WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY OVERVIEW

Evolution of stone tools:

• Archaeologists classify stone tools into industries (also known as complexes or
technocomplexes) that share distinctive technological or morphological characteristics.
• In 1969 in the 2nd edition of World Prehistory, Grahame Clark proposed an
evolutionary progression of flint-knapping and assigned to them relative dates:
o Modes 1 and 2 to the Lower Palaeolithic,
o 3 to the Middle Palaeolithic,
o 4 to the Advanced and
o 5 to the Mesolithic.
• They were not in effect in different regions simultaneously. Mode 1, for example, was
in use in Europe long after it had been replaced by Mode 2 in Africa.
• Consequently, in the literature the stone tools used in the period of
the Palaeolithic are divided into four "modes", each of which designate a different
form of complexity, and which in most cases followed a rough chronological order.
Pre-Mode I
Kenya
• Stone tools found from 2011 to 2014 at Lake Turkana in Kenya, are dated to be 3.3
million years old, and predate the genus Homo by about one million years.
• The oldest known Homo fossil is about 2.4-2.3 million years old compared to the 3.3
million year old stone tools.
• The stone tools may have been made by Australopithecus afarensis, the species whose
best fossil example is Lucy, which inhabited East Africa at the same time as the date
of the oldest stone tools, or by Kenyanthropus platyops (a 3.2 to 3.5-million-year-
old Pliocene hominin fossil discovered in 1999).
• Dating of the tools was by dating volcanic ash layers in which the tools were found
and dating the magnetic signature (pointing north or south due to reversal of the
magnetic poles) of the rock at the site.
Ethiopia
Grooved, cut and fractured animal bone fossils, made by using stone tools, were found
in Dikika, Ethiopia near (200 yards) the remains of Selam, a young Australopithecus
afarensis girl who lived about 3.3 million years ago.

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Mode I: The Oldowan Industry / Abbevillian / Chopper – chopping tools/ Homo
habilis:

A typical Oldowan simple chopping-tool. This example is from the Duero

Valley, Valladolid.
• Abbevillian is a currently obsolescent name for the tool tradition that is now being
called as Oldowan. The name Abbevillian prevailed until Leaky family (Mary and
Louis Leaky) discovered older, yet similar tools at Olduvai Gorge. The term
Abbevillian is now restricted to Europe.
• The earliest stone tools in the life span of the genus Homo are Mode 1 tools, and come
from Oldowan Industry, named after the type of site found in Olduvai
Gorge, Tanzania, where they were discovered in large quantities.
• Oldowan tools were characterised by their simple construction, predominantly
using core forms.
• These cores were river pebbles, or rocks similar to them, that had been struck by a
spherical hammerstone to cause conchoidal fractures (Fractures in brittle stone)
removing flakes from one surface, creating an edge and often a sharp tip. The blunt
end is the proximal surface; the sharp, the distal.
• Oldowan is a percussion technology.
• The earliest known Oldowan tools yet found date from 2.6 million years ago, during
the Lower Palaeolithic period, and have been uncovered at Gona in Ethiopia.
• After this date, the Oldowan Industry subsequently spread throughout much of Africa,
although archaeologists are currently unsure which Hominin species first developed
them, with some speculating that it was Australopithecus garhi, and others believing
that it was in fact Homo habilis.

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• Homo habilis was the hominin who used the tools for most of the Oldowan in Africa,
but at about 1.9-1.8 million years ago Homo erectus inherited them.
• The Industry flourished in southern and eastern Africa between 2.6 and 1.7 million
years ago, but was also spread out of Africa and into Eurasia by travelling bands of H.
erectus, who took it as far east as Java by 1.8 million years ago and Northern China by
1.6 million years ago.
Mode II: The Acheulean Industry

A typical Acheulean handaxe; this example is from the Douro valley, Zamora, Spain. The
small chips on the edge are from reworking.
• Eventually, more complex Mode 2 tools began to be developed through the Acheulean
Industry, named after the site of Saint-Acheul in France.
• The Acheulean was characterised not by the core, but by the biface, the most notable
form of which was the hand axe.
• The Acheulean first appears in the archaeological record as early as 1.7 million years
ago in the West Turkana area of Kenya and southern Africa.
• In contrast to an Oldowan tool, which could have been made by chance, an Acheulean
tool is a planned result of a manufacturing process. The manufacturer begins with a
larger stone knocked off a rock, to be used as a core. Standing a core on edge on an
anvil stone, he or she hits the exposed edge with centripetal blows of a hard hammer
to roughly shape the implement. Then the piece must be worked over again, or
retouched, with a soft hammer of wood or bone to produce a tool finely chipped all
over consisting of two convex surfaces intersecting in a sharp edge.

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• Some Mode 2 tools are disk-shaped, others ovoid, others leaf-shaped and pointed, and
others elongated and pointed at the distal end, with a blunt surface at the proximal end,
obviously used for drilling. Mode 2 tools are used for butchering; not being composite
(having no haft) they are not very appropriate killing instruments. The killing must
have been done some other way.
• Mode 2 tools are larger than Oldowan.

Clactonian:
• An industry of European flint tools, named after Clacton- on – Sea in the English
country of Essex.
• The technique involves striking thick irregular flakes from a core of flint, used as a
chopper, the flakes would have been used as crude knives or scrapers.
• Preceded by Acheulean, followed by Mousterian.

Mode III: The Mousterian Industry / Levalloisian industry:

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A tool made by the Levallois technique. This example is from La Parrilla (Valladolid,
Spain).
• Eventually, the Acheulean in Europe was replaced by a lithic technology known as
the Mousterian Industry, which was named after the site of Le Moustier in France,
where examples were first uncovered in the 1860s.
• Evolving from the Acheulean, it adopted the Levallois technique to produce smaller
and sharper knife-like tools as well as scrapers. Also known as the "prepared core
technique," flakes are struck from worked cores and then subsequently retouched.
• The Mousterian Industry was developed and used primarily by the Neanderthals, a
native European and Middle Eastern hominin species, but a broadly similar industry is
contemporaneously widespread in Africa.
Mode IV: The Aurignacian Industry – Long blades
• The widespread use of long blades (rather than flakes) of the Upper Palaeolithic Mode
4 industries appeared during the Upper Palaeolithic between 50,000 and 10,000 years
ago, although blades were still produced in small quantities much earlier by
Neanderthals.
• The Aurignacian culture seems to have been the first to rely largely on blades.
• The use of blades exponentially increases the efficiency of core usage compared to the
Levallois flake technique, which had a similar advantage over Acheulean technology
which was worked from cores.
Mode V: The Microlithic / Magdalenian Industries
• Mode 5 stone tools involve the production of microliths, which were used in
composite tools, mainly fastened to a shaft.
• Examples include the Magdalenian culture(named after the type site of La
Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the Vézère valley
in France's Dordogne department).
• Such a technology makes much more efficient use of available materials like flint,
although required greater skill in manufacturing the small flakes.
• Mounting sharp flint edges in a wood or bone handle is the key innovation in
microliths, essentially because the handle gives the user protection against the flint
and also improves leverage of the device.

