Thread by @HINDprehistory

A list of & some interesting details about Hominid Fossil finds in the Indian subcontinent.

1. The spark was lit in the Narmada Valley in 1982 when A Sonakia discovered this skull fossil

It was initially labelled- The Narmada Man, but as it turns out the fossil was of a woman

This fossil was that of a species then thought of as the Homo Erectus but was later determined to be that of the archaic Homo Sapiens.

This find sparked a lot of interest in anthropology circles and a lot of further excavations were planned starting right from 1983 onwards.

2. Searching the Narmada valley from 1983 onwards, researchers have come across many Hominid bone fossils, totaling at least 15 till 2020. These expeditions were mostly led by A R Sankhyan and his team.

Analysis has showed that the Narmada valley was populated by 2 different Hominid species. The earliest species was of a Robust-Tall stature and inhabited the area from 2.5 lac years ago to 1.5 lac years ago.

The second species was of a Short-Stocky stature, and inhabited the area from 1.5 lac years ago to 1 lac years ago. These people are the probable ancestors of some of the Andamanese and Nicobarese people(not the south east asia back-migration people though).

Interestingly the successors of these short statured peoples also lived through the volcanic winter quite successfully, in the wake of the Toba super volcano eruption of 75k bce. Stone tools found above and below the ash layers in the Narmada valley attest to their survivability.

3. In Tamil Nadu, the fossil of a 5 month old child was found embedded in a hard layer of iron related- ferricrete layer. It was dated to 1.8 lac years ago and the child was named “The Laterite Baby” by the excavator Dr P Rajendran.

4. A Denisovan individual’s remains were found at the Baishiya Karst cave in Tibet which was dated to 1 lac years ago. This was only the first time a Denisovan remain was found outside Siberia.

5. Many Human Burials were found in the Fahien cave in Sri Lanka.Interestingly this cave has also yielded the earliest bow and arrow weaponry outside Africa, dated to 48,000 years ago.

6. The Balankoda Man excavated from Sri Lanka, dating back to 30,000 years ago is another interesting find. Sri Lanka does have a few more human remains dating till ~24,000 years ago.

7. Darra-i-kur in Northern Afghanistan had revealed a fossil dated to about 28-30k bce. Initially in the 1960s, when it was excavated by Louis Dupree, it was thought to be that of a Neanderthal but later analysis revealed it to be of Homo Sapiens.

8. Ape like fossils remains found in Nepal were that of what had been called the God Apes of Siwalik. There were 3 species initially named as “rama”pithecus, “shiva”pithecus & “brahma”pithecus. Today they are all classified under Shivapithecus. They lived 10 million years ago.

These were the very few Hominid fossils found in India, among others in the subcontinent, the lesser number is an indicator of a lack of central government funding leading to lesser expeditions by the Anthropological Survey of India, headquartered at the Indian Museum, Kolkata.