RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
tively more humid climate equivalent to the present day
prevailed in the region with the advent of an active SW
monsoon. The arrival of much favourable climatic condition during the last two millennia or so could have been
the aftermath of invigoration of SW monsoon. The appreciable increase in Cerealia and other culture pollen taxa
signifies the further augmentation in the cereal-based agriculture practice in the region on the whole as well as in
the area contiguous to the swamp. Although the monsoon
precipitation was good, the swamp assumed a smaller
stretch, which is evident from the reduction in wetland
and aquatic taxa. This change in the status of the swamp
might have occurred on account of reclamation of its
wider and less waterlogged peripheral area by the tribals
in order to cope with the food security of the escalating
human population in the region during the recent past.
Thus, the pollen proxy database retrieved through the
study of a 1.75 m deep sediment core from the Amjhera
Swamp has documented the changing vegetation scenarios and contemporaneous climatic episodes in southwestern Madhya Pradesh in a definite time-frame since prior
to the Mid-Holocene. The pollen sequence generated has
demonstrated that this region supported the open mixed
tropical deciduous forests during the time-brackets of
6000 to 5409 years BP and 4011 to 2178 years BP under a
warm and less humid climate in response to reduced
monsoon precipitation. These time-intervals of adverse
climate were found to alternate with the warm and more
humid climatic regimes between 5409 and 4011 years BP
as well as 2178 years BP to the Present, which could be
ascribed to increased monsoon precipitation as well indicated by the establishment of diversified and dense tropical deciduous forests. The region was under the cerealbased agricultural practice right from the beginning of the
sequence, i.e. since 6000 years BP; however, it has got
accelerated during the last 2 millennia or so due to prevalence of more active SW monsoon. Further investigation
of potential swamp and lake deposits from other regions
of central India, using a concerted approach involving
pollen, geochemical and isotope data is needed. This
could significantly facilitate the simulation of precise
trend of SW monsoon and its influence on the natural
resource in central India during the Quaternary Period as
well as in divulging the major climatic events from the
Indian subcontinent in global perspective.
1. Chauhan, M. S., Origin and history of tropical deciduous Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) forests in Madhya Pradesh, India. Palaeobotanist, 1995, 43, 89–101.
2. Chauhan, M. S., Pollen evidence of Late-Quaternary vegetation
and climatic changes in northeastern Madhya Pradesh. Palaeobotanist, 2000, 49, 491–500.
3. Chauhan, M. S., Late-Holocene vegetation and climatic changes in
Eastern Madhya Pradesh. Gondwana Geol. Mag., 2004, 19, 165–
175.
4. Chauhan, M. S., Pollen record of vegetation and climatic changes
in northeastern Madhya Pradesh during last 1,600 years. Trop.
Ecol., 2005, 46, 265–271.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
5. Yadav, D. N., Chauhan, M. S. and Sarin, M. M., Geochemical and
pollen records from northeastern Madhya Pradesh: an appraisal of
Late-Quaternary vegetation and climate change. J. Geol. Soc.
India, 2004, 68, 95–102.
6. Chauhan, M. S., Holocene vegetation and climatic changes in
southeastern Madhya Pradesh, India. Curr. Sci., 2002, 83, 1444–
1445.
7. Chauhan, M. S. and Quamar, M. F., Vegetation and climate
change in southeastern Madhya Pradesh during Late Holocene,
based on pollen evidence. J. Geol. Soc. India, 2010, 76, 143–150.
8. Shaw, J., Sutcliffe, J., Lloyd-Smith, L., Schwenninger, J., Chauhan, M. S., Mishra, O. P. and Harwey, C., Ancient irrigation and
Buddhist history in Central India: optically stimulated luminescence dates and pollen sequences from Sanchi dams. Asian Perspect., 2007, 46, 166–201.
9. Quamar, M. F. and Chauhan, M. S., Late Holocene vegetation, climate change and human impact in southwestern Madhya Pradesh,
India. Palaeobotanist, 2011, 60, 281–289.
10. Hoshangabad District at a Glance, District Groundwater Information Booklet, Hoshangabad District, Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of
Water Resources, Central Ground Water Board, Northern Central
Region, Government of India, 2009, pp. 6–19; http://cgwb.govt.in/
District_profile/MP/Hoshangabad
11. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K., A Revised Survey of Forest
Types of India, Government of India Press, New Delhi, 1968.
