Interesting new findings:
Early Middle Palaeolithic culture in India
around 385–172 ka reframes Out of Africa models
Editorial Summary
Out of Africa, into Asia
When
hominins—members of Homo erectus or
similar—left Africa more than 1.7 million years ago, they carried their
signature tool: the Acheulian hand axe. As skeletal material is extremely
scarce, human evolution in Eurasia is often charted by changes in the tools
used, notably the gradual shift from Acheulian technologies into cultures known
as 'Middle Stone Age' in Africa or 'Middle Palaeolithic' elsewhere. The
transition to the Middle Palaeolithic outside Europe and Africa is vital to our
understanding of the lives of hominins in Eurasia, and especially the dispersal
of anatomically modern humans out of Africa and their subsequent migrations.
Only limited evidence has been recovered from India, but Shanti Pappu and
colleagues present new data from the archaeological site of Attirampakkam in
southern India. Dates from the site suggest that in India the Middle
Palaeolithic began around 385,000 years ago, consistent with dates emerging
from Europe and Africa, and show that the Middle Palaeolithic transition
occurred here much earlier than suggested by conventional ideas regarding the
spread of modern humans into southern Asia.