India Hosted Youngest Populations Of ‘Acheulean’ Human Ancestors : Research

Now, It is clear that Populations of ancient humans using Acheulean stone toolkits persisted in India until about 177,000 years ago . Latest research led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany re-examined a key Acheulean site at the margins of the monsoon zone in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, shows the presence of Acheulean populations until about 177,000 years ago, shortly before the earliest expansions of Homo sapiens across Asia. The researchers noted that although fossils of ancient human populations are extremely rare in South Asia, changes in the stone tool kits they made, used, and left behind can help resolve when and where these encounters may have occurred. This is the first time the ecology of an Acheulean site in India has been studied using these methods, revealing the broader character of the landscape that these populations inhabited. ​“Ours is the first study to directly date the occupation horizons at Singi Talav, enabling us to understand both when ancient humans lived here and created the stone tool assemblages, and how these occupations compare with other sites across the region,” said Julie Durcan of the University of Oxford in the UK.