12. Erdtman, G., An Introduction to Pollen Analysis, Chronica
Botanica Co, Mass., USA, 1943.
13. Benarde, M. A., Global Warming, John Wiley and Sons, New
York, USA, 1992.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. We thank Dr B. Sekar for radiocarbon
dating of the core samples and the personnel of Itarsi Forest Range,
Hoshangabad Division, Madhya Pradesh for help while collecting core
samples.
Received 12 September 2011; revised accepted 5 November 2012
New human fossils and associated
findings from the Central Narmada
Valley, India
A. R. Sankhyan1,2,*, L. N. Dewangan1,
Sheuli Chakraborty1, Suvendu Kundu1,
Shashi Prabha1, Rana Chakravarty1 and
G. L. Badam3
1
Anthropological Survey of India (Indian Museum Campus), 27,
Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700 016, India
2
Palaeo Research Society, Ward No. 5, IPH, Ghumarwin 174 021, India
3
26/1-4 Hermes Paras 3, Kalyani Nagar, Pune 411 006, India
Explorations in the Central Narmada Valley have
yielded a partial hominin femur and a humerus from
a new locality, Netankheri located 3 km upstream
from the previous hominin locality, Hathnora. The
femur was recovered from the same Middle Pleistocene stratigraphic level that yielded calvarium at
Hathnora and shares robust mosaic morphology of
*For correspondence. (e-mail: [email protected])
1461
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens. The mega
mammalian fauna and large flake Acheulian artefacts
excavated from the femur and the calvarium beds
support existence of a large robust hominin at ~250 kya.
The humerus was recovered from startigraphically
higher and pre-YTA (~75 kya) stratum in association
with unique Upper Palaeolithic fossilized bone artefacts and attributed to a ‘short and stocky’ earliest
modern H. sapiens hitherto unknown in South Asia.
This lineage probably evolved from a similar ‘short
and stocky’ mode-3 archaic hominin documented earlier by two archaic clavicles and a 9th rib at Hathnora.
Keywords: Human fossils, humerus, femur, lithostratigraphy.
SINCE 1830s the Central Narmada Valley has yielded
innumerable Palaeolithic artefacts and Pleistocene vertebrate fauna, but laying hands on human fossils always
frustrated the explorers. Only the 1980s proved fortuitous
with the discovery of a partial hominin cranium1, soon
followed by two clavicles and a partial left 9th rib from
Hathnora2–4, which brought Narmada Valley to the forefront of human evolution in South Asia. They generated
considerable debate on the taxonomic status of Narmada
hominin. The large, rounded and robust cranium eluded
the experts as an ‘evolved’ Homo erectus5,6 or an ‘archaic’
Homo sapiens7–12 and then also attributed to Homo heidelbergensis13–15. But, the three tiny and robust postcranial bones remain an enigmatic mismatch to the cranium
and opened up the possibility of another hitherto unknown pygmy-sized species or archaic population in the
Narmada Valley2–4,15–17. A recent study15 based on many
Palaeolithic and faunal findings recovered during fiveyear intensive explorations and trial excavations has
strengthened this possibility. The recent findings also
include two new human fossils and unique bone implements.
The human fossils discovered include a partial left
humeral diaphysis (NTK-F-02-07; Figure 1 a) and a distal
shaft fragment of the left femur (NTK-F07-05; Figure
1 b), and are deposited in the Palaeoanthropology Repository of the Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata.
They are recovered from two different stratigraphic levels
of a new fossil locality, Netankheri (Figure 2 a), located
about 3 km upstream from Hathnora along the northern
bank of the River Narmada (Figure 3 a). The humerus
was associated with several bone artefacts. The comparative morphometrics of the human fossils are presented in
Table 1.
The humerus is mineralized and bears a dark grey hue
as do the fossilized bone artefacts and exhibits postfossilization linear cracks, especially on the medial border. The preserved portion below the radial sulcus (spiral
groove) up to the upper margin of the olecranon fossa
measures 84 mm. It yields an estimated maximum length
of 240 mm (Table 1), which is even shorter than the mean
1462
length of five Chaurite humeri (291.4 ± 13.43 mm) as
well as from a larger sample of 33 mixed mainland
Eastern Indians plus the Chaurite (284.74 ± 27.19 mm).
