The connections go still further out Eastward and into the Western Pacific. This is the time period of the Indonesian and Pacific megalith-builders, and the period seems to have eneded in some sort of a natural catastrophe between 1500 and 1000 BC.




Data from this map incorporated into the generalised map below.

The Australian Aboriginal traditional way of life is much the same as it was for those first tribes Out Of Afriica at 75-80 thousand years ago. They traditionally had spears, spear-throwers, shields, dugout canoes and rafts. they decorated themselves with body paint and scars. They pracriced circimcision and finger and tooth sacrifices. And they used red ochre and made rock art  including dots, lines and wiggles, and on up to representations of common animals and people.




Some of their toolkit was quite advanced. They had partially ground stone tools before such tools were recognised anywhere else, and saw-edged spearheads like harpoon points of Europe. These came out of Africa starting at 100000 BC and when the ancestors of the Aboriginals got into Australia, they were already at a level of development as the first modern people were when they went into Europe approximately 35-40000 BC. In other words, traditional Archaeologists like to think of the first Europeans as an immense step up and think of that pointin time as being a revolution in human thought and mind. The experts are missing the point. The ancestors of the Australians were already at that level when they went into Australia, but probably around twice as long ago.



The various forms of throwing sticks and clubs were oif African design and have African counterparts that are still known in later ages



                                    
I am not insisting that they came into Australia already knowing how to do all of their rock art, but it would seem they were already decorating things with dots and lines, that part probably came along with them. and since some of the edge-ground stone tools seem to have been agricultural implements, it seems that the ancestors came in with at least a basic understanding of Tropical Agriculture (Vegeculture) which they either lost or gave up over the long stretches of more recent time.

These are reproductions of my 1990 manuscript on Atlantis I was showing around to various authors. Toward the end of this section I give inventories of what I thought the material culture of Sundaland was like. Where it says 50 thousand years ago, the beginning date would be more like 60-65 thousand years ago.

The L3 Mitochondrial DNA group is the one identified as producing the Out of Africa Tribe.

Development of Y-Chromosome haplogroups outside of Africa. The two groups that seem to be involved in Atlantic Crossings are Q and R, with the Q group probably Solutean and R1A associated with the Neolithic asnd Megalith-Builders

Cavalli-Sforza Genetics distances map

Migration of modern humans into Europe, based on simulation by Currat & Excoffier (2004)^[27](YBP=Years Before Present)

Up to 37,500 YBP	Up to 35,000 YBP
Up to 32,500 YBP	Up to 30,000 YBP

Based on the same Wikipedia article. This uses about the standard dating for the crucial Gottweig  interglacial when Neanderthals radically decreased and CroMagnons radically increased in Europe to gain the virtually complete control of it. These maps are generalised and do not incorporate new conflicting data which indicate a separate colonisation through NW Africa to Italy.(>"Grimaldi Man"?).

The note above these maps reads:

Anatomically modern humans first emerged in East Africa, some 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. An exodus from Africa over the Arabian Peninsula around 60,000 [nearer 70,000] years ago brought modern humans to Eurasia, with one group rapidly settling coastal areas around the Indian Ocean and one group migrating north to steppes of Central Asia.^[25] A mitochondrial DNA sequence of two Cro-Magnons from the Paglicci Cave, Italy, dated to 23,000 and 24,000 years old (Paglicci 52 and 12), identified the mtDNA as Haplogroup N, typical of the latter group.^[26] The inland group is the founder of North and East Asians (the "Mongol" people), Caucasoids and large sections of the Middle East and North African population. Migration from the Black Sea area into Europe started some 45,000 years ago, probably along the Danubian corridor. By 20,000 years ago, modern humans had reached the Western margin of the continent.
Main article: Anatomically modern humans
 

 Going along with this is the opinion expressed by Richard Klien in The Dawn of Human Culture which proposes a theory for the "big bang" in human consciousness, an event that occurred about 50,000 years ago for reasons that are not entirely clear. The archaeological record suggests that humans became physically modern Homo sapiens about 120,000 years ago.  However, judging by culture and behaviour is a different matter. The authors present a very strong case that whatever it is that makes us fully "human" did not appear until about 50,000 years ago. At about that time, people suddenly started engaging in recognizably modern behaviors--producing stunning cave paintings, carving figurines, making complex ornaments, burying their dead with ritual, building semi-permanent structures, assembling an intricate tool kit, and expanding throughout the world. The authors readily concede that there are a few ambiguous examples of similar behavior among more ancient Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens, but the change after 50,000 years ago is a flood compared to the trickle that came before it. Quoting from the dust jacket's back flap:

Some fifty thousand years ago Homo sapiens, the newest branch of a long and varied tree of evolved apes, suddenly developed a remarkable range of new talents. These people-whose primitive stone culture had previously been little different from that of their ancestors-began painting. They invented music and the instruments to play it. They fashioned jewelry and clothing, created fishing poles and tackle as well as bows and arrows, constructed the oldest substantial houses, and buried their dead with ritual and ceremony. This creative explosion, occurring over such a remarkably short period, has been called the "big bang" of human culture.
http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Human-Culture-Richard-Klein/dp/0471252522 

Now this "50000 years ago" is basically just the estimated date for the invasion of Europe plus a generous allowance for people to get their act together before going into Europe. (This is figured as taking the estimates of 40000 years ago for the oldest modern H. sapiens settlements in Europe, going on the oldest radiocarbon dates, and factoring in an undocumented earlier 10000 years for estimated earlier development)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity

Behavioral modernity

Homo sapiens arrived earlier in Europe than previously known

Original Article

by George Weber
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/ch1_intro/text1.htm

Toba Volcano: 1. Introduction

When Toba volcano in western Sumatra erupted 73,000 +/- 4000 years ago it was (and still is) the largest volcanic cataclysm to have taken place on planet earth for the last 28 million years.

The eruption happened at a crucial time in the development of anatomically modern humans. We will explore how, whether and to what extent the Toba eruption and its climatic aftermath has influenced the development and spread of modern Homo sapiens.

Therefore, the last Toba eruption (also called the YTT event for "Younger Toba Tuff", see chapter 3 below) is of enormous scientific and general interest. This article attempts to give an overview and introduction to the subject, based on the ongoing work of many scientists in many fields. It is also hoped that the article will raise interest among both lay people and scientists in the subject.



Fig. 1-1. Toba eruption compared to other major eruptions.





The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is used to classify eruptions:

VEI	Plume height	DRE estimated volume expelled	Class name	Example
0	<100 m	>1000 cu m	Hawaiian	Kilauea, repeated
1	100 - 1000 m	>10,000 cu m	Hawaiian / Strombolian	Stromboli, repeated
2	1 - 5 km	>1 million cu m	Strombolian /Volcanian	Galeras 1992
3	3 - 15 km	>10 million cu m	Volcanian	Ruiz 1985
4	10 - 25 km	>100 million cu m	Volcanian / Plinian	Galunggung 1822
5	>25 km	>1 cu km	Plinian	Mt. St. Helens 1980
6	>25 km	>10 cu km	Plinian / Ultra-Plinian	Krakatoa 1883
7	>25 km	>100 cu km	Ultra-Plinian	Tambora 1815
8	>25 km	>1000 cu km	Ultra-Plinian	Toba 73,000 years ago

Remarks:
4. Killed 4,000 local people directly
5. Killed 57 local people directly
6. Earthquakes and streams drying up observed and distant rumblings heard in the Andamans;killed ca. 36,000 people, mostly through tidal wave along the Java coast
7. Killed 12,000 local people directly and more than 80,000 worldwide through starvation (crop failures in the "Year without Summer")


Fig. 1-2. Major volcanoes of Indonesia (with eruptions since the year 1900 CE.
Many of the most active and dangerous volcanoes on earth are in Indonesia. Only those active since 1900 are shown in the map above. Toba is not shown since it has not been active since 1900. The long line of volcanoes along the Indonesian island arc (which also includes Narcondam and Barren island volcanoes east of the Andaman islands not shown on the map) is the result of plate tectonics: to the west of Sumatra, the Indo-Australian below the Indian Ocean is pushing towards the Sumatra (see maps below).

Fig. 1-2b. The location of Toba volcano.

Fig. 1-3. The deep Java trench marks the line where the Indo-Australian plate subducts, i.e. slips under, the section of the Eurasian plate on which Indonesia sits. While sinking, the Indo-Australian plate heats up and its water content turns to superheated steam under enormous pressure.. Prodigious energies are generated and a part of these energies are released by the volcanoes on the fault line. The speed of that push is 70 mm (2.75 in.) per year, adding up to more than 5 km (3.1 miles) in the 73,000 years since the last major Toba eruption.

.

Plate 1-4. Plates moving above and below each other create volcanoes and earthquakes



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Last changed 1 February 2006

Original Article

by George Weber

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/ch2_today/textr2.htm

Toba Volcano: 2. The Sleeping Giant

---

Where the cataclysmic events of 73,000 years ago took place, there is now an idyllic landscape with a picturesque lake at its centre. The area has great beauty, friendly locals and many potential tourist attractions. Only the occasional slight tremor, or puff of smoke and a few hot springs give a tiny hint of the violence that is lurking below. In fact,

Toba is likely to have been the place where modern Homo sapiens most dangerous and fiercest struggle for survival began. Countless other species faced the same trial - and many did not make it. Our ancestors did.



Fig. 2-1. Today's topography around Lake Toba, the site of the last major Toba eruption 73,000 years ago.





Fig. 2-2. The eruption of 73,000 years ago left the Sibandung caldera. Lake Toba is surrounded by two small, active volcanos as well as several updomed areas and hot springs. These features indicate that there is activity below the surface today and that pressure is rising. Samosir island, too, is evidence for upthrust from below. From the record it seems that Toba produces major eruptions every 300-400,000 years and that it will erupt again - but not any time soon.

Volcanic features in and around Lake Toba today: grey area Present-day topographic depression green area Updomed areas 1 Sibandung caldera: made 73,000 years ago by the Toba YTT event (Young Toba Ash) 2 Haranggaol caldera: made 500,000 years ago by the Toba MTT event (Middle Toba Ash) 3 Sibandung caldera: made 800,000 years ago by the Toba OTT event (Old Toba Ash) The MTT and OTT events were not as large as the YTT event of 73,000 years ago but were still major eruptions of at least VEI 7. V1 Tandukbenua (Sipisopiso) - young dacit-andesite volcano V2 Pusubukit volcano - young dacit-andesite volcano D1 Pardepur dacite domes D2 Tuk-tuk rhyolite dome HS Hot springs

Special feature: Lake Toba in "virtual photographs"
Prof. Dr. William Bowen
California Geographical Survey
10907 Rathburn Avenue
Northridge, CA 91326, USA
has kindly allowed us to publish the following three spectacular panoramic displays of Lake Toba.
THE ANDAMAN ASSOCIATION
19th February 2005
The professor has this to say on his web-site http://geogdata.csun.edu/world_atlas/index.html about the technical background of these usunusal "photographs" that are not photographs:
The technical details behind the creation of this archive of panoramic maps are fairly simple to understand. First of all, it is important to realize that the panoramas are not photographs. They are photorealistic mathematical simulations created from satellite data that have been interpreted by computer calculations. The data are derived from United States government resources available on the Web. The principal sources for topographic relief information are digital elevation models created by the United States Geological Survey or by the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM ) http://srtm.usgs.gov. Individual data quadrilaterals have been merged into larger fields, rather like a chessboard. Over this three dimensional surface is subsequently draped one or more georeferenced satellite images. Although any useful imagery can be used, my favourites are Landsat 7 (http://www.earthsat.com) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov.
The result is a three dimensional, mathematical model over which a virtual camera may be positioned to create a single panoramic map or a series of images the may be used to create animated "flights."
Many computer applications exist that do this. My favourite is the creation of Mr. Brett Casebolt, whose company Natural Graphics (http://www.naturalgfx.com/index.htm) produces an outstanding program called Natural Scene Designer Pro. Not only is the program a marvel to use, it is the product of a creative mind that is constantly improving it. This application runs on both Macintosh and Windows computers. I prefer to use a Macintosh G4 and a G5 equipped with dual processors. I also use Adobe Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/) for graphic editing.
I encourage all who study the earth to investigate this new way of seeing the planet on which we temporarily reside. Like the telescope and the microscope before it, this new "toy" for viewing our world from many new vantage points will reshape the way we see reality.
This atlas was created for the Web using RapidWeaver, a fantastically inexpensive and easy to use Macintosh OSX program for creating websites produced by realmac software (http://www.realmacsoftware.com/)
I am not particularly enchanted in technology for its own sake. Neither is my work supported by government agencies or private benefactors. I am a retired professor, a geographer whose goal is to see and better understand landscapes. The tools I have chosen are exceptionally inexpensive and efficient. I recommend them.

Fig. 2-3. Lake Toba today:, an idyllic scene

Fig. 2-4. A satellite picture of Lake Toba

Fig. 2-5. Lake Toba developed its characteristic geography during the last 73,000 years as shown (highly simplified) here.

Over millions of years, magma rises from below; a volcanic cone develops on the surface and this pressure rises rises until the volcano explodes in a major eruption.
(Toba: 73,000 +/- 4,000 years ago). The eruption exhausts itself when pressure from below is relieved. A depression forms which is gradually filled with rainwater and forms a lake some thousands of years after the eruption has ended.

But magma pressure begins to rise again from below and an island is pushed up in the lake. This is the situation today.





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The mount Toba event

Original Article

By George Weber

Toba Volcano 3. The Big One: Toba Explodes

Prior to the eruption of 73,000 years ago, Toba had produced at least two earlier major eruptions 800,000 and 500,000 years ago. The earlier outbreaks were not as large as the colossal eruption of 73,000 years ago which is the only eruption of class VEI 8 to have taken place since primates have appeared on planet earth. The famous Krakatoa eruption (also near Sumatra) of 1883 was a minor event by comparison. The following charts and drawing try to illustrate the sequence of events of the eruption 73,000 years ago.

JANUARY (northern Winter)

JULY (northern Summer)

Fig 3-1. The monsoonal and trade wind systems (shown below for January and July) at the time of the YTT event 73,000 years ago are thought to have been fairly similar to those of today. The cone of the YTT fall-out zone is oriented in a west-north-westerly direction, in line with the high level wind systems of the troposphere. Only the Summer monsoon could have caused Toba ash to fall in the South China Sea, implying that the eruption took place sometime during the northern Summer (ref. Bühring C. et al., 2000). It has also been estimated that the eruption lasted around 9-14 days (ref. Ledbetter M. et al, 1979).

__Likely fall-out area for ash as affected be the seasonal wind systems __High-level wind system (largely unaffected by the seasons) __ Surface level wind system (strongly affected by the seasons)

X Location of Toba ash found in the South China Sea 1 Andaman islands 2 Nicobar islands 3 Mentawei island

The Toba YTT event and the Andaman and Nicobar islands The Andaman and Nicobar islands were deep within the main fallout cone of the Summer-time YTT event . Life on them must have been largely destroyed in the course of that event and its aftermath. No evidence of a Toba ash layer on the islands is known (Indian Geological Survey please note and publish). However, it can be taken for granted that an event that covered much of India with 3-6 m of ash (ref. ¬ÝAcharya, S.A. and Basu P.K., 1993) and parts of Malaysia with 9 m (ref. Scrivenor J.B. 1931) will have dumped at least similar quantities of ash on the islands, wiping out all plant and animal life there. This means that Toba gives us an "earliest date" from which the present unusual environment on the islands could have developed ( environmentalists, botanists, zoologists, please note). Homo sapiens , of course, arrived in the Andaman islands much later than 73,000 years ago. Recent genetic work (Endicott et al. 2003) has dated the coalescent process of the mtDNA lineage M2 of haplogroup M of the Andamanese Negrito people to 63,000 +/- 6,000 years ago and the Andamanese M4 lineage to 32,000+/-7,500 years. These dates do not tell us when the ancestral Andamanese actually reached the islands. They must have survived the YTT event somewhere on the mainland of Asia, Sundaland upwind from Toba, or Africa. The Negrito are thought to have been the earliest modern Homo sapiens to reach (or survive Toba in) Asia. They settled the Andaman islands either after the coalescence of the genetic M4 lineage or the coalescence took place somewhere on the Asian mainland with colonization of the islands following later. Whether there have ever been Negritos in the Nicobars is unknown but is now thought unlikely on genetic grounds. The islands were settled relatively recently (some few thousand years ago) by Mon-Khmer speaking Mongolid people, mostly from mainland Asia with some lesser components from Indonesian groups.

