Topics covered include Palaeolithic Age Mesolithic Age Neolithic Age Chalcolithic Age Copper Age Iron Age

2. Earth is very old and so is the antiquity of
man. The earliest human fossils have
been found in Africa dating about 4.2
million years. The primitive man was
shorter in height and had a smaller brain.
Homo sapiens evolved over a period of
these years about 50,000 years ago.
Humans have been using stone tools
and their life story is, therefore, divided
into Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic
age.

3.  First Fossile -- Male -Ramapithecus
Female -Shivapithecus
(10-14 million years ago)
 These fossils were found in Shivalik and
Salt range
 Homoerectus: Found in Hathnora (Lower
Palaeolithic) 10 lakh B.C.
 Homo sapiens : Found in Upper
Palaeolithic Regions

4.  It was basically a hunting and food gathering culture
'Palaeo' means 'old' and 'lithic' means 'stone'. Palaeolithic
age in India is divided into three phases:
 Early or Lower Palaeothic (50,000 - 100,000 BC) : It covers
the greater part of the Ice Age and its characteristic
feature is the use of hand-axe, cleaners and choppen
 Middle Palaeothic (100,000 - 40,000 BC): The Middle
Palaeothic culture is characterised by flakes. The principal
tools are variety of blades, points and scrappers made of
flakes.
 Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 - 10,000 BC) : It marks the
appearance of Homo Sapiens and new flint industries;
widespread appearance of a figurines and other artifacts
reflecting art and rituals; the appearance of wide range
of bone tools, including needles, fishing tools, harpoons,
blades and burin tools.

5.  Earliest Palaeolithic man lived on hunting and food
gathering. The hunting and gathering pattern was
dependent upon the season. The nature of stone
tools also varied according to the climate. Not
knowing how to grow his food, he ate fruits, birds, raw
animal flesh etc. The people were wanderers and
moved from places to place. They took refuge under
the rocks in caves and hollow tree trunks.

Rock paintings and carvings have been numerously
founded in Bhimbetka from different periods. The
animals depicted in these paintings were mostly
bisons, elephants, tigers, rhinocerous, boars etc. and
were based on their hunting lives. The upper
Palaeolithic art is characterised by red and green
colours.

6.  Facts to Remember
 The Palaeolithic culture of India developed
in Pleistocene period.
 Robert Bruce Foot was the first to discover a
Palaeolithic stone in India in 1863.
 The Palaeolithic research in India got a
boost only with the coming of Yale
Cambridge Expedition in 1935 led by
Deterra and Patterson.
 The tools were usually made of hard rock
'quartzite' and therefore Palaeolithic man in
India is also called "Quartzite Man"

7.  It was the transitional between Palaeolithic and Neolithic
ages. Its characcteristic tools are microliths all made of stone.
The microliths were first discovered by Carlyle in 1867 from
Vindhyan Rock Shelters. This age is also known by various
names like Late Stone Age or Microlithic Age. The
Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing and food-
gathering. Earliest domestication of animals has alo been
witnessed from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Mesolithic Tools : Tools are characterised by parallel-sided
blades taken out from prepared cores of fine-materials as
chert, crystal, chalcedony, jasper, carnelian, agate etc. and
were generally one to five centimeters long.

8.  Paintings : At various sites in Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, etc.
rock and cave paintings have been discovered. In these
paintings, various subjects including animals and human
scenes have been found. Animals are the most frequently
depicted subjects either alone or in large and small groups
and shown in various poses.
 Depiction of human figures in rock paintings is quite
common. Dancing, running, hunting, playing games and
quarrelling were commonly depicted scenes. Colours like
deep red, gree, white and yellow were used in making these
paintings.

10.  The word 'neolithic' was first coined by Sir John
Lubbock in 1865. Miles Burkit enumerated four
characteristics of neolithic culture
 Animal domestication
 Agricultural practice
 Grined and Polished stone tools and
 Pottery manufacture
 The discovery of the tools and implements of the
neolithic age was made by Le Mesurier in Uttar
Pradesh in 1860. Later on, Frasher discovered such
objects in Bellary in South India. The people of this
age used tools and implements of polished stone.

