Roughly 74,000 years ago, a supervolcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra roared to life. Known as the Toba eruption, the event was the largest volcanic blast in the last two million years, scattering ash thousands of miles and leaving behind a 60-mile-wide crater that has since filled with water.

Some scientists have argued that the supereruption must have caused a global cold spell, darkening the sky with ash and soot and producing a prolonged period of deforestation in South Asia. If that’s the case, though, the eruption and its aftermath didn’t stop early humans from surviving in central India, scientists report.

At the Dhaba dig site in the state of Madhya Pradesh, ancient tools appear in layers of sediment that