The Toba YTT event and Mentawei island In the controversy over the magnitude of the Toba YTT event, the remarkable and ancient biodiversity of Mentawei island has been used as an argument to show that the YTT event could not have been as large as claimed (Gathorne-Hardy F.J. et al., 2003). The argument is that a large Toba eruption would have destroyed that diversity. Mentawei island is only 350 km southwest of Toba. Indeed, the island must have had a very close shave - but it was saved by the northern Summer monsoon (see Fig. 3-1 above) (ref. Ambrose S.H., 2003). Had Toba erupted during the northern Winter, Mentawei biodiversity would probably have been destroyed.

Fig. 3-2. Effect of wind direction and height on fallout pattern. The eruption column would certainly have gone right through the troposphere and high into the stratosphere. Some of the erupting ash would have been boosted by the thermal buoyancy of superheated gases, hurtling its ash load nearly straight up to the upper stratosphere (ref. Rose W.I. et al., 1990).

^__High-level wind system (largely unaffected by the seasons)
^__ Surface level wind system (strongly affected by the seasons)

X Location of Toba ash found in the South China Sea

JANUARY (northern Winter)

JULY (northern Summer)

¬ÝIt has been estimated that the YTT event (at the very least) has produced ejecta of 2,800 cu. km. Some researchers consider this as an under-estimate. The total is thought to be made up of the following components (ref. Rose W.I. et al., 1990):

Lava flows - Lava flows of 1,000 cu. km, covering an area on Sumatra reaching from coast to coast of 20,000 to 30,000 sq. km and between 50 to 150 m (sometimes up to 400 m) thick near the caldera and approximately 50 m thick on average. The temperature of the lava before eruption was around 750^oC. The temperature of the emerging material at the time it came to rest is thought to have been around 550^oC and within a few days cooled to around 100^oC - but below the surface it remained hot much longer.



Fig. 3-3. The lava fields produced by the YTT event on Sumatra. Adapted from ref. Rose W.I et al, 1990.








Ignimbrite in the caldera - Ignimbrite in the caldera of 1,000 cu. km, covering an area of 2,500 sq. km and on average 400 m thick.

Pyroclastic ash fall - Pyroclastic ash fall of 800 cu. km at a thickness of 10 cm averaged over the entire earth. It has been noted that where located, the fall deposits show little decrease in thickness and grain size with distance from Toba so that the deposit can perhaps be traced much further than the current limit at 3,100 km in central India. If so, the 800 cu. km estimate may be much less than the actual value.

Sulphuric acid - In addition, it is thought that the staggering amount of 10¹⁰ metric tons of H₂SO₄ (sulphuric acid) was blown into the atmosphere by the YTT event (Huang et al. 2001).

Using an eruption time of 9-14 days (ref. Rose W.I., 1990) with an eruption volume of 2,800 cu. km, an average eruption rate of 8 x 10¹² g/s has been calculated - 8 million metric tons of material per second (ref. Rose W.I., 1990).

The areas directly affected by ash fall from the Toba explosion must be speculative but one site (red 6 in the map below) in central India, for example, today has a thickness of no less than 6 m (20 ft) (ref. Acharya S.K. et al., 1993). It is possible that this thickest of deposits found so far represents an accumulation of wind-blown or water-driven ash, but even if it does, most of Southeast Asia, parts of Sunda, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, along with all of the the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka were covered in deep ash. Such a heavy fall would have exterminated most plant and animal life in the affected areas. The deepness of the ash reduces gradually towards the west but can still be expected to have been substantial in the Middle East and parts of East Africa. That ash layers attributable to the Toba eruption of 73,000 years ago have not been located so far west of the Indo-Pakistani coast but this is probably because few have been specifically looking for it. The ash layers are also likely to thin out west of the Middle East and are consequently are harder to locate and identify.

Ash from the YTT can be unambiguously assigned to Toba through its characteristic chemical composition. There is no question of confusing Toba YTT ash layers with layers laid down by eruptions from other volcanoes (of which there is no shortage in the area).

Toba ash has been dated using theK-Ar, the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and oxygen isotope/biostratigraphic methods. The abrupt drop in sea water temperature was determined with the oxygen isotope (O¹⁸/O¹⁶) method. The diverse methods used on a variety of Toba materials are in rough agreement as to the dating of the event: it definitively took place sometime between 77,000 and 69,000 years ago.



Fig. 3-4. Traces of the last Toba eruption and predominant sea surface currents today. With the possible exception of the seasonally reversible currents on both sides of the Indian subcontinent, these currents were the same 73,000 years ago as they are today.
Archaeological sites with tools and bones lying below Toba ash (and therefore older than 73,000 years) are red numbers 1 (in Malaysia) as well as 5, 7, 8 and 10 (in India) in the map below. Also shown as thick red lines are the shores that (based on the predominant sea currents) are likely to have received major amounts of floating pumice material if the volcano did indeed expel such material into the sea. Pumice floats are an idea contributed to the ongoing discussion by Mr. Tim Gillin of Australia. No such finds have yet been made - possibly because no one has been looking for them on in the right places yet. The beaches of 73,000 years ago are now below sea level and difficult to locate and even more difficult to excavate. Pumice is a very light, prorous, froth-like volcanic glass that floats on water. In a major eruption it could have covered large areas of water and drifted considerable distances, carrying possible animal and plant life to distant shores. The YTT event was big enough for lava streams to reach the sea at both the east and west coasts of Sumatra (ref. Rose W.I. et al., 1990). There is no reason, therefore, why pumice in large quantities could not also have been produced and reached the sea - through direct evidence for this has not been found yet.¬Ý






Ilimits the area in which Toba fallout (YTT) has been found or where substantial amounts
of fallout are likely to have been deposited.
Iindicates likely locations of Toba pumice floats washed up on beaches
1 red numbers: traces of Toba ash found on land (for details see list below)
1blue numbers: traces of Toba ash found at the bottom of the sea (for details see list below)


Fig 3-5. Ocean currents in the Indian Ocean
(dotted lines are complex currents in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea that reverse seasonally, basically clockwise in Winter and anticlockwise in Summer)

The thickness and other relevant information on some Toba ash layers (ref. ¬ÝAcharya, S.A. and Basu P.K., 1993):

Land sites with archaeological finds 1 Tampan, in Malaysia, Toba ash layer 1.55-3.0 m (5-10 ft.) thick, mid-palaeolithic, acheuleen-type tools found below the YTT layer (further downriver from the Tampon site, at the junction of the Pelus and Perak Rivers 9 m of Toba ash has been reported by Scrivenor J.B. 1931) 5 Vansadhara, in India, Toba ash layer 0.5-1.5 m (4.1-16.4 ft.) thick, mid-palaeolithic, acheuleen-type tools found below the YTT layer 7 Son, in India, Toba ash layer 1.5-3.0 m (1.6-5 ft.) thick, fossil bones and stone tools found below the YTT layer 8 Narmada, in India, Toba ash layer 0.4-0.8 m (1.3-2.6 ft.) thick, fossil bones and stone tools found below the YTT layer 10 Kukdi, in India, Toba ash layer 0.2-1.0 m (0.6-2.3 ft.) thick, mid-palaeolithic, acheuleen-type tools found below the YTT layer

Land sites without archaeological finds: 2Bogra, India, 0.5 m (1.6 ft.) 3 Barakar, India, 2 m (6.5 ft.) 4Mahanadi, India, 1.5-3.0 m (5-10 ft.) 6 Vansadhara, 1.5-6.0 m (5-20 ft.) 9 Sagileru, 0.3-2.0 m (1.0-6.5 ft.) 10 Kukdi, 0.2-1.0 m (0.6-2.3 ft.)

The substantial difference between the measured thicknesses of Toba layers on land (red) and on the sea floor (blue) is largely due to bioturbation of the sea floor. Bottom-dwelling sea animals disturb and re-distribute the ash layers far more efficiently than land animals. Moreover, sea animals were far less likely to have been killed by the ash fall itself. Bioturbation re-distributes the ash upwards and downwards, mixing it with adjacent matter. This makes measuring the thickness of ash layers at the bottom of the sea more difficult and less precise.

Sea sites: 1 2.5 cm (1 in.) 2 3.5 cm (1.3 in.) 3 40 cm (15 in.) 4 3 cm (1.1 in.) 5 12 cm (4.7 in.) 6 11 cm (4.3 in.) 7 8 cm (3.1 in.) 8 15 cm (5.9 in.)

9 7 cm (2.7 in.) 10 2 cm (0.8 in.) 11 9 cm (3.5 in.) 12 3 cm (1.1 in.) 13 11 cm (4.3 in.) 14 9 cm (3.5 in.) 15 10 cm (3.9 in.) 16 2 cm (0.8 in.)

What are the chances that Toba will explode again? The slow movement of geological plates that create volcanoes like Toba continues to build up pressure. A new explosion is sure to come but it will not happen any time soon and none of us will be around to witness it. Based on Toba's past, we can expect the next major event in 300,000 to 500,000 years from now.

While Toba is no threat to human survival for the foreseeable future, there are other volcanoes that have not produced major eruptions for a long time and that may well have a similar potential for destruction. Life has always been a dangerous business on this beautiful and unpredictable planet of ours. While humanity as a whole is not doing too badly at the moment, there are a lot of dangers that with all of our technology we do not even come close to controlling. Volcanism is one of them, and the Toba YTT event provides the best illustration of what a truly major eruption can do to mankind and its property values.

To finish this chapter on a note of optimism rather than doom: Homo sapiens has come though the Toba YTT event, Homo sapiens will also make it through the next VEI8 event. Somehow.



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Last changed 1 February 2006

Original Article

By George Weber

Toba Volcano 4. Aftermath: Climate and Environment

Ice samples from drilling cores are used to establish the chemical composition of ancient atmospheres (especially the content of greenhouse gases) as well as the temperatures of past climates. In Greenland for more than hundred thousand years, snow has fallen regularly every year - and not melted again. This has created a virtually unbroken sequence of layers that can be analysed. Most famously the data comes from the "North Greenland Ice Core Project" whose latest core published in 2004 is more than 3 km long and covers the last 123,000 years (ref. North Greenland Ice Core Project Members, 2004, Nature 431:147-151). One of the most important ways to establish the climate fluctuations of the past is the "Oxygen Isotope" method in which the relative abundance of O16 and O18 isotopes in air bubbles trapped in the snow/ice are compared. The abundance depends on the temperature of the cloud from which the snow has fallen long ago. The notation for this is "delta-O": Distinctive warm and cold periods called "Oxygen Isotope Stages" (OIS) have been established with the method. Those relevant to our subject are listed here: OIS 1 - 12,000 years ago until today (warm) OIS 2 - 45,000 to 12,000 years ago (cold) OIS 3 - 63,000 to 45,000 years ago (warm) OIS 4 - 73,000 to 63,000 years ago (cold) OIS 5 - 130,000 to 74,000 years ago (warm) OIS 6 - 190,000 to 130,000 years ago (cold)

It is to be expected that a volcanic eruption of VEI8 magnitude would have a major effect on local and world climate, possibly for an extended period of time. What precisely were the climatic changes caused by Toba, how long have they lasted and how much did they affect life on earth? The following charts, adapted from scientific literature, try to give an answer to these questions.

Fig. 4-1. The climatic effects caused by the Toba YTT event show up far more strongly in the northern hemisphere. Though relatively close to the equator, Toba did erupt into the northern hemisphere which, moreover, is more sensitive to such events than the southern half . The northern hemisphere has more land in relation to sea area than the south and this means that the climatic buffering provided by the sea is reduced in the northern half. (Physical world map curtesy of Natural History Museum). Numbers refer to the relevant illustrations in this chapter 4,e.g. "2" refers to Fig 4-2)

Fig. 4-2. Volcanic eruptions over the past 600 years have produced evidence that volcanoes do indeed cause "volcanic winters". For example, the Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in 1991 ejected in the region of "only" 4 sq. km of ash which resulted in a brief world-wide cooling of between 0.5 and 0.7^oC (ref. Dutton et al. 1992, Huang et al., 2001). Similar effects have been found in other recent eruptions. While volcanic eruptions are not, of course, the sole cause for climatic anomalies, it is notable that during the last 600 years they have been responsible for all the larger anomalies. The famous "Years without Summer" following the Tambora eruption of 1815 is clearly visible in the chart above (although it is not the deepest ). The relationship between the size of an eruption and the following climatic effects is a complex one and depends, among other things, on the geographic location and the season during which the eruption takes place. It is also noticeable that none of the climatic effects lasted more than a few years even following VEI7 events . The situation , however, is quite different with very large eruptions of VEI8 class. (Chart and following table adapted from ref. Briffa K.R. et al., 1998).

No.	Year	Volcano	Region	VEI class	Dating method(if not historical)	Season1 - Dec-Feb 2 - Mar-May 3 - Jun-Aug 4 - Sep-Nov
1	1450	Aniakchak	USA (Alaska)	5(?)	C14	?
2	1452	Kuwae	Vanuatu, SW Pacific	6		?
3	1471	Sakura-Jima	Japan	5(?)		(3 years)
4	1477	Bardarbunga (Veidivotn)	Iceland	5)?)		1
5	1480	St. Helens	USA (Washington)	5		?
6	1482	St. Helens	USA (Washington)	5	Dendrochronology	?
7	1580	Billy Mitchell	Bougainville, SW Pacific	6	C14	?
8	1586	Kelut	Indonesia (Java)	5(?)		?
9	1593	Raung	Indonesia (Java)	5(?)		?
10	1600	Huaynaputina	Peru	6(?)		1
11	1640	Komaga-Take	Japan	5		3
12	1641	Parker	Philippines	6		1
13	1660	Long Island	New Guinea	6		?
14	1663	Usu	Japan	5		3
15	1667	Shikotsu (Tarumai)	Japan	5		4
16	1673	Gamkonora	Indonesia (Halmahera)	5(?)		2
17	1680	Tongkoko	Indonesia (Sulawesi/Celebes)	5(?)		?
18	1707	Fuji	Japan	5		1
19	1739	Shikotsu (Tarumai)	Japan	5		3
20	1800	St. Helens	USA (Washington)	5	Dendrochronology	1
21	1815	Tambora	Indonesia (Sumbawa)	7		2
22	1835	Cosiguina	Nicaragua	5		1
23	1853	Chikurachki	Far Eastern Russia (Kuril islands)	5(?)		1
24	1854	Sheveluch	Far Eastern Russia (Kamchatka)	5		1
25	1883	Krakatoa	Indonesia (between Java and Sumatra)	6		3
26	1886	Okataina (Tarawera)	New Zealand	5		3
27	1902	Santa Maria	Guatemala	6(?)		4
28	1907	Ksudach	Far Eastern Russia (Kamchatka)	5		2
29	1912	Novarupta (Katmai)	USA (Alaska)	6		1
30	1932	Azul, Cerro (Quizapu)	Chile	5		2
31	1956	Bezymianny	Far Eastern Russia (Kamchatka)	5		2
32	1980	St. Helens	USA (Washington)	5		2
33	1982	El Chichon	Mexico	5		2
34	1991	Pinatubo	Philippines	5		3

In 1815 an eruption of Tambora (no. 21 above) killed 12,000 people through a tidal wave that destroyed many coastal villages. It also caused at least 80,000 people to die through famine in the northern hemisphere. The 40 cu. km of ash that this VEI7 eruption blew into the earth's atmosphere caused "the Years without Summer" in 1816-18, with widespread crop failure and famine. Pre-industrial Europe was then still suffering from the devastation brought on by the Napoleonic wars and that, of course, aggravated the situation. The climate change affected the northern half more than the southern which was then much more sparsely populated than the north. One fact stands out: the Tambora eruption produced "only" 40 cu. km of ash yet it influenced the world climate over several years. Toba blew at least 16 times more ash into the atmosphere as well as a vast amount of sulphuric acid, and that its debris reached much higher levels, staying in the atmosphere much longer. Particles blown into stratosphere could have remained there for centuries, even millennia, blocking and altering the influx of solar energy to the lower atmosphere.

