Recently there was an announcement regarding ancient tools having been found at Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu. These tools, dated to between 385,000 and 172,000 years ago were found by Prof. Shanti Pappu of the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education and her team.
It has been reported that this finding could possibly change the way we look at human migration. Can one find have such a large impact on widely accepted theories? Let us explore a little about what is known of human migration and stone tools to understand what this finding means.
The most widely accepted model of human evolution and migration is the ‘Out of Africa model’. It says that a small area in eastern Africa was the crucible for human evolution. At times, separated by a few hundred thousand years, groups ventured outside Africa and spread to different parts of the world. The last group to migrate was the modern human (Homo sapiens). As human....
