Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 258, 1 May 2012, Pages 119-134
Quaternary International

The Toba volcanic super-eruption, environmental change, and hominin occupation history in India over the last 140,000 years

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.07.042Get rights and content

Abstract

A prolonged, interdisciplinary fieldwork program was initiated in India to investigate the impact of the Toba super-eruption on terrestrial ecosystems and hominins. Fieldwork was centered on the Jurreru River Valley and the Middle Son River Valley, in southern and northern India. Archaeological sites span from 140,000 years ago through to the Holocene, providing a long-term view about hominin occupation history. Primary air-fall deposits of the Young Toba Tuff (YTT) were identified and changes in terrestrial environments prior to and after the super-eruption are indicated. Prior to the Toba eruption, drying of local ecological settings was underway. The emplacement of ash on landscapes and its subsequent erosion had local ecological and hydrological effects. Although drier conditions are indicated after the deposition of the ash deposits, a mosaic of environments was present in India, indicating that animals and hominins could have survived the volcanic event. Evidence indicates that Middle Paleolithic industries in stratified contexts are present in India prior to and after the Toba super-eruption. Middle Paleolithic hominins appear to have survived the negative effects of the volcanic eruption and climatic fluctuations in the Late Pleistocene. Middle Paleolithic industries, produced from ca. 77–38,000 years ago in India, were probably manufactured by Homo sapiens.

Introduction

Much has been written about the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 74,000 years ago, and its impact on ecosystems and hominins. Some researchers have viewed the Toba super-eruption as one of the most significant events in the course of human evolution, leading to cataclysmic changes in terrestrial ecosystems and the near extinction of our species (e.g., Ambrose, 1998, Rampino and Ambrose, 2000, Williams et al., 2009). The super-eruption, and the subsequent climatic cooling in MIS 4, have been implicated in the disappearance of our species from Eurasia (Shea, 2008) and related to changes in social and ritual behaviors in humans (Rossano, 2009, Rossano, 2010). Although theories abound concerning Toba’s impact on terrestrial ecosystems and on human populations, little empirical field research has, in fact, been carried out on this subject. Fortunately, in India, a number of Young Toba Tuff (YTT) deposits have been identified (Acharyya and Basu, 1993, Westgate et al., 1998), allowing earth scientists and archaeologists to investigate environmental and evolutionary responses to the eruption. Until recently, however, no convincing associations were made between the ash, paleoenvironments, and hominin occupations.

As will be described here, between 2003 and 2009 a large-scale, multidisciplinary field effort was undertaken in India to examine the relationship between the Toba eruption and its impact on terrestrial environments and hominin populations. Multiple field seasons were conducted on Toba-related archaeological sites in the Jurreru River Valley, Andhra Pradesh, and in the Middle Son Valley, Madhya Pradesh (Fig. 1). The aim of this research programme was to examine the severity of the Toba event on local and regional ecosystems and hominin populations, and to clarify the role that the super-eruption may have played in extinctions and Out of Africa dispersal processes. Although the Toba-related research in India has been the subject of a series of publications, the results of this long-term field effort have not been summarized and holistically examined. The aim of this article is to review and synthesize the main stratigraphic, environmental and archaeological findings in the Jurreru and Son river valleys, and to discuss the wider implications of this research relative to ecosystem change and human evolution over the past 140,000 years. Though Williams (2011) rightly points out that more precise chronologies are needed to understand the impacts of the Toba eruption, the authors disagree with his pessimistic views that multidisciplinary investigations and field projects are unlikely to provide new information on the impact of the Toba super-eruption; instead, much is yet to be learned about the terrestrial and evolutionary effects of Toba through sustained and detailed field investigations.

