Population Increase and Environmental Deterioration Correspond with Microlithic Innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 Years Ago

Citation: Michael Petraglia, Christopher Clarkson, Nicole Boivin, Michael Haslam, Ravi Korisettar, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Peter Ditchfield, Dorian Fuller, Hannah James, Sacha Jones, Toomas Kivisild, Jinu Koshy, Marta Mirazón Lahr, Mait Metspalu, Richard Roberts, Lee Arnold, James F. O'Connell (2009/05/28) Population Increase and Environmental Deterioration Correspond with Microlithic Innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 Years Ago. National Academy of Sciences (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Population Increase and Environmental Deterioration Correspond with Microlithic Innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 Years Ago
Download: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40484124
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Summary

Context

Michael Petragli et al. argue that the advent and proliferation of microlith technologies in South Asia is a consequence of changing subsistence patterns due to increase in population growth and a climate moving towards full glaciation.

Methods and Materials

Various methods were involved in this study from classification of lithic technology to DNA analysis. The researchers found an increase of haplogroup M subclades using mtDNA of South Asian, East Asian and Oceania populations. Rho statistics and a molecular clock were used to find a dramatic expansion of population growth in South China between 38-28 ka. Pollen samples from South Asia are employed to extract what the climate of South Asia was like the end of Oxygen Isotope Stage 3. Tree, grass and mangrove pollen samples from ice caps as well as lake sediment are derived to produce a map of the possible ecology during this period. Three archaeological sites were used to show the advent of microlith technology in South Asia. Jwalapuram in the Jurreru River valley, the Patne site in Mahashtra and multiple sites in Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamu province were used to show when microlith technology came onto the scene in South Asia. These sites yield a date of 35-30 ka of when this technology came onto the scene and became a mainstay until the Holocene.

Results

The results of the study were not conclusive meaning the researchers could not single out the ecology and population as the sole factors responsible for the advent of microlith technology in South Asia. The authors not that the dates yielded using DNA analysis has opened up a new avenue for research and should be explored.

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

This article makes an important contribution towards answering questions surrounding the peopling of South Asia which is one of the heaviest populated areas of the world today. The article also provides a good narrative for the advent of microlith technology although the results were inconclusive.