There is good and growing evidence that the YTT event has done just that (ref. Zielinski G.A. et al., 1996, Zielinski, 2000). The surface sea level temperatures in the South China Sea dropped by 1^oC for 1000 years (Huang C.Y. et al. 2001) and the average atmospheric surface temperature in the northern hemisphere cooled by 3-5^oC for several years (Rose W.I. et al., 1990; Rampino M.R. et al., 2001). The following figure shows that YTT was indeed followed by an ice age of considerable intensity and long duration. Moreover, Greenland ice cores have produced evidence of a rapid and enormous cooling event in the northern hemisphere at the time of the YTT event : the air temperature in Greenland dropped by 16^oC within 160 years and then rose again slowly (ref. Lang C. 1999). The high-resolution pollen record from Grand Pile in France also shows the rapid onset of cold, dry steppe conditions at around 70,000 years ago (ref. Woillard G.M., 1978; and Woillard G.M. et al., 1982). It is also notable that the fossil record along the southern Mediterranean shows an abrupt replacement of the Afro-Arabian by a palaeo-arctic biotic community at precisely the boundary between the isotope stage 5 and 4 (ref. Tchernow E., 1992a and 1992b). Included in this exchange of biota, incidentally, was also the replacement of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) by the more cold-adapted Homo neanderthalensis in the Mediterranean area.



Fig 4-3. Indication of climatic conditions based on the the ¹⁸O/¹⁶O isotope curve from 15 deep sea cores taken from the Indian Ocean west and northeast of Sumatra. The OIS (Oxygen Isotope Stages) are a convenient way to identify the long climate records of the pleistocene. The various methods used to construct ancient climates vary in their results (climate being a very complex set of more or less interdependent values) but they roughly agree on the sequence of cold and warm periods and on their approximate dates. Note the remarkable similarities between Fig. 4-3 (Oxygen isotope, Sumatra) with Fig. 4-4 (pollen analysis, Italy). Both methods are quite different, yet both show cooling to have started sometime before the YTT event. (Chart adapted from Ninkovic D. et al., 1978).



Fig. 4-4. Another indicator of climatic conditions is based on botanical data (expressed as percentages), in this case the number of tree taxonomic groups flourishing around Lake Monticchio in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. (Chart adapted from Stringer Ch. et al., 2001).





Fig. 4-5. A pollen count from the Grand Pile peat bog (near Belfort in eastern France). The similarity of the pollen count curve to the previous Fig. 4-4 is notable. (Chart adapted from Woillard G.M., 1976;, and Woillard G.M. et al., 1981).


Fig. 4-6. The YTT event erupted vast amounts of climate-forcing sulphuric compounds (above all H₂SO₄, sulphuric acid) into the atmosphere where aerosols formed that increased atmospheric opacity and caused surface cooling. Greenland ice cores on the other side of the world show a spectacular spike of SO₄^2- (the largest of the last 110,000 years!) of sulphuric acid. That the spike is of volcanic origin was demonstrated by measuring its electroconducitivity (ECM). At the same time, no characteristic ash particles could be found in filtered meltwater samples from the acidity peak, suggesting a distant source. All these pointers plus the dating of the event leave little doubt that this is the signature of the Toba YTT event (ref. Rampino M.R. at al., 2000). In Greenland, the sulphuric acid spike was followed by a marked cooling event lasting at least 1,000 years. (Chart adapted from Zielinski G.A.,1996 ).





Fig. 4-7. Traces of Toba in the Greenland ice. The blue line shows a record representing sea level changes. The black line shows a 10,000-year smoothed oxygen isotope profile, representing the climate changes. Toba here is clearly not at the beginning of a cold period but about half-way through, apparently accelerating and deepening it. The climatic downturn intensified by the Toba YTT eruption was a world-wide event. (Chart adapted from Andersen K.K. et al. North Greenland Ice Core Project, 2004).

Fig. 4-8. That the cooling caused by Toba also affected the northern Pacific was revealed with GRAPE (Gamma Ray Attenuation Porosity Evaluator). This is a method originally developed for oil prospecting; it measures the attenuation of gamma rays passed through a sample core, giving information on ancient sedimentation and climatic conditions at the time of deposition. The data produced by GRAPE correlates remarkably well with the GRIP data from distant Greenland, indicating that the Toba YTT event affected the climate of the entire northern hemisphere. The two sites for GRIP are at 50^o 21.8' N, 167^o 36.0 E (Site 882) and 51^o 11.9' N, 167^o 46.1 E (Site 883), off the east coast of Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia and southwest of Attu island in the Aleut chain, off Alaska. (Chart adapted from ref. Kotilainen A.T. et al., 1995).

Fig. 4-9. A wide variety of proxy data reflecting climatic conditions between 101,000 and 65,0000 years ago. (Chart adapted from Brauer A. et al. 2000).

Grey bars indicate stadials before the onset of full glacial conditions.		LM = oxygen isotope stage (OIS)
AP - arboreal pollen data		M IS - marine isotope stage
DD = Dry density (grain size indicates maximum grain size of minerogenic detritus)		NAP - non-arboreal pollen data
GRIP - Greenland ice project		TOC - total organic carbon

1-8	Climate proxy data from the Lago Grande de Monticchio in the Basilicata region of southern Italy
9	Arboreal pollen data (ref. Allen et al., 1999)
10	Oxygen isotope stages
11	Oxygen isotope climate proxy data from the Pacific Ocean core V19-29, off the coast of Ecuador (refs. Pisias et al., 1984; Martinson et al., 1987)
12	Oxygen isotope climate proxy data from the Greenland ice core (ref. Johnsen et al ., 1992)

Fig. 4-10. All figures shown so far (with the exception of column 11 in Fig. 4-9 above) have been based on measurements made in the northern hemisphere. Antarctica has not been much influenced by the YTT event. The time lapse between the YTT event and what could possibly by interpreted as the YTT event's signature in Antarctica (no. 4 above) could perhaps be explained by the time the event needed work its way to the deepest south. (Chart adapted from ref. EPICA community, 2004).

1. InsolationUpper blue curve:
mid-July insolation at 65^oN
Lower black curve:
annual mean insolation at 75^oS
2. DeuteriumUpper blue curve:
Delta Deuterium values from EPICA dome C
at 75^o 06' S, 123^o 21' E
Lower red curve:
comparison curve from Wostok station
3. Marine oxygen isotope recordBlue line:
marine oxygen isotope record
Dotted red line: comparison line from another site to show uncertainties
4. DustRed line:
amount of dust recorded in the ice core
The sharp spike following the Toba YTT event with some delay is the only indicator from Antarctica that might possibly have a connection with Toba

Fig. 4-11. A number of climate proxies are shown here for Lake Baikal in Siberia. The lake is not only the deepest but also the oldest existing fresh-water lake on earth. Bottom sedimentation reaches more than 6 km (3.8 statute miles) in places. Dark shading indicates glacial periods. (Chart adapted from Prokopenko A.A. et al., 2002).



Fig 4-12. Sea levels at the Huon Peninsula, at the Pacific-facing eastern coast of Papua New Guinea. Unlike climate, sea levels do not seem to have been influenced much or for long periods by the YTT event. (Chart adopted from Chappell N.J. et al., 1986).




The graphs shown above have been assembled by scientists through the use of widely different methods of measuring/dating past climatic sequences. Most show that around the time of the Toba YTT event an unusual and major climatic event happened. Also: most charts confirm that while the YTT event did not start the climatic change, it intensified and prolonged it. The climatic downturn that Toba erupted into just after it had started, in fact, lasted with interruptions for 63,000 years until the onset of the present warm holocene around 10,000 years ago. As ref. Rampino et al, 1992, p. 52, states:

The detailed record of climate and delta-¹⁸O during the (oxygen isotope) stage 5a-4 transition reveals that although sea-level lowering began before the Toba eruption, North Atlantic surface-ocean temperatures remained warm, and ice sheet growth was beginning to slow. It may be significant, therefore, that the Toba eruption apparently coincided with a precipitous decrease in North Atlantic surface temperatures and global sea level. Increased sea ice and snow cover following the eruption may have provided the extra 'kick' that caused the climate system to switch from warm to cold states.

Immediately following the YTT event, sea levels dropped rapidly in the Atlantic and the first significant peak in "ice raft detritus" accumulation occurred the North Atlantic at precisely this time (Ruddiman W.F., 1977; Heinrich H., 1988). Ice raft detritus consists mostly of sand and stones scraped off the land surface by moving glaciers. Melting ice rafts (icebergs) drifting into warmer waters lose their detritus load which then sinks to the sea-bed where it accumulates to form identifiable and dateable strata.

A sea surface temperature drop of 1^oC and a atmospheric cooling of 3-5^oC may not sound much, but it should be remembered that these are average figures for one entire hemisphere. Average drops in temperature as estimated (let alone the truly staggering drop reported from Greenland of 16^oC, ref. C. Lang, 1999) would have a profound and long-lasting effect on earth climate. A temperature drop of 1-3^oC can make the difference between moderate and Siberian conditions in temperate places like central Europe or the USA and southern Canada. At higher latitudes, most temperate and subarctic forests would have been killed or severely damaged. Cold-sensitive tropical vegetation would have suffered similarly. The following text is from Rampino and Ambrose, 2000, pp. 75 -78 (dotted lines ... indicate were original text has been left out):

The climatic and environmental impacts of the Toba super-eruption are potentially so much greater than that of recent historical eruptions ( e.g. Hansen at al., 1992; Stothers, 1996) that instrumental records, anecdotal information, and climate-model studies of the effects of these eruptions may not be relevant in scaling up to the unique Toba event (ref. Rampino et al 1988; Rampino et al., 1993a). Various studies on the effects of extremes of atmospheric opacity and climate cooling on the environment and life have been carried out, however, in connection with studies of nuclear winter and the effects of asteroid impacts on Earth (e.g. Harwell, 1984; Greene et al., 1985; Tinus et al., 1990) and some of these may be more relevant to the Toba situation. Two major effects on plant life from high-atmospheric opacity are reduction of light levels and low temperatures. For aerosol optical depths between ca. 1 and ca. 10 the reduction in light levels expected from the Toba eruption would range from dim-Sun conditions (ca. 75% of sunlight transmitted), like those seen after the 1815 Tambora eruption, to that of an overcast day (ca.10% sunlight transmitted). Experiments with young grass plants have shown how net photosynthesis varies with light intensity. For a decrease to 10% of the noon value for a sunny Summer day, photosynthesis was reduced by ca. 85% (ref. van Keulen et al., 1975), and photosynthesis also drops with decreasing temperatures (ref. Redman, 1974).
Resistance of plants to unusual cold conditions varies considerably. Conditions in the tropical zone are most relevant to possible impacts on early human populations in Africa. Tropical forests are very vulnerable to chilling, and Harwell et al (1985) argue that for freezing events in evergreen tropical forests, essentially all above-ground plant tissues would be killed rapidly (see also Taylor et al., 1971; Sweeney et al., 1975). Average surface temperatures in the tropics today range ca. 16^oC to 24^oC. Nuclear winter scenarios predict prolonged temperature decreases of 3-7^oC in equatorial Africa, and short-term temperature decreases of up to 10^oC. Many tropical plants are severely damaged by chilling to below 10-15^oC for a few days (ref. Leavitt, 1980; Hutchinson et al., 1985; Greene et al., 1985). Harwell (1985) compiled data showing that the LT₅₀ data (temperatures required to kill at least 50% of the plants after exposure to cold for 2 hours or more) for most tropical plants was in the range +5 to -2^oC. Seedlings and saplings are most vulnerable. Even more serious is the fact that most tropical forest plants have limited seed banks, and the seeds typically lack a dormant phase. Furthermore, regrowth tends to produce forests of limited diversity, capable of supporting much less biomass (ref. Harwell et al., 1985).
Even for temperate forests, destruction could be very severe (ref. Harwell, 1984; Harwell et al., 1985). In general, the ability of well-adapted trees to withstand low temperatures (cold-hardiness) is much greater than is needed at any single time of the year, but forests can be severely damaged by unusual or sustained low temperatures during certain times of the year. For example, Tinus et al. (1990) estimated the cold-hardiness of Rocky Mountain Douglas fir based on controlled growth experiments in which they derived the temperature decrease that would be necessary to kill at least 50% (LT₅₀) of the fir trees. They found that a simulation of a 10^oC decrease in temperature during Winter would have a minimal effect on the cold-hardy and dormant trees, whereas a similar 10^oC drop in temperature during the growing season (when cold-hardiness is decreased) leads to a 50% dieback and severe damage to the surviving trees (including damage of new growth and invasion of pathogens, resulting in at least a year's loss of growth).
The situation for deciduous forest trees would be even worse than that for the evergreens, as their entire foliage would be new and therefore lost. For example, Larcher and Bauer (1981)determined that cold limits of photosynthesis of various temperate zone plants range from -1.3^oC to 3.9^oC, approximately the same range as the tissue-freezing temperatures for these plants. Lacking adequate food reserves, most temperate forest trees would not be able to cold-harden in a timely manner and would die or suffer additional damage during early freezes in the Fall (ref. Tinus et al., 1990).
Harwell (1984) carried out simulations for a mixed conifer and hardwood temperate forest for a longer-term reduction in annual average temperatures of 3^oC, 6^oC, or 9^oC for a period of 5 years, biomass was predicted to fall by 25%, with recovery in 30-40 years, whereas for a 6^oC cooling, biomass fell by 80% and returned to 50% of normal after 50 years. For the extreme 9^oC cooling, biomass fell by 90%, and recovered only to 33% of normal after 50 years. After recovery, species composition was different. For grassland ecosystems, simulations of a 5-year period of temperature decrease of 3-9^oC led to a reduction in net primary production ranging from 9% to 51%, with recovery times of several years,
The large amount of dead wood produced by the dead and damaged trees, exacerbated by drought conditions, might lead to increased forest fires. Tinus and Roddy (1990 ) estimate that the combined forests of the Northern Temperate Zone have a total of ca. 0.2 x 10¹² cu. m of standing wet, live biomass.
...
Burning this biomass would release large amounts of reactive species such as hydrocarbons, organic acids, and nitrogen compounds, into the global atmosphere (ref. Andreae et al. 1988).
...
The effect of Toba on the oceans is more difficult to estimate. Regionally, the effect on ocean biota of the fallout of ca. 4 g/sq. cm of Toba ash over an area of 5 x 10⁶ sq. km in the Indian Ocean must have been considerable. Deposition rates of N, organic C, and CaCO₃ all rise sharply in the first few cm of the Toba ash layer, indicating that the ash fallout swept the water column of most of its particulate organic carbon and calcium carbonate (ref. Gilmour et al, 1990). Smit et al (1991) reported that the isocline in the Eastern Indian Ocean suddenly became shallower at the time of the Toba eruption.
Another possible effect of a dense aerosol cloud is decreased ocean productivity. For example, satellite observations after the 1982 Chichon eruption showed high aerosol concentrations over the Arabian Sea, and these values were associated with low surface productivity (as indicated by phytoplankton concentrations) from May through October of that year (ref. Strong, 1993).
...
Oxygen-isotope studies of corals following the 1991 Pinatubo eruption provide evidence that aerosol-induced cooling of the southwestern Pacific could lead to significant weakening of the Hadley Cell circulation and rainfall, and might precipitate long-term El Nino-like anomalies with extensive drought in many tropical areas (ref. Gagan et al, 1995). Climate model simulations predict significant drought in tropical areas from weakening of the trade winds/Hadley circulation, and from reduction in the strength of the Summer monsoon (ref. e.g. Pittock et al., 1986 and 1989; Turco et al., 1990). For example, Pittock et al. 1989 presented General Circulation Model results that showed a 50% reduction in convective rainfall in the tropics and monsoonal regions.