Interestingly, the NTK and Chaurite Nicobari population
is shorter and stockier in the available comparative
sample18,19, which includes Omo Kibish and CroMagnon 1.
It exhibits typical shape of the human humerus, cylindrical proximally, widening and turning prismatically distally. It is bounded by three borders and three surfaces,
besides showing a medial bending or twisting on the posterior surface; this is where the brachialis narrows superiorly and widens distally. Distally, the posterior surface is
flattish and covered by the lateral and medial heads of the
tricep brachii that give origin to part of the brachialis.
The anterior border is smooth and rounded and provides
attachment to the brachialis muscles. The lateral border
has a sharp crest and is rough distally, uprising obliquely
at the medial region. There is a broad, shallow, oblique
depression in the centre. The medial border is broken at
its centre.
It is pertinent to know whether the NTK humerus is of
the archaic hominins or of modern humans. Studies20
show that the archaic/modern human dichotomy could be
established by the proximal ulna, but this is not supported
by the distal humeral morphology. As such the present
specimen may only be suggested as ‘late archaic’ human
from its mineralization also shared with the associated
bone tools, which are typo-technologically early Upper
Palaeolithic. A general metric similarity of the NTK
humerus (Table 1) is notable with the humerii of the
Chaurite Nicobarese, who have a short and stocky body
frame. We do not associate the two Hathnora archaic
hominin clavicles and the 9th rib to the Onge/Greater
Andamanese directly15 on similarities in stature and
biacromial diameter, but the Netankheri humerus now
does establish a continuous occupation of the Central
Narmada Valley by the ‘short and stocky’ early archaic
hominins to ‘late archaic’ or ‘early modern’ H. sapiens
throughout the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
The 81 mm distal-most shaft portion of the left femur
is fully mineralized (Figure 1 b1, b2). It is detached from
the condyles. The popliteal surface is well preserved
posteriorly, but anteriorly the articular surface of the
patellar deep notch and the intercondylar fossa are
eroded. Direct comparisons with similar-sized mammalian femora ruled out their non-hominin identity and the
specimens show a typical cylindrical shape of the femoral
body or corpus femoris, which broadens and flattens distally near the condylar region forming a distinct triangular popliteal surface on its posterior aspect. The left
aspect of the NTK femur reveals that it has larger and
rounded lateral surface. This is compared to the relatively
narrow and slightly pinched medial surface above the
condyles, which flares more medially when the femur is
held perpendicularly.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 1. a, Hominin humerus from Netankheri in anterior and posterior views. b1, b2, Hominin femur in anterior and posterior views. c, Comparison of the hominin femur with modern human, Java Homo erectus and Neanderthal. d1, Cross-section of Netankheri femur. d2, Comparison of
Netankheri femur with those of two modern Indian femurs, Qafzeh 9, Skhul 5 and Tabun 3 femurs.
Figure 2. Stratigraphic position of the human humerus and femur at Netankheri. a, U2 and U3 boulder conglomerate units of Surajkund Formation, Baneta Formation and humerus (inset). b, Baneta section. c, Excavated section between U2–U3 and part of the Baneta section. d, Site of the
femur and Stegodon fossil. e, Excavated section of femur site in yellow Surajkund sands above the submerged U1 cemented boulder conglomerate.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
1463
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 3. a, Map of a portion of the Central Narmada valley showing hominin-yielding sites. b, Lateral vertical litho section at Hathnora showing
the stratigraphic position of hominin calvarium and clavicles and rib fossils. c–e, Stratigraphic sections at Netankheri, Amkheri and Bankheri respectively.
Although limited by the degree of preservation, the
most notable feature of the NTK femur is low development of its medial and lateral lips. This results in a subcircular/ovoid shape to the diaphysis in cross-section
(Figure 1 d1). This is contrary to the characteristics of
modern human femora, where the two lips emerge into
prominent ridges. The linea aspera ridges result in a posterior pilaster or flatness. In this respect, besides being
robust, the NTK femur is comparable to the robust and
rounded femur of the Neanderthal man, which mostly
lacks the pilaster (Figure 1 c). Although no direct comparison was possible, some apparent similarity may be
observed with the ‘late archaic’ hominins21–24, e.g. Tabun
3, Qafze 9 and Skhul 5 (Figure 1 d2). The metric comparison (Table 1) also leads to a conclusion that the NTK
