The Indian subcontinent is riddled with unsolved archaeological questions, the biggest and most intriguing of which is around us—the anatomically modern humans, the magnificent Homo Sapiens. For paleoanthropologists and archaeologists working in the field of prehistory, the most significant problem revolves around determining the period of dispersal out of Africa by anatomically modern humans into the subcontinent.
Despite being located along the dispersal route of modern humans and boasting a rich Palaeolithic record, there is a scarcity of fossil evidence in the subcontinent, forcing scholars to rely extensively on artefacts. Based on the artefacts, the Middle Palaeolithic technology is attributed to modern humans. It was a universally accepted view that the Middle Palaeolithic (Middle Stone Age) technology in South Asia was associated with the arrival of Homo Sapiens around 125 ka-70 ka (ka=thousand years). This date was suggested after a significant study conducted at the site of Jwalapuram, where the artefacts recovered from the sediments underlying the 74 ka Youngest Toba Tuff were similar to African Middle Stone Age artefacts. Meanwhile, another theory associates Indian Middle Palaeolithic with archaic species (pre-Sapiens) and claims that modern humans arrived in India around 71,000-57,000 years ago.
But what happens when the age of the Middle Palaeolithic is pushed approximately 1,00,000 years back? Will this mean that modern humans dispersed out of Africa into South Asia earlier than thought or that some unknown archaic pre-Sapien population invented the Middle Palaeolithic technology in India? Archaeologists began asking this question after the findings from the recent investigation at a prehistoric site Hanumanthunipadu were made public.
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Middle Palaeolithic in India
Located in the upper Paleru river basin in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, a trench was dug along the exposed right bank of the river. The objective of this excavation was to understand the geological context of the artefacts and to collect samples for luminescence dating. The excavated trench had a depth of 2.65 meter and the Middle Palaeolithic artefacts were found at a depth of 2.20 meter.
A total of 305 stone artefacts were excavated at Hanumanthunipadu. These tools were made of medium to fine-grained quartzite, which is available in abundance on the Velikonda hill situated 20 km west of the site. The artefacts were untarnished since they showed no sign of abrasion. The tool-making technology at the site seemed advanced with the rare presence of large cutting tools, Levallois, smaller flakes and retouched tools, which collectively make the assemblage of the Middle Palaeolithic. But what changed the course of the entire research were the luminescence ages of the horizon associated with these artefacts, going back to 2,47,000 years ago (˃247± 32 ka). (Devara, Anil et al 2022).
Hanumanthunipadu is not the only site that yielded early dates of the Middle Palaeolithic horizon in recent times. In fact, luminescence dating at the stratified prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, located on the banks of a tributary stream of the Kortallaiyar river in Tamil Nadu, has shown that Middle Palaeolithic culture emerged here at 385 ± 64 ka, much earlier than what is conventionally presumed in South Asia. Middle Palaeolithic continued here till 172 ka. The researchers observed a steady decline in the usage of biface tools, a predominance of small tools, the introduction of characteristic Levallois flake (similar to Hanumanthunipadu), point, and blade components, all of which signal a significant change from the early stone age or early Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage.
The underlying gap between the theories and the absence of any significant fossil marker has made the issue more complex. However, another recent fossil evidence from Apidima Cave in Greece (Harvati et al. 2019) and Misliya Cave in Israel (Hershkovitz et al. 2018) has revised the earliest date of modern man’s move outside Africa to 210 ka, a date closer to that from Hanumanthunipadu
On one hand, both sites gave an opportunity to fill the gap in the understanding of origin and evolution of tool technology, a significant change that happened in India and established its contemporaneity with processes akin to those documented in Africa and Europe – ‘complex interactions between local development and ongoing global transformation.’ On the other hand, it brought up an age-old pressing question back on the table, who were the makers of these tools 3,00,000-2,00,000 years ago? Were they Homo Sapiens, the modern man, archaic hominin, or pre-Sapiens?
If modern man migrated out of Africa in 210 ka and the dates from Middle Palaeolithic sites in India predate these ages, is it possible that the Middle Palaeolithic tools were mastered by another unknown species? Archaeologist Anil Devara, the investigator of Hanumanthunipadu, echoes the same. According to him, ‘the Middle Palaeolithic technology in India emerged indigenously associated with some other archaic hominin and we ask, if archaic hominins have the capability of inventing lithic technology similar to the Homo sapiens, why did they become extinct and only Homo sapiens survived?’ the answer to which is buried somewhere unknown.
Disha Ahluwalia is an archaeologist and junior research fellow at the Indian Council Of Historical Research. She tweets @ahluwaliadisha. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)