Animal and plant life suddenly hit by the devastating climatic aftermath of the Toba YTT event needed to be tough and extremely adaptable to survive. Among the countless species that had to face this challenge following the eruption 73,000 years ago, there was a relatively new arrival:early Homo sapiens.

Our next chapter will deal with the ways that our ancestors are thought to have come through a period of extreme difficulties and quite possibly near-extinction.



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Last changed 1 February 2006

Original Article

By George Weber

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/textr.htm

Toba Volcano 5. Through the Bottleneck

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5-1. A Most Peculiar Mammal: Homo sapiens
5-2. Genetic Bottleneck
5-3. Before the Bottleneck

5-3.1 Homo idaltu in Ethiopia, 160,000 years ago 5-3.2 Homo erectus (?) in Malaysia, 75,000 years ago
5-3.3 Homo neanderthalensis in the Middle East, 75,000 years ago

5-4. After the Bottleneck

5-4.1 Homo neanderthalensis in the Middle East, until 30,000 years ago 5-4.2 Homo erectus (Ngandong 6) on Java, Indonesia, until 25,000? years ago
5-4.3 Homo floresiensis on Flores island, Indonesia, until 12,000 years agom (now moved to Chapter 49 Indonesia)

5-5. Winner Takes All

Homo sapiens spreading worldwide

Introduction

In this chapter we are entering a much more controversial territory.

It is in the nature of this fascinating but difficult subject that important finds are rare and gaps in our knowledge large. The limited evidence is never adequate for an unambiguous answers and the same evidence can be interpreted in widely different ways by different specialists. Ferocious and often highly entertaining controversies result. Sometimes these bring progress, sometimes they just raise clouds of dust. Science does not claim to "know everything". Instead, it is a method to collect, interpret and refine an ever-growing mountain of evidence, sometimes through dispute and controversy. This is nowhere more true than in palaeoanthropology, one of the most quarrelsome fields of science.

It is only fair to mention here that there are some palaeoanthropologists who do not think that there has been a bottleneck of Homo sapiens in the past. Some think that it has taken place, but much further back in the past than we assume here. Some think that the impact of Toba was altogether negligible. On balance and looking at Toba ash 6 m thick deposited 3,000 km away from the volcano in central India, we do not think they are right. Those readers who wish to inquire further into these controversial matters are referred to a number of papers that give alternative views (ref. Gathorne-Hardy F.J. et al., 2003, with response ref. Ambrose S.H. 2003; also ref. Hawks J. et al., 2000) and into the vast general literature available.

Opposition has come from supporters of the "regional continuity" (or "multiregional") theory of human evolution who do not agree with the various forms of the "Out Of Africa" theory. The multi-regional model has been sickly for some time and after the recent discovery of the sub-pygmoid Homo floresiensis (a dwarf-form of Homo erectus it is in serious trouble:

Necessarily, the discovery of Homo floresiensis bears on the debate over the origins of modern humans - whether Homo sapiens evolved in various regions throughout the world from Homo erectus populations, or as a distinct and recent African species. Multiregional evolution requires the existence of large populations for long periods, with isolation being rare or absent so that global species could evolve in a single direction. Palaeoanthropological and genetic studies have already done much to discredit this model, and Homo floresiensis puts yet another (the last?) nail in the multiregional coffin. Not only did Homo floresiensis evolve in the absence of gene exchange with other hominins, but no one can argue that LB1 (the first Homo floresiensis skeleton found) contributed to our own species' genetic make-up. (ref. Lahr M.M. et al., 2004)

While it is generally accepted today that Homo sapiens developed out of some kind of Homo erectus, it is far from clear when, where, why and from what group earliest direct ancestors evolved from. There is a rather vague consensus that Homo sapiens started to develop out of some Homo erectus group around 160,000 years ago, somewhere in Africa. Maybe it did. What is clear is that some Homo erectus groups coexisted with Homo sapiens, even post-Toba. Homo erectusjavaensis ("Java Man") lived on Java as recently as 25-30,000 years ago (ref. Swisher III C.C. et al. 2000) and Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores survived even longer until around 12-18,000 years ago (ref. Lahr M.M. et al., 2004; Brown P. et al., 2004; Morwood M.R., et al., 2004). For more information, see sub-chapter 5-4 below.



1. A most peculiar mammal: Homo sapiens

Human beings in civilizations that think about such things, pride themselves on their (occasionally) towering intelligence, their scientific, technological, philosophical, economic and artistic accomplishments. Scientific nomenclature knows humans as Homo sapiens ("wise man") which nicely reflects the high self-esteem characteristic of the species.

Leaving the towering but hard-to-measure intelligence aside, there are other, much more easily measured if rather less well-publicised aspects of Homo sapiens that set off the species quite spectacularly from other life forms on earth:

Of all living things on earth weighing more than a few grams or ounces,

(a) Homo sapiens is today the only truly world-wide species, living in flat and rugged, in hot and cold, in dry and wet , in high and in low places, and practically everywhere in between. The species has recently even managed to gain a foothold in Antarctica and gone for a walk on the moon. In large cities the species has also created its own environment, something no other large animal has done.

(b) Homo sapiens has by far the largest numbers of individuals (estimated 6,300,000,000 in 2003) of any large species

(c) Local variations (known as "races") also show extraordinarily low levels of within-and between-population genetic variation in comparison to the nearest relatives, the apes. This odd fact supports an extremely recent origin for Homo sapiens (ref. Ferris et al., 1981; Ruvolo et al., 1993). Only around 10% of the limited human genetic variation is accounted for by differences between populations (ref. Lewontin, 1972; Relethford, 1995).

(d) Homo sapiens has very little genetic diversity despite its huge numbers.

The last point is the oddest - and the least widely known. It is also one of the arguments in favour of a relatively recent bottleneck (e.g. Toba) rather than one much longer ago (e.g. one proposed for 2 million years ago by the "regional continuity" supporters, ref. Hawks, et al, 2000). The low genetic diversity implies that the present teeming multitude of human beings trace back to a numerically tiny and relatively recent founding population.

A geneticist had this to say on Homo sapiens:

... we have sequenced 10 kb of non-coding DNA in a region of low recombination at Xq13.3 from 70 humans representing all major language groups of the world. In addition, the same sequence has been determined from 30 chimpanzees, representing all major subspecies, as well as bonobos. Comparison to humans reveals an almost four-fold higher diversity and a three-fold greater age of the most recent common ancestor of the chimpanzee sequences. Phylogenetic analyses show the sequences from the different chimpanzee subspecies to be intermixed ... These data, as well as preliminary work in the other great apes, indicate that the human genome is unique in carrying extremely little nucleotide diversity. (ref. Kaessman H. et al, 2000)

While human overall genetic diversity is low, what diversity exists, is highest in Africa. This fact is one of the major arguments in favour of the "Out of Africa" theory of human origins:

... the gene pool in Africa contains more variation than elsewhere, and the genetic variation found outside of Africa represents only a subset of that found within the African continent. From a genetic perspective, all humans are therefore Africans, either residing in Africa or in recent exile. (ref. Pääbo S., 2001)

2. Genetic bottleneck

What brought about this remarkable state of affairs?

There must have been a "genetic bottleneck" - a fairly recent one (as such things go) and a very severe one. Other ideas besides a bottleneck have been floated but none has been convincing or stood the test of time and closer scrutiny. It does indeed seem that the human race at one time suffered a spectacular reverse in its fortunes. Before the disaster, our ancestors must have had the same wide genetic variety that our nearest living relatives, the apes, still have today.

What is a "genetic bottleneck"? It is simply the genetic signature of a serious reduction in number of living members of a species at some time in the past. There are many possible causes: a deadly new disease rampaging through a population, predation when one animal for some reason suddenly becomes such a successful hunter that prey species are seriously reduced in numbers (maybe leaving the over-successful hunters to face a bottleneck of their own through starvation), or it can be the result of dramatic climatic change, etc. The ultimate bottleneck (not so much a "bottleneck" as a "closed bottle", really) is extinction. The branching off of a new species from a pre-existing older population can also be defined as a bottleneck and leaves a similar genetic traces in a population.

Species normally develop over long periods and in that time they accumulate genetic variations in their population. If a substantial part of a population is killed, there is an inevitable loss of genetic diversity among the survivors. The smaller the surviving population that comes through a bottleneck, the smaller the diversity is among the survivors. That is why it is thought that Homo sapiens has gone through a rather severe bottleneck: the species has not yet had the time to restore its badly depleted diversity.

While a bottleneck can be identified in the genome of a population, it is difficult to determine its intensity and duration: a severe bottleneck leaves a similar imprint from a longer, less severe event (ref. Relethford et al., 1994). Still more difficult is it to identify the date when a bottleneck has taken place. Dating a perceived bottleneck is largely a question of searching through time for a possible cause and then trying to determine whether the available evidence fits the suspected cause. This is largely what has been done with the Toba YTT event which actually fits surprisingly well and so has a relatively high probability of actually being true. There is no other possible cause in sight but of course, there cannot ever be absolute certainty - there never is in studies of the past.



Fig. 5-1. Schematic progress of the post-Toba bottleneck. We do not really know precisely what happened, where and when during the Toba bottleneck. The previous chapters have shown the volcanological and climatological sequence of events. What the effect these events had on the then living population of Homo sapiens is difficult even to guess. For example, we do not know with any degree of certainty how big the pre-existing human population was, to what extent it was affected, what the death rate was and where, when the climax of the bottleneck was reached and when and with what speed or where he eventual recovery started. Still less do we know how the other survivors of the genus Homo (see chapter 5-4 ) or the apes managed to get through this would have been something along these lines:

1. Rapidly shrinking population: famine, cold, disease, etc. with neighbouring groups converging and merging in sheltered spots, or perhaps fighting over shrinking resources; necessity forces adaptive cooperative skills within and between groups, new technical capabilities (new hunting-gathering skills, clothing, etc). This must have been balanced by a remarkable degree of adaptability and resourcefulness.

2. Climax of bottleneck: only small numbers left, aftershock may still kill isolated some groups but recently developed cooperative and new technical skills now allow groups to survive (if no more) in sheltered locations. Groups unwilling or unable to cooperate and adjust fast enough ware gone at this stage.

3. The surviving human population adapts and begins to recover: the number of people increases again, skills and newly refined tools developed under the stress of survive-or-die recent past are further developed and refined (a process that is still going on and has never stopped among humans - it is known as "technology").

OIS5: Oxygen Isotope Stage 5: hot and humid (from 130,000 to 73,000 years ago)

OIS4: Oxygen Isotope Stage 4: cold and dry (from 73,000 to 63,000 years ago), in fact the coldest OIS for the past 110,000 years

OIS3: Oxygen Isotope Stage 3: warm but not quite as warm or humid as OIS5 (63,000 to 45,000 years ago)¬Ý


It was no coincidence that in the eastern Mediterranean at the change from OIS5 to OIS4, i.e. just after the Toba YTT event, the Afro-Asian biotic community was abruptly replaced by a palaeoarctic one, including the already cold-adapted Homo neanderthalensis (ref. Tchernov E. 1992a; Ambrose S.H. 1998).

Estimating how low the number of members of the species Homo sapiens could have been to account for today's human genetic uniformity involves a number of variables that are anything but clear-cut. It has been estimated that only 40 to 600 females (which translates into a total population of less than 3,000 persons; Harpending H.C. et al. 1993) came through the bottleneck. Another estimate arrived at 500 to 3,000 females (ref. Rogers A.R. 1993) and yet another at 1,000 to 4,300 individuals (Ayala F.J. 1996; Takahata N. at al. 1995). The highest estimate so far has 10,000 females of reproductive age as the minimum (ref. Ambrose S.H.. 1998). Even if the highest estimate is accepted, we are talking about the entire human race numbering no more than the population of one small country town today.

Such a small group could not have been widespread but had to live (and survive Toba) in a relatively small area. This was most likely in East Africa (ref. Jones J.S. et al.1986). The hardest hit area then inhabited by Homo sapiens was the Middle East, including probably the Arabian peninsula. It is an open question whether any groups of Homo sapiens could and did survive there. During the long, warm and humid OIS3 period, Homo sapiens had spread into the path of Toba's "kill zone". If there were modern humans in India at the critical moment, they would have had no chance of survival at all. In the Middle East, ash falls and volcanic winter, too, must have come very suddenly and with devastating impact. There was no time to adapt and develop new survival strategies or probably to even just move out of harm's way. It is likely that Homo sapiens groups living in Asia were wiped out (along with their genetic diversity). The further south a group was when overtaken by the darkening sky, the larger its chance of survival. We have seen that the bottleneck could have reduced mankind to as few as 40 females plus their menfolk and children. This would then have represented the entire human population living on planet earth. Surviving stragglers further to the north would not have lived long. Even if there were 10,000 survivors, the severity of the Toba bottleneck was very hard on Homo sapiens. The most likely place for human survivors is along the eastern coast of Africa, possibly on the southern side of the equator . Of all the areas known to have had human or human-like inhabitants at the time of Toba, this was the least affected.



Fig. 5-2. The scene of Homo sapiens exploits during pre-Toba OIS 5 between 160,000 and 73,000 years ago. For a discussion of the information contained in this figure see the text below.

white dot: Site of the oldest known Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens idaltu, Ethiopia, 154.000 to 160,000 years old. (ref. White T.D. et al., 2003; Clark J.D., 2003). See chapter 5-3 below.

white X1: the Levant (site of Homo sapiens/Homo neanderthalensis interactions ca. 100,000, 73,000 and 63,000 years ago).

white X2: Toba survivor Homo erectus on Java, Indonesia

white X3: Toba survivor Homo floresiensis on Flores, Indonesia

white-bordered area without hatching: area into which Homo sapiens had expanded from around 100,000 years ago (ref. Stringer C. et al., 1988) until the Toba eruption (the limits of this expansion are highly uncertain and include only the Levant for sure. Whether Mesopotamia and the Arabian peninsula was also settled has not been proven yet but it remains a possibility.

red dot: Toba volcano.

red line:The Toba "kill zone" where ash fall was likely to have a lethal and almost instant impact. In India the thickness of the ash layer found today reaches from 3 to in places 6 m, in Malaysia is reached a maximum of 9 m (see chapter 3). Further west, the ash-falls would have thinned gradually, but dust and aerosol clouds would still have blocked the sun and brought on a calamitous drop in temperature - the forerunner of volcanic winter.


For this section find more information in our introductory chapter The Subjects of this Web-site


The dispersion today, of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos is shown in the map above. The distribution of our closest living African relatives at the time of the first human expansion and at the time of the Toba event is not known, but they never ventured beyond Africa. The Gorilla split off from the Hominid ancestral line around 5 million years ago and the Chimpanzees a little later (the Orang Utan did the same 15 million years ago) (ref. Jones S., 1992). There is no evidence that the three African apes do not still live - more or less - in the same areas that they occupied when the first Homo sapiens developed out of a Homo erectus population to the east of them. Indeed, several populations of Chimpanzees that today still live in mountainous pleistocene ice age refugia in western Uganda and eastern Congo, are reported to have mismatch distributions suggesting a release from a bottleneck event around 67,000 years ago. The same Chimpanzees also suffered another bottleneck with a release around 20,000 years ago (ref. Goldberg T.I., 1996). At that time Homo sapiens had already acquired almost world-wide distribution, large numbers and a sophisticated cold-climate technologyand was no longer much affected.

Homo erectus had used stone tools for at least 2 million years (and probably wooden tools even longer, but they have not survived) (ref. Probst E., 1992) and when at some time before 160,000years ago, a new species developed out of a Homo erectus population, the new arrival continued with and built upon ancient tool-making traditions. Gorillas do not use tools, while chimpanzees sometimes use simple sticks and stones to catch termites or help crack nuts etc. but they, too, do not make specific tools. This is a major characteristic that distinguishes apes from "Homo thetoolmaker".

We have noted above that Homo sapiens has reduced genetic diversity compared with his ape cousins. Evidence has been found of a similar but much milder bottleneck event among the African apes. It is highly probable that this was caused by the same event that reduced Homo sapiens to a few survivors. The African apes and the early humans were all living in Africa with the humans somewhat more widely spread. The question arises: why was Homo sapiens hit so much harder by the bottleneck event?