1464
femur is closer to the Neanderthal femur than the Java
H. erectus.
The two hominin fossils were received from two
different stratigraphic levels exposed near the village
Netankheri, located (22°50′25″N; 77°53′6″E) along the
northern bank of the east-west flowing River Narmada
and 3 km upstream and east of Hathnora (Figure 3 a). The
Netankheri Quaternary litho-stratigraphic section (Figure
3 c) is 19.2 m thick; its 3.7 m lower part is attributed to
the Middle Pleistocene Surajkund Formation and the
remaining 15.5 m upper portion to the Upper Pleistocene
Baneta Formation25. Like Hathnora (Figure 3 b), the Surajkund Formation at Netankheri is comprised of three distinct cemented pebble conglomerate beds26, denoted as
U1, U2 and U3 with inter-layers of yellow sands. The
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Table 1.
Metric comparison of the Narmada fossilized humerus and femur with modern mainland Indians and Chaurite Nicobarese of Andaman–
Nicobar Islands
Skeletal population
Humerus mid-shaft measurement
Netankheri fossil (NTK-F-02-07)
Mainland Eastern Indians + Chaurite Islanders
Chaurite Islanders
KNM-WT 15000F
Gombore IB-7594
ATD6-148
BOD-VP-1/2b
Kabwe
Skhul IV
Omo Kibish I-r (KHS-1–30)
Omo Kibish I-l (KHS-1–31)
Cro-Magnon 1
Dolní Vĕstonice
Sima de los Huesos
Neandertals
Femur distal mid-shaft measurement
NTK-F-07-05 (L)
Neanderthal (R)a
Homo erectus (L) (Java)a
Homo erectus (Tautavel)b
Modern Indians (Homo sapiens)c
Sample or
number and
statistical value
M–L
A–P
Girth
Length
1
33
SD
SE
5
SD
SE
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
6/9
21/23
18.3
16.02
2.65
0.46
19.21
3.15
1.41
17.3
15.6
14.0
18.0
18.4
18.6
19.9
20.6
20.7
16.8 ± 1.7
15.7 ± 2.0
15 ± 2.2
18.7
16.56
2.43
0.42
19.08
1.20
0.54
11.8
11.61
7.0
9.0
11.9
14.2
11.5
12.0
14.0
9.1 ± 2.8
8.6 ± 1.3
7.7 ± 1.8
67.5
60.02
5.82
1.01
65.95
4.75
2.46
84=240est
284.70
24.19
4.21
291.4
13.43
6.00
NA
NA
1
1
1
1
18
SD
SE
44.85
47.3
37.65
36.9
34.87
34.87
3.643
38.05
40.7
34.15
32.55
27.68
28.11
2.93
125.5
133.5
114.5
–
102.85
104.65
10.095
NA
M–L, Medio-lateral and A–P, Antero-posterior diameter; all measurements in millimeter. *est, Estimated; aMeasurements on replicas, and on original Eastern Indianc housed in the Anthropological Survey of India, Paleoanthropology Laboratory, Kolkata. bOn original at Tautavel, France taken
in July 2009; access courtesy Henry de Lumley and Tony Chevalier.
cemented U1 remains submerged in River Narmada most
of the time such that it remains largely unexplored and
unmeasured exactly, except the sequences of yellowishbrown coarse sand and pebbles above it. The U2/U3 units
of the cemented gravel here are collapsed and spread as a
gravely sand bar for a longer distance by the recent neotectonic anticlines and synclines. The collapsed segment
contains the fragments of Vindhyan sandstone and other
volcanic materials like chert, jasper, agate, etc. derived
from the Satpura Hills, which serve as the raw material
for the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic artefacts. The
Baneta overlays disconformably as fine brown calcareous
clayey silt with grey sand lenses and thick brown siltyclay.
The Netankheri U1 level that yielded hominin femur,
yielded only a few mammalian fossils; the notable were
the molar fragments of Stegodon insignis ganesa. The
reason is obvious – the submergence of U1 most of the
time at Netankheri, but U1 gets occasionally exposed at
Hathnora. Therefore we were able to get an assemblage
of complete crania and mandibles of Equus namadicus,
Elephas namadicus, Bos namadicus, Bubalis palaeinCURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
dicus and Hexaprotodon namadicus15 from Hathnora
(Figure 4). One complete mandible of E. namadicus was
excavated in shallow waters with an Acheulian tool
embedded between the mandibular ramii, which is a
direct evidence of the contemporaneity of the fauna and
the cultural artefacts. The fauna from U1 suggests a Middle Pleistocene age15,27 for the Hathnora hominin calvarium and for the Netankheri femur.
