This Presentation is prepared for the Graduate Students. A presentation consisting of basic information regarding the topic. Students are advised to get more information from recommended books and articles. This presentation is only for students and purely for academic purposes.

1. Prehistoric cultures of
India
Dr. Virag G. Sontakke
Assistant Professor
AIHC & Archaeology, BHU

3. Prehistory
• The period with no written record
• Prehistory begins with the origin of man.
• Prehistory begun from the emergence of hominins c.
3.3 million years ago to the invention of writing
• Basically deals with the life & ways of early man.
• The main sources of information are Archaeology,
Geology, Environmental studies etc.

5. ARTIFACTS:
DEFINITION:
ANYTHING MADE BY EARLY HUMAN
BEINGS SUCH AS TOOLS AND WEAPONS

6. II. THE STONE AGE
STONE AGE:
DEFINITION: THE PERIOD OF PREHISTORY
BEGINS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF
STONE TOOLS
-THE STONE AGE CAN BE DIVIDED INTO THREE PERIODS
1) PALEOLITHIC PERIOD (LOWER, MIDDLE & UPPER)
2) MESOLITHIC PERIOD
3) NEOLITHIC PERIOD

9. 0
500
1000
1500
2000
0 2 4 6 8 10
Fossil age (MYA)
Brain
capacity
(cm
3
)
Homo neanderthal
Homo erectus
Homo sapiens
ramapithicus
Australopithicus
africanus
Homo habilis

11. HOMO HABILIS ( “Man of Skills” )
• Found in East Africa.
• Created stone tools.

15. MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC

18. UPPER PALEOLITHIC

21. Periodization
1. The various stages of human prehistory can be
broadly divided into three - CE
2. Palaeolithic Age:
3. Lower
4. Middle
5. Upper
6. Mesolithic Age,
7. Neolithic Age

22. Paleolithic Period
1. Lower Paleolithic Period
2. Middle Paleolithic Period
3. Upper Paleolithic Period
• Food: Hunting
• Tools: Stone, Bone, Wood
• Home: Cave, tree, hills, rivers
• Hunter gatherers
• Don’t have permanent settlements
• Homo Habilas, Homo Erectus
• Timeframe : 250000-12000

33. Mesolithic
• Transition between Paleolithic and Neolithic
• Environment Change
• Tool-typology changes
• Food habits changes
• Population increases
• Burial process increases
• Some kind of permanent settlement started in
India

35. Neolithic
1. Cultivated crops and domesticated animals.
2. Established permanent settlements,
3. Created villages.
4. Agriculture was discovered in the Neolithic
period.
5. They raised goats, sheep and oxen for their meat
and other products and uses.
6. Pottery was used for food storage.
7. People started to live in villages during the
Neolithic period.
8. People started to make cloth with simple looms;
to bake clay into pottery; to fish with nets; and to
raise animals and crops.
9. Time 10000-2000 BCE

36. Neolithic

37. Neolithic