Fig. 5-2 above may hold the answer:

- Africa has the largest well-watered tropical landmass in the world.

- Africa's highest and most extensive mountain chains (including Mt. Kilimanjaro) run roughly north-south along the east coast.

- Today, all African apes live in or on the western side of those mountains on a mostly "horizontal" east-west axis. That the apes suffered so much less genetic loss suggests that this was already their distribution when volcanic winter struck 73,000 years ago. If there were apes east of the mountains, they did not survive.

- Early Homo sapiens had left most traces of its development and existence along the eastern coast of Africa where the species had spread on a mostly "vertical" north-south axis along the mountains and the coast, especially in Kenya and Ethiopia.

- Homo sapiens' first attempt at expanding out of Africa had led it through the fertile and (then) animal-rich valley of the Nile to the Mediterranean African coast and through the Sinai peninsula into western Asia. Unhappily, the geographical distribution of Homo sapiens 73,000 years ago ensured almost maximum possible exposure to the direct and indirect effects of Toba. The African apes were living in the shelter of their mountain chains and were (their genetic diversity tells us) much less affected. They suffered some losses in a bottleneck event (ref. .Goldberg T.I.; Rogers A.R. et al 1996) but despite their lack of clothing, fire, or technology, they were comfortably off compared to to what Homo sapiens had to go through on the other side of the mountains and in the Levant.

Crossing the Sinai peninsula into western Asia and (perhaps) the Bab el Mandeb from Africa to the Arab peninsula could also have caused local bottlenecks, as only a small part of the following Toba bottleneck.

Homo sapiens had many characteristic that helped the species to survive where none of the apes could have done so. The attitude and aggressive drive behind the human expansion into northern Africa and western Asia was totally unlike the placid way of the African apes.

Homo sapiens is known as the "naked ape": at some stage in our evolutionary journey, our ancestors shed their fur, something none of the apes have done. We can only speculate about the likely causes or its timing. Was Homo erectus already a naked ape, or did Homo sapiens lose his fur only after branching off? Did the fur go early when early Homo started to develop its similarly peculiar upright two-legged posture? On two long legs, eye-centred Homo could see more and further, move faster and have his hands free for making tools and carrying weapons. Both loss of fur and upright posture were adaptations to savannah life. Perhaps they are connected.

However obscure the reasons and the timing, sweating followed by rapid cooling was as dangerous to the naked ape then as it still is to you and me today. Clothing would have been the solution from a very early stage - its so much more flexible than a permanent fur! The first clothing could have been worn a million or more years ago by Homo erectus. No evidence has, of course, survived from that far back and the oldest definitive evidence appears very late, in ice age art dating from 35,000 years ago (ref. Probst E. 1992). The fact that some humans obviously managed to come through a volcanic winter 73,000 years ago, however, can be taken as good evidence that our ancestors already had some way of covering and keeping themselves warm at short notice.

Fire would also have been a major help in getting through the dark post-Toba centuries and millennia. None of the apes has learnt to control it, but the genus Homo had used it long before Homo sapiens appeared. The oldest known deliberately constructed fireplace has been found in Kenya, at Chesowanja, and and it has been dated to about 1.4 million years (ref. Probst E. 1992).

Whatever the details, having the concept of "clothes" and a technology to make fire when needed would have made it that much easier to take defensive measures in the face of sudden volcanic winter: put on more clothing and gather around the fire to discuss the crisis.



3. Before the Bottleneck

Sometime around 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens expanded its hunting territories within and out of Africa (ref. Ambrose S.H., 1998). The exact outer limits reached during this early expansion are unknown but definitively included the Levant and perhaps Mesopotamia as well as the Arabian peninsula. In the Levant, Homo sapiens along with a warmth-loving Afro-Arabian biotic community was supported by a warming climate. The cold-adapted Homo neanderthalensis along with its associated palaearctic biotic community on the other hand suffered and was pushed out of the Levant towards the north. The Toba eruption reversed this picture: Homo sapiens abruptly disappeared from the Levant and was, again, replaced by Homo neanderthalensis.

The failure of early modern humans to survive in the Levant during the early last glacial implies that they were not yet physiologically and/or behaviourally well-adapted to cold climates and Palaearctic environments, or at least not as well-adapted as Neanderthals. The first dispersal thus apparently failed to permanently establish modern humans outside Africa (ref. Ambrose S.H.,1998, p. 630-631).

During the two million years before the Toba bottleneck there lived several human-like hominid species with large brains, upright walk (bipedalism) and small teeth. They are marked red in fig. 5-3 below. Some lived at the same time, some were ancestor, resp. descendant species. Evidence is scarce and often controversial. The following figures give a rough idea of the multitude of Hominid species in the seven million years before Toba. In fact there were probably more since it is unlikely that all Hominid species have been discovered.



Fig. 5-3. Homo sapiens and its extinct relatives. (chart adapted from Clark J.D. 2003).
x marks the oldest known member of the species: Homo sapiens idaltu from Ethiopia (ref. ref. White T.D. et al., 2003; Clark J.D., 2003).






Fig. 5-4. Some data on various Homo species. The chart is no on the latest state of knowledge (which illustrates nicely how rapidly the field of palaeoanthropology moves as new information becomes available). "Grab-all groupings" such as "archaic Homo sapiens" and "early modern Homo sapiens" are not widely used anymore. (chart from Jones. S. et al, 1992)





3.1 Homo sapiens idaltu in Ethiopia, 160,000 years ago



Fig. 5-5.Homo sapiens idaltu is the earliest known unambiguous Homo sapiens. The species lived in Ethiopia and has been dated to around 160,000 years.
It was Homo sapiens idaltu - or someone very much like him - who moved down the Nile valley and into northern Africa and western Asia.
Homo sapiens idaltu seems to have practised postmortem defleshing with stone tools, a practice known from other and earlier African species. "Polishing and intentional scraping modifications evident on two of these crania indicate that (Homo sapiens idaltu) may have manipulated the crania of their dead in mortuary practices whose dimensions, context and meaning might be revealed only by further discoveries." (quote from White T.D. et al., 2003. Nature, 423:751). (photographs and drawings curtesy of Nature 423; refs. White T.D. et al., 2003; Stringer Ch., 2003)







3.2 Homo erectus (?) in Malaysia, 75,000 years ago

The only direct evidence of how the Toba eruption must have devastated the life of people living at the time of the eruption has been found in Malaysia. A large and long-established "palaeolithic workshop" named Kota Tampan, had been found and first excavated in 1938 by the geologist Collings (ref. Collings H.D., 1938; Ninkovitch D., 1978; Tjia H.D., 1993). In 1987, Prof. Zuraina Majid, archaeologist at the Malaysian University surveyed the site and excavated several hundred meters away from the original Collings dig. She found more tools so that the total extent of the site (or sites) must be very considerable.

First thought 35,000 years old because of contaminated C14 measurements on wood samples found under the ash, the ash has now been re-dated in 1978 ( ref. Ninkovich D. et al., 1978) with volcanological methods and unambiguously assigned to the Toba YTT event of 73,000 years ago.

Some 50,000 stone tools have now been found and a great many more are likely to be awaiting discovery. Some of these tools are very basic and it is not always easy to identify them as tools.

The workshop may have still been in production until just before the Toba eruption. It is most unfortunate that no remains of the people working the site have been found - most probably they were a form of Homo erectus.


Fig. 5-6. (above and below) The palaeolithic site of Kota Tampan in Malaysia.
1. adapted from Ninkovich D., et al. 1978;
2. Photograph copies from Collings H.D., 1938, scale in feet;
3. adapted from Collings H.D., 1938,
4. adapted from Tjia H.D., 1993



1

2
3

4

Left: blue: prehistoric lake at the time of Kota Tampan and other prehistoric features black and grey: modern river Parak (Perak) with dam and reservoir brown: modern roads with settlements (map adapted from ref. Tjia H.D., 1993)

3.3 Homo neanderthalensis in the Middle East, 75,000 years ago

Fig. 5-7. That Homo neanderthalensis lived through and survived the Toba bottleneck and its aftermath is not surprising. Neanderthal man was by far the most cold-adapted of all Homo species. The stocky build and shorter stature of Neanderthal in comparison to Homo sapiens are adaptations to cold.

1 Homo neanderthalensis, 2 Homo sapiens







Fig. 5-8. In the Levant, Homo neanderthalensis re-occupied caves that they had occupied during colder early periods until around 130,000 years ago (OIS6) and then abandoned during the warm and humid OIS5 period to advancing Homo sapiens. Volcanic winter and the following bitterly cold OIS4 after 73,000 years ago saw Neanderthal returning to the Levant and re-occupy his ancient caves. When climatic conditions improved yet again with the onset of OIS3 around 60,000 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis once more retreated to the north - for the last time. Homo neanderthalensis is thought to have become extinct around 30,000 years ago. His last traces fade away on the Iberian peninsula in western Europe. This climatic and population see-saw is reflected in the finds of a number of caves in the Israeli Levant (e.g. Tabun, Skhul , Qafzeh, Amud, Kebara, and others).

Quafzeh has produced the largest sample of early modern Homo sapiens from anywhere covering a period between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago.

The archaeological details and classification of the finds at Qafzeh and Skhul as well as the other caves of the area are extremely complex and much of it is controversial. While we can dimly visualise the rough outlines of what happened there, the details are clearly vastly more complicated. Nevertheless, the climate-induced see-sawing between what possibly were several kinds of Homo neanderthalensis with what could have been several kinds of early Homo sapiens is discernible. (refs. Coon C.S., 1968; Tchernov E., 1992a and 1992b; Bar.Yosef O., 1994; Ambrose S.H., 1998; Stringer C. et al. 1994 ).

Skhul cave on Mount Carmel, Israel (photograph curtesy Stringer C. at al., 1994)

Quafzeh cave near Nazareth, Israel
(photograph curtesy Stringer C. at al., 1994)

Skhul 5 skull (Neanderthal or "early modern"), male, buried with the jaw bone of a wild boar in his arms (photograph curtesy Coon C.S.,1968) Quafzeh 9 skull (Neanderthal or "early modern"), probably female , the braincase is distinctly modern, the projection lower face and the bows over the eyes are not (photograph curtesy Coon C.S.,1968)

Reconstruction of the burial of Skhul 4 , a strongly-built, "early modern" human. (photograph curtesy Stringer C.S. et al., 1994)

Quafzeh 11 skull of a 12 year old child; although remarkably modern in appearance,
it is with an estimated age of 120,000 years among the oldest finds at the site.
(photograph curtesy Stringer C.S., et al., 1994)

The overlapping and mixed Neanderthal-Human traits observed in a number of Levantine cave finds have been interpreted as evidence of mixing between Neanderthals and humans. Recent genetic research, however, has shown that Neanderthals and modern humans diverged 500,000 to 600,000 years ago, suggesting that though they may have lived at the same time, Neanderthals did not contribute genetic material to modern humans . The two are different species that would have been unable to cross-breed. A team of US and German researchers (M. Stoneking and S. Pççbo) has extracted mitochondrial DNA from Neanderthal bone showing that the Neanderthal DNA sequence does indeed fall outside the normal variation of modern humans. (ref. Krings M.et al, 1997). How this evidence is to be reconciled is as yet an open question.



4. After the Bottleneck

For a long time it was thought that of all the the hominid groups, only Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis had come through the bottleneck. The last decade has shown that this was not so. At least two Homo erectus species also made it, and more may await discovery.

In the following we have a look at each of the four groups that we know have come through:

• Homo Neanderthalensis
• Homo erectus (Ngandong 6)
• Homo floresiensis
• Homo sapiens

4.1 Homo neanderthalensis in the Middle East, until 30,000 years ago

While Homo neanderthalensis unquestionably did survive the Toba bottleneck, life was not easier for him. The following medical description of four Neanderthals from Shanidar cave gives a rare view of just how rough life was in those days (ref. Trinkaus E. et al, 1982):

Four of the adult Neanderthals from Shanidar Cave, Iraq, Shanidar 1, 3, 4, and 5, show evidence of antemortem trauma. Shanidar 1 sustained injuries to the right frontal squama, the left lateral orbit, the right humerus and right fifth metatarsal. Associated with this trauma are hypoplasia or atrophy of the right clavicle, scapula, and humerus, osteomyelitis of the right clavicle, degenerative joint disease at the right knee, ankle, and first tarsometatarsal joint, and remodelling of the left tibia. Shanidar 3 experienced trauma-related degenerative joint disease at the right talocrural and talocalcaneal joints and sustained a penetrating wound across the left ninth rib. Shanidar 4 suffered a fracture of the right seventh or eighth rib, and Shanidar 5 had a scalp wound over the left frontal. A high frequency of antemortem trauma associated with the survival of the injured individuals appears to have been characteristic of the Neanderthals.

Fig. 5-9. Shanidar cave in Iraq.

Pollen of wildflowers were found around the skull of Shanidar 4 which has consequently been christened the "Flower Man". This led to the entirely reasonable speculation that there had perhaps been a funeral ceremony with flowers. It would be by far the oldest known. The assumption is hard to prove since the pollen could also have been brought into the cave by winds of small burrowing animals - but then, why should the pollen be concentrated only around this man's head? The oddest thing about this particular controversy is not the presence of pollen but the embittered ferocity with which the dispute "flowers for the funeral or not" is being fought. Some palaeontologists seem psychologically allergic to flower pollen, a problem that clearly needs much more funds and further research.
Shanidar 4 is rather vaguely dated: to sometime between 70,000 and 33,000 years ago. (drawing from Stringer C. et al., 1994).

Neanderthal: "The Old Man from Shanidar" (Shanidar 1). This male shows evidence of multiple injuries suffered long before death. This can only mean that he was cared for during his lifetime by other members of his group. Neanderthal: "The Flower Man from Shanidar"  (Shanidar 4).

The cold 60,000 years between the Toba event until the beginning of the present warm Holocene 10,000 years ago should have been an ideal time for the expansion of cold-adapted Homo neanderthalensis. Instead, the species declined, withdrawing into ever-smaller refuge areas until it vanished sometime around 30,000 years ago in the Iberian peninsula.

On the other hand, Homo sapiens not only managed to survive volcanic winter and the following ice age despite being originally a warm-adapted creature. He positively boomed. Soon after the Toba event he can be found all over the old world, sometime around 60,000 years ago he appeared in Australia and sometime before 10,000 years ago (perhaps long before) he had reached the southern tip of South America. No other Hominid had ever even come close to an expansion like this.

It must have been the attitude towards technology that gave our ancestors the rapid flexibility and adaptability necessary for success even in most trying circumstances. Technology is the only discernible difference between the four survivors of the bottleneck. Our technology-savvy ancestors could adapt on a much shorter timescale than even he fastest biological evolutionary process could have provided. Neanderthal and and the two Homo erectus species to make it through the Toba bottleneck also had a certain amount of technology but it shows rather slow and ponderous development, if any, before they vanish into extinction. Whether Homo sapiens actively used his technological edge to push Neanderthal and others into extinction is unknown, but in view of the way Homo sapiens has treated members of his own species from antiquity to the present day, it is not totally unthinkable that he did.

Once started, Homo sapiens never stopped inventing new and improving existing technologies. In the very recent past, he has systematized his ever-growing and aggressive quest for new skills and knowledge in Science, making more knowledge and understanding possible along with ever more technological inventions, and in ever more rapid sequence. Only a few thousand years after the first cities appeared, while and others are heading out into interstellar space.



Fig. 5-10. Waves of technological invention out of post-Toba Africa starting around 50,000 years ago - not coincidentally from the most likely area for Homo sapiens to have survived Toba in largest numbers. (ref. Ambrose S.H., 1998; Ambrose S.H., 1997; Bar-Yosef et al, 1996; Bischoff et al, 1994; Mercier et al, 1995; Goebel et al, 1993; Goebel et al, 1995).

Terminology differs between African and European archaeology: in Africa the main periods of stone tool technology are ESA, (Early Stone Age), MSA (Middle Stone Age) and LSA (Late Stone Age), while in Europe and Asia similar but later technologies are known as LP (Lower Palaeolithic), MP (Middle Palaeolithic) and UP (Upper Palaeolithic).

