the Department of History and Archaeology at Karnatak University in Dharwad, Karnataka.
During five years of excavations at Jwalapuram, Indian, British, and Australians scientists unearthed fine stone flakes that had been turned into tools for various purposes.
The stone tools were to be found in layers of earth above as well as below the fine ash from the Toba super-eruption, the scientists noted in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Science.
âVolcanic winterâ
It had been thought that the vast amounts of volcanic ash flung into the atmosphere by the eruption could have blocked sunlight and produced a âvolcanic winterâ that decimated the humans living then. But the evidence from the Jwalapuram excavations, however, suggests that the volcanic eruption did not have such a catastrophic impact on the early human population there.
Stone tools
The stone tools also pointed to a more exciting possibility. The stone tool assemblages found in Jwalapuram were âvery similar to ones that we see produced in Africa at the same time,â said Michael Petraglia of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K, the first author of the paper.
Those stone tools in Africa had been produced by modern humans.
âCloser affinitiesâ
In the Science paper, the researchers noted that the techniques used for making the stone tools at Jwalapuram suggested âcloser affinitiesâ to African Middle Stone Ages traditions than to contemporaneous Eurasian ones. T his finding is significant because genetic studies of tell-tale patterns in the DNA of people living in various parts of the world have supported the view that all modern humans arose in Africa.
It is believed that these modern humans then migrated out of Africa and settled all across the globe.
âSo what we are saying is that modern humans probably dispersed from Africa into India at a very early date, earlier than anyone has suggested before,â Dr. Petraglia told this correspomndent.
There is a hypothesis that modern humans could have taken the âsouthern route of dispersal,â utilising the coastlines to travel from Africa, through Arabia, across the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia and finally into Australia, he said. The presence of modern humans in India at the time of the Toba super-eruption would be consistent with humans having used the southern route, but would remain speculative till further excavations were carried out in the Indian subcontinent and Arabian peninsula, remarked the scientists in their journal paper.
Key role
India has a played a key role in the migration of modern humans out of Africa, says K. Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad. In a paper published in Science two years ago, Dr. Thangaraj and others held that genetic lineages to be found among Andaman islanders supported an out-of-Africa migration by modern humans some 50,0000 to 70,000 years ago.
Archaeological data
Dr. Korisettar is, however, sceptical about modern humans opting for a coastal route for their migration.
There was currently no archaeological evidence of such ancient human migrations along Indiaâs west coast and into southern Tamil Nadu. Rather, the available archaeological data favoured a continental route whereby early humans came through the Bolan and Khyber passes to the north-western parts of the Indian subcontinent and then into Rajasthan before dispersing to other parts of the country, he added.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->