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Neolithic industries – Ground / Polished stone tools:

• In prehistoric Japan, ground stone tools appear during the Japanese Paleolithic period,
that lasted from around 40,000 BC to 14,000 BC.
• Ground stone tools became important during the Neolithic period beginning about
10,000 BC.
• These ground or polished implements are manufactured from larger-grained materials
such as basalt, jade and jadeite, greenstone and some forms of rhyolite which are not
suitable for flaking.
• The greenstone industry was important in the English Lake District, and is known as
the Langdale axe industry. Ground stone implements included adzes, celts, and axes,
which were manufactured using a labour-intensive, time-consuming method of
repeated grinding against an abrasive stone, often using water as a lubricant.
• Because of their coarse surfaces, some ground stone tools were used for grinding plant
foods and were polished not just by intentional shaping, but also by use.
• Manos are hand stones used in conjunction with metates for grinding corn or grain.
Polishing increased the intrinsic mechanical strength of the axe.
• Polished stone axes were important for the widespread clearance of woods and forest
during the Neolithic period, when crop and livestock farming developed on a large
scale. They are distributed very widely and were traded over great distances since the
best rock types were often very local.
• They also became venerated objects, and were frequently buried in long
barrows or round barrows with their former owners.
• During the Neolithic period, large axes were made from flint nodules by chipping a
rough shape, a so-called "rough-out". Such products were traded across a wide area.
The rough-outs were then polished to give the surface a fine finish to create the axe
head. Polishing not only increased the final strength of the product but also meant that
the head could penetrate wood more easily.
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 INDIAN ANRCAHOLOGY

1. Archaeological Anthropology. (10M,2015)

2. Give an account of the field methods in Archaeological anthropology (15M, 2018)

GATHERING DATA

First, archaeologists must gather data on the topic they wish to further research. Oral
history or written history provides clues about the suitable site for excavation.
Field surveys are another common method to determine where excavations should be
done. Surveying is done through the use of evidence, sampling, GPS, transects, and
other techniques, to determine where archaeological research should be done.
Excavations are how material remains are found by archaeologists, and involve the
digging, exposure, and recovery of material data. This data could include artefacts
(objects from the past), Eco facts (biological information from the past), or landscape
alterations that can provide clues about past cultures.
When conducting excavations, stratigraphy is an important idea used by archaeologists.
Since it's known that the newest matter will lie closer to the top of the soil, stratigraphy
is the idea that knowing the location of different remains in soil can help us to
understand the different ages and contexts of these remains.
In ethnoarchaeology, living people are observed and joined by means of participant-
observation and conversation in order to learn how artifacts are made and disposed.
Discarded objects and the processes involved in the formation of archaeological sites, or
taphonomy, are also observed to learn how to interpret the archaeological record.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Radiocarbon dating, often simply called carbon dating, is one of the most well-known
techniques of analysis in archaeology. Radiocarbon dating helps archaeologists
determine the age of different artefacts. If an artefact has organic material, and thus the
radioactive element of radiocarbon, then this method can be used. Since radiocarbon
decays over time, determining its structure in an artefact gives archaeologists clues about
the potential age of that object.
Another established method of dating is potassium-argon dating. While radiocarbon
dating is limited to more relatively recent remains, potassium-argon dating can be used
in objects over hundreds of thousands of years old. Similarly to radiocarbon dating,

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potassium-argon dating looks at radioactive decay to determine the age of material
remains.

I. PALAEOLITHIC CULTURE IN INDIA

3. Differentiate between Lower Paleolithic culture and Middle Paleolithic culture

with suitable examples. (15M,2020)
4. Palaeolithic culture. (10M,2015)
5. South Indian Paleoliths (10M,2015)
6. Give a broad outline of Patheolithic culture emphasizing upon its tool technology.
(20M,2013)
7. Indian Paleolithic culture can neither be conceived chronologically homogeneous
nor as a unfiorm cultural phase.-Discuss. (15M,2013)
Ø At Attirampakkam near Chennai, Lower Palaeolithic is dated to 1.5 million
years
Ø At Isampur in Karnataka date for the same culture is estimated to be 1.2
million years.
Ø In Maharashtra, Bori and Moregaon are two lower Palaeolithic sites which
have dates beyond 600,000 years.

8. discussed the typology and distribution of upper palaeolithic cultures in India

(20M,2012)
9. Palaeolithic Art (12M,2012)
10. Compare the salient features and distribution of middle Palaeolithic and upper
Palaeolithic cultures in India. And add a note on tools traditions of upper
Palaeolithic period. (20M,2012)
11. Soan culture (12M,2012)
12. Differentiate between lower palaeolithic culture and middle palaeolithic culture
with suitable examples (2020,20M)

• The Palaeolithic Age in India is divided into three phases in accordance with the type
of stone tools used by the people and also according to the nature of climatic change.

(a) Early or Lower Palaeolithic (between 500,000 and 100,000 BCE):

(b) Middle Palaeolithic (between 100,000 and 40,000 BCE):

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 (c) Upper Palaeolithic (between 40,000 and 10,000 BCE):

Prehistoric Geochronology/ Type of tools / Tool Technique Material

period Geological time tradition used used
scale

Lower Middle Core tools, Direct Quartzite

Paleolithic Pleistocene (Abbevillian/ percussion like
Oldowan & stone hammer
Acheulean).

Middle Middle Flake tools like Direct chert and

Paleolithic Pleistocene scrapers and points percussion like jasper,
were much frequent stone hammer besides
than cores. and pressure continuing
(Levalloisian / flaking for with
Mousterian) retouching quartzite

Upper Upper Blade tools, Parallel Stone hammer, Quartz and

Paleolithic Pleistocene sided blade tools along indirect bone
with bone tools percussion &
(Aurignasian) cylinder
hammer

Note: Cenozoic era, Quaternary period, Pleistocene epoch

1. EARLY / LOWER PALAEOLITHIC

• The Early or Lower Stone Age in India may be associated with the people of the
Homo sapiens group.

