Jwalapuram is an open air site located in the Jurreru River valley of Kumool district in Andhra Pradesh of southern India, where 7.5 meters of river sediment includes an archaeological deposit of Middle Paleolithic artifacts before and after the Toba ashfall, dated at ~74,000 years ago.
The Toba super eruption in Indonesia was the largest volcanic event on earth in the past two million years. It involved the eruption of at least 2,800 square kilometers of magma, and sent ash plumes from the south China Sea to the Arabian Sea.
At Jwalapuram, artifacts below the Toba tuff, and dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) at 77,000 +/-6000 included 215 stone artifacts and a piece of striated ochre. Stone tools made of limestone, quarzite, and chert are informal scrapers, retouched blades and a burin, and have been identified as Indian Middle Paleolithic.
Artifacts above the Toba tuff, OSL dated to 74,000 +/- 7,000 bp, contained 108 stone artifacts, of limestone, chert, chalcedony and quartzite, and its blades and bladelets represent a Late Pleistocene assemblage also assigned to the Middle Paleolithic.
Importance of Jwalapuram
The evidence at Jwalapuram supports the notion of an earlier migration from Africa then the Southern Dispersal Route, comparable to the evidence from Qafzeh and Skhul caves (ca 90-115 ka). That would make the residents of Jwalapuram archaic humans, not modern humans; but the lithic materials are definitely in general associated with modern humans. The site also has implications for the settlement of Australia and Wallacea, lending support to the 50,000 year old dates from sites such as Devil's Lair and Lake Mungo.
Jwalapuram Locality 9
Jwalapuram locality 9 contains an Upper Paleolithic occupation, with its earliest occupations dated to ca. 35,000 years ago; recovered from the site were human remains, limestone and bone beads and faunal remains. A large quantity of red ochre was recovered from Stratum C, thought to date between 11,000-15,000 years BP. Above the site is a large boulder which has been painted with red ochre, including human and animal figures and geometric designs.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to Middle Paleolithic and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
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Petraglia, Michael, et al. 2007 Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-Eruption. Science 317(5834):114-116.
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