The stone tools were dug up at an archaelogical site in Andra Pradhesh, South India, covered by ash from a supervolcano in Sumatra, known as the Youngest Toba Tuff, 74,000 years ago.
Sites in the Jurreru River valley contain stone artifacts together with animal remains in caves, rockshelters, and open-air localities.
One of the archaeologists, Australian Dr Chris Clarkson, from University of Queensland’s School of Social Science,
said that India is the perfect stepping stone between Africa and Australia.
“India is the crossroads between Africa and Australia for modern humans,” he said.
“It really is the stepping stone for modern humans coming to Australia 50 to 60 thousand years ago.”
Volcanic Ash Preserves Evidence
His research focuses on the Kuronool district in Andra Pradhesh in Southern India, where the archaeological dig is unearthing stone tools found around a former fresh water lake that had quickly filled up with volcanic ash. He said the area’s archaeological record spans all periods of the Paleolithic era.
“This ash comes from a massive volcanic eruption in Sumatra, about 74,000 years ago,” Dr Clarkson said.
“The ash is found all over India and even turns up in the Greenland Ice Cores. It was the biggest eruption in over 2 million years.
"Our excavation will help work out what impact the eruption had on human evolution, and whether it might have caused a population collapse or a human migration event out of Africa to India and Australia.”
By digging down five metres, he and his colleagues from the University of Karnataka and Cambridge University are able to get a rough picture of life before and after the eruption, and to find out whether modern humans turn up in India before or after the ashfall.
Comparing Early Tools
“By looking at stone tools from early sites between Africa and Australia, like those we have found in India, I am trying to understand when and how people came to our part of the world,” he said.
“Just like we can trace human lineages through our genes, stone tools might also help trace migrations as people carry the technology with them.
“This is because people pass on the knowledge of how to make stone tools from generation to generation, creating cultural lineages like those we see in genes.
“So if we can find similar technology in Africa, India and Australia at this early time, we may be able to trace the movement of people through these areas, and understand more about their early lifestyles.”
Looking for Human Bones
Dr Clarkson said research into the Indian stone tools is continuing with fellow archaelogists from Cambridge and Karnataka Universities, and he plans further trips to the Indian sites in 2009.
“We are still looking for the ideal site where the human bones occur alongside stone tools” he said.
“That would really give us some great material to work with.”
Redefining How to Analyse Stone Tools
Dr Clarkson has developed a new method of analysing stone tools, based on 3D computer analysis.
“Previous stone tool research has relied on typology, an old method that simply classifies tools according to what they look like, rather than how they were made” he said.
“I have developed a new system based on 3D computer analysis that examines both the way they look and the ways they were made. This gives us a much more accurate way of comparing tools from different sites, regions and time periods.”
A report on his research was published in the July 6 2007 issue of the journal Science.
See also: Neolithic Toolkit Found in Jordan
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