Jwalapuram People Faced Volcanic Ash Before History Began

 Hyderabad: Beneath the rocky terrain of Jwalapuram, a prehistoric site in Nandyal district, Andhra Pradesh, lies evidence that early humans in India survived one of the largest volcanic disasters, said Ravi Korisettar, archaeologist, retired professor, and former head of the department of history and archaeology at Karnataka University.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Prof. Korisettar, who was in the city for an event on Friday, said Jwalapuram people adapted, moved to safer areas, and continued their way of life. This made the site crucial for understanding early human resilience, migration, and survival not just in India but also in a global context.

The volcanic disaster came into the limelight while archaeologists working at Billa Surgam stumbled upon volcanic ash at the Jwalapuram site, which was deposited around 74,000 years ago due to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia. This was evident, as stone tools found both below and above the ash layer allowed for the precise dating of Middle Palaeolithic cultures in the area.

Additional dating methods, including Optically Stimulated Luminescence, as per Prof. Korisettar, confirmed the age of the ash and associated tools. This helped establish dates for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods in the region. Further, a rock shelter at Jwalapuram yielded microliths dating back about 40,000 years, evidencing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

"As a result, Jwalapuram became one of the most important prehistoric sites in India. This site is extremely important for understanding how early humans survived and migrated across the Indian subcontinent, especially during major global natural disasters," said Prof. Korisettar, an excavator at Jwalapuram prehistoric site.

Prof. Korisettar's work included the earliest human settlements, the emergence of agriculture in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, he worked in the Malaprabha Basin, where many Palaeolithic sites were located.

“In 1997, we started a project on the origin of agriculture in south India. Although many Neolithic sites were known between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, earlier studies had mainly identified pottery, stone tools, animal bones, and settlement patterns. We knew that these communities domesticated cattle and used polished stone axes and pottery, but we did not clearly know what food grains they cultivated," he explained.

To ascertain what crops were cultivated and establish a chronology using modern dating techniques, officials initiated a project titled 'Origins of Agricultural Economies in southern India.

"The charred grains recovered from these Neolithic sites were domesticated rather than wild, and radiocarbon dating allowed us to determine when these crops were cultivated. We found evidence that Neolithic communities cultivated two types of millets, including Setaria verticillata and Brachiaria ramosa, and two pulses - green gram and horse gram," he said.