The YTT eruption, which occurred in Indonesia 74,000 years ago, is one of Earth’s largest known volcanic events. The eruption injected massive quantities of volcanic gases and ash into the stratosphere, covering a large area of southern and south-eastern Asia (Rose and Chesner, 1987). Approximately 10 cm of ash blanketed terrestrial ecosystems across India and marine settings in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean (Westgate et al., 1998, Self and Blake, 2008). Redeposited tephra has been identified in river valleys across India (Acharyya and Basu, 1993). Though the tephras are sometimes associated with artifacts, the assemblages are in transported contexts (Jones, 2007a). Although some continue to associate Acheulean stone tool assemblages with older Toba eruptions (e.g., Gaillard et al., 2010), geochemical analysis of the ash and its biotite composition from multiple localities in India indicates a clear association with the YTT (Westgate et al., 1998, Smith et al., 2011). The first identification of primary air-fall ash, Middle Paleolithic assemblages, and Optically Stimulated Luminescence ages (OSL) was in the Jurreru River Valley of southern India (Petraglia et al., 2007), described below.

Section snippets

Jurreru River Valley, southern India

The Jurreru River Valley has been the focus of systematic archaeological surveys near the village of Jwalapuram (JWP), resulting in the identification of a range of archaeological sites spanning from the Acheulean into the historic period (Petraglia et al., 2009a, Blinkhorn et al., 2010, Shipton et al., 2010) (Fig. 2). The Jurreru Valley is rather spectacular because of the preservation of large quantities of buried ash, exposed as a result of modern quarrying by villagers. Archaeological

Middle Son River Valley, northern India

The Middle Son Valley, in Madhya Pradesh, has been the focus of long-term archaeological research. A joint field programme by G.R. Sharma and J. Desmond Clark resulted in the identification and analysis of stratified archaeological sites and fossil localities ranging over the Pleistocene and Holocene (Sharma and Clark, 1983) (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Long range field survey resulted in the discovery of YTT deposits (Williams and Royce, 1982) and a model for the formation of the Quaternary sediments and

Discussion

Field investigations in northern and southern India provide the opportunity to outline the chronology of paleoenvironmental change and hominin occupations over the last 140 ka. Acheulean assemblages are the earliest industries found in the Jurreru and Middle Son Valleys (Fig. 9). The Acheulean assemblages date to ca. 140–130 ka in the Middle Son Valley corresponds with the end of MIS 6, a period that witnessed a reduction in the southwest monsoon (Fig. 10). The Son Valley evidence coincides

Conclusions

This interdisciplinary field research programme has attempted to provide information relevant to understanding ecosystem change and hominin population history in India over the past 140,000 years, thereby placing the effects of the Toba super-eruption in a broader temporal framework. The earliest occupations in both the Jurreru and Son valleys were represented by archaic hominin populations using Late Acheulean technology. The reasons for the extinction of these populations, after a long

Acknowledgements

The Archaeological Survey of India permitted the field work in the Jurreru and Son Valleys and the American Institute of Indian Studies provided logistical support. The British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust provided major funding for field work and analysis. Individuals, too numerous to name, contributed to the field work and lab investigations. We would especially like to thank Nicole Boivin, Janardhana Bora, Jinu Koshy, Chris Clarkson and Bert Roberts for useful conversations and their

References (72)

  • C. Lentfer et al.

    Holocene volcanic activity, vegetation succession, and ancient human land use: unraveling the interactions on Garua Island, Papua New Guinea

    Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

    (2007)
  • S. Oppenheimer

    The great arc of dispersal of modern humans: Africa to Australia

    Quaternary International

    (2009)
  • M.D. Petraglia et al.

    Water flow and the formation of early Pleistocene artifact sites in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

    Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

    (1994)
  • R.G. Roberts et al.

    Geochronology of cave deposits at Liang Bua and of adjacent river terraces in the Wae Racang valley, western Flores, Indonesia: a synthesis of age estimates for the type locality of Homo floresiensis

    Journal of Human Evolution

    (2009)
  • J.J. Shea

    Transitions or turnovers? Climatically-forced extinctions of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the east Mediterranean Levant

    Quaternary Science Reviews

    (2008)
  • J.A. Westgate et al.