1 transformation MSA to LSA in east Africa, ca. 50,000 years ago

2 transformation MP to UP in the Levant, ca. 47,000-43,000 years ago

3 transformation MP to UP in western Europe, ca. 43,000-40,000 years ago

4 transformation MP to UP in Siberia, ca. 43,000-40,000 years ago





Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens were not the only survivors of the genus Homo to come through the bottleneck. Two more have only recently been discovered and rightly caused a considerable stir.

It is no coincidence that both newly-discovered post-Toba survivors were found in Indonesia - upwind of the Toba YTT event and on the other side of the equator (see Fig. 5-2 ). Paradox as it may seem for areas so close to Toba to be among the least affected, it is nevertheless so. The earth rotates from west to east with the dominant air circulation moving from east to west - protecting areas to the east of Toba. The Orang Utan on Borneo (Kalimantan), the rich bio-diversity of Celebes (Sulawesi) and of Papua-New-Guinea (to give just three major examples) could have survived only because they were upwind from Toba 73,000 years ago and to have been on the southern side of the equator gave still more protection.



4.2 Homo erectus (Ngandong 6)on Java, Indonesia, until 25,000? years ago

Palaeontologists' pulse rates normally go up only when a new species or "the oldest" of something is claimed. Homo erectus in Java was thought to go back to around 1.8 million years to have died out around 300,000 years ago. It was thus more than a play with figures that set pulses racing when Homo erectus remains from Ngandong and Sambungmacan, central Java in Indonesia were found to be "the youngest", dated to a mere 30,000 years ago. Homo erectus was a contemporary of fully modern Homo sapiens! (Swisher C.C. et al, 2000).

It also means that one more species had, obviously, made it through the Toba bottleneck.

The late dates were obtained by Carl Swisher of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and colleagues. (ref. Swisher et al., 1996). It added greatly to the already lively debate between those who favour an out-of-Africa model and those who adhere to a multiregional one. The former believe modern humans developed in Africa 150,000 to 100,000 years ago, then dispersed into the Middle East and Europe, where they replaced Neanderthals by 30,000 years ago, and into Asia, where they replaced Homo erectus.



Fig. 5-11. The Homo erectus (Ngandong 6) skull, was dated to 25,000-53,000 years. This was a sensation since the species to which it belonged had been thought extinct for 300,000 years (see Fig. 5-4 ). (ref. Swisher III C.C. et al, 2000).(photographs curtesy of http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/erec.html)¬Ý

The moment of discovery for Ngandong 6: the skulls' discoverer C. ter Haar is about to remove the skull on 13th July 1932. (photo curtesy C.C. Swisher III, 2000)

The eastern part of Java, Indonesia, with major sites where Homo erectus fossils have been found: 1 Sangiran 2 Sambungmacan3 Sonde4 Trinil5 Ngandong7 Kedung Brubus8 Kalibeng9 Kabuh10 Pucangan11 Mojokerto (Jetis-Perning)

5. Winner takes all

Homo sapiens spreading worldwide
Of the four species of the genus Homo that made it through the Toba bottleneck, only one is left today: Homo sapiens.

It was not the number of individuals that brought "victory" (if victory is what it is). It was an obsessive interest in technology.



What Homo sapiens is now doing is that he

(1) continues his fascination with technology,

(2) has begun to multiply to vast numbers, and

(3) tries to continue his expansion into space and to the planets


Last changed 7 Nov 2008

Original Article

By George Weber

Toba Volcano 6. Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to all the authors listed in the References and to all those that have worked, are working and will work in the field - as long as they publish their results.

Many thanks to all the scientists and their publishers (among which my compulsoryweekly reading Nature figures foremost) whose drawings, charts, photographs, data, arguments and ideas I have used and sometimes adapted to the requirements of the Internet where this article is published exclusively. Wherever possible, the source for materials used is given so that the scientific labourers and their publishers do not feel left out or cheated.

I hope that many readers will follow up and go back to the sources that have fed this article. There is plenty more there to draw from.

A special thanks to Tim Gillin of Australia for his original thinking and his ideas. It was Tim who about 2 years ago in all innocence started me off on what I have come to think of as "the Toba trip". I have often cursed him for it, but now that it is done, I feel mostly grateful.

My gratitude also goes to the ladies of the Kantonsbibliothek Baselland at Liestal, Switzerland, for invariably filling even the most outlandish request for article reprints. It can't have been easy.

And last but not least, a great big kiss to my wife Eloi in gratitude for all she has had to put up with while my head has been on Toba She has had to put up with quite a lot, I can tell you!

Needless to say, I alone remain responsible for what I have written here. Blame me for it, but be kind and merciful even in your wrath.

George WeberTHE ANDAMAN ASSOCIATION


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Original Article



Toba Volcano 7. References

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The Guanches of the Canary islands.

When the Out Of Africa Tribe made its way into Sundaland they found the Ngandong Hominins (Solo Men) already in residence.

Definition: The Ngandong hominin skulls are eleven skull caps, remains of human ancestors found in 1931 near the Solo River in Java, Indonesia. They are a part of the human ancestry puzzle because the morphology of the skulls appears to fit both Homo erectus or an archaic form of Homo sapiens.

Dating the Ngandong Hominins

The first dates on the skulls put them at 100,000 years before the present, while Homo sapiens aren't known in this part of the world until about 40,000 years ago and Homo erectus is thought to have died out well before 100,000 years ago. Some researchers believe the skulls represent a small colony of Homo erectus that survived long after the rest had died off. Recent dates seem to suggest that the skulls are actually between 27,000 and 50,000 years old, which would definitely fit the timing of archaic Homo sapiens more comfortably. However, these dates were taken on faunal remains that other researchers believe are not the same age as the hominins.

Sources

Bartstra, Gert-Jan, Santosa Soegondho, and Albert van der Wijk. 1988. Ngandong man: age and artifacts. Journal of Human Evolution 17:325-337Grün, Rainer and Alan Thorne. 1997. Dating the Ngandong Humans. Science 276 (5318):1575-1576. (free download)Swisher III, C. C. et al. 1997. Latest Homo erectus of Java: Potential Contemporaneity with Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia. Science 274(5294):1870-1874. (free download)This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.

Also Known As: Solo man http://archaeology.about.com/od/nterms/g/ngandong.htm

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_Man

The line of descent was thought to go like this, and this descent seems to be partly true, for a section of the population:


 And the Solo skullcaps represent defeated enenmies. Their heads were removed, skulls scraped clean. and the skullcaps stuck up on stakes driven into the ground as a warning. Some accounts say their shinbones were used as the stakes.This was between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago and more likely after the Toba explosion. Both the Solo men and their slayers wre unusually advanced: if their slayers may be presumed to be Wadjak men, they were already Mesolithic, and counted as a step in advance frim the rest of the world (Comparable to the Hoa Binh people in Vietnam) The reason the Solo people were thought to be very recent is because some of the weapons associated with them were considered very advanced: among the weapons were some bone harpoon heads. Now we can say definitely that these were early in Africa and that the Africans were most likely using them against the Solo people. The Solo skullcaps are about evenly divided betweenb adult males and females, with one younger male, probably a teenager. They had all been cannibalized.

This grim picture including headhunting and cannibalism of the fallen foes seems to tell us directly how the Out of Africa tribe conquered Sundaland for their own in the aftermath of the Toba volcanic eruption. Since there is a pretty good chance the genetic line of the Solo peoples continued (in the mtDNA evidence), it seems that some of the females were captured for interbreeding with their (male) conquerors.This would be more of a political statement than because of any sexual attraction.


More modern head hunter continues the tradition started by the early Out of Africa warrior elite.

Mega Tsunami and catastrophic effects if CUMBRE VIEJA VOLCANO Palma Canary Islands Collapse

We have been speaking of the 'Out of Africa Tribe'. That might not be accurate, according to recent research, tribes are not the natural intermediate stage in development between bands and states, they are the convenient way for states to handle at bands to their own advantage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe

A tribe is viewed, historically or developmentally, as a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states. they also can be described as fashions that symbol from ethnic in certain places. Many anthropologists used the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups (see clan and kinship). Traditional genealogy defines tribes as groups who have common blood relations.^[1]
Some theorists hold that tribes represent a stage in social evolution intermediate between bands and states. Other theorists argue that tribes developed after, and must be understood in terms of their relationship to, states.

More likely the political organization of the Out of Africa people had already reached the level of Chiefdoms even while they lived in Africa. While some people assume all tribes have chiefs, the traditional Anthropological definition had it that Chiefdoms were at a higher level of complexity and are more advanced than what the definition was calling tribal societies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiefdom



A New Guinea Chief

Chiefdom

Overview

In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band society, and less complex than a state or a civilization. The most succinct definition of a chiefdom in anthropology is by Robert L. Carneiro: "An autonomous political unit comprising a number of villages or communities under the permanent control of a paramount chief" (Carneiro 1981: 45). Chiefdoms are characterized by centralization of authority and pervasive inequality. At least two inherited social classes (elite and commoner) are present. (The ancient Hawaiian chiefdoms had as many as four social classes.) An individual might change social class during a lifetime by extraordinary behavior. A single lineage/family of the elite class becomes the ruling elite of the chiefdom, with the greatest influence, power, and prestige. Kinship is typically an organizing principle, while marriage, age, and sex can affect one's social status and role.
A single simple chiefdom is generally composed of a central community surrounded by or near a number of smaller subsidiary communities. All of the communities recognize the authority of a single kin group or individual with hereditary centralized power, dwelling in the primary community. Each community will have its own leaders, which are usually in a tributary and/or subservient relationship to the ruling elite of the primary community.
A complex chiefdom is a group of simple chiefdoms controlled by a single paramount center, and ruled by a paramount chief. Complex chiefdoms have two or even three tiers of political hierarchy. Nobles are clearly distinct from commoners and do not usually engage in any form of agricultural production. The higher members of society consume most of the goods that are passed up the hierarchy as a tribute.
Reciprocal obligations are fulfilled by the nobles carrying out ritual that only they can perform. They may also make token, symbolic redistributions of food and other goods. In two or three tiered chiefdoms, higher ranking chiefs have control over a number of lesser ranking individuals, each of whom controls specific territory or social units. Political control rests on the chief's ability to maintain access to a sufficiently large body of tribute, passed up the line by lesser chiefs. These lesser chiefs in turn collect from those below them, from communities close to their own center. At the apex of the status hierarchy sits the paramount.
Anthropologists and archaeologists have demonstrated through research that chiefdoms are a relatively unstable form of social organization. They are prone to cycles of collapse and renewal, in which tribal units band together, expand in power, fragment through some form of social stress, and band together again. An example of this kind of social organization were the Germanic Peoples who conquered the western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. Although commonly referred to as tribes, anthropologists classified their society as chiefdoms. They had a complex social hierarchy consisting of kings, a warrior aristocracy, common freemen, serfs and slaves.
Nikolay Kradin has demonstrated that an alternative to the state seems to be represented by the supercomplex chiefdoms created by some nomads of Eurasia. The number of structural levels within such chiefdoms appears to be equal, or even to exceed those within the average state, but they have a different type of political organization and political leadership. Such types of political entities do not appear to have been created by the agriculturists (e.g., Kradin 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004).
In prehistoric South-West Asia, alternatives to chiefdoms were the non-hierarchical systems of complex acephalous communities, with a pronounced autonomy of single-family households. These communities have been analyzed recently by Berezkin, who suggests the Apa Tanis as their ethnographic parallel (Berezkin 1995). Frantsouzoff (2000) finds a more developed example of such type of polities in ancient South Arabia in the WadiHadhramawt of the 1st millennium BCE.
In Southeast Asian history up to the early 19th century, the metaphysical view of the cosmos called the mandala (i.e., circle) is used to describe a Southeast Asian political model, which in turn describes the diffuse patterns of political power distributed among Mueang (principalities) where circles of influence were more important than central power. The concept counteracts modern tendencies to look for unified political power like that of the large Western world kingdoms and nation states, which were an inadvertent byproduct of 15th-century advances in map-making technologies.^[2][3]

Chiefdom in India

The Arthashastra, a work on politics written some time between the 4th century BC and 2nd century AD by Indian author Kautilya, similarly describes the Rajamandala (or "Raja-mandala,") as circles of friendly and enemy states surrounding the state of a king (raja).^[4][5] Also see Suhas Chatterjee, Mizo Chiefs and the Chiefdom, Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1995, ISBN 81-85880-72-7, ISBN 978-81-85880-72-3

Native Chieftain System in southern China

Tusi (Chinese: 土司), also known as Headmen or Chieftains, were tribal leaders recognized as imperial officials by the Yuan, Ming, and Qing-era Chinese governments, principally in Yunnan. The arrangement is generally known as the Native Chieftain System (Chinese: 土司制度, pTǔsī Zhìdù).

See also

• Chief of the Name
• Band society
• Mandala (Southeast Asian political model)
• Tanistry
• Tribe

[--It seems that what happened with the people going Out of Africa that several family bands collected together  under thge command of chiefs and sub-chiefs. The system broke down into simple bands again in Australia, but in Sundaland it developed into a more complex statified society of interconnected farming and foraging settlements under the more powerful chiefs. In some areas, the traditional rulers would be called "Kings" by foreigners unfamiliar with the system. Thus writers speak of "Kings" and "Emperors" of Mu (Lemuria) when the original leaders would have been Warrior Chieftans Out of Africa. And there would have been two classes of traditional leaders in such a society, the warrior chiefs and the priest-magicians, and these over the greater class of commoners.]

Commoners



Pacific Islander Giant Warrior (Modern )

Traditional Melanesian society probably still retains many of the forms and customs of the Out of Africa people. Here is a section out of an ethnographic description of some Melansesians but the basic ideas probably applied to all of the Out of Africa people originally. Later Australians regressed from this to form simpler family band societies. [Public Domain Document]

I. The Melanesian a Religious Man


NOTICE the combination of religion and customs. We have many customs which are non-religious, but it is not so with the Melanesian. All he thinks and says, and does, has close reference to, deference to, allegiance to, and fear of, a spiritual world close about him. He is in religion what is called an animist--a man who thinks of objects in terms of soul, not a materialist; perhaps if the word were not already appropriated we should call him a spiritualist. To the animist there is soul in everything, some sort of mysterious life or power, in tree and wood, in stone, in bird, fish, food, tiniest scrap of anything or huge block. The "mana," spiritual power, either friendly or hostile, strong or weak, may be made available for help if properly used, or if hostile made helpless, by availing oneself of superior "mana". So he prays, sacrifices, uses innumerable charms, enslaves himself to witchcraft and superstition. His world is peopled with ghosts, before whom he trembles; but some of them are friendly, and so he hopes for help against the hosts of ghostly enemies. It is a religion that, in its practical working, makes him a vengeful cannibal, for his eating of human flesh was to absorb the "mana" of the eaten man, and also that of his tribe, for individual and tribe could not be separated. It has a tender side, too, for see the same cannibal animist offering sacrifice to the spirit of his dead little child that he may do what he can from the spirit world to help his father. Morally animism is thick with unreasoning superstitions, and very vengeful. [3/4] Death is the great disaster, and like every other disaster is caused by a hostile spirit, set in operation by an enemy, who must be sought out, and his power destroyed, by means of witchcraft. Recovery from sickness, or any sort of thing that is good, e.g., a good day's fishing, is due to friendly spirits, to whom thanks and sacrifice are due. So the Melanesian goes nowhere, does nothing, plans nothing, without prayer and sacrifice. All his customs, then, are religious and bound up with his religion, for they are one. His religion is the worship of disincarnate spirits; and those spirits are ever round about him.

II. His Religious Vocabulary


Let us look at a few of the main words of his religious vocabulary, using the "Mota" language, and try to get a glimpse through them of his religious life.

