The Dhaba site fills a major time gap in our understanding of how ancient humans survived and migrated out of Africa and across the world. The stone tools we found at Dhaba are similar to the ones people were using in Africa at the same time.
Stone tools show humans in India survived the cataclysmic Toba eruption 74,000 years ago-...
These toolkits were present at Dhaba before and after the Toba super-eruption, indicating that populations survived the event. It is likely that humans made the same kinds of tools all along the dispersal route from Africa through India, reaching Australia by at least 65,000 years ago.
Climate and vegetation records from Lake Malawi in East Africa likewise show no evidence for a volcanic winter at the time of the eruption. Genetic studies similarly have not detected a clear population bottleneck around 74,000 years ago.
At Jwalapuram, in southern India, Michael Petraglia and colleagues found similar Middle Palaeolithic stone tools above and below a thick layer of Toba ash. At the Lida Ajer site in Sumatra, close to the eruption itself, Kira Westaway and colleagues found human teeth dated to 73,000-63,000 years ago. This indicates humans were living in Sumatra, in a closed-canopy rainforest environment not long after the eruption.
Professor Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland, lead author of the study, adds, "Populations at Dhaba were using stone tools that were similar to the toolkits being used by Homo sapiens in Africa at the same time. The fact that these toolkits did not disappear at the time of the Toba super-eruption or change dramatically soon after indicates that human populations survived the so-called catastrophe and continued to create tools to modify their environments." This new archaeological evidence supports fossil evidence that humans migrated out of Africa and expanded across Eurasia before 60,000 years ago. It also supports genetic findings that humans interbred with archaic species of hominins, such as Neanderthals, before 60,000 years ago.
Instead, archaeological evidence indicates that humans survived and coped with one of the largest volcanic events in human history, demonstrating that small bands of hunter-gatherers were adaptable in the face of environmental change. Nevertheless, the peoples who lived around Dhaba more than 74,000 years ago do not seem to have significantly contributed to the gene pool of contemporary peoples, suggesting that these hunter-gatherers likely faced a series of challenges to their long-term survival, including the dramatic environmental changes of the following millennia. In summarizing the wider implications of this study, Professor Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute says, "The archaeological record demonstrates that although humans sometimes show a remarkable level of resilience to challenges, it is also clear that people did not necessarily always prosper over the long term."
Most of the tools in the lower sediment layers are consistent with a specific production method known as the Levallois technique, which was used by both modern humans and Neanderthals during the Middle Stone Age, about 250,000 to 25,000 years ago. In the upper layers, however, the tools transition to smaller, more complex stone blades that are unquestionably made by our own species, the researchers argue.
Using a technique called optically stimulated luminescence, which measures electrons to infer when layers of sediment were last exposed to light, the researchers dated the site to a continuous occupation stretching from about 80,000 to 25,000 years ago. The dates, combined with the uninterrupted manufacture of increasingly complex tools, suggests modern humans were not only present in the region when Toba exploded, but that they survived for many thousands more years, the researchers report today in Nature Communications.
Early humans appear to have survived the eruption of a supervolcano 74,000 years ago and the volcanic winter that followed, researchers have said. By studying stone tools at an archaeological site in India, researchers found continuous occupation from 80,000 years ago, raising important questions about our migration into east Asia and Australia.
However, evidence is increasingly suggesting this is not the case. In 2017, researchers published evidence to show humans were present on Sumatra by between 73,000 and 63,000 years ago, just after the volcano erupted. A study published the following year also suggested that humans in South Africa were thriving in the period that followed Toba's eruption.
Their findings show humans arrived at the site at least 80,000 years ago, and remained there until at least 48,000 years ago. At this point there was a shift in technology towards smaller tools. Researchers found there was no disruption in stone tool production, suggesting the site was continuously occupied. Had the eruption at Mount Toba impacted this population, there would have been a gap in production. This suggests the eruption did not disrupt the flow of early humans leaving Africa.