LOWER PALEOLITHIC PERIOD IN INDIA: THE SOAN AND MADRAS

CULTURE
• The lower paleolithic culture of India has two distinct cultural traditions
(A) The Soan culture or the chopper chopping tool tradition in the Punjab and
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 (B) The Madras culture or Hand-axe tool tradition in peninsular region.
• H. De Terra, T.T. Paterson, V.D. Krishnaswami suggested that Soanian and
Madrasian were two independent cultural traditions.

A.THE SOAN CULTURE (LOWER PALEOLITHIC)

• The discovery of stone tools from Soan Valley was first made by Dr. D. N.
Wadia and thereafter by Dr. Helmut de Terra in 1928 and 1932 respectively.
But the credit of excavation goes to H. De Terra and T.T. Paterson who
undertook this important work in 1935. Later, V.D. Krishnaswami, D. Sen and
O. Menghin had studied the assemblages of tools.
• The river Soan is a tributary of the great river Indus that flows through the city
of Rawalpindi in Potwar region.
• Dates: 500000-125000
• Preceded by Acheulean , followed by Mousterian.

Climate: Being located near Himalayans, Soan valley witnessed Glaciation and
interglaciation.

1. Surface of the River (To/TD)/ pre soan (During 2nd Glaciation):

• Situated about 400 feet above the present riverbed. Tools found are Split pebbles
with small bulb of percussion

2. Terrace-1 (T1)/ Early Soan (during the second inter-glacial phase):

• This is 220 feet high from the present riverbed.

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 • The ‘Early Soan’ is primarily a pebble-tool industry (Oldest lithic industry of
early man) as most of the tools are made on rounded pebbles, mainly chopper-
chopping tools made by direct hammer technique.
• Other tool-types include scrapers, borers and other pebble flakes.
• The materials are mostly the fine-grained quartzite of different variety.

3. Terrace -II (T2) / ‘Late Soan Industry’ (During the third glacial phase):
• Height of this Terrace is about 120 feet from the present day riverbed.
• Late Soan is majorly flake dominated industry. The technique of detaching
flakes from a prepared core may be synonymous with the Levalloisian
technique.
• Chopper chopping and flake tools were found. Flakes increased in number and
they are lighter and neater.
4. Terrace-III (T3) During third inter-glacial period:
• This Terrace is situated at 80 feet above the present day riverbed.
• It is very interesting that no tools of man have come out from this Terrace.

5. Terrace-IV (T4)/ ‘Evolved Soan’ During the last glacial phase: (Dates to
middle palaeolithic)
• Upper Pleistocene.
• Height of the Terrace is 40 feet from the present day riverbed.
• The ‘Evolved Soan Industry’ has been reported from two sites, namely, Pindi
Gheb and Dhok Pathan.
• The tools are not much different from the Early and Late Soan, but
technologically they are much developed. The Levalloisian technique that
appeared in Late Soan had shown a further refinement in the Evolved Soan.
• As the flakes of this level are much thinner and slender they look like a blade. A
new type of tool, an awl has been discovered here.

Terrace-V (T5) during post-glacial period: This is the lowest Terrace. Height of this
Terrace is about 20 feet above the present stream.

Social life: The stone tools suggest that the Soan valley people were primarily hunter-
gatherers.

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ACHEULIAN CULTURE
Acheulian culture was named after the French site of St. Acheul, which was first
effective colonization of the Indian subcontinent and is almost synonymous with
the lower Palaeolithic settlements in India. Most of the sites in India including those in
peninsular India, Deccan, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, East and North East have
been categorized in Acheulian culture.

B. THE MADRAS CULTURE: (LOWER PALAEOLITHIC)

Father of Indian Pre-history Robert Bruce Foote had discovered hand axes near
Chennai and called it Madrasian culture. Presently the lower palaeolithic sites of
Peninsular India are collectively referred to as Madras culture.

Climate: Experienced pluvial and interpluvial periods.

• In South India there are abundant evidences of core culture. Core tool industry of
South India is known Madras Industry. Attirampakkam and Vadamadurai are
the two important sites in the Kortalayar valley of Madras.

Material culture:

• The most common and characteristic tool-type of Madras Industry’ is hand-axe.

These hand- axes are typically pear-shaped or oval, flaked on both faces to
produce a continuous cutting edge.
• Some pebble tools (Chopper-chopping) are also found in association with hand-
axes.
• In technique the Madras Industry is also known as ‘Abbevellio-Acheulean’.
• Hand-axe suggests tropical forest and woodland environment; it is widespread
in the tropical peninsular area.
• Technologically, these tools are more evolved than the chopping tools as they
show multi-directional flaking and symmetry of form.
• Cleaver is often found associated with hand-axe in peninsular region. and
denotes Abbevellio-Acheulean tradition. (Oval or pear-shaped hand axes
associated with early humans, lasted longer than any other tradition)

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• A cleaver usually suggests a tropical woodland environment where it is used for
cutting and shaping of wood and for skinning and flaying of animal carcass.
• Early man in India also made lighter and smaller tools on flake. At first the
flakes were detached and worked by a simple technique Clactonian (Clactonian
= Striking thick irregular flakes from a core of flint, used as a chopper, the
flakes would have been used as crude knives or scrapers) and later on by a
more refined technique of core preparation, Levalloisian.
• As hand- axe became a characteristic core tool of peninsular India, chopper type
became an important element of northern Indian tool tradition. In Central India, a
fusion of technology (between two main traditions) has been observed.
• The characteristic flake tools are knife, point, scraper, awl, (LIKE POINT) etc.
• Quartzite has been used.
• However, the tools of Madras industry are also found in other places of India like
the valley of river Cauveri and Vaigai, in the West around Mumbai and
North of the Narmada, and further North-East as far as the upper reaches of
the Son.
• In Vadamadurai, findings have been categorized into three groups –on the basis
of patination as well as typology.
Ø The first group is the earliest group where the tools are heavily rolled and
show the signs of intensive patination. The core tools include hand-axe,
cleaver etc. while the flake tools comprise of scrapers, awl etc. These tools
resemble the Abbevillian-Acheulean tool types.
Ø The second group Most of the tools of this group are pear-shaped and ovate
hand-axes. An advancement of typology is indicated with the adoption of
Levalloisian technique.
Ø The third group includes neatly worked hand-axes and cleavers. These
tools show little patination (Brown colored layer on rock with time due to
oxidation). The technology went towards more perfection. True
Levalloisian flakes and cores characterize this group.
• The Gudiyam site (in Thiruvallur district, 60km from Chennai), first identified
by Robert Bruce Foote also reveals early Paleolithic tools of Acheulean
tradition. In a similar way, the industry is divided into three phases—Phase-I,
Phase-II and Phase-III. Similar improvement of typology and technology has
been recorded from phase to phase. Basic tools are hand-axe, cleaver, point and
awl. In 2011, a team from Madras university claimed to have found 1.5 million

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 years old microliths from Gudiyam caves. If the dates are confirmed they will be
the oldest microliths in the world.

