Pre-Historic Age

Pre-Historic Age/Stone age-

It is divided as follows-

1.Palaeolithic Age-

• The term Palaeolithic is a Greek Word. In Greek language „Palaeo‟ means old and „Lithic‟ means stone. So the term Palaeolithic age means Old Stone Age.

• During this age the men were food gatherers and hunters and they used tools of unpolished undressed, rough stones to hunt animals for food. 

• As per historians, this period would have started around 10 Lac years ago and would have ended around 10,000 BC

The Palaeolithic age is divided into three phase-

(i) Early or lower Palaeolithic

(ii) Middle Palaeolithic

(iii) Upper Palaeolithic

(i) Early or lower Palaeolithic-

• Early Stone Age or the lower Palaeolithic Age which occurred during the years 600,000 through 60,000 B.C.

• The majority of Early Stone Age tools found in all parts of the subcontinent is made of quartzite

Important Early or lower Palaeolithic sites-

• Singi Talav in western Rajasthan.

• Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh.

• Lalitpur in Jhansi district of UP.

• Paisra in Munger district, Bihar.

• Chirki-Nevasa in Maharashtra has yielded dolerite artefacts along with fossil bones of wild cattle and other animals.

• Morgaon, a site from Deccan basalt landscape in the Bhima drainage basin has yielded an assemblage of 162 specimens including cleavers and hand axes.

• Sampur in the Hunsgi valley in North Karnataka.

• Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu), an in situ Acheulian site has yielded an Acheulian assemblage of quartzite and fossilized bones of wild cattle and other species.

The Lower Palaeolithic has two cultural traditions:

A.Soanian pebble-tool tradition

• The tools consist of pebbles with working edges on their sides or ends, obtained by means of flaking from one or both surfaces

B.The Peninsular Indian handaxe-cleaver tradition

• The term ‘Acheulian’ is used for hand-axes and cleavers found as tool assemblages and representing advanced and increasingly symmetrical shapes.

• Quartzite was the preferred rock for tool-making

(ii) Middle Palaeolithic

• The Middle Palaeolithic Age began around 150,000 B.C. and ended in 40,000 B.C.

• During this period the tools and weapons used became a bit more advanced.

• Tools were made from flakes which were thin pieces of stone which have been found in different parts of India with regional variations.

• The principal tool comprise blades, points, borers, knives and scrappers, all made of flakes

Sites-

Middle Palaeolithic Age in India have been found in -

• The Sohan Valley.

• The Valley of Narmada.

• South of Tungabhadra Rivers .

• The Bellan Valley and in the Visakhapatnam Coast.

• Pahalgam valley in Jammu Kashmir, India.

• Ketavaram Rock Painting in Andhra Pradesh, India.

• Hunasagi Village in Karnataka, India.

• Didwana in Rajasthan.

• Potwar Plateau between the Indus and Jhelum rivers.

• Hiran valley in Gujarat.

• Chirki Nevasa in Maharashtra.

(iii) Upper Palaeolithic-

• The Upper Palaeolithic age is the third and last phase of the Palaeolithic age.

• This age began around 40,000 B.C. and ended in 10000 B.C.

• The climate of this period saw dramatic changes. The climate was less humid.

• It was the last phase of ice age and climate became comparatively warm

Tools-

• The Upper Palaeolithic is marked by technological advances in stone tool manufacture by the production of parallel sided blades which are finished into a variety of tools by blunting one side or by backing.

Use of pointed and sharp tools-

• Blades are flakes, but very refined flat narrow ones, elongated in shape and having parallel sides.
• The primary occupation sites in the Rallakalava (Vedulacheruvu, Nallagundlu)and Gunjuna (Peddarajupalli , Vodikalu, Bellu) valleys in the southern Eastern Ghats have yielded the best known evidence of the blade-and-burin industries in the country.

• Use of Bone tools in Kurnool cave sites and Mulchatla in Andhra Pradesh.

Life-

• Upper Palaeolithic people shared their landscape with the animals. Caves and rock shelters for use by human beings in the upper palaeolithic phase have been discovered at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh

Sites-

• Kurnool cave sites and Mulchatla in Andhra Pradesh.

• Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh.

• Chopani Mando in Belan valley.

• Paisra in Munger district of Bihar.

• Haora and Khowai river valleys in western Tripura.

Art and culture-

• Indian Palaeolithic has examples of portable art in the form of ostrich egg shell beads and engraved fragments.

• The well-known sites are Bhimbetka III A-Ramnagar (Chambal valley) and Khaparkheda (Narmada valley) in MadhyaPradesh.

• Mural paintings of Bhimpetaka are well known and there is representation of animals like  rhinoceroses, bison, wild buffaloes etc.

Facts about Paleolithic age-

• In this period, primitive humans used to wander like animals.