The team also found the stone tools at the site share characteristics with those in Arabia from around 100,000 years ago, as well as those found in Australia, when the first humans are thought to have arrived there 65,000 years ago. This shows technological continuity moving from west to east over time, suggesting a human migratory path. The team concludes that Dhaba appears to have been an "important bridge linking regions with similar archaeology to the east and west."
The excavation unearthed a large tool industry spanning the period of the Toba super-eruption. The large Megalithic tools were dated between approximately 80,000 years and 65,000 years and the small tools were dated at approximately 50,000 years suggesting a continuous inhabiting of this region by humans undisturbed by the super-eruption. Further the similarity of the tools to ones found earlier in Africa and Arabia led the researchers to infer that they were made byHomo sapiens .
Humans thrived in South Africa after catastrophic Toba eruption 74,000 years ago, study suggestsABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp)03.12.2018 -03-13/toba-super-volcano-eruption-saw-some-humans-thrive-on-coast/9532938
Humans thrived in South Africa through the Toba super-volcanic eruption 74,000 years agoHeritage Daily.com03.2018 -thrived-in-south-africa-through-the-toba-super-volcanic-eruption-74000-years-ago/118601
New study shows how stone age people survived a supervolcano eruptionThe Hindu.com03.14.2018 -tech/energy-and-environment/new-study-shows-how-stone-age-people-survived-a-supervolcano-eruption/article23242851.ece
New evidence shows humans survived massive volcanic eruption 74,000 years agoInhabitat.com03.13.2013 -evidence-shows-humans-survived-massive-volcanic-eruption-74000-years-ago/
The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the presence of these stone tools is that people were living in India when the Toba volcano blew its top. For many years anthropologist have hotly debated who these people were that left these stone tools at this location and whether they were all killed by the volcano and had to repopulate southeast Asia from Africa/Middle East again or if some may have survived in small numbers to repopulate the region. However, this debate is not as important to us as the observation that tools are found above and below this catastrophic event boundary.
The Toba super-eruption of some 74,000 years ago has long intrigued scientists, who remain uncertain about how the event affected humans living at the time. Now, a team of researchers suggest that the real damage from Toba came from on high, in the form of a depleted ozone layer induced by a massive release of sulphur dioxide.
In a massive breakthrough from Dhaba in northern India, ancient tools have recently been discovered dismissing the Toba catastrophe theory, as per international reports. The theory claims that the Toba super-eruption - which occurred 74,000 years ago left the human population on the brink of extinction. The recent study has reportedly uncovered an ancient and "unchanging" stone tool industry used by humans in the Middle Son Valley about 80,000 years ago - both before and after the Toba eruption.
Clarkson added that as the toolkits did not disappear at the time of the Toba super-eruption or change dramatically was indicative of the fact that the inhabitants survived the catastrophe and continued to create tools to modify their environments. Moreover, reports state that the results from Dhaba suggest that humans migrated out of Africa and expanded across Eurasia earlier than expected, surviving the disaster. The study also revealed that tools found in Dhaba resemble African and Arabian techniques from the Stone Age.
The excavation unearthed a large tool industry spanning the period of the Toba super-eruption. The large Megalithic tools were dated between approximately 80,000 years and 65,000 years and the small tools were dated at approximately 50,000 years suggesting a continuous inhabiting of this region by humans undisturbed by the super-eruption. Further the similarity of the tools to ones found earlier in Africa and Arabia led the researchers to infer that they were made by Homo sapiens.
Toba was a pretty big deal. Though we don't have any direct reports from humans who were in the region at the time, a careful study of the ash deposits, caldera, and other physical evidence left behind by the eruption show us that it was significant. According to Science, it is still the largest known eruption within the past 2 million years. What's even more significant is that it produced two orders of magnitude more material than the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, which itself is one of the largest eruptions in recorded history.
The Youngest Toba eruption was a supervolcano eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago[1] at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the Earth's largest known explosive eruptions. The Toba catastrophe theory holds that this event caused a global volcanic winter of six to ten years and possibly a 1,000-year-long cooling episode, leading to a genetic bottleneck in humans. 2ff7e9595c
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