A Groundbreaking Discovery of Early Stone Age Tools Shows How the Human Race Once Survived a Prehistoric Volcanic Super-Eruption

Experts have discovered ancient
stone tools that could be evidence early humans survived one of the
largest volcanic eruptions in prehistory and the catastrophic
climate change unleashed in its aftermath. The Toba super-eruption
74,000 years ago has long been thought to have caused a volcanic
winter across all of South Asia, nearly extinguishing early
humankind in the region. But new findings in India indicate that
hunter-gatherers managed to survive and adapt to these harsh, new
conditions.

Today, the site of the Toba
super-volcano in Sumatra, Indonesia, is a huge lake surrounded by
lush flora. The prehistoric volcanic eruption was so massive, many
experts believe it resulted in a 1,000-year-long cooling of the
Earth’s surface and covering the entirety of South Asia,
including China, India, and Indonesia, with several inches of
ash. 

Professor Chris Clarkson, an archaeologist at the University of
Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, says that experts previously
believed there were only a few survivors who lived in Africa. Those
that survived adapted by developing more sophisticated social,
symbolic, and economic strategies, in turn enabling them to
repopulate Africa and migrate on into Europe, and into Asia, and
the continental shelf that is now Australia, by around 60,000 to
50,000 years ago.

Clarkson and his colleagues have now discovered stone tools in
Dhaba, India, that are similar to the tool used by Homo sapiens in
Africa at the same time. “These toolkits were present at Dhaba
before and after the Toba super-eruption, indicating that
populations survived the so-called catastrophe,” he said. The
rudimentary carved tools of various stones also includes a samples
of arrows, blades, and scraper tools, suggesting that
hunter-gatherers continued to survive there.

“While the Toba super-eruption was certainly a colossal event,
this natural disaster may only have had a minor impact on human
populations living in India at the time,” Clarkson said. The
experts’ research and archaeological finds show that at least a few
hunter-gatherers managed to endure the harsh conditions after the
eruption and the climate change it caused.

The post A Groundbreaking Discovery of Early Stone Age Tools
Shows How the Human Race Once Survived a Prehistoric Volcanic
Super-Eruption appeared first on artnet News.