"Mana."--power or influence, not physical but showing itself in enabling a man to do or to get what he wants. This "mana" may be in anything, men, wood, trees, animals, stone, or any object large or small, and can be invoked by charms for use. Living beings, spirits or men, liberate it and set it free for use through prayer and sacrifice or charms. Certain things have "mana" for particular purposes; a stone for instance, will have "mana" for making yams grow big; a charm, a form of words, has "mana", e.g. to bring rain. Some spirit has associated itself with the stone or bit of bone, or whatever it is, and works through it. So men have "mana" because of some spirit whose power they can use.

"Prayer" (Tataro).--This is more invocation than prayer. The Melanesian invokes the spirits in every kind of necessity. It may be an informal call to his father's spirit, or it may be a formal invocation with a [4/5] proper form of words. There is no seeking for holiness in these prayers; they are often ended with curses invoked on enemies; they are to get something desirable, or to avert something feared. A Melanesian prays thus for rescue from danger, success in gardening, planting, or fishing, or pig-breeding, courage in fighting; and for his enemies' failure. His prayers are not for wisdom, or goodness, or any advance morally or spiritually. But they are very real and earnest and link him closely to the spiritual world.

Sacrifice (Oloolo).--Sacrifices are constantly being offered in many ways and in many places. They may be offered anywhere, at any time, on land or sea, but there are also definite places of sacrifice. There are tales told of human sacrifices, but this, even in old days, must have been rare. The usual sacrifices are pigs, fish, vegetable foods, nuts, kava, mats, leaves, almost anything may be offered in large or small quantities. By them the spirits of the dead are remembered and pleased and made wiling to help, or appeased if any or neglected, or thanked for help given. The offerings are made often not to the spirit directly, but to the man who is connected with the spirit and can approach it.

Images (Totogale).--Melanesians are not idolaters, image worshippers. When they lay offerings at the foot of a carved image, they do not worship the image, nor is the image itself holy, but it is by way of remembrance or memorial. The spirit invoked is not in the image, but the image represents the spirits, some dead chief perhaps who has become a powerful spirit; the offering laid before such an image is not to the image, but to the spirit whom the image recalls or represents. These images are given up by Christians as a sign that they no longer worship the spirit concerned, which is independent of the image.

[6] Sacred Places, Shrines.--These are very numerous. There are places, perhaps an isolated islet, where no heathen dares to land, for it is an abode of spirits, and a place of awe. The spirit of the dead goes to "Hades". "Hades" is some spot distant from the dead man's home to which the spirits go. Different islands localize their "Hades" differently. There are sacred places in or near the village where they sacrifice to, and worship, the spirit of the place; there is the skull house, which only the witch-doctor may enter, as its guardian; there are stone altars outside the chief's house, or on the beach, or in a bush clearing connected with the tribal spirits. Sacred places are fenced off and sacrifices offered there to the spirit, and in it may be a shrine. Such places are treated with great respect, and can only be approached or led into by a priest, or one who knows the spirit, and the right approach by sacrifice and incantation.

The Head.--To the head is attributed a natural sacredness. No young man can take anything from above an elder's head. After death great power is attributed to the skull of the dead man. The heads of enemies killed in fight were preserved as trophies, and a powerful chief would make large collections of the skulls of those killed by or for him. The heads of the deceased were kept by their own people in skull houses, and preserved as memorials, worthy of worship. The loss of such skulls is much felt. To recover a skull from a hostile tribe who have possessed themselves of it, is worth years of planning and effort. Head-hunting as a regular practice was not a custom east of Bugotu, but throughout the Solomons the heads of enemies killed in battle were kept as trophies.

Cannibalism.--This never was universal but peculiar to certain districts. Nor was it practiced for the sake of eating flesh, but as a mark of extremest vengeance, and to absorb the "mana" not only of the eaten one, but of the tribe. It is a religious practice done ceremonially.



Taki, Chief at Wango


Sacrificial Altar Ferasiboa, Malaita


Inside of Ghost House, Matema



"A Medicine Man"

[7] Magic and Magicians.--There are a great host of wizards, witch-doctors, diviners, who work by magic; who make rain, or sunshine, cause or cure disease, bring luck or disaster, by magical arts. They know how, by enchantments, spells and sacrifices, to set free the "mana" required. Generally one practices one branch of the profession. One specialized in rain-making, another in healing. The magicians have pupils whom they train to succeed them in one or many branches of the profession. There are "high-priests" in some islands, to whom a whole district turns for magic beyond the compass of the local practitioner. They have no special influences apart from the practice, but live the ordinary tribal life. Dr. Codrington classifies their practices under heads of sickness, weather, witchcraft, dreams, prophecy and divination, ordeals, poison, curses. He writes: "In all these whatever is done is believed to be effected by the 'mana' of spirits and ghosts, acting through various media, and brought to bear by secret forms of words to which the power to work is given by the names of the spirits or ghosts, or of the living or lifeless things to which this mysterious influence is attached." When the hoped-for result follows, the wizard gets credit and money; if it fails it is because a still stronger spirit with stronger "mana" has opposed, and then the wizard loses no credit.

Private individuals sometimes practice black-magic to destroy an enemy. They use poison, or rather attribute poisonous power to charmed objects, or practice secretly by enchantment in their huts. They kill by suggestion. This black-magic is feared and detested, and its practitioners, real or suspected, are liable to be killed. Even their own tribe avoid them, and do not actively resist or resent their being killed by those of another tribe paid to do so.

[8] "Tapu."--This is forbidding certain actions under penalty of a curse, or putting things under the protection of some spirit, who will avenge any breach of the "tapu". A "tapu" is respected in proportion as it is believed that the "tapu" maker has some sprit behind him. When this is doubted or braved the unbeliever or bravo breaks the "tapu" and risks the consequences. But for the majority it seems better to keep on the safe side. So trees, or huts, or gardens, or bunches of fruit are "tapu'ed", so as to protect them for their owner. In fits of vexation Melanesians will impose "tapu's" upon themselves for life, swearing by something holy never to eat such and such a food, or enter a "tapu'ed" house or canoe, or lift a hand to help a "tapu'ed" parent or friend. A man, for example, seeking vengeance will "tapu" a favourite food till he has attained his object, and may die with the "tapu" still in force. Such "tapu's" are very binding. A little child will put a "tapu" mark on something he wants or claims for himself, and it will be respected, for there may be at any rate some little "mana" behind it. A big chief's "tapu" is formidable, not because of himself, but because he is likely to have a powerful spirit behind him.

Chiefs.--These are found in every village, but in different islands their position and power vary much. They are often chiefs by inheritance, strictly through the mother, but in many places son or brother succeeds on the death of a chief. The tribe sometimes choose their headman. Occasionally a man famous as a fighting man, or for cunning, who has acquired money, will become a chief. Behind the chief and cause of his authority is the belief that he has control of the "mana" of some powerful spirit or spirits. By ability and character he may obtain very considerable influence in a district and act as master of numerous allied tribes who obey his will. He has young men retainers who fight for him and work for him, execute his threats, and share his money and prestige. A chief has power to fine, or order the death of, the contumacious, if his "mana" is great enough. As his personality is strong or weak, so he leads the tribe, or merely expressed their will, or when that is doubtful sits on the fence. When unable to impose his will he sulks, in hope that fear of his "mana" will bring opposition to an end in time. If successfully defied he loses "mana"--the spirits are not with him, and he need not be feared.

Elders.--Considerable respect for the older men was the rule in heathen Melanesia and is not wholly lost yet. They formed a sort of informal village council and with the chief controlled its affairs. The respect for them was at bottom religious, for they were the men who knew most about the spirits and how to use them, and so had "mana"; they held, too, the purse-strings and could pay for magic, sacrifices and so forth; and it was best to treat them with respect, go on their errands, and in tribal matters obey them. The young man's turn would come soon, when he accepted marriage and settled down. As a married man with a hut of his own he soon acquired status and position in his tribe.

Marriage.--Marriage is always into another tribe, never within the native tribe, and descent is though the mother, not the father (but in the S.E. Solomons descent in practice follows the father). So a man's children are not his kindred, but his sister's children are. They adoption of children is very common. These will often be of the wife's kin, and treated as though her own. A marriage is made valid by payment which varies in amount, made in pigs, porpoise teeth, and shell money. Infant betrothal, with a small sum to bind it, was very common. Divorce was made regular by repayment of money. If this was refused there would be trouble. [9/10] Adultery rendered the man liable to be killed, though he might save himself by heavy payment of compensation if the aggrieved party accepted it; for the woman it meant, if not death, degradation to an immoral life. Polygamy was quite regular, but common only in the case of chiefs or older men who could afford it. The chief feature of the varying marriage ceremonies was the public handing over of the monies, with many speeches from the donors and others. This payment was raised often by the tribe who bought a wife for one of their young men. He might not ever know who was being bought; it was one of the girls of a particular tribe. Tribes remembered these transactions, and if tribe A had bought a wife from tribe B for 3 pigs, 10 strings of money, and 1,000 porpoise teeth, it was due to tribe B eventually to buy a wife from tribe A for the same amount. This was why an independent choice was disapproved, and gave so much trouble. However, often a young man would run away into the bush with the girl of his choice, and leave it to his relations to settle the matter. On his return a very complicated adjustment of accounts between the people of the girl run away with and the people of the girl whom he was to have married and the boy's people followed, and would be a long and noisy affair. The majority of married couples settled down to a life union, but there was always the minority causing trouble and scandal, and these were a fruitful cause of fightings and quarrels in which all took part.

Death and Burial.--After the separation of soul and body in death, the great man's soul becomes a great ghost, to be much feared and venerated, its help sought and its displeasure feared. This may last, in the case of a powerful chief, for a generation or a few generations, but the memory gradually dies out, as new claimants for honour die and are held in honour. A little man's ghost will be of concern only to his nearest relations, except for [10/11] a few days. For every death is upsetting to the whole village at the time.

Death by accident, or violence, or above all by suicide is very terrifying. The ghost will be restless, uneasy, vengeful, and need much appeasing. A jealous wife or husband will sometimes commit suicide that the ghost or spirit may be free to take vengeance for the wrong he or she was too feeble, or unable, to exact on earth. As to the disposal of the body, there are many various methods and ceremonies. Earth burial in a shallow grave in the garden or near the hut of the dead is common. Later on the skull is dug up and placed in the hut, or skull house. Throwing into the sea is the custom in some places. In others the body is placed on a rock out at sea, or in a tree, or hung up in the hut, in a coffin, over the fire. The head or other relic, such as teeth or finger-bone, is eventually taken and stored in a shrine for veneration. If the dead man is held in honour, his fruit trees, coconut trees, and others will be cut down. In the case of a chief, if his own village do not do this, hostile villages will raid the trees or gardens. If so, the village loses prestige, and the balance of power is changed between the villages. A succession of funeral feasts is made, till the tale of pigs promised is completed at a big final feast months after the death. After a death there is much dread of his ghost appearing, and consequently reports of its being seen are numerous. This portends death to be the seer, who may die of fear if convinced that his time has come. The abode of the ghost is some distant islet above-ground, or some dim Hades underworld, but, for a short time after death, the ghost is close at hand. The women weep and wail, and these demonstrations are renewed on the arrival, perhaps years later, of some absent near relative. In the case of an important death the burial is deferred till those expected from some distance have arrived; in other cases the body is quickly disposed of.

This is a continuing discussion at Jayasree's blog and I have been wanting to run it here for some time (I have made some references to some of the matters which came up during the debate on this blog along the way) There were some technical problems with making the transposition from his blog to this one but I think we have them solved now
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-vedic-astrology-derived-from-greek.html

Non-random-Thoughts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

http://www.hitxp.com/articles/history/ancient-india-geography-jambudvipa-bharathavarsha-bharatha-khanda/

This is another matter which has a bearing on the Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (as does the part about Ancient Astrology and Astronomy also)

Geographical Span of Ancient India

Jambudveepe Bharathavarshe Bharathakhande

[Excerpted]

Geography of the Ancient World

As per the ancient Indian Purana & Itihasa texts, in the very ancient times the entire landmass in the northern hemisphere was surrounded by ocean in all the directions. This giant land mass on earth was called Jambudvipa. Dvipa in Sanskrit means an Island. Jambudveepa consisted of modern Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.[This is virtually the same as the "World Continent" or "Lemuria (Greater Lemuria)" as I defined it in my 1990 Atlantis Ms, reposted on this blog recently.-DD]
This Jambudvipa was divided into nine varshas (geographical regions) of which one was Bharatha Varsha. The other eight varshas were Ketumula Varsha, Hari Varsha, Ilavrita Varsha, Kuru Varsha, Hiranyaka Varsha, Ramyaka Varsha, Kimpurusha Varsha, Bhadrasva Varsha.
Of these, Ilavrita Varsha was at the present North Pole (the Arctic Region)! More about this could be found in the fantastic research done by Lokamayna Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his book “The Arctic Home in the Vedas”

Above is the Geographical Map of the very ancient times mentioned in the Vedic texts. We have an approximate depiction of Jambudvipa and the nava varshas here. North Pole was at the exact center of Ilavrita Varsha. To the west of Ilavrita varsha was said to be Ketumula Varsha most of which is today under Atlantic Ocean. To the east of Ilvarita Varsha was Bhadrasva Varsha which is today under Pacific Ocean. On one side of the Ilavrita Varsha were Hari Varsha, Kimpurusha Varsha and Bharatha Varsha. On the other side of the Ilavrita Varsha were Ramyaka, Hiranyaka and Kuru Varsha. Kuru Varsha was hence on the opposite side of Bharatha Varsha on the globe.
It can be observed that in those times, most of South American continent, southern half of African Continent and entire Australia were submerged under water.[No, it is naiive to assume the areas designated were entirely above or below sea level. The Ancients referred to the lands below the equator as the "Underworld" and North of the Equator as "The Upper World"-DD] On the other hand most of modern day Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean, and the entire Arctic ocean were above sea level. [The map in circular plan is one of the same series as the Ancient Sea Kings maps referenced to Babylon, I feel certain. The maps of this series are mostly postglacial and include a strait between Alaska and Siberia, and they do include a very extensive and exacting survey of China as noted by Charles Hapgood..-DD]
NOTE: What we believe to be accurate world map today is not that accurate after all either. See Incorrect Geographical Area Distribution in Modern World Map

The Ancient Greater India – Bharathavarsha

In the Ancient Times India was called Bharathavarsha and it extended in the west including modern Egypt, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Iran, Sumeria upto Caspian Sea (which was called Kashyapa Samudra in those days). Bhratahvarsha was the Greater India while Bharatha Khanda referred to the Indian Subcontinent which lies at the heart of the Vedic Civilization and extended from Himalayas in the north to KanyaKumari in the South. So the aryan invasion theory of a migration of Aryans from Central Asia to modern northern India is a baseless theory, for the entire ancient aryan civilizational geography spanned across the above mentioned regions. The very term “arya” in Sanskrit refers not to any race, but actually means a “noble person”.
The Puranas and Ithihasas are full of historical developments in the Bharatha Varsha. The now dried up Saraswati river mentioned numerous times in the vedas is the heart of this vedic civilization, and it is from here the vedic civilization spread across the Bharatha Varsha during the vedic period. The “Out of India” theory talks about this. The Saraswati river dried up at the end of the Mahabharatha Period due to geological events in the region. It was around this time that the earlier lush green area of the present Rajasthan had got converted into a desert as we see it today.
During the ancient times Arabian sea did not exist, and the land mass stretched continuously from modern India to Africa. The mighty Saraswati river born in the Himalayas flowed for over 4500 miles into Africa before entering the Oceans. This was the largest and longest river in those days. This is the most mentioned and praised river in the Veda. Of the three Ganga Yamuna Saraswati – we know the existence of the first two rivers which flow even today, and Saraswati till recent times was thought to be a mythical river. But recent satellite photographs and geological data have proved the existence of an ancient mighty Saraswati river and its geographical span.

References

• The Origin of Human Past – Children of Immortal Bliss by V Lakshmikantham, Professor of Mathematics, Florida Institute of Technology, USA

Continuing an eight-part debate
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2013/05/is-vedic-astrology-derived-from-greek_7986.html

Non-random-Thoughts

Is Vedic astrology derived from Greek astrology -part 3

Saturday, May 4, 2013 

Continued from the previous post - part 2:

- The well established system of the astrology discussed in Part -2 continues even today – after 1800 years without any change in the way we use. This system could not have come into being all of a sudden. It must have been there at least some centuries before that. That takes us to the Sangam Age. In the Sangam Age songs, the name of Aries is mentioned in its local Tamil name – Aadu!

