PREHISTORIC INDIA:PALEOLITHIC,MESOLITHIC,NEOLITHIC AGE

PREHISTORIC  INDIA  UPSC NOTES

The Indian pre-history has broadly been divided into three cultural stages which are described as follows:

• Paleolithic Age or the Old Stone Age: (From 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BCE), when first stone tools were made, and people lived in hunt ing and food-gathering era.
• Mesolithic Age or the Middle Stone Age: (10,000 BCE-4000 BCE), when microlith (small-sized) tools were made and used. It was the transitional period between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic ages. Along with the continuation of hunting and food gathering, this period witnessed the first evidence of domestication of animals and origin of agriculture.
• Neolithic Age or the New Stone Age: (7000 BCE-1000 BCE) when people began to lead a settled and sedentary life by producing food with the help of sophisticated and polished stone tools.

The major source of understanding prehistory is archaeology, but historians also rely on data provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such as biology, paleontology (study of fossils), geology, anthropology linguistics, genetics and many others.

Paleolithic Age in India

Paleolithic Culture of India developed in the Pleistocene period of the Ice age. Paleolithic age in India is divided into the following three phases according to the nature of stone stools used by the people and also according to the nature of change in the climate.

• Lower Paleolithic or the early Stone Age (between 5,00,000 BCE and 1,00,000 BCE) 
•  Middle Palaeolithic age (between 1,00,000 BCE and 40,000 BCE)
•  Upper Paleolithic or phase (between 40,000 BCE and 10,000 BCE)

Lower Paleolithic or the Early Stone Age: 

• The main characteristic feature of this period is the use of hand axe and chopper-chopping tools. 
• In Pakistan, the main flaked pebble, also called 'chopper chopping' tools in the Pabbi Hills, near Son valley, belong to lower Paleolithic age. 
• Similar such tools are reported from Pahalgam in Kashmir. 
• Many sites in South India including Hunasagi valley in Karnataka.
• Attirampakkam, near Chennai, have turned up 'Early Acheulean tools' (of the so-called 'Madras Industry'), that is hand axes, etc., made mainly from the cores. 
• Apart from Didwana in Rajasthan and Nevasa in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra,  smaller tools out of flakes or the late 'Acheulean tools' have been found in the Narmada valley, where they appear in association with the 'Narmada skull' (Homo erectus) discovered at Hathnoora. 
• At famous cave of Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh), such tools are found.

 

                                                       

 

Sites are found through India except the northern alluvial corridor and Kerala, but the most prominent is the valley of the river Soan in Punjab, now in Pakistan and is sometimes termed as Sohan Industry.

•  Several sites have also been found in the Belan Valley in Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh. 
• They are also found in the valley of the Narmada and in the caves and rock shelters of Bhimbet- ka near Bhopal. 
• They roughly belong to 1,00,000 BCE. Robert Bruce Foote discov- ered the prehistoric hand axe in 1963 at Attirampakkam near Chennai. Other sites near Chennai are Badmadurai and Pallavaram.
• At some sites ,a large number of tools were found that were used for all sites of activities.These were probably habitation cum factory sites.

" Habitation sites": These  are  the   places  where   people  lived. These include cave and rock sheltors.

"Factory sites":These are the places where stone were  found and where people made tools.

Middle Paleolithic Age:
 

This period refers to Stone age culture of the last phase of Pleistocene. As Homo erectus evolved, he also improved his tools, giving them new shapes and adjusting the techniques to locally available materials. These ultimately led to the rise of regional 'cultures'. The term 'culture' is used when archaeologists find, at a layer in one or more sites, a similar assemblage of tools and other products of human labour, which they call 'artefacts' as well as indications of similar customs and beliefs, such as system of disposal of the dead and ritual symbols.Regarding late Homo erectus \Neanderthals, there is little known of custom or belief, the form of his stone tools alone supply us with clues to his varied cultures. As the millenia passed, the tendency was for the production of smaller and thin- ner tools. This led to the making of flake blade and it marked the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic stage in India.The sites from where these tools are found included regions of 'Nevasa culture' that extended over central India and Southern peninsula. The principal tools are varieties of blades, points, borers and scrapers made of flakes.The most important sites have been found in Maharashtra, especially from Godavari valley such as Nevasa and Suregaon. The principal tools are varieties of blades, points, borers and blade-like tools.

