Sheela Athreya

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED: Models of Homo sapiens evolution have been built on the idea that a human type known as “anatomically modern” exists, and its origins can be identified in the fossil, lithic, and ancient genomic record. The goal of this project was to re-envision the study of our species’ evolutionary history while rejecting these typological frameworks. The Bhimbetka rock shelters in Central India yielded several burials with Middle and Upper Paleolithic tools, dating to the Late Stone Age. We reconstructed the skeletons from bone fragments and collected bone samples with the following goals: 1) directly date and establish a chronological framework for hominins and Paleolithic tool types in India; 2) determine if the Indian specimens physically resemble contemporaneous populations in Asia, Europe, or Africa; 3) extract ancient DNA and determine whether they are genetically similar to any of these populations; and 4) correlate the genetic, morphological, and lithic typology and construct a bio-behavioral model early H. sapiens in India. We are awaiting lab results that will enable us to model how evolutionary forces shaped Late Stone Age humans in South Asia, and how lithic types played a role in their survival. This also acknowledges regionally variable trajectories and adaptations in early humans.