Paleolithic age or old stone age,
when first stone tools were made by placing and men lived in hunting and food
gathering stage.
Mesolithic age or the late stone
age, when microliths tools were used; it was the transitional period between
the Paleolithic and Neolithic age, Hunting and food gathering continued.
Neolithic age or the new stone
age, when man made stone tools by grinding and polishing were used. Agriculture
developed life became settled and sedentary, so it is sometimes called the Neolithic
Revolution.
Paleolithic Age: The earth is nearly 4000 million
years old. The evolution of its crust shows four states; the last stage is
called Quaternary which is divided into Pleistocene (most recent) and Holocene
(Present), the former lasted between 1,000,000 and 10,000 years before the
present and the latter began about
years ago. Man is said to have
appeared on the earth in the early Pleistocene. The cultural debris recovered
from the entire period of Pleistocene in termed as Paleolithic culture.
The Paleolithic culture India
developed in the Pleistocene period of the Ice Age. The period was
characterized by major climatic plultnations.
The Paleolithic age in India is
divided into three phases, according to the nature of the stone stools used by
the people and also according to the anture of change in climate.
Lower Paleolithic culture [250,000-B. C.] - the main characteristic
feature of lower Paleolithic is the use of hand axe and chapper chopping tools.
Sites are found throughout India except the northern allevial corridor and
Kerala, but the most prominent is the valley of river Soan or Sohan in Punjab,
now in Pakistan and is sometimes termed as ‘Sohan Industry’. It reveals tools
made of split pebbles and flakes of quartzite and greenish grey trap. These
cond most important site of this industry has been found from Madras region,
termed as Madrasian Industry.
Middle Paleolithic Culture [100,000 -B. C.] - It refers to stone
age culture of the last phase of Pleistocene; its indusmis are mainly based
upon flakes, found in different parts of India and show regional variations.
The principal tools are varieties of blades, points, borers and scrapers made
of flakes.
The most important stratified
sites have been found from Maharashtra region and especially from Godavari
Valley and its tributaries - Nevasa, Suregaon, Bel Pandhari and Nandur
Madismmeshwar.
Other sites are found in the
desert area of Didwana of Rajasthan and the cases and rock shelters of
Bhimpetka near Bhopal in M. P. Among the southern sites are places on the river
Narmada and also at several places south of the Tungabhadra river, Malaprabha
and Ghatprabha basin of northern Karnataka.
More than 200 rock shelters and
convis are located on Bhimbetka hills over 500 cavis are decorated - the total
number of paintings ream into several thousands. Perhaps this is the richest
rock painting site not only in India but possibly in the world.
Upper Paleolithic Culture [40,000-10,000 B. C.] - This phase was
less humid, it coincided with the last phase of the Ice Age when climate became
comparatively warm Principal tools were blades and burins which have been found
in Andhra, Karnataka, Central Rajasthan, Gujarat.
The phase witnessed the emergence
of a wide range of bone tools, including needles, fishing tools and harpoons.
Now socially, people began to
organize themselves on the basin of kinship.
Mesolithic Age:
The upper Paleolithic age came to
an end with the end of the Ice age around 10,000 B. C. and the climate became
warm and dry.
Climatic changes brought about
changes in Flora and Fauna and made it possible for human beings to move to new
areas. Since then there have not been any major changes in climatic conditions.
People lived on hunting, fishing
and food gathering like previously. At a later stage they also domesticated
animals — hunters and herders.
The characteristic tools were
microliths, ranging from 1 to 8 cm and could have been used only as composite tools
hafted in wood or bovine jaws and not singly.
The first microlithis were
discovered by Carlyle in 1867 from the Vindhya rock shelters.
The sites are found in good
numbers in Rajasthan, Southern U. P., central and eastern India and also south
of the river Krishna. The important sites -
Bagor (Rajasthan) - a very well
excavated site, had a distinctive microlithic industry, the main raw material
being employed was quartz and cherts; followed geometric pattern geared to a
hunting economy.
Adamgarh and Bhimbheta (M. P) -
are also two earliest sites; the latter has more than 500 painted rock shelters
distributed in the area of 10 km.
Langhraj in Gujarat - furnishes
the evidence of use of bones like the shoulder blade of a Rhinoceros. The
hunting implements were spears with multiple barbs apparently obtained easily
by attaching microliths.
Sarai Nahar Rai in U. P. - where
inter group fighting is proved by the skeletons found with a microlith embedded
into one of its ribs.