Upper Paleolithic Phase:

• In all likelihood, the Anatomically Modern Man or Homo sapiens sapiens appeared in the Upper Paleolithic stage. 
• This species is marked, in comparison with the other hominid species, by a large forehead, the elimination of the heavy ridge above the eyes, a vertical line of the face and a chin. 
• His bones tend to be thin- ner ('gracile' rather than 'robust') and had the highest cranial capacity of brain (1250-1450 cc).

 

• The tools of this period are found in the sites of Renigunta in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, Shorapur Doab in Karnataka, Budha Pushkar, in Rajasthan, Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh, etc 
•  During this period, there was evidence of religious belief and symbolic representation of a deity at Bagor in Rajasthan. Besides these, the tools are also found in central Madhya Pradesh, Maharash- tra, southern Uttar Pradesh, south Bihar plateau and the adjoining areas.
•  Caves and rock shelters for use by human beings in this phase have been discovered at Bhimbetka, 45 km to the south of Bhopal.
• It appears that Palaeolithic sites are found in many hill slopes and river valleys of the country while they are absent in the alluvial plains of the Indus and the Ganga.

 

Mesolithic Age(Hunters and Herders)

• A reflection of the immense potential thus obtained in the preceding periods is to be seen in the increase in the pace of change that was taking place in the succeeding period. 
• This transitional period, marked by microliths, is designated Mesolithic or the Middle Stone Age. The Paleolithic Age came to an end with the end of the Ice age around 9000 BCE. In 9000 BCE, began an intermediate stage in Stone Age culture, called Mesolithic age.
•  Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing and food gathering, while at a later stage they also domesticated animals. 
• The first three occupations continued the Paleolithic practice, while the last one was inter-related with the Neolithic culture. 
• The characteristic tools of Mesolithic Age are microliths, ranging from 1 to 8 cm The sites are found in good numbers in Rajasthan, southern UP, central and eastern India and also south of the river Krishna. 

The important sites are:

• Bagor in Rajasthan is the type site of microlith excavations and had a dis tinctive microlith industry. The main raw materials to make such tools were quartz and cherts. The tools followed geometric pattern that was geared to a hunting economy.

.Adamgarh and Bhimbetka (MP) are two of the earliest known sites. Bhim- betka has more than 500 painted rock shelters which are distributed in the area of 10 km.

.Langhnaj in Gujarat furnishes the evidence of use of rhinoceros bones for making blades.

.Sarai Nahar Rai and Mahadaha in UP. Other sites are Teri in Tamil Nadu, Birbhanpur in West Bengal, etc.

 

The earliest evidence of cultivation of plants dates back to 7000 BCE-6000 BCE in Rajasthan from a study of the deposits from Sambhar salt lake. Sites like Sarai Na- har Rai and Mahadaha have turned up burials with skeletons of tall, large-boned, rather robust people. The tool types had by now multiplied, but were still based on parallel-sided blades. Arrowheads of bone and flint, show that the bow and arrow had been added to the hunter's equipment. The animals hunted and eaten include zebu or Indian humped oxen, buffalo, sheep, goat, stag (deer), pig, rhinocer os, elephant, tortoise, turtle and different birds. There is no firm evidence that cattle or sheep or goats had been domesticated.

 

With regard to the customs and practices, ornaments of bones (pendants and necklaces) have been found at Mahadaha, apparently worn only by men and not women. The burials indicate the existence of religion and superstitions. Bone ornaments and bones of slaughtered animals were buried with the dead, showing a belief in after life. Women were buried in the same manner as men; and, though there are double burials, there is nothing to show that one of the two was killed to accompany the other in after life.