• They did not use clothes. They did not have any permanent place to live nor had they imagined about house.
• Normally,they lived under the trees and in case of need, used to climb the trees.

The main tools -

• The main tools used by them are hand axes,sticks to dig the earth, scrapers, blades and burins etc.

• There were no institutions of formal government, no formal of permanent leaders not even the powerful chiefs.

• Use of fire was there.

Rituals-

• Animals, plants and landscape may be worshiped or may form the focus of rituals

Lack of Religion-

• There is no proof of religious sentiment for primitive humans.

• Perhaps, they did not have time for metaphysical world

Music-

• In the excavation, some vocal instruments made of bones have been found, which depicts that they had interest in music

2.The Mesolithic Age-

• The Mesolithic Age began around 8000 BCE.

• It was a transitional phase between the Palaeolithic Age and the Neolithic Age.

• There was a rise in temperature and the climate became warm and dry.

• The climatic changes affected human life and brought about changes in fauna and flora

Characteristics of the Mesolithic Age-

• The characteristic tools of the Mesolithic Age are Microliths or tiny tools.

Microliths

• Microliths range in length from under 1 cm to 5 cm.

• The tools are mostly made on short parallel sided blades made of crypto – crystalline silica stone such as quartlite, chaleodong, jasper and agate.

Settlement-

• The most noticeable feature of this period was the concentration of population along river valleys, heralding a settled form of life in which food – gathering turned into food producing

Beliefs-

• The evidence from the burial sites of Swami Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama confirms the presence of grave grounds is often taken as an indication of some shorts of belief after life

Food-

• The Mesolithic people obtained their food through, hunting and gathering.

Rock art-

• Rock art or Palaeo-art of our ancestors is the earliest signatures drawn on rock surfaces either on the open cliffs or inside the rock shelters and caves where they lived.

• This type of art was mostly seen during this time and one of such example is Bhimbetka.

Bhimbetka-

• Bhimbetka rock art site is in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh.

• Bhimbetka is a name of a large hill, located near the tribal village of Bhiyanpur.

• The hill is a part of the deciduous woodland-covered Vindhyan hills of Central India.

• Almost all the shelters contain paintings of prehistoric to medieval periods, a few of them also contain evidence of past human occupation in the form of stone tools, pottery, copper and iron tools, beads of stone, steatite, faience and terracotta and other objects, animal remains and human burials .

• The hills at Bhimbetka are of sandstone and quartzite.

• Out of 642 rock shelters in Bhimbetka, 400 have paintings, engravings and bruisings.

• They exhibit the earliest pictorial traces of human life in the Indian subcontinent

Sites-

• Bagor and Tilwara in Rajasthan.

• Langhraj, Kanewal and Loteshwar in Gujrat.

• Adamgarh and Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh.

• Sarai Nahar Rai,Mahadaha and Damdama in Uttar Pradesh etc.

3.Neolithic or New Stone Age-

• In this period also, They used tools and weapons made up of stones and bones, yet they were more developed this time and were different from Quartzite stone, of more different style, smooth and shape

Characteristics of Neolithic Age

Time-

• from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC

Tools-

• Use of Developed tools that were made up of Chalcedony, Jasper, Chert and Blood stone stones and were used with a wooden lever attached to it

Art-

• The people of Neolithic age also knew about the art of pottery.

• This is testified by the discovery of several remains of pottery from the different sites.

• The common items of pottery were chatties, bowls, lothas, big pots to store food grains and water.

• People used variety of colours in pottery

The invention of wheel-

• One of the greatest inventions of Neolithic man was the invention of wheel

Food- 

• The chief food of Neolithic age was fruits, vegetables, roots, and nuts, flesh of the animals, fish, pulses and milk products.

Agriculture- 

• The art of agriculture was not known to them during early stage but later on they developed the art of cultivation of grains

Development of Languag

• Gradually language developed. In social life, to communicate with each other made them feel the need of a medium.

• Primitive humans used to use shabby pictures for this purpose, but gradually dialect started, by which vocabulary was created and language developed

Religion-  

• There was no specific religion. People of Neolithic age generally worshipped spirits of their ancestors and forces of nature.

• In this period, practice of burying and cremating both are found.

• In the worship process, custom of offertory was also prevalent. Milk, curd, grains and meats were offered to gods and goddesses. Slowly, Ling puja also developed.

• Beginning of Permanent Life

Sites- 

The important Neolithic sites excavated include -

• Maski, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Kodekal and Takkalakota in Karnataka.

• Paiyampalit in Tamil Nadu.

• Piklihal and Utnur in Andhra Pradesh.

• Koldinwa and Mahagara in Uttar Pradesh.

• Kanjun (Sohn valley) in Madhya Pradesh

Clothes and Ornaments—

• In this period, humans started covering their private parts with tree leaves, skins and animal skins, but gradually it started producing cotton through farming.

• Clothes were being made of cotton and used.