Like the fauna, only a few heavy-duty Acheulian
implements were recovered from the Netankheri U1 level,
among which a pick is a distinct cultural finding. But
again, the U1 at Hathnora that contained the hominin
calvarium yielded a remarkably huge collection of over
100 heavy-duty large flake Acheulian handaxes and cleavers, besides a few heavy picks and chopping tools, many
of them recovered in situ (Figure 5) along with the mega
mammals mentioned above. The calvarium and the femur
therefore are derived from the same larger robust archaic
H. sapiens sharing H. erectus and Homo neanderthalensis
mosaic morphology or like a Homo heidelbergensis.
The U1/U2 interface at Netankheri has yielded fragmentary fossils and lighter refined Acheulian artefacts but no
1465
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 4. Excavated mammalian fauna associated with hominin calvarium and femur in U1 cemented boulder conglomerate. 1, Bos namadicus
skulls and maxilla; 2, Rhinoceros sp. mandible; 3, Bubalus palaeindicus cranium; 3, 4, Ceruvus duvauceli antler; 5, Elephas hysudricus upper
molar; 6, Hexaprotodon namadicus cranium; 7, Hexaprotodon namadicus mandible; 8, Stegodon insignis upper partial molar; 9, Cranium of
Elephas hysudricus; 10, Mandible of Elephas namadicus; 11, Partial cranium of Equus namadicus; 12, Fauna from U2 yielding the clavicles and rib
fossils at Hathnora: fragments of Axix axix antlers, a partial bivalve pelecepod and Crocodylis sp. tooth spike.
hominin fossil. But, at Hathnora this interface has yielded
three hominin bones, two clavicles and the rib associated
with tiny Middle Palaeolithic implements (Figure 6 b, ix–
xiii). The inferred body dimensions from these indicate a
pygmy-sized short and stocky archaic non-Acheulian
(Figure 6 b, ix–xiii) H. sapiens15 (Figure 6 c, 2, 3, 5), distinct from the large flake robust Acheulian (Figure 5)
hominin of the U1 level. The earlier findings of the lightduty Palaeolithic implements from Hathnora7,28 claimed
to be associated with the calvarium were the handiwork
of this short and stocky population. The fossil and
archaeological evidence from Hathnora, therefore represent two types of culturally and physically distinct anatomically archaic hominin populations in the Central
Narmada Valley.
The U2/U3 interface at Hathnora has yielded fossil
fragments; we dug out an antler of the Axix axix at Hathnora. But, at Netankheri the U2/U3 (Figure 3 c) has
yielded the human humerus along with an isolated dentition of Equus sp. But, the important associations are with
the bone implements discovered for the first time in
1466
Narmada Valley at Netankheri and Amkheri just on the
opposite bank and at a few other localities with collapsed
upper Surajkund gravel (Figure 3). They were found
along with other lithic tools of quartzite, chert, chalcedony, jasper and agate (Figure 6 b). They are mostly of
splintered bone fragments, which show marks of secondary chipping and intentional modifications resulting in
shapes found among the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic
industries. Some of the better recognized typo-technological categories found include, spatulas-cum-endscrapers, dagger, knifes, borers, awls, burins, blades, etc.
(Figure 6 a).
An electron spin resonance (ESR) date12 of >236 kya
fits within the biostratigraphic and cultural time of the
findings, though more recent attempts29 based on linear
uranium uptake show a confusingly wider range of 40–
280 kya. We may provisionally keep the U1 hominin
fossils, the Hathnora calvarium and the Netankheri femur
at around 250–200 kya, and the U1/U2 Hathnora postcranial fossils at ~150 kya in consideration of the other
sources of evidences presented above.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 5. a, Excavations conducted at U1 level of Hathnora hominin calvarium site. b, Excavation of a submerged and embedded E. namadicus
mandible in U1 bottom, seen with a stone artifact stuck between the ramii. c, Cleavers from U1 level. d, Large flake Acheulian implements recovered in situ at the U1 level.
