Son and Belan Valleys, India (1980, 1982, 2005)

Abstract

I join a team of Indian and American archaeologists led by Professor G.R. Sharma (University of Allahabad) and Professor Desmond Clark (University of California , Berkeley) to work in the Son and Belan Valleys, north-central India , in 1980 and 1982. On the afternoon of February 5, 1980, geology Honours student Keith Royce and I discover volcanic ash in a cliff section on the left bank of the Son River. This was the first Quaternary ash ever found in India . Later geochemical analyses show that the ash came from a huge explosive eruption of Toba volcano in Sumatra 74,000 years ago. This eruption was probably the largest eruption in the last million years. Debate about its impact continues to rage. We excavate a series of prehistoric sites ranging in age from Neolithic back to Lower Palaeolithic. For the first time, we are able to place the prehistoric sites into a coherent stratigraphic framework. Indian geologists find remains of the Toba ash throughout India . In 2001 and 2003 Brad Pillans (Australian National University ), Rajeev Patnaik (University of Chandigarh) and I help to locate and date sites in the Siwalik Beds of the Himalayan foothills with Indopithecus teeth and other fossils.