2011/03/24 by Shanti Pappu, Yanni Gunnell, Kumar Akhilesh +4 · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Pleistocene #Geography #Paleontology #Archaeology #Geology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1200183
openalex publication_date 2011/03/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
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.