Stone Technology in Late Pleistocene India: A new perspective on the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa

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The global dispersal of Homo sapiens from a small base in East Africa was a critical process in human evolution, and understanding the nature and timing of this dispersal is a central focus of archaeological inquiry. Most scientists agree that humans speciated in Africa some 200-150 kya (thousand years ago). However, considerable debate surrounds the timing and nature of our ancestors' subsequent dispersal from the African continent, with genetic evidence suggesting a date of ~80-50 kya, and archaeological evidence from Arabia and India suggesting earlier estimates back to perhaps 100 kya. Recent research demonstrates that South Asia is a critical region for understanding the Homo sapiens dispersal, as it was one of the first areas outside Africa to be occupied, and saw dramatic early population expansion. The 'Southern Dispersal' hypothesis posits that the route of movement out of Africa was along southern coastlines through South Asia and then onwards to Australia, accounting for occupation in the latter pre-dating that of Europe. However, the colonisation of South Asia has seen relatively little research when compared to other regions.This study examines the archaeological record of key sites in northern India. The research looks in detail at the way our ancestors manufactured the stone artefacts that they used to hunt, collect plant foods and manufacture other tools. By examining the process of tool manufacture we can draw links between human groups in different parts of the world and attempt to track the spread of humans even in the absence of skeletal evidence. Importantly, by comparing the tools made by our direct Homo sapiens ancestors to those of the archaic human species that they replaced in India, we can look at differences and similarities in their behaviour and adaptations to South Asian conditions. Many people are aware of debates over the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans in Europe, but few are aware that the same process occurred in other parts of the world, including South Asia. This study aims to gather data on stone technology that will allow us to better reconstruct the process of replacement in the Indian subcontinent, providing greater insight into the geographical variation involved in human dispersal than is currently available.