OTHER LOWER PALEOLITHIC SITES IN INDIA

Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh):

• Discovered by V.S. Wakankar (1957). It has more than 500 painted rock shelters.
• One of the largest Rock-shelters, III F-23 at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh was
excavated by V.N. Misra between 1973 - 1976.
• It preserved 4 m thick cultural deposit containing Acheulian, Middle and
Upper Palaeolithic, and Mesolithic levels.
• The 2.5 m thick Acheulian level consisted of lower palaeolithic.
• This shelter yielded 8 layers of cultural deposits, out of which the bottom three
represent lower palaeolithic period.

Didwana (Rajasthan): It was excavated by V.N.Misra. Mostly choppers and hand axes
were found.

• Bori in Maharashtra is considered to be the earliest Lower Palaeolithic site.

People use hand axes, cleavers, and choppers.
• Lower Palaeolithic tools have also been found in the Belan valley in UP
• Chirki-Nevasa in Maharashtra has yielded as many as 2000 tools
• Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh is also an important site
• Certain stone industries from Kurnool in the Deccan and near Mumbai represent a
new type of tool tradition, based not on the massive flake but on the slender blade
detached from a core.

2. THE MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC CULTURE OF INDIA:

It is the second subdivision of Palaeolithic culture, spans 100,000 BCE to 40,000 BCE.
The Middle Palaeolithic sites are also found extensively at different regions of India.

Climate: This culture developed during the Upper Pleistocene geological period which
was characterised by intense cold and glaciations in the northern latitudes and the areas
bordering glaciated regions experienced strong aridity, which might have affected the
Middle Palaeolithic population.

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Material culture: Parth Chauhan (2006) suggests four features that distinguish Middle
Palaeolithic assemblages from the Lower Palaeolithic types:

Ø A decrease in size of the artefacts

Ø A noticeable shift from large Acheulian bifaces to smaller, specialized tools
Ø An increase in the prepared core technique. (Levalloisian / Mousterian)
Ø A preference for fine grained raw material (such as chert, jasper,
chalcedony, flint, cryptocrystalline silica, and so forth).

Some of the new types within Middle Palaeolithic toolkits are cores, discoids, flakes,
flake-scrapers, borers, awls, blades, and points.

The Middle Palaeolithic tools are primarily made on flakes and blades and comprised
side scrapers of various types, end scrapers, denticulates, notches, points and borers.

• In this stage, as compared to the preceding Acheulian phase, tools became

smaller, thinner and lighter.
• In terms of technology, improvements in the techniques of removing flakes from
cores such as Levallois and discoid core can be seen.

Significant changes in the choice of raw material for making tools also occurred in this
period as the Middle Palaeolithic population started using fine-grained siliceous rocks
like chert and jasper, besides continuing with quartzite, quartz and basalt.

Social life: Hunting gathering economy, Burials found with implements at some sites
indicate belief in life after death and some sort of rituals.

Sites: Middle Palaeolithic artefacts have been found in

1. Nevasa (Maharashtra): It was excavated by H.D.Sankalia (1956), near river

Pravara in Nevasa. Nevasian culture also includes the sites along river
Godavari, Soan & Krishna.

Climate: The region experienced Pluvial and interpluvial phases.

Material culture:

• Nevasa has yielded several Levallois-bases flake tools prepared on Jasper. Leaf
shaped points and borers were found.
• The tools were made by direct hammer technique and retouching by pressure
flaking.
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 • The stones tools found were comparable to Mousterian tools of European middle
palaeolithic.
• The stone tools found in Nevasa were typo-morphologically and technologically
distinct. This uniqueness compelled the earlier workers to attribute a formal name
to some distinct assemblages from the type-site of Nevasa, Maharashtra as the
‘Nevasian’ industry.
• However, later on, Sheila Mishra (1995) found the ‘Nevasian’ industry to be a
part of the Late Acheulian assemblages.

2. Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh):

• It has more than 500 painted rock shelters.
• One of the largest cave shelters, III F – 23 was excavated by V.N.Misra.
• This shelter yielded 8 layers of cultural deposits, out of which fifth layer from
the top represents middle paleolithic period.
• The material used was mostly quartzite.

3. Luni valley (Rajasthan): Excavated by VN. Misra, it is different and richer in

tools than Nevasian industry. Contains convex, concavo- convex sidescrapers and
points of various types.

4. South India: In Karnool, Chittoor, Nalgonda, tools like in Bhimbetka, made of

quartzite were found.

Around Didwana, and at Budha Pushkar, all in western Rajasthan; at numerous sites in
the valleys of the Belan; at Son and Narmada and their tributaries in central India, in the
Chota Nagpur plateau, the Deccan plateau and the Eastern Ghats.

3. UPPER PALAEOLITHIC CULTURE OF INDIA

• The Upper Palaeolithic culture developed during the later part of the Upper
Pleistocene.
• Climate: Witnessed the last phases of glaciation and pluviation that
characterized the Pleistocene climate.
• Archaeological evidence of this period comes from the Belan and Son valleys in the
northern Vindhyas, Chota Nagpur plateau in Bihar, Upland Maharashtra, Orissa and
from the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh.

Material culture:
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• Upper Palaeolithic tool assemblages are essentially characterized by blade and burin
tools and show a marked regional diversity with respect to the refinement of
techniques and standardization of finished tool forms.
• The principal artefact forms are scrapers, flake-blades, blades and cores; backed
blade, burins, unifacial, bifacial and tanged points and choppers.
• The tools can be categorized as Aurignasian tools.
• The various types of scrapers were probably used for wood and bamboo work.
Simple blades and backed blades could have been used as inserts for spear points,
arrow points, barbed fishhooks, slicer knives and daggers.
• Social life: Tools suggest Hunting gathering economy. First evidences of cave art
were that of upper palaeolithic culture. The cave paintings suggest some sort of
social organization. The shorter span of this phase suggests quicker advancement to
the next stage.

Regional diversity / Sites:

Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh)

• Discovered by V.S. Wakankar (1957).
• It has more than 500 painted rock shelters.
• One of the largest cave shelters, III F – 23 was excavated by V.N.Misra.
• This shelter yielded 8 layers of cultural deposits, out of which fourth layer from
the top represents upper paleolithic period.

