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Published on: November 30, 2021
Early Pleistocene presence of Acheulian hominins in South India
Shanti Pappu1, Yanni Gunnell, Kumar Akhilesh
1Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, 28 I Main Road, C.I.T. Colony, Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. pappu.shanti@gmail.com
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.
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