Fact-

• Tools and weapons of this period bore Swastika and X mark.

4.Chalcolithic period-

• After the end of Neolithic Age the human civilization entered to a new phase known as Chalcolithic period.

• It was a phase applied to the Pre-Harappan when stone and copper were used.

• Copper was the first metal to be discovered in India.

• The Chalcolithic age of India was a period of copper – bronze.

• The Challolithic age probably started between 3000 B.C. and 1000 B.C

Characteristics of Chalcolithic Age -

Use of Metal-

• The use of metal during this period in different parts of India was not uniform.

• While in Northern India copper was the metal that came to be used after stone, in Southern India iron replaced stone without the intermediate stage of use of copper.

• Bronze which is an allony made of copper and tin was in use in India simultaneously

Tools-

• People of Chalcolithic Age used tools made of stone in which the stone blades and stone axes were found in large numbers in South India.

• In other settlements the people used copper tools like axes, Chisels, swords and harpoons.

• These tools were better, sharper and of more permanent in nature.

• The people of Ahar and Gilund in Rajasthan used household utensils made of copper

Agriculture and animal husbandry -

• People of this age domesticated animals and practiced agriculture.

• They reared cows, sheep, goats, pigs and buffaloes.

• They produce wheat and rice and inaddition to these staple crops they also cultivated bajra, barley, pulses etc.

• All these food grains have been found on the bank of Narmada in Maharastra.

• The people of eastern regions lived on fish and rice as fish hooks have been found in Bihar and West Bengal.

• The people of this period were generally not acquainted with burnt bricks.

Pottery-

• The people of Challcolithic age used different types of pottery.

• Black and red types of pottery were commonly used.

• It was thrown on whel and occasionally painted with white linear designs.

• The Chalcolithic people were very expert in coppersmiths and also skillfull workers in stone.

• They were expert in arts and crafts.

• Weapons and bangles of copper  have been unearthed.

Religion-

• The Challolithic peole worshipped the mother goodess as in proved by the discovery of terracotta figures of women.

Sites-

Burjhom of Kashmir—

• Kashmir gave birth to a prosperous civilization in Neolithic age.

• Near Srinagar a place called Burjhom has been found, where we see many articles of Neolithic ages.

• In the first phase of this age, following hand usable tools have been found- hand made clay pots and saws, forks, knives and needles etc.

• Apart from these, tools for harvesting also have been found. In the next phase of Neolithic ages, we found evidence of raw brick and mud houses, clay pots of potter’s wheel and limited use copper

Mehargarh-

• This is the oldest spot situated at Baluchistan.

• By chalcolithic articles, it appears thathere they used stone along with copper.
• There have been information of their businessrelations with Iran, Afghanistan and Central India.

• Mehrgarh, on the bank of river Bolan, is an important site located in the Kacchi plains, about 150 km from Quetta in Baluchistan.

• This site covers an area of 200 ha.

• The site has given evidence of pre-ceramic Neolithic up to the Harappan culture.

• The first cultural period of the Neolithic culture at Mehrgarh dates from c. 7000 to 5500 BCE.

• It is a pre-pottery Neolithic culture.

• The semi-nomadic, pastoral groups began to settle at this place.

• These people used polished stone axes, querns, microliths and bone tools.

• They did not use pottery, but cultivated six-row barley, emmer and einkorn wheat, and domesticated sheep, goat and cattle

Significance of Mehrgarh –

• Periods I to III provide the earliest evidence of the transition from hunting-gathering to animal domestication and agriculture.

• Barley seems to have been the most important crop.

• Significantly, wild, transitional and cultivated varieties of barley have been found.

• This makes this region of north Baluchistan, a natural habitat zone of wild barley, and Mehrgarh a part of the nuclear area of barley The Neolithic Phase domestication. Wheat has also been found.

Ahad Culture of Banas Culture-

• Wide remains of chalcolithic culture have been found in Udaipur,Jaipur, Chittorgarh , Ajmer, Bhilwada and Tonk distt of Rajasthan and in Mandsaur distt of Madhya Pradesh.

• Though not much excavation work has been done, but culture found by excavation near Ahad and Gilund, is called Ahad Culture.

• Due to being situated in Banas river valley, it is also called Banas Culture

Other-

• Kili Gul Mohammed and Damb Saada,Sarai Khola near Rawalpindi in western Punjab.

• Jaleelpur near the confluence of Chenab and Ravi rivers.

• Birbhum,Bardwan, Midnapore, and Bankura of west Bengal,m Chirand and Sonepur of Bihar etc.

Gufkral

• The site of Gufkral has evidence of three cultural phases.

• Settlement started at this site around 3000 BCE and evidence of pit dwellings has been found. Bones of sheep, goat, deer, ibex, wolf and bear suggest their dependence on pastoralism and hunting. Polished stone tools, querns, horn tools and steatite beads