Pappu S., Gunnell Y., Akhilesh K., Braucher R., Taieb M., Demory F., Thouveny Nicolas. (2011). Early Pleistocene presence of Acheulian hominins in South India. Science, 331 (6024), p. 1596-1599. ISSN 0036-8075.
Titre du document
Early Pleistocene presence of Acheulian hominins in South India
Pappu S., Gunnell Y., Akhilesh K., Braucher R., Taieb M., Demory F., Thouveny Nicolas
Source
Science, 2011,
331 (6024), p. 1596-1599 ISSN 0036-8075
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 Al-26/Be-10 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.