Belan valley (Uttar Pradesh): It was surveyed by G. R. Sharma. Along with stone
tools, an artificial stone structure called Shrine and a female figurine on bone were
found.

Renigunta: It was excavated by M.L.K. Murthy. It is considered as the finest Indian

upper paleolithic site. A large variety of blades were found.

Ethnoarchaeological studies related to Upper Palaeolithic culture:

• On the basis of ethnoarchaeological research among the tribal populations of

central India and the Eastern Ghats on the food procurement technologies and
behaviour it can be argued that that prototype of traps, snares and nets must have
been used during the Upper Palaeolithic period.

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• Bored stones, similar to the Upper Palaeolithic ones, are being used by the
Yanadi (Andhra Pradesh) fishermen as net sinkers in riverine fishing and
the heavier ones are used by the Vada Balija (Andhra Pradesh) and other
groups for marine fishing. (Ethnoarchaeology, parallel)

II. MESOLITHIC CULTURE

The Mesolithic period coincides with the onset of milder, warmer climatic conditions
with the commencement of the Holocene Period (10,000 BC). It also affected the flora
(vegetation) and fauna (animals). Man too reacted positively to these changes for his
survival. This resulted in

1) Modification of his tool equipment and

2) modification of his living pattern.

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Till recently the very existence of the Mesolithic culture in India was in doubt because
of the paucity of stratified evidence. But the discoveries in Belan valley, Chittor
district, Shorapur doab in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat has provided enough
gleanings to reconstruct Mesolithic evidence in India.

Depending on the evidence from different sites, Mesolithic culture can be divided into
four distinct phases.

1. Non-geometric tools (epi-palaeolithic) 12,000-8,000 BC.

2. Geometric pre-pottery stage (Early Mesolithic-I) 8,000-2,000 BC.

3. Geometric tools with pottery (early Mesolithic-II) 5,000-1,500 BC;

4. smaller microliths with precision (Advanced Mesolithic or Proto- Neolithic)

2,000-1,000 BC.

The above division is based on the sequence observed primarily at Chopani Mando and
attested at other places.

THE TOOLS:
The stone tools prepared in Mesolithic period are very small and hence known as
‘microliths’ meaning ‘tiny stones’. Some of the forms which could be identified
amongst these tools are the blades, points, lunates, trapezes, scrapers, arrowheads,
geometric and non-geometric tools. For the production of these tools fine-grained
material like chert chalcedony, agate, jasper, etc was utilized. Often these microliths
were used as combination tools by fixing several of them in curved wood or bone or to
produce a barbed arrowhead.

Life and subsistence pattern:

• Hunting and gathering vegetable foods are the two main occupations of the
Mesolithic people.
• More and more dependence on the vegetal food was probably one of the reasons
behind forcing the human communities to have fixed settlements from Mesolithic
period onwards.
• In this connection the example of Mahadaha in the Ganga valley is worth
mentioning. Here it was noticed that very large number of quern, muller, anvil,
hammer, etc. have been found which indicate that the people exploited fully the
vegetal products.
20
• The microlithic tools like blades and scrapers are well suited for processing
vegetables.
• The presence of hearths in the habitations point to consumption of roasted food.
The evidence points out that man depended more on vegetal food rather than on
animal meat.

Hunting methods:

• The use of composite tools revolutionized hunting, fishing and food gathering.
The Mesolithic paintings at Bhimbetka throw interesting light on the contemporary
hunting practices and the kinds of weapons used in hunting.
• The bow and arrow, barbed spears and sticks were used in hunting.
• Ring stones were used as stone clubs.
• Masks in the form of animal heads such as of rhinoceros, bull, deer and monkey
were used as disguises to deceive the game.
• In one of the scenes animals are shown falling down a cliff. Probably animals were
driven down a cliff and done to death.
• The paintings show men carrying dead animals suspended on a wooden bar.

Domestication of animals: Bones of domesticated animals like cattle, sheep and goat
have been reported from almost all the excavated sites of the Mesolithic settlements.
Indicating pastoralism.

Agriculture: The full-fledged agricultural activity witnessed in Neolithic period must

have had its roots in the Mesolithic period itself. It can be considered as incipient
stage of food production. The storage pits of this period probably indicate some
incipient form of agriculture. Seeds of wild variety of rice have been found embedded in
the lumps of burnt clay at Chopani Mando.

Structural activity:

• Evidence of structural activity in the form of huts, paved floor or wind screens
come from a number of Mesolithic sites.
• The houses were roughly circular or oval on plan with postholes around them.
Some hutments had stone paved floors. Paved floors and wattle have been noticed
at Bagor.
• The Mesolithic folk at Bhimbetka too made floors with flat stone slabs.

21
Pottery:

• Pottery has been reported from a number of excavated sites like Langhnaj,
Bagor, Nagarjunakonda, Chopani Mando, etc.
• Pottery came to be associated with the Mesolithic culture after the introduction of
geometric tools.
• Pottery was wholly hand-made and usually coarse grained with incised and
impressed designs rarely.

Clothing and ornaments: The human figures in the rock shelter paintings are shown
wearing a loin cloth. Some of the figures are elaborately decorated with ornaments,
headgear, feathers and waistbands, shell, ivory and bone beads also are evident
from sites.

Recreation: Mesolithic man in rejoicing moods is to be seen in the paintings at

Bhimbetka. Some of the dances may be of ritual significance. The musical
instruments depicted are the blowpipes and horns.

Burials and spiritual practices: The spiritual side of the Mesolithic man is very well
represented by a rock-painting of a family mourning the death of a child at Bhimbetka.

• The dead were very carefully buried.

• At Langhnaj human skeletons were associated with quartzite pebbles which
are not locally available. These were probably brought from the bed of
Sabarmati 15 to 20 kms away.
• Mesolithic burials have been excavated at Dorthy Dweep and Jambudweep
Rock shelters in the Mahadeva hills in MP. Langhnaj, Baghai Khor and
Lekhahia in the Mirzapur dt. UP and Sarai nihar Rai and Mahadaha UP.
• The evidence from different sites indicates that four types of burials were
prevalent.
Ø Extended burial (lying flat, arms and legs stretched)
Ø Flexed (folded) burial
Ø Fractional burial (a burial in which only part as the head)
of a body is interred.)
Ø Double Burials.
Multiple burials were witnessed at Sarai Nihar Rai and Mahadaha. Mesolithic
people interred objects like microliths, animal bones and beads along with the dead.
Probably the double burials indicate the development of family units, consisting of male
22
and female. In that case family set-up is one of the most important contributions of the
Mesolithic period to the modern world.

