Humans in Asia survived Toba super-eruption 74,000 years ago

Chris Clarkson and company have produced a study arguing that the super volcano Toba eruption of 74,000 years ago did not lead to a population bottleneck in Asia, as has been suggested.  Brook Hays of UPI writes:

For the study, scientists analyzed evidence of human populations and climate change across a significant stratigraphic record — a column of rock and sediment layers comprising 80,000 years of history — from the Dhaba dig site in northern India’s Middle Son Valley.

The column yielded stone artifacts suggesting Middle Palaeolithic tool-using populations were present in India prior to the Toba eruption.

“Although Toba ash was first identified in the Son Valley back in the 1980s, until now we did not have associated archaeological evidence, so the Dhaba site fills in a major chronological gap,” researcher J.N. Pal, professor of ancient history and archaeology at the University of Allahabad in India, said in a news release.

The authors argue that there are stone tools at the Dhaba site the strongly resemble Middle Stone Age tools in Northeast Africa. The occupation levels go down to 48,000 years ago, where Levallois and microlithic tools are found. This suggests continuous occupation of the site by different groups with similar stone tool technologies.

Time to chuck another theory into the dustbin of history.