Archaeologists in Andhra Pradesh have unearthed stone tools that are 139,000 years old, challenging the long-standing notion that only modern humans were capable of producing such sophisticated implements. This find adds a new layer of mystery regarding the identity of the ancient toolmakers.
Excavations near the village of Retlapalle in Prakasam district have uncovered what are believed to be Middle Paleolithic stone tools. Archaeologists suggest that these tools support the theory that some extinct human ancestors were skilled in stone-making.
The collection of several hundred stones, shaped into oval, triangular, or pointed tools for use as blades, cutters, or scrapers, dates back to a period before Homo sapiens, or modern humans, migrated from Africa to South Asia.
Anil Devara, an assistant professor of archaeology at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, who led the excavations, said, “The identity of the toolmakers in Retlapalle remains a mystery.”
The intrigue started to unfold almost twenty years ago when a different archaeological team found similar stone tools at Attirampakkam, a prehistoric site roughly 60 km west of Chennai. These tools were estimated to be between 372,000 and 170,000 years old.
Genetic evidence from over 25 years ago indicates that today’s global population descends from modern humans who migrated out of Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. However, an independent archaeological study conducted a decade ago at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh uncovered stone tools dating back 77,000 years. This discovery has led some researchers to propose that the presence of Homo sapiens in India might extend as far back as 125,000 years. Researchers had earlier found even older stone tools in India.
Prehistorians Shanti Pappu and Kumar Akhilesh at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education have discovered tools at Attirampakkam that are approximately 1.5 million years old. Additionally, a site in Karnataka has produced tools dating back around 1.2 million years. But researchers classify these older tools as “Acheulian” tools made by the extinct ancestral species called Homo erectus that once roamed across Africa and Asia between 1.6 million years ago to at least 250,000 years ago.
Devara noted, “Typical Acheulian tools, like hand axes or cleavers, are much larger and older compared to the Middle Paleolithic tools, which appeared much later.”
“In Middle Paleolithic tools, we observe signs of deliberate planning and shaping, a trait that was previously thought to have developed exclusively in Homo sapiens,” Devara explained. However, the Middle Paleolithic tools found at Retlapalle and Attirampakkam in India, along with similar discoveries in Europe, have cast significant doubt on the assumption that such tools only appeared after the arrival of modern humans.
Pappu, who has spent two decades studying the Attirampakkam site and was not involved with the Retlapalle findings, noted that the notable lack of fossilized remains of ancestral human species at these South Asian sites presents a significant challenge.
“Without bones, we can’t link these tools, whether from Attirampakkam or Retlapalle, to any specific species,” she explained. “The question of who made these tools remains unanswered.”
Devara pointed out that increasing evidence indicates that similar Middle Paleolithic tools appeared around the same time in Africa, Europe, and South Asia before modern humans had reached Europe or Asia. “This suggests that the same tool-making technology may have evolved independently in different species—possibly among modern humans in Africa, Neanderthals in Europe, and perhaps other archaic human species in South Asia,” Devara said.
A skull found on the banks of the River Narmada in 1982, dated between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago, is currently the oldest ancient human fossil from India. Scientists attribute the scarcity of archaic human remains in South Asia to factors such as the region’s humid climate, frequent rains, the nature of the soil, and the limited funding for fossil excavation.