Aesthetic activities: The Mesolithic folk had left behind good evidence of their artistic
pursuits in the form of painted rock-shelters. Such rock paintings were noticed in the
Mirzapur district UP. And at Bhimbetka near Hoshangabad in MP. The paintings
deal primarily with animals which are shown standing, moving, running, grazing, etc.
The paintings are generally executed in red ochre but sometimes bluish green,
yellow or white color also have been used.

Name of Location Characteristics Excavated by

Mesolithic
Sites
Bagor Rajasthan It had a microlithic industry. V.N. Misra (1967)
Thousands of microliths found. They
are considered smallest across Indian
sites. Other features include stone
paved habitaional floors, human
burials and bones of wild animals. Its
people lived on hunting and
pastoralism.
Adamgarh Madhya It shows the earliest evidence for the
Pradesh domestication of animals.
Bhimbetka Madhya It has more than 500 painted rock Discovered by V.S.
Pradesh shelters. This shelter yielded 8 Wakankar (1957)
cultural formations, out of which first One of the largest
3 belong to Mesolithic period. Rich cave shelters, III F
geometric microlith industry is – 23 was excavated
present. by V.N.Misra.
Langhnaj Gujarat • Shows presence of geometric H.D. Sankalia
microliths. (1944-63)
• Human skeletons found buried in
crouching position indicate some
ritual & the earliest evidence of
burial of the dead.
• Presence of wild and domestic
animal bones indicate some
degree of pastoralism

23
 • Tools include geometric
microliths like lunates, Trapezes
and some other types of blades.
Mohrana Mirzapur, Provides the earliest evidence of
Pahara Uttar Pradesh burial.
Teri Tamil Nadu It is a group of 11 sites of microlithic
clusters, especially in the tradition of
bifacially pressure flaked points.
Sarai Uttar Pradesh • Dated around 8000 BCE. Oldest
Nahar Rai Mesolithic site.
Important findings:
• Living floor with hearths
• Human burials in specific posture
with one skeleton having
microliths pierced in a bone
suggesting war between groups.
• Domesticated animal bones were
found.

13. Elucidate Mesolithic culture and associated rock art with examples from India
(15M, 2019)
14. Examine the regional variations of Mesolithic cultures of India. (20M, 2018)
15. Discuss salient features of Mesolithic culture in India with special reference to
western India. (10M,2013)
16. What stage is known as incipient stage of food production? Point out major
cultural features of this cultural stage. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples
from specific area in the world.

III. NEOLITHIC CULTURE

17. Discuss the characteristic features of ‘Neolithic culture’ in India. (15M,2020)
18. Distribution of Neolithic sites in India (10M,2019)
19. Give an account of the consequences of food production in Neolithic cultures
(15M, 2018)
20. Neolithic Cultures of India. (10M,2016)
21. Describe the Neolithic culture of India. (15M,2014)
22. Neolithic cultures of N-E India(10M,2014)

24
23. Which stage of prehistoric culture is known as the cultural revolution? Why?
(2010)
24. Discuss the characteristic features of “Neolithic culture” in India (2020,15M)

The term Neolithic refers to the last stage of the Stone Age. The period is significant for
its megalithic architecture, spread of agricultural practices, and use of polished stone
tools. Agricultural economies developed while hunting and gathering activities were
reduced.

A Revolution?

In order to reflect the deep impact that agriculture had over the human population, an
Gordon Childe popularized the term “Neolithic Revolution” in the 1940s CE.
However, today, it is believed that the impact of agricultural innovation was exaggerated
in the past: the development of Neolithic culture appears to have been a gradual rather
than a sudden change. Moreover, before agriculture was established, archaeological
evidence has shown that there is usually a period of semi-nomadic life, Agriculture and
foraging are not totally incompatible ways of life. This means that a group could
perform hunter-gatherer activities for part of the year and some farming during the rest,
perhaps on a small scale. Rather than a revolution, the archaeological record suggests
that the adoption of agriculture is the result of small and gradual changes.

25
26
Origin of Neolithic Age
The Neolithic Age started in 9,000 B.C. in world context but in Indian context it was
varying from 7,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. In South India, the Neolithic settlements are
generally considered to be around 2,500 B.C. old while the Neolithic sites discovered on
the northern spurs of the Vindhyas are not older than 5,000 B.C. Some Neolithic sites
found in parts of Eastern India and South India are only 1,000 B.C. old.
Characteristics of Neolithic Age
The Neolithic Age saw the man turning into food producer from food gatherer. It also
witnessed the use of pottery for the first time. People used microlithic blades in addition
to tools made of polished stone. The use of metal was unknown.
1. Agriculture: The people of Neolithic Age cultivated ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice,
wheat, and barley and hence were termed as food producers. They domesticated cattle,
sheep, and goats.

2. Tools: The people used microlithic blades in addition to tools made of polished
stones. They used stone hoes and digging sticks for digging the ground. The ring stones
of 1-1/2 kg of weight were fixed at the ends of these digging sticks. They also used tools
and weapons made of bone; found in Burzahom (Kashmir) and Chirand (Bihar).

3. Weapons: The people primarily used axes as weapons. The North-western part of
Neolithic settlement used rectangular axes having curved cutting edge. The Southern
27
part used axes with oval sides and pointed butt while polished stone axes with
rectangular butt and shouldered hoes were use in the north-eastern part.

4. Housing: The people of Neolithic Age lived in rectangular or circular houses which
were made of mud and reed. The people of Mehrgarh lived in mud-brick houses while
pit-dwelling is reported from Burzahom, the Neolithic site found in Kashmir.

5. Pottery: With the advent of Agriculture, people were required to store their food
grains as well as to do cooking, arrange for drinking water, and eating the finished
product. That’s why pottery first appeared in the Neolithic Age. The pottery of the
period was classified under grey ware, black-burnished ware, and mat-impressed ware.

6. Architecture: The Neolithic Age is significant for its Megalithic Architecture.

7. Technology: In the initial stage of the Neolithic Age, hand-made pottery was made
but later on the foot-wheels were used to make pots.