Other sites are Teri in Tamil
Nadu, Birbhanpur in West Bengal etc.
The characteristics feature of
Southern Microliths is that quartz was the main material which allowed only a
crude blade technique; geometric element is either absent or very minor.
The cultivation of plants around
7000-6000 B. C. is suggested in Rajasthan from a study of the deposits of the
former salt lake Sambhar.
Neolithic Age: In the world context the Neolithic age or the new
stone age began in 9000 B. C.
The only Neolithic settlement in
the Indian subcontinent, attributed to 7000 B. C. which furnishes the first
clear evidence of agriculture and domestication of animals is Mehrgarh.
Some neolithic sites found on the
Northern spurs of the Vindhyas are considered as old as 5000 B. C. But
generally Neolithic settlements found in South India are not older than 2500 B.
C.; in some parts of Southern and Eastern India they are as late as 1000 B. C.
The characteristic tools of this
period were polished stones, particularly stone axes.
Based on the type of axes used by
Neolithic settlers, we notice three important areas of Neolithic settlements
North Western, North Eastern and Southern.
In the North West, the Kashmir
Neolithic culture was distinguished by its pit dwelling. An important site is
that of Burzahom, which means the place of birth and is situated 16 km north
west of Srinagar ascribable to the period around 2400 B. C. People here lived
on a lake side in pits and probably had a hunting and fishing economy with
faint agriculture.
Neolithic tools are also found in
the Garo hills in Meghalaya.
Neolithic sites in Allahabad
district are noted for the cultivation of rice in the 6th millenium B. C.
The Gangetic plains have not
yielded any other Neolithic site except Chirand, 40 km west of Patna and it has
been dated around 1600 B. C.
The earliest manifestation of neolithic
culture in South India is seen at Sanganakallu. The pointed but polished axes
seems to be the characteristic tool of the southern neolithic culture. They
knew cattle rearing and agriculture. The C14 dating shows that the Southern
neolithic phase seems to have the period from 2500-10 BC.
The prominent southern sites
include - Maski, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Kodekal, Sanganakallu, T. Narsipurand
Takkalakota in Karnataka; Piklihal and Utnur in Andhra Pradesh.
The Neolithic settlers were the
earliest farming community. Their life had became settled and sedentary.
Kinship became the basis of social organization and they owned property in
common.
The Neolithic people of Mehrgarh
were more advanced and produced wheat, cotton and lived in mud brick houses.
People needed pots for storing
foodgrains, cooking, eating and drinking; hence pottery first appears in this
phase; handmade pottery is found in the earliest stage, later footwheels were
used to turn up pots. Food began to be cooked with the help of fire.
The people of Neolithic age
suffered from one great limitation. Since they had to depend entirely on tools
and weapons made of stones, they could not found settlements far away from the
hilly areas. Further, even with great effort they could not produce more than
what they needed for bare subsistence a subsistence economy indeed.
Chopani Mando provides the
earliest evidence of the use pottery in the world.
Mehrgarh has revealed a long
cultural history for the region ranging from the pre pottery Neolithic to the
mature Harappan Period.
At Mahagara a large cattle with
hoof-marks of cattle have been reported.
Koldihawa provide the earliest
evidence for the domesticated variety of rice (dated to 6500 B. C.) in the
world.
Chalcolithic (Stone - Copper) Culture: By the end of the Neolithic
phase metal started being used. The first metal to be used was copper by second
millennium BC Several regional cultures sprang up in different parts of the
Indian subcontinent characterized by the use of stone and copper tools. Hence
these cultures are termed as Chalcolithic cultures.
Other distinctive features of
this culture are
Use of distinct painted pottery
which is mostly black on red.
A highly specialized stone blade
industry of siliceous stone.
Occasional and limited use of
copper.
Cultivation of both Kharif and
Rabi crops.
Development of religious beliefs.
They found the first village
communities in peninsular India.
They were first to build
fortified settlements.
They were the first to produce
cotton.
Notes:
The first reported discovery of a
copper harpoon was made from Bithur in Kanpur district in 1822.
The largest copper hoard has been
found at Gungeria in M. P.
The Bone female figures at Belan
Valley Mirzapur in U. P. is the earleist dated art work of human origin in
India.
At Inamgaon, in the early
Chalcolithic phase in western Maharashtra large mud houses with oven, and
circular pit houses, have been discovered.
