title: Early Pleistocene presence of Acheulian hominins in South India.
abstract: South Asia is rich in Lower Paleolithic Acheulian sites. These have been attributed to the Middle Pleistocene on the basis of a small number of dates, with a few older but disputed age estimates. Here, we report new ages from the excavated site of Attirampakkam, where paleomagnetic measurements and direct (26)Al/(10)Be burial dating of stone artifacts now position the earliest Acheulian levels as no younger than 1.07 million years ago (Ma), with a pooled average age of 1.51 ± 0.07 Ma. These results reveal that, during the Early Pleistocene, India was already occupied by hominins fully conversant with an Acheulian technology including handaxes and cleavers among other artifacts. This implies that a spread of bifacial technologies across Asia occurred earlier than previously accepted.
authors: Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, 28 I Main Road, C.I.T. Colony, Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. pappu.shanti@gmail.com
authors: Shanti
authors: S
authors: Pappu
authors: Yanni
authors: Y
authors: Gunnell
authors: Kumar
authors: K
authors: Akhilesh
authors: Régis
authors: R
authors: Braucher
authors: Maurice
authors: M
authors: Taieb
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Demory
authors: Nicolas
authors: N
authors: Thouveny
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D015186:Hominidae; D007194:India; D013995:Time; D053001:Tool Use Behavior