8. Community Life: Neolithic people had common right over property. They led a
settled life.

9. Geographical Location of Neolithic people

The Neolithic people did not live far away from the hilly areas. They habited mainly the
hilly river valleys, rock shelters, and the slopes of the hills since they were entirely
dependent on weapons and tools made from stone.
List of Neolithic sites, their locations, and characteristics
Name of Neolithic Location Time Span Characteristics
Site
Mehrgarh Baluchistan, 7,000 B.C. • Excavated by Jarrige (1974-86)
Pakistan • Produced cotton and wheat and
lived in mud-brick houses.
Evidences of wheat, barley
cultivation and cattle rearing
marks one of the oldest farming
and herding.
• Wheel made pottery and trade
make Mehrgarh a precursor to the
Indus valley civilization.
Burzahom (the place Kashmir 2,700 B.C. • Excavated by archeological
of birch) survey of India (1960-71).
• The people lived on a lake side in
pits.
28
 • A variety of celts (Axe or Adze
like tool) and bone tools were
found, along with handmade
coarse pottery.
• Domestic dogs were buried along
with their masters in their graves.
• Used tools and weapons made of
polished stone as well as bone.
Gufkral Kashmir 2,000 B.C. • Practiced both agriculture &
domestication of animals.
• Used tools and weapons made of
polished stone as well as bone.
Chirand Bihar 2,000 B.C. • Used tools and weapons made of
bone and antlers found.
• Chirand is also noted for
terracotta objects, especially
snake figurines that represents
some serpent related rituals.
Pikilihal, Karnataka 2,000 B.C. • Shows a mixture of Neolithic and
Brahmagiri, Maski, to 1,000 chalcolithic traits.
Hallur, Takkalakota, B.C. • The people in Piklihal were cattle-
T. Narsipur, herders. They domesticated sheep,
Kodekal, goats, and cattle.
Sanganakallu • Ash mounds (Burnt heaps of cow
dung) have been found, indicating
some unique ritual.
Paiyampalli Tamil Nadu 2,000-1,000
B.C.

Utnur Andhra 2,000-1,000

Pradesh B.C.

Daojali Hading Assam • Excavated by T. C. Sharma.

• Daojali Hading revealed a 45
cm thick occupational deposit.
• The site has yielded neolithic
stone and fossil wood axes,
adzes, hoes, chisels, grinding
slabs, querns, mullers, hand
made grey to dull red cord
29
 marked pottery as well as dull
red stamped pottery and plain
red pottery.
• No domesticated cereals have
been recovered but the
presence of mullers and querns
establishes the practice of
agricultural activity.
Considerable progress was made in Neolithic Age in terms of technology. The people
developed the practices of cultivation, domestication of animals, building houses,
pottery, weaving, and writing. This revolutionized man’s life and paved the way for the
beginning of civilization.

Neolithic and modern Axe and Adze

Neolithic chisel Modern chisel

30
The End of the Neolithic

Towards the end of the Neolithic era, copper metallurgy is introduced, which marks a
transition period to the Bronze Age, sometimes referred to as the Chalcolithic or
Eneolithic Era. Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin, which has a greater hardness
than copper, better casting properties, and a lower melting point. Bronze could be used
for making weapons, something that was not possible with copper, which is not hard
enough to endure combat conditions. In time, bronze became the primary material for
tools and weapons, and a good part of the stone technology became obsolete, signalling
the end of the Neolithic and thus, of the Stone Age.

Regional Distribution of Neolithic Cultures

1. Northwest India: Mehrgarh, Kili Gul Muhammad, Rana Ghundai, Rehman
Dheri, Hakra ware sites

2. North India: Burzahom, Gufkral

3. Central India & mid-Gangetic basin: Koldihawa, Chirand, Lahuradeva

4. Eastern India: Kuchai, Golbai Sasan, Pandu Rajar Dhibi

5. North Eastern India: Daojali Hading

6. South India: Sangankallu, Piklihal

IV. CHALCOLITHIC OR
COPPER AGE CULTURE
25. Delineate the salient features of Chalcoloithic cultures (20M, 2016)

The term Chalcolithic is a combination of two words- Chalco+Lithic was derived from
the Greek words "khalkos" + "líthos" which means "copper" and "stone" or Copper Age.
It is also known as the Eneolithic or Aeneolithic (from Latin aeneus "of copper") is an
archaeological period that is usually considered to be part of the broader Neolithic
(although it was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze
Age). It spans around 4500 to 1000 BCE in the Indian context.

31
Chalcolithic Culture Sites of Chalcolithic Culture
1. Ahara - Banas Culture • Aahar (Rajasthan), balathal, Gilund etc.
• Settlements of Ahar culture were larger than the
settlements of kayatha culture.
• The distinctive feature is black and red ware. Pottery
is characterized by black and redware, painted in
white on exterior.
2. Kayatha Culture • Located in Rajasthan near Chambal and its
tributaries.
• The sturdy red slipped ware with chocolate coloured
designs is main feature.
• Red painted buff ware, and a combed ware bearing
incised patterns were found.
3. Malwa Culture • Sites are located near Narmada & its tributaries in
Gujarat. One of the largest Chalcolithic settlements.
Characterized by orange slipped pottery painted black
or dark brown.
• The three best known settlements of Malwa culture
are at Navdatoli, Eran, and Nagada.
• Navdatoli was one of the largest Chalcolithic
settlements in the country. It was spread in almost 10
hectares. Some of these sites were fortified.
• Eran had a fortification wall with a moat.
• Nagada had a bastion of mud-bricks.
4. Svalda Culture • Dhulia district of Maharashtra.
5. Jorwe culture • More than 200 settlements of Jorwe culture are
known. Greater number of these settlements are
found in Maharashtra.
• The best known settlements of Jorwe culture
are Prakash, Daimabad, and Inamgaon.
Daimabad was the largest one that measured almost
20 hectares.
• The pottery is called Lustrous Red Ware because of
their glossy surface.
5. Prabhas & Rangpur • Very few not more than half dozen settlements
Culture of Prabhas culture are known.

32
 • The settlements of Rangpur culture are located
mostly on Ghelo and Kalubhar rivers in Gujarat.
• Both of them are derived from the Harappa culture.
The polished red ware is the hall mark of this culture.
The pottery is called Lustrous Red Ware because of
their glossy surface.

Chronology of Chalcolithic Settlement

• The first metal age of India is called Chalcolithic Age which saw the use of
copper along with stone. It was also called Stone-Copper Age. Along with the
use of copper and stone these people also used low grade bronze to make tools
and weapons.
• Chronologically, there are several settlements. Some are Pre-Harappan or early
Harappan (Kalibangan in Rajasthan and Bhanawali in Haryana) and some are
Harappan and Post-Harappan.
• The Chalcolithic culture mainly had farming communities and they existed
between 2000 BC and 700 BC. In India it was mainly found in South-Eastern
Rajasthan, Western part of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, and in South and
East India.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CHALCOLITHIC AGE

Main occupations were hunting, fishing and farming.

