Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-Eruption

2007/07/06 by Michael D. Petraglia, Ravi Korisettar, Nicole Boivin +11 · 5 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1141564

openalex publication_date 2007/07/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) eruption, which occurred in Indonesia 74,000 years ago, is one of Earth's largest known volcanic events. The effect of the YTT eruption on existing populations of humans, and accordingly on the course of human evolution, is debated. Here we associate the YTT with archaeological assemblages at Jwalapuram, in the Jurreru River valley of southern India. Broad continuity of Middle Paleolithic technology across the YTT event suggests that hominins persisted regionally across this major eruptive event.

Citations

• The size and frequency of the largest explosive eruptions on Earth
• Toba Ash on the Indian Subcontinent and Its Implications for Correlation of Late Pleistocene Alluvium
• An AOGCM simulation of the climate response to a volcanic super-eruption
• Climate-Volcanism Feedback and the Toba Eruption of ∼74,000 Years Ago
• Modern Human Origins and the Evolution of Behavior in the Later Pleistocene Record of South Asia

Cited by

• Subdecadal phytolith and charcoal records from Lake Malawi, East Africa imply minimal effects on human evolution from the ∼74 ka Toba supereruption
• Population increase and environmental deterioration correspond with microlithic innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 years ago
• Did the Toba volcanic eruption of ∼74 ka B.P. produce widespread glaciation?
• Lake Toba [wikipedia]
• Youngest Toba eruption [wikipedia]