Figure 6. a, Bone and stone implements associated with human humerus at Netankheri and similar sites. i–iii, Spatula-cum-end scrapers;
iv, Backed knife; v, Dagger; vi, Burin; vii, Borer; viii, Awl. b, Small mode 3 lithic implements excavated at Hathnora clavicle site; such tools were
also recovered from Netankheri humerus site. ix, Scraper; x, Blade; xi, Arrow head point; xii, Scraper; xiii, Backed knife. c, Narmada right and left
clavicles (2, 3) compared with the Greater Andamanese clavicles (1A, 1B), and 9th rib (5) compared with modern human 9th rib; 6, Netankheri
human humerus.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
1467
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
The date of Netankheri humerus and the bone implements recovered within the collapsed U2/U3 interface of
the Surajkund Formation (Figure 2 a) located below the
Baneta Formation stratigraphic boundary may be assessed
from the YTA datum30,31 of ~75 kya. .Only the Baneta
and Hirdepur formations of the Central Narmada Valley
are known to contain the Youngest Toba ash layers32–34.
Therefore, the humerus is older than 75 kya or we may
keep the date range tentatively between 80 and 70 kya
until a more specific date is obtained.
The present findings would have several implications
in understanding human evolution in South Asia. The
analysis presented above indicates presence of two types
of early archaic hominins to early modern humans in
Narmada Valley during Middle to Late Pleistocene. The
larger hominin was widespread during Middle Pleistocene at lower Surajkund at U1 stratigraphic level 250–
200 kya and hunted mega mammals with typical large
flake Acheulian mode-2 implements. The short and
stocky hominin appeared at the Middle Surajkund level at
~150 kya during later Middle Pleistocene and hunted
relatively small game animals using refined Acheulian
and Middle Palaeolithic mode-3 implements.
The Netankheri humerus (80–70 kya) provides evidence
for an adaptive continuity of the archaic short and stocky
hominins and their evolution during Upper Pleistocene to
early modern H. sapiens, who likely formed the ancestral
substratum for the later short-bodied populations of South
Asia including the pygmies. Thus, the ‘short and stocky’
mode-3 archaic hominins may have been but an early
(Pre-Toba) ‘African import’ to South Asia via the Arabian Peninsula35–37. They might have survived the ‘volcanic winter’38–40 due to unique cultural adaptations, such
as bone tool technology, which could have facilitated
rapid attainment of anatomical modernity15. The recent
mtDNA M signatures >60 kya found in the Munda41,42
inhabiting the eastern/northeastern fringes of Narmada
Valley, who, interestingly also share these signatures
with the Andaman pygmies, likely attest continuity of the
‘short-bodied’ populations. Recent archaeological studies
have demonstrated wide-spread northward43 and southeastward44 expansions of Narmada-like Late Acheulian to
Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hominins. Moreover,
there is considerable anatomical gap between the NTK
humerus (~70 kya) and later Pleistocene (~30 kya) occupants of the Fa Hien cave in Sri Lanka45 as well as DarriI-Kur of northeastern Afghanistan46, which would continue to fuel the debate on ‘continuity’ versus ‘replacement’.
1. Sonakia, A., The skullcap of Early Man and associated mammalian fauna from Narmada Valley alluvium, Hoshangabad area, MP
(India). Rec. Geol. Surv. India, 1984, 113, 159–172.
2. Sankhyan, A. R., Fossil clavicle of a middle Pleistocene hominid
from the Central Narmada Valley, India. J. Hum. Evol., 1997, 32,
3–16; doi:10.1006/jhev.1996.0117.
1468
3. Sankhyan, A. R., A new human fossil find from the Central
Narmada basin and its chronology. Curr. Sci., 1997, 73, 1110–
1111.
4. Sankhyan, A. R., New fossils of Early Stone Age man from
Central Narmada Valley. Curr. Sci., 2005, 88, 704–707.
5. Lumley, M. A. and Sonakia, A., Premiere découverte d’un Homo
erectus sur le continent Indien a Hathnora, dans la moyenne vallée
de la Narmada. L’Anthropologie, 1985, 89, 13–61.
6. Mallasse, A. D., Cranial embryogeny and hominin phylogeny. In
Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution (ed. Sankhyan, A. R.),
Serials Publications, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 103–121.
7. Badam, G. L., Ganjoo, R. K., Salahuddin and Rajaguru, S. N.,
Evaluation of fossil hominin – the maker of Late Acheulean tools
at Hathnora, Madhya Pradesh, India. Curr. Sci., 1986, 55, 143–145.
