Chennai: The newly discovered stones from the Stone Age in a village near Chennai in Tamil Nadu could challenge the popular scientific theory that Middle Paleolithic culture was brought to India by modern humans dispersing from Africa.
Chennai: The newly discovered stones from the Stone Age in a village near Chennai in Tamil Nadu could challenge the popular scientific theory that Middle Paleolithic culture was brought to India by modern humans dispersing from Africa.
The new finds suggest that the Middle Paleolithic culture was present in India around 3, 85,000 years ago, while the people from African came only about 1, 25,000 years ago or later.
Middle Paleolithic period is viewed an essential cultural phase as it is associated with modern humans.
Scientists used stone tools of this period for studies of early human behavior.
With the latest discovery of stone tools from the older period, it is that the Middle Paleolithic culture was in India quite before scientific beliefs.
The new study was published in the international scientific journal ‘Nature’ on Wednesday.
Professor Shanti Pappu of Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, who led the research team, told India Science Wire, “Our study presents a paradigm shift in thinking about the origin and spread of Middle Paleolithic cultures in South Asia, suggesting far greater antiquity and more complex story than we thought.”
Changes in tool kits often determine the evolution of humans in Eurasia.
At Attirampakkam, researchers studied over 7000 stone artefacts from Middle Paleolithic layers, which depicts the difference from Acheulian technologies towards Middle Paleolithic strategies.
Some of it includes swift from Acheulian technologies towards Middle Paleolithic strategies like stone-knapping known as Levallois technique and blade technologies.
Pappu added, “Without fossils, we cannot pinpoint the species, but we can suggest that multiple hominin dispersals associated with Middle Paleolithic culture were occurring far earlier than around 125 thousand years ago with complex patterns, processes and interactions between species.
” The study suggests that Middle Paleolithic culture in India began long before modern human migrations out of Africa. These migrations may have then occurred earlier than previously thought and played a role in the development of the Middle Paleolithic culture in India”.
In 1863, the archaeological site at Attirampakkam was discovered by R B Foote and investigated by several scholars in the 1930s and 1960s. Professor Pappu and Dr Kumar Akilesh from the Sharma Centre have been excavating at this place since 1999.
The present work was conducted in collaboration with Professor Yanni Gunnell from the University of Lyon, France; Prof Ashok K Singhvi, Haresh M Rajapara and Dr Anil D. Shukla from the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.