11.  Neolithic People : The civilisation and culture of the Neolithic
age shows distinct traces of progress. The Neolithic men had a
settled life. They practised agriculture and grew fruits and corn.
Animals, such as the cow, dog, ox, goat etc. were domesticated.
The art of producing fire by the friction of bamboos or pieces of
stones was known to them. Instead of eating the uncooked flesh of
various animals, they now started roasting it. Besides this, bows
and arrows were invented and were used for the purpose of
hunting. They also learnt pottery, at first by hand and then with the
potter's wheel. They painted and decorated their pots. They lived in
caves, the walls of which were polished and painted with the
scenes of hunting and dancing. The also learnt the art of spinning
and weaving clothes. They used to bury their dead and construct
tombs over them which were known as Dolmens, Menhirs etc.s

12.  Neolithic Tools : The stone tools of the Neolithic age bear unmistakeable
signs of polish either all over the tools or at the buttend and working-end, or
only at the working end. They fashioned their tools out of fine-grained dark-
green trap, though there are examples of the use of diorite, basalt, slate,
chlorite, schist, indurated shale, gneiss, sand stone and quartzite.
 Occupation : Neolithic settlers were cattle-herders and agriculturists. They
produced ragi, wheat, barley, rice, masoor, moong, kulthi etc. Hand-made
pottery is also found in the early stage. Elephant, rhino, buffalo, ox, stag
remains are also found in plenty. But there is no specification of these
domesticated. The pottery were well made but were coarse in nature, not that
much polished.
Red, Grey, Black and Red Ware, Black Burnished Ware and Mat-impressed
Wars are associated with this culture.
Tools making was another important occupation which included a variety of
picks, scrapers, eyed needles, bodkins and pierced batons.

14.  Towards the end of the Neolithic period began the use of metals. Firt
metal to be used was copper and the culture of that time is called
Chalcolithic cultre. The earliest settlements belonging to this phase are
extended from the Chhotanagpur plateau to the copper Gangetic
basin. Some sites are found at Brahmagiri near Mysore and Navada Toli
on the Narmada.
 The transition from use of stone to the use of metals is slow and long
drawn. There is no doubt that there was an overlapping period when
both stone and metals were used. This is proved by the close
resemblance of metallic tools and implements with those made of
stone. The Chalcolithic i.e. copper bronze age or stone-copper age of
India produced a splendid civilisation in the Indus Valley which spread in
the neighbouring regions.
 Occupation: Their economy was based on subsistence agricultre, stock-
raising, hunting and fishing. Their tools consisted of a specialised blade
and flake of silicious material like chalcedony and chert. Copper and
bronze tools were present in a limited number. The culture shares the
common characteristic of painted pottery.
 Burial Practices: Another striking feature was the burial practice of the
dead. The dead were buried in north-south position in Maharashtra but
in east-west position in south India. In eastern India, only a fraction of
population buried their dead.

16.  More than forty hoards consisting of rings, celts,
hatches, swords, harpoons, spearheads and human-
like figures have been found in a wide area ranging
from West Bengal and Orrisa in the East to Gujrat and
Haryana in the West, and from Andhra Pradesh in the
south to Uttar Pradesh in North. The largest hoard
comes from Gungeria in Madhya Pradesh; it contains
424 copper tools and weapons and 102 thin sheets of
silver objects. But nearly half of the copper hoards
are concentrated in the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
All the implements of the copper hoards
supplemented by stone tools led a settled life, and
were one of the earliest Chalcolithic agriculturists
and artisans to settle in a good portion of the doab.

18.  In Southern India, use of iron came after the use of stone. In any case,
there were periods of overlappongs in the use of stone, copper, bronze
and iron. Our only evidence of the transition from copper-bronze age to
the iron age is the monuments like dolmens, cairns, cremolechs. These
have been found in wide areas all over India such as Assam, Bihar,
Orrisa, Central India, Gujrat and Kashmir. But by far the largest number
has been found in south India, in Karnataka and the Decan. These iron
monuments appear to have belonged to both pre-historic and historic
periods.
Monuments discovered in Hyderabad, Mysore, Tinnevelly district,
Coimbatore, Malaba, Penumbur etc. also show varied stages of
development. Neolithic, Microlithic tools along with copper, bronze and
iron implements have been discovered, making it difficult to identify the
actual period of transition from copper-bronze age to iron age. At this
stage of our limited knowledge, no definite conclusion in this regard can
be arrived at. Iron age is usually associated with the Painted Grey Ware.
Painted Grey Ware (PGW) :It referes to the ceramics which have been
fired grey and then painted with black designs. The name chosen is
highly misleading and can lead many beginners to think this, as a type,
which is painted with grey colour. The grey colour, it is believed, is
obtained by firing thin clay pots to as high as at temperature as 800
degree celcius.