Discovery of Youngest Toba Tuff localities in the Sagileru Valley, south India, in association with Palaeolithic industries

Abstract

The Indian subcontinent contains a number of volcanic ash deposits representing the Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) volcanic eruption of 75,000 years ago, though relatively few localities have been reported in detail. Here, we identify tephra deposits in the Sagileru Valley, south India, in association with Palaeolithic industries. The glass shard and biotite composition of the Sagileru tephra matches that of the YTT from other terrestrial sites in India and from the Toba caldera, and are distinct from earlier large eruptions from Toba. Moreover, our survey identified rare associations between lithic artefacts and YTT deposits, making the Sagileru Valley one of the few globally identified locations with both ash and archaeology. The identification of ash deposits and stone tool assemblages in the Sagileru Valley provides another source of information for understanding Late Pleistocene climate change, depositional environments and hominin occupations of South Asia.