    All Toba tephra occurrences across Peninsular India belong to the 75,000 yr B.P. eruption

    Quaternary Research

    (1998)
  • M. Williams et al.

    Quaternary geology of the Middle Son valley, north central India: implications for prehistoric archaeology

    Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

    (1982)
  • M. Williams et al.

    River response to Quaternary climatic fluctuations: evidence from the Son and Belan valleys, north-central India

    Quaternary Science Reviews

    (2006)
  • M. Williams et al.

    Environmental impact of the 73 ka Toba super-eruption in South Asia

    Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

    (2009)
  • M. Williams et al.

    Reply to the comment on ’Environmental impact of the 73 ka Toba super-eruption in South Asia’

    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology

    (2010)
  • M. Balter

    Of two minds about Toba’s impact

    Science

    (2010)
  • P.K. Basu et al.

    Late Quaternary ash beds from Son and Narmada basins, Madhya Pradesh

    Indian Minerals

    (1987)
  • J. Blinkhorn et al.

    Systematic transect survey enhances the investigation of rock art in its landscape: an example from the Katavani Kunta valley, Kurnool District

    Man and Environment

    (2010)
  • Blinkhorn, J., Parker, A., Ditchfield, P., Haslam, M., Petraglia, M. Uncovering a landscape buried by the...
  • R.J. Blumenschine et al.

    Excavations and analysis of Middle Palaeolithic artifacts from Patpara, Madhya Pradesh

  • J.D. Clark et al.

    Paleoenvironments and prehistory in North Central India: a preliminary report

  • C. Clarkson et al.

    The oldest and longest enduring microlithic sequence in India: 35000 years of modern human occupation and change at the Jwalapuram Locality 9 rockshelter

    Antiquity

    (2009)
  • Clarkson, C., Harris, C., Jones, S. Continuity and change in the lithic industries of the Jurreru Valley, India, before...
  • P. Endicott et al.

    Genetic evidence on modern human dispersals in South Asia: Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA perspectives: the world through the eyes of two haploid genomes

  • R.N. Fuller et al.

    The role of refugia and dispersal in primary succession on Mount St. Helens, Washington

    Journal of Vegetation Science

    (2003)
  • Haslam, M., Clarkson, C., Roberts, R.G., Bora, J., Korisettar, R., Ditchfield, P., Chivas, A., Harris, C., Smith, V.,...
  • Haslam, M., Harris, C., Pal, J.N., Shipton, C., Crowther, A., Koshy, J., Bora, J., Price, K., Dubey, A.K., Clarkson,...
  • H.V.A. James et al.

    Modern human origins and the evolution of behavior in the later Pleistocene record of South Asia

    Current Anthropology

    (2005)
  • S. Jones

    The Toba supervolcanic eruption: tephra fall deposits in India and paleoanthropological implications

  • Jones, S., 2007b. A human catastrophe? The impact of the 74,000 year-old supervolcanic eruption of Toba on hominin...
  • Jones, S. Local- and regional-scale impacts of the ∼74 ka Toba supervolcanic eruption on hominin populations and...
  • Cited by (68)

    • Late Quaternary sediments from Barakar-Damodar Basin, Eastern India include the 74 ka Toba ash and a 17 ka microlith toolkit

      2023, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences: X
      Citation Excerpt :

      Such a massive volcanic event is well documented as a time-horizon marker not only in marine sediments but also in terrestrial Quaternary deposits (Acharyya and Basu, 1993; Buhring and Sarnthein, 2000; Gatti, et al., 2011, 2014; Jayaprakash et al., 2009; Liang, et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2006; Song et al., 2000; Pattan et al., 2010). Some researchers believe this YTT super-eruption, together with subsequent cooling of the climate in MIS-4, was responsible for the reduction in the human population in Eurasia (Petraglia et al., 2012; Shea, 2008) and allowed changes in social and ritual behaviours in early hominids (Rossano, 2009). Lane et al. (2013) reported a YTT crypto-tephra layer in Lake Malawi sediments from Africa, which is > 7000 km west of the source volcano.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text