  Before going into the details of these – totally five evidences in all – supported by cross references, let me tell the outside world that Yavanas were indeed visiting India, including Tamilnadu which can be shown from the old Sangam Tamil references and the latter texts that were written after 5th century AD – but their contribution to the Indian society was something else and not astrology. If someone still believes that Greek influence brought rashi or astrology concept to India, let me show this picture of a wine cup unearthed in France and dated at 500 BC and supposedly to be belonging to the Celtic culture. The protruding tongue and the tilak on the forehead and the facial expression itself is that of KaLi– the deity one can find in India only.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vix_Grave


How did this figure go to France? If it is said that the Celts worshiped KALi, then agree that Celtic culture was an extension of Vedic culture and that whatever survived after eliminating them was taken over by the Greeks and Romans as their own products. [It is perhaps significant that the Celtic Irish had a goddess much like Kali and she was called by a similar name-Calliach, which is pronounced about like 'Kali'-DD]  One can claim that Vedic astrology is one such product that was taken over by them and so it is wrong to claim that Vedic seers borrowed this from them. I can even show EVIDENCE that Celtic and Druid culture came from theDanavaslike Kalakanjas and Druhyu, the son of Yayati. With reference to the above shown wine cup, I can show literary evidence from sangam texts that Yavanas served wine made in Yavana country and served it to the Pandyan king in the wine cups to Tamil kings. There is a verse in Pura nanuru – 56 that says this. There is every chance to say that the Yavanas who served the wine in their wine cup added some "Indian-ness" to these products and marketed them better to these kings. The Vix Grave wine cup was perhaps one of such cups which became popular with the people in the Gaul society also. That is how we reason out.
 But if someone says that the Kali figure (of the wine cup) was first innovated by the Yavanas and later borrowed by the Indians on the argument that there is no Kali figure found in India that can be dated before this Vix Grave Kali- in the handle wine cup, there can be nothing more absurd than that.

[Note by Dale D. The face is a typical Gorgon face from Classical Greece and as such something very well known in both Greek and Roman society. Jayasree interprests the face as being that of Kali. This puts the story of Perseus and Medusa into a new light. Now it has been suspected for a long time (and rejected bu Scholars for a long time) that the name "Perseus" means "The Persian" but even this Perseus is shown dressed in Persian style wearing what looks like pyjamas and curly-toed boots and wearing a Phrygian cap. He is said to have taken the head of Medusa-this gorgon mask -by murdering the goddess because it was death for her to look upon anyone. By stealing the head of the Goddess he intended to control her powers of dealing death by showing the head only to people he wanted to die. He took the head to Joppa and used it to kill the Sea Dragon Cetus ("Whale", but usually shown as looking like a typical dragon) and to rescue princess Andromeda for his wife. Andromeda means "The one that men like to think about" and Kali in Greek means "Good-Looking", similar to the English Comely. It seems the true meaning is that this Persian fellow came back from a trip into India with an icon of Kali and used it to magically curse his enemies to death-so he said-and a story was added that he had killed the Goddess and took her head (The face mask was then given over to the Greek Goddess Athena and became one of her symbols, she was supposed to wear it as a badge on her goatskin over-robe) ALL of these mythological figures are constellations; the story figures heavily in Greek Astronomy and together they cover a fair section of the sky, from near the North Pole to the constellation Cetus, which lies below the ecliptic and the band of the constellations of the zodiac;

The present controversy on rashi is similar to this. There is another verse from another Sangam text called Nedunal vaadai which tells about the beautifully decorated lamps made by the Yavanas in the Palace of the Pandyan king. What makes this interesting is that in the same song of Nedunal vaadai, we find the description of a painting on the roof of the cot of the Pandyan Queen which depicted the Zodiac with "aadu" (Mesha) at its beginning!! After seeing the Kali handle in the wine cup and the reference in Sangam text to yavanas as having served their wine in their wine cup, I can claim that the yavanas copied this idea (of the zodiac with Mesha as its head) too and imported it to their country where it was further developed. The visit of Yavanas to India had been more and frequent than the other way round which makes it possible for the Yavanas to have imbibed the Indian Thoughts than to have implanted their views on Indians.

The Yavanas who came to Tamil nadu did not come so, after Alexander (read this) and ( this) but had been frequenting Tamil lands for many reasons. A complete look at all the instances given in the Tamil texts from the sangam age onwards might give an idea of the kind of contribution to India by Yavanas. I am reproducing the article on the compilation of all contexts where Yavanas are mentioned in the Tamil texts, written by Dr R. Nagasamy From http://tamilartsacademy.com/books/roman%20karur/chapter15.html Romans (Yavanas)

 In Tamilnad Dr R. Nagasamy Tamil Roman Contact The Tamil literary evidence regarding Indo Roman contact is of great value to the present study. It is proposed to take the Pattupattu and Ettu tokai anthologies and the twin epics Silappadhikaram and Manimekhalai and the later epics Cintamani and Perumkatai for this study. It is seen that there are six references in Sangam anthologies to Yavanas, three in the Ettuttokai collections and there in Pattu Pattu collections. Interestingly each reference gives one aspect of Yavana contact, and when all of them are put together collectively, indicate Indo Roman contact. Aham 149, mentions the ships of Yavanas, frequenting the port of Mustri on the banks of Periyaru, coming laden with gold and returning with pepper. It is not known whether the Yavanas - the Romans brought lumps of gold. In all likelihood not. On the contrary it is the Roman coins they brought for its bullion value. This passage then seems to confirm that Roman coins at the beginning were brought to the south, mainly for their metal value and not as currency.
The second referencce comes from Puram poem 56. The ruler, in this case the Pandya Nan Maran, is praised for drinking wine daily in a gold cup, filled by beautiful damsels. The delicious wine was supplied by the Yavanas in well made jars. This stanza shows that the Romans brought good wines in well made jars, obviously a reference to amphora jars found in large numbers in archaeological excavations in Tamil Nad. It also shows that the Tamil Kings rated the Roman wines very high, to be celebrated in poems and that they were drinking Roman wines daily, poured by good looking damsels.
The third reference is to Roman lamps- Nedunalvadai, lines 101-2, mentions beautiful figures, holding lamps in their hands, made by the Yavanas which were used as lights for illumination by the pandyan ruler. The occurrence of Roman terracotta and bronze lamps in different archaeological context in South India confirms this literary reference. Another Sangam poem also confirms the great appreciation of the Tamils for the Roman lamps(1). The Romans are said to light and place their lamps in the shape of a black swan on the Yupa sthambhas, planted in places where the learned Brahmins performed Vedic sacrifices(2). The 'black - swan' seems to refer to bronze lamps in the shape of a swan.
The other reference to Yavanas(3) relates to their dress and their services as body guards of the king. They had by nature very sturdy bodies, which they covered with shields, giving a fearful appearance. They also carried a whip, to drive their horses, which they covered with their lower garments. The Romans as body guards had a terrifying look.
The last of the reference, relates to the capture of Romans by Nedum Cheral Adan(4). He caught them, tied their hands behind, and poured molten ghee [melted butter] over their heads and captured their costly vessels with precious diamonds. The reason for inflicting such a treatment is not given. Probably they transgressed the law of the land in some ways and received the punishment.
This would show, the Romans were also punished by the rulers. The stanza seems to indicate that the Romans, used barbaric language and were quarrelsome. The last sentence may indicate ships with diamonds. Probably they did not pay duties levied on such commodities.
The Yavanas so mentioned, were in all probability Romans and these literary references are authenticated by archaeological finds like, amphora wine jars, Roman lamps, Roman gold and silver coins, and classical references to their trade in precious gems. Convesely, these poems were obviously composed only after the advent of the Roman trade.
The Tamil epic Silappadhikaram has the following to say on the Yavanas: There was a colony of Yavanas, called Yavanar Irukkai in Kaveripumpattinam in Tanjore district (the ancient Kaberis Emporium of Ptolemy)(5). It was very close to the mount of the river Kaveri. Their colony immediately arrested the sight of passersby. The Yavanas are said to be western people(6). The Yavanas, weilding powerful destructive weapons. The Chera Senkuttuvan ruled over the Yavana country, Himalayas and the southern Kumari(7). The allusion is that he was the master of western, northern and the southern quarters. The term Yavanar Valanadu [Roman Empire] is employed in the sense of overseas western countries, a figurative way of expressing his prowess. The Manimekhalai, refers to Yavana artists(8). The palace of the Chola ruler Mavan Killi who conquered Vanci Karur, had an ornamental pavilion constructed by artisans from different regions like Magada, Avanti, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Along with them the Yavana sculptors were also employed. Magada artists were experts in gem setting Blacksmiths came from Avanti but the artisans from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were simply called expert artists - Kammars and Vinaijnar; their field of expertise is not mentioned. But among the artisans, the Yavanas are specifically mentioned as sculptors Yavana taccar. The 'Jivaka Cintamani' is a Tamil epic, authored by Thiruttakkadevar(9). Assigned to the 9th cent a.d. it is a Jain work that gives the story of Jivaka and is a work of Pan-Indian character. It has many references to the Yavanas. A fort was fitted with several mechanical contrivances to hurl weapons on invading enemies. They were also capable of pumping red hot molten metal on the enemies. The gadgets [clearly catapaults], equal to modern cannons, were made of [contained fittings of] iron in the shape of boars, snakes, wheels and monkeys and were manned by the Yavanas - Romans(10). A Roman casket - Yavanappelai is alluded to, containing gold, sparkling gems, pearls, diamonds and corals with which attractive jewellery were made. The casket had an ingenious lid, closed and locked with a spike also made of gold(11). A gift of two thousand Roman caskets, containing gold and precious gems is mentioned. In this istance also the casket is called Yavanappelai(12). The women kept their lovely and valued silken garments in Roman boxes set with precious gems mani iyal yavana-c-ceppu(13). A betel leaf box, made of cut crystal with its mouth encased in gold and set with pearls, was made by the skilful Roman artisans. 'Palingu polintu aruhu pon patitta pattiyil Terinda pon adaippai'(14) These are indicative of the preference the high society men and women had for Roman boxes and caskets, which were mainly used for storing precious jewellery, gems and gold. In most cases these are said to be made of crystals. The Perum Katai(15) is another great epic in Tamil which has survived only in parts. According to scholars, it is a Tamil version of Brhad Katha written in Paisaci language by Gunadhya(16). The Ganga king Durvinita wrote it in Sanskrit(17), and the present Tamil work is said to be based on the Sanskrit text(18). The author of this work, was one Kongu Vel, and the text is essentially a Jaina work. It also reflects Pan Indian traits. There are several references to the work of Yavanas, which were owned as objects of royal status. In most cases, the Yavanas are describbed as great sculptors, who made artistic products like jewel boxes, lamps in the shape of women etc. Luxurious jewel boxes, made by the Yavanas containing gold, and jewellery, were brought by beautiful girls and presented to Padmavati(19). A colossal sculpture of a bhuta, made by a Yavana scculptor, had in it built-in gadgets, with which is could capture trespassers(20). Udayana's attendants in the story, brought him, treasures in containers called Aryacceppu, a Roman casket called Yavana mancika and a golden receptacle(21). Luxurious treasures were stored in them. Vasavadatta another character in the story, had a cot of coral set with precious gems, worked by the Yavana artisans(22). An interesting reference calls the Yavana artists as Yavana aryas. They made an exquisite chariot for Vasavadata's mother, which she brought as dowry(23). The yavana artist, in thsi case, are referred to as greatly skilled workers. The chariot had a lotus like seat made of gold, set with precious gems, crystlas, corals and pearls. It was an invaluable vehicle of unparalleled workmanship. That the Yavanas were employed in designing and building Chariots especially, overlaid with gold and set with gems and crystals is frequently alluded to(24). A specially designed Chariot was made for Vasavadatta, with materials brought from different regions(25). The following materials obtained from different regions dserve notice-sandal wood from Podiyil mountain, ivory from Karnatana forests (Mysore region), gold from the Meru mountain, coral from the western ocean, Pearls from the southern ocean, silver from the Vindhya hills, copper from Sri Lanka (Jaffna), diamonds from the Himalayas, and iron from Kadara (Malaysia - Sumatran regions). Artists from different regions of India, were working on the charriot. Each was prroficient in a particular type of work. The first to be mentioned in the list were the Yavana sculptors. With them were working blacksmiths from Avanti, gem setters from Magadha, Goldsmiths from Pataliputra, the drawing artists from Kosala, and painters from Vatsa country. The king Pradyotana, gifted to Udayana twenty five chariots constructed by the Yavanas(26). There were very rich colonies of Yavanas called Yavancceri at Rajagiri(27). The same colonies at another instance are called Yavanappadi(28). Horses presented by the Yavana king ruling overseas country were considered great possessions(29). Indians, both men and women, learned Yavana language. Udayana and the Princess of the Kosala country, communicated with each other through the language of the Yavanas, [Latin!]which others could not understand (30).
  The 'Avantisundari Katha', is a Sanskrit text, written by the famous poet Dandin, who lived in the beginning of 7- 8th cent. a.d.[References past 350-400 a.d. refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium] He refers to a great sculptor-architect named lalithalaya in the court of the Pallava of Kanchi. Giving his accomplishments, Dandin says, that Lalithalaya excelled even the Yavanas in the art of buildings and sculptures. Thus both the Tamil and Sanskrit texts from Tamil Nad, speak highly of Yavanas as sculptors and skilled artists, constructing attractive royal chariots and buildings making precious jewel boxes mostly made of gold and gems and charming lamps held by women and also bringing gold from overseas. They were also known for their fearful countenance, violent speeches, and dreadful weapons and were employed by the Tamil kings to guard their forts. They also brought wine in jars which were in demand among the royalty. It may be mentioned here that among the gold coins found as treasure trove at Vellalur 23 unstruck gold pieces were also found. Obviously they were brought for their metal value. Though no gold coin of the local rulers have been unearthed so far, it is not unlikely that these were brought by the Romans to mint local coins. The recently found inscribed Chera coins suggest they were modelled and minted by the Roman artists. That Roman lamps were actually used in Tamil Nad, is attested by the find of a Roman lamp at Arikkamedu.

Notes. 1. Perumbanarruppadi, in the Pattu Pattu, Ed. Dr. U.V.S. Swaminatha Iyer, Madras 7th reprint, 1974, lines 315-317. 2. Perumbanarruppadai, Ed. Dr. U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, Madras, line, 315-317-commentary p.240. 3. Mullaippattu, Ibid., lines 59-63. 4. Patitru Pattu, Patikam, 2. 5. Nilakanta Sastri, K.A., Foreign Notices of South India, Madras. 6. Silappadhikaram, ibid., p.131. 7. ibid., p.576. 8. Manimekhalai, Ed. Dr.U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, 7th Edition, Madras 1965, p.212. 9. Jivakacintamani, Ed. Dr.U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, Madras. 10. Ibid. verse - 104. 11. Ibid. verse - 114. 12. Ibid. verse - 537. 13. Ibid. verse - 1146. 14. Ibid. verse - 1475. 15. Perumkathai by Kongu Velir, Ed. Dr.U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, Madras, 4th edition, 1968. 16. Berridale Keith, A., A history of Sanskrit literature, Madras, 1973, pp.266-272. 17. Inscriptions of the Western Gangas, Dr.K.V. Ramesh, Delhi. 18. Perunkatai, Ed., Dr. U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, Madras, 4th edition, 1968, Introduction. 19. Ibid. p.640. 20. Ibid. p.870-71. 21. Ibid. p.7. 22. Ibid. p.24-25. 23. Ibid. p.110. 24. Ibid. p.110. 25. Ibid. p.110 26. Ibid, p. 748 27. Ibid, p. 505 28. Ibid. verse p.505. 29. Ibid. verse p.249. 30. Ibid. verse p.775. (to be continued) Posted by jayasree at 12:32 PM

Monday, May 6, 2013

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