 

A bone figurine has been recovered from the Belan valley and engraved os- trich shell from Patne in Maharashtra and Rojde in MP; these were probably not made only for aesthetic purposes but had some cultic significance or superstition behind them as well.

Adamgarh in the Narmada valley represents a further advance in Mesolithic culture, with bones of domesticated animals such as dogs, zebu cattle, buffalo, sheep and pig appearing in equal number with wild animals like species of deer, porcupine and lizard. Clearly, this was a hunting community that had turned partly pastoral.

Hand-made pottery was also found from Chopanimando in UP. The people lived in rock shelters and were perhaps the first authors of cave paintings in In- dia. The earliest paintings in Bhimbetka rock shelters near Bhopal could go back to 6000 BCE, they show animals being hunted by men with bow and arrow. In paintings, human figures appear in stick-like forms. There is a striking painting of a woman carrying a load. No inflation of particular human figures such as might reflect a measure of distinction of rank or class within society, is discernible. Nor is there any suggestion of agricultural or even pastoral activity in these paintings. The drawing of a peahen represents genuine artistic skill.

Neolithic Age(Food Producers)

The term 'Neolithic' was coined by John Lubbock in his book, Prehistoric Times, in 1865. The Neolithic age is the final phase of the Stone Age and it also marks the beginning of food production. The fundamental and much-debated question What led scattered human settlements which had no contact to move to adopt agriculture almost concurrently?

 While we may not have conclusive answers to this question the following three triggers are considered responsible for this shift.

The climactic change during the initial Holocene period The increasing population density, and The evolution of technological and cultural strategies among human groups.

 

Characteristics of Neolithic Age

The Neolithic age is not only the final phase of the Stone Age but also the foundation for subsequent evolutionary developments.

 The following are some of its distinct features:

Tools: Unlike the light and sharp Paleolithic or Mesolithic tools, the Neolithic stone tools are heavy grinding tools-pestles, mortars, grinders and pounders along with axes and sickles. These have been found with a characteristic sheen of being used regularly for harvesting wild and cultivated plants.

 

Food Production: Apart from stone tools, there is very little that the Neolithic peo- ple had in common with their predecessors. The Paleolithic and Mesolithic people were nomadic hunter-gatherers who traveled long distances for food. In contrast, Neolithic settlements across the globe relied heavily on food production via rudi- mentary agriculture and domesticated animals.

 In the pattern of this rudimentary agriculture also one can see an unusual similari ty-all the largest and the most complex civilizations throughout recorded history have been based on the cultivation of one more of six plant genera-wheat, barley, millet, rice, maize and potatoes. These have been referred to as 'the engines of civilizations'.

Settlements: Sedentism is a notable feature of the Neolithic period. Somewhere between 10,000 to 3,500 years ago, people all over the world, without any apparent connection began to live together in agricultural communities, which gradually coalesced into villages and then cities.

The use of pottery and the wheel and the subsequent invention of crafts like spinning, weaving and bead-making also serve to demonstrate the uniqueness of the Neolithic phase. Most Neolithic cultures start as aceramic or pre-pottery Neolithic. However, soon enough, sherds of hand-made pottery were found, often followed by wheel-thrown pottery. The technological breakthrough of the wheel enabled developments like spinning and by the time of the Bronze Age civilizations, the use of the wheel in carts.

 

It was a consideration of all these developments that made the prehistorian Gordon V. Childe (1892-1957) designate this phase as the 'Neolithic Revolution'. However, his critics were quick to point out that the term 'revolution' is synonymous with sudden or abrupt change, often accompanied by bloodshed and that the Neolithic was a gradual unfolding of developments towards the culmination of the Stone Age. While the significant socio-economic impact of the Neolithic Age cannot be denied, it is today generally viewed as a 'transformation' or 'evolution' rather than a 'revolution'.

 

FAQ

Question 1.What is the Paleolithic Age period?

Answer: From 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BCE.

Question 2.What is the Paleolithic Age known for?

Answer:Known for stone stools used by the people.