8. Kennedy, K. A. R., Sonakia, A., Chiment, J. and Verma, K. K.,
Is the Narmada hominin an Indian Homo erectus? Am. J. Phys.
Anthropol., 1991, 86, 475–496.
9. Sankhyan, A. R., The place of Narmada hominin in the jigsaw
puzzle of human origins. Gondwana Geol. Mag. Spl. Publ., 1999,
4, 335–345.
10. Sankhyan, A. R., On the status of Indian hominoid and hominid
fossils. In Status of Prehistoric Studies in the Twenty-first Century
in India, Proceedings of the 15th UISPP Congress, Lisbon (eds
Ray, R. and Jayaswal, V.), BAR International Series 1924,
Archaeopress, England, 2006, pp. 13–23.
11. Kennedy, K. A. R., God-Apes and Fossil Men: The Paleoanthropology of South Asia, The University of Michigan Press, Michigan, 2000.
12. Cameron, D., Patnaik, R. and Sahni, A., The phylogenetic significance of the Middle Pleistocene Narmada hominin cranium from
Central India. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 2004, 14, 419–447.
13. Kennedy, K. A. R., The Narmada fossil hominid. In Human Origins, Genome and People of India (eds Sankhyan, A. R. and Rao,
V. R.), Allied Publishers, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 188–192.
14. Athreya, S., Was Homo heidelbergensis in South Asia? A test
using the Narmada fossil from central India. In The Evolution and
History of Human Populations in South Asia (eds Petraglia, M. D.
and Allchin, B.), Springer Press, New York, 2007, pp. 137–170.
15. Sankhyan, A. R., Pleistocene hominins and associated findings
from Central Narmada Valley bearing on the evolution of man in
South Asia, Ph D dissertation, Panjab University, Chandigarh,
2010.
16. Sankhyan, A. R. and Rao, V. R., Did ancestors of the pygmy or
hobbit ever live in Indian heartland? In Recent Advances on
Southeast Asian Paleoanthropology and Archeology (ed. Indriati,
E.), Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2007, pp.
76–89.
17. van Heteren, A. H. and Sankhyan, A. R., Hobbits and pygmies:
trends in evolution. In Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution
(ed. Sankhyan, A. R.), Serials Publications, New Delhi, 2009, pp.
172–187.
18. Carretero, J. M., Haile-Selassie, Y., Rodríguez, R. and Arsuaga, J.
L., A partial distal humerus from the Middle Pleistocene deposits
at Bodo, Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Anthropol. Sci., 2009, 117, 19–
31; doi:10.1537/ase.070413.
19. Bermudez de Castro, J. M. et al., Early Pleistocene human humeri
from the Gran Dolina-TD6 site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). Am.
J. Phys. Anthropol., 2012, 147, 604–617; doi:10.1002/ajpa.22020.
20. Todd, R. Y. and Churchill, S. E., Archaic and modern human distal humeral morphology. J. Hum. Evol., 2006, 51, 603–616;
doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.07.006.
21. Trinkaus, E., Appendicular robusticity and the paleobiology of
modern human emergence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2007, 94,
13367–13373; doi:10.1073/pnas.94.24.13367.
22. Trinkaus, E. and Ruff, C. B., Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry
of near eastern middle palaeolithic humans: the femur. J.
Archaeol. Sci., 1999, 26, 409–424; www.idealibrary.com
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
23. Churchill, S. E., Endocrine models of skeletal robusticity and the
origins of gracility. In Human Origins, Genome and People of
India (eds Sankhyan, A. R. and Rao, V. R.), Allied Publishers,
New Delhi, 2007, pp. 337–368.
24. Weaver, T. D., The meaning of Neandertal skeletal morphology.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2009, 106, 6028–6033; www.pnas.
org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0903864106
25. Tiwari, M. P. and Bhai, H. Y., Quaternary stratigraphy of the Narmada Valley. Geol. Surv. India, Spl. Publ., 1997, 46, 33–63.
26. Khan, A. A. and Sonakia, A., Quaternary deposits of Narmada
with special reference to the hominid fossil. J. Geol. Soc. India,
1992, 39, 147–154.
27. Badam, G. L. and Sankhyan, A. R., Evolutionary trends in
Narmada fossil fauna. In Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution
(ed. Sankhyan, A. R.), Serials Publications, New Delhi, 2009, pp.
