Humans in India lived during a volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago

An international team of scientists has discovered that humans lived in Central India during a massive volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago. The volcanic eruption occurred in Lake Toba of Sumatra, Indonesia. Earlier, scientists theorized that the Toba eruption blocked the sunlight and reduced the global temperature. Previous studies revealed the presence of volcanic glass shards from the Toba eruption in South Africa more than 8000km away from Lake Toba. That discovery showed how massive the Toba eruption was. Some scientists believed that humans might not have survived such a natural calamity. Thus, the current findings of stone tools that were made between ~80,000 and 26,900 years ago in India surprised the scientists. 

Stone Age Tools (Not from the study. Photo courtesy: Holmespj from Pixabay)

The scientists discovered these stone tools at a geological site of Dhaba in Son River Valley in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India. They collected stone tool samples from three different places in Dhaba. They analyzed them using Infrared Stimulated Luminescence technique to determine their age. The samples from the lower deposit of the first set of samples are ~79,600 to 78,000 years old. The samples from the upper deposit are ~70,600 to 65,200 years old. The second set of samples are ~55,000 to 37,000 years old. The third set of samples are ~55,100 to 26,900 years old. The tool-making style found in Dhaba resembles the stone tool technique found in Africa, Arabia and Australia. As like genetic evidence, this discovery supports the migration of humans out of Africa and settled in Asia and Australia. 

 

India map indicates the position of Son River

This study will help us to accurately calculate when humans came to India from Africa. It also proves that humans were lived in India even before the Toba eruption. Not only that, but they were also managed to survive such a massive eruption. This type of research in South Asia mainly depends on the study of stone tools and DNA of the modern population. This is due to the lack of enough human skeletal evidence between Africa and South Asia. This often raises controversy among scientists. Even now, some scientists question whether these stone tools were created by homo sapiens or Neanderthals or Denisovans. So, further research is needed to know about the humans who made these stone tools.