92–102.
28. de Lumley, H. and Sonakia, A., Contexte stratigraphique et
Archéologique de L’Homme de le Narmada, Hathnora, Madhya
Pradesh, Inde. L’Anthropologie, 1985, 89, 3–12.
29. Patnaik, R. et al., New geochronological, paleoclimatological and
Paleolithic data from the Narmada Valley hominin locality, Central India. J. Hum. Evol., 2009, 56, 114–133.
30. Rose, W. I. and Chesner, C. A., Worldwide dispersal of ash and
gases from earth’s largest known eruption: Toba, Sumatra, 75 ka.
Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 1990, 89, 269–275.
31. Chesner, C. A., Rose, W. I., Drake, A. D. R. and Westgate, J. A.,
Eruptive history of earth’s largest Quaternary Caldera (Toba, Indonesia) clarified. Geology, 1991, 19, 200–203.
32. Acharyya, S. K. and Basu, P. K., Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its implications for the correlation of Late Pleistocene
alluvium. Quaternary Res., 1993, 40, 10–19.
33. Westgate, J. A. et al., All Toba tephra occurrences across peninsular India belong to 75000 years BP eruptions. Quaternary Res.,
1998, 50, 107–112.
34. Ganjoo, R. K., Rajaguru, S. N. and Gupta, A., On the problem of
age and genesis of Bhedaghat waterfalls (Jabalpur), Madhya
Pradesh. J. Geol. Soc. India, 1996, 48, 421–425.
35. Petraglia, M. D. and Alsharekh, A., The Middle Paleolithic of
Arabia: implications for modern human origins, behaviour and
dispersals. Research, 2003 (online).
36. James, H. V. A. and Petraglia, M. D., Modern human origins and
the evolution of behavior in the later Pleistocene record of South
Asia. Curr. Anthropol., 2005, 46, 3–27.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012
37. Petraglia, M. D., Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian
subcontinent before and after the Toba super-eruption. Science,
2007, 317, 114–116; doi:10.1126/science.1141564116.
38. Ambrose, S. N., Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks,
volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. J. Hum.
Evol., 1998, 34, 623–651.
39. Oppenheimer, C., Limited global change due to largest known
Quaternary eruption, Toba ~74 kyr BP. Quaternary Sci. Rev.,
2002, 21, 1593–1609.
40. Oppenheimer, C., Ice core and palaeoclimatic evidence for the
great volcanic eruption of 1257. Int. J. Climatol., 2003, 23, 417–
426.
41. Barik, S. S. et al., Detailed mtDNA genotypes permit a reassessment of the settlement and population structure of the Andaman
Islands. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2008, 136, 19–27; doi:10.1002/
ajpa.20773.
42. Chandrasekar, A. et al., Updating phylogeny of mitochondrial
DNA macrohaplogroup M in India: dispersal of modern human in
South Asian corridor. PLoS ONE, 2009, 4, 1–13; www.plosone.
org
43. Sankhyan, A. R., Dewangan, L. N., Chakraborty, S., Prabha, S.,
Kundu, S. and Rao, V. R., A re-look at prehistoric Susunia, West
Bengal. In Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution (ed. Sankhyan,
A. R.), Serials Publications, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 158–162.
44. Sankhyan, A. R., Dewangan, L. N., Sahoo, R. H., Chakravarty, R.
and Chatterjee, R., Early prehistoric signatures of man in Bastar
region, Central India. Curr. Sci., 2011, 101, 1146–1149.
45. Kennedy, K. A. R. and Deraniyagala, S. U., Fossil remains of
28,000 year old hominids from Sri Lanka. Curr. Anthropol., 1989,
30, 394–399.
46. Angel, J. L., A middle Paleolithic temporal bone from Darra-I-kur,
Afghanistan. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., Spl. Issue, 1972, 62, 54–56.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. A.R.S. thanks V. R. Rao, the then Director-in-Charge, Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata, for providing
the necessary facilities, and M. L. K. Murty, V. Shinde, S. R. Walimbe,
Subrata Chakrabarti and S. B. Ota for discussing and examining the
findings. We thank M. P. Tiwari and Yusuf Bhai, Geological Survey of
India for discussions on Narmada stratigraphy in the field.
Received 21 March 2011; revised accepted 14 November 2012
1469