1. Agriculture and Animals
• People of Chalcolithic Age survived on hunting, fishing, and farming. Hunting
was one of the important occupations
• Animals such as sheep, buffalo, goat, cattle, and pig were reared and killed for
food
• Remains of camels are also found. People ate beef but no traces of eating pork are
found
• People of Navdatoli grew ber ( Plum) and linseed
• Cotton was produced in black cotton soil
• Traces of rice cultivation are also found. This shows that their food included fish
and rice. Eastern India produced rice and Western India produced barley. The
major crops cultivated were barley and wheat, lentil, bajra, jowar, ragi millets,
green pea, green and black gram.
33
2. Tools and Weapons
Metals such as copper and its alloys were used to make knives, axes, fishing hooks,
chisels, pins, and rods

3. Houses
• Use of bricks was extensive during the Chalcolithic people of Harappa but there
are no traces of burnt (baked) bricks.
• The planning of the houses was simple which was either rectangular or circular.
• The walls of houses were made from mud and plastered with cow dung and lime.
• The houses mostly had only one room, but sometimes multi-roomed houses were
also seen.
• For influential people, large mud houses with 5 rooms, 4 rectangular and 1
circular in centre of the settlement are found.
• In Inamgaon, ovens and circular pit houses are found.

4. Pottery
Different types of potteries were used by the people of the Chalcolithic phase. The
Black-and-Red pottery among them was quite common. The Ochre-Coloured Pottery
(Made of clay, porcelain etc, gave ochre colour on hands of archaeologists) was also
in use.

5. Burials
• People buried the dead in the floors of their houses in the North-South direction
along with pots and copper objects.
• In Nevasa, children were buried with necklaces around their necks or with pottery
of copper. These children were mainly from affluent families.
• In Kayatha region; bodies were found with 29 bangles and 2 unique axes.

6. Art and Craft

• The specialty of the Chalcolithic culture was wheel made pottery mostly of red
and orange colour.
• Pottery was painted in linear designs, mainly in black pigment and was decorated
with different shapes.

34
 • Designs of flowers, vegetation, animals, and birds were used.
• The Black-and-Red pottery came into existence for the first time.
• People from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Bihar produced channel-spouted
pots, dish-on-stands, and bowls-on-stand.
• The people of Chalcolithic Age were expert coppersmiths, ivory carvers, lime
makers, and terracotta artisans.
• Ornaments were made from semiprecious stones and beads such as agate, jasper,
chalcedony, and carnelian were used.
• People had knowledge of spinning and weaving. Flax, cotton, and silk thread is
found from sites in Maharashtra

Importance of Chalcolithic Phase

• They knew the art of smelting.
• They used painted pottery for the first time. Mostly all used black and red, wheel
turned pots. These pots were used for cooking, storing, drinking, and eating.
• Use of lota and thali is seen.
• Chalcolithic people were colonizers.
• In Peninsular India there were large villages and a large amount of cereal cultivation
is known/seen.
• They grew wheat, barley, lentils, and rice.
• Fish and rice were the important foods.
• People from Kayatha, Inamgaon, and Eran were well-off while the people from
Chirand and Pandu Rajar Dhibi were poor.
• In Maharashtra, the dead were buried in north-south direction while in South India in
the east-west direction.

Limitations of Chalcolithioc Phase

• Chalcolithic people could not make full use of domestic animals as they used them
only for food and not for milk (they thought that milk is for animals’ young ones).
• They did not do much of cultivation. They lived in black cotton soil area which
required iron tools for cultivation and there are no traces of plough or hoe.
• Chalcolithc phase did not show longevity. There are traces of a large number of
children buried which indicate lack of nutrition and outbreak of epidemics.
• People had no knowledge of mixing two metals so they could not use the stronger
metal bronze nicely. Copper had its own limitations and its supply was also less.
35
Chalcolithic Sites in Indian Sub-Continent:

1. Indus Region: Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Ropar, uratgarh, Hanumangarh, Channudaro,

Jhukar, Amri, Jhangar

2. Ganges Region: Kausambi, Alamgirpur

3. Brahmaputra Region

4. Mahanadi Region

5. Chambal Region: Pseva, Nagda, Paramar kheri, Tungini, Metwa, Takraoda,

Bhilsuri, Maori, Ghanta Bilaod, Betwa, Bilawati, Ashta

6. Saurashtra Region: Rangpur, Ahar, Prashas Patan, Lakhabawal, Lothal, Pithadia,

Rojdi, Adkot,

7. Narmada Region: Navdatoli, Maheshwar, Bhagatrav, Telod, Mehgam, Hasanpur

8. Tapi Region: Prakash, Bahal

9. Godavari-Pravara Region: Jware, Nasik, Kopergaon, Nivasa, Daimabad

10. Bhima Region: Karegaon, Chandoli, Umbraj, Chanegaon, Anacji, Hingni,

Nagarhalli

11. Karnataka Region: Brahmagiri, Piklithal, Maski

1.1.2. PROTO HISTORY, INDUS CIVILIZATION (PRE

HARAPPAN, HARAPPAN AND POST HARAPPAN
CULTURES)

Indus Valley Sites

There were many sites discovered and are still being discovered. We will look only at
some of the important sites of IVC

Year Site Location Excavated by Major findings

36
 Montgomer • Sandstone statues of
y District of Human anatomy
Daya Ram
1921 Harappa Punjab in • Bullock carts
Sahini
the banks of • Granaries
Ravi
• Coffin burials
• Great bath
Larkana • Granary
District Of • Bronze dancing girl
Mohenjo- • Seal of Pasupathi
1922 Sind on the R. D Banerjee
Daro Mahadeva
bank of
Indus • Steatite statue of beard
man
• Bronze buffalo
Baluchistan
1929 Sutkagendor on Dast Stein • Trade point between
river Harappa and Babylon

Sind on the • Bead makers shop

1931 Chanhudaro N G Majumdar • Footprint of a dog
Indus river
chasing a cat
On the bank
1935 Amri of Indus N G Majumdar • Antelope evidence
river

Rajasthan
on the bank • Fire alter
1953 Kalibangan Ghose • Camel bones
of Ghaggar
river • Furrowed land

Gujarat on • First manmade port

Bhogva • Dockyard
1953 Lothal river near R. Rao • Rice husk
Gulf of
• Fire alters
Cambay • Chess playing

1964 Surkotada Gujarat J P Joshi • Bones of horses

• beads

37
 Hissar • Bones of horses
1974 Banawali district of R S Bisht • Beads
Haryana • Barley
Gujarat in
1985 Dholavira Rann of R S Bisht • Exclusive water
Kutchchh management

HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION:

Pre-Harappan – Mehrgarh : Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE) site

to the west of the Indus River valley.

• "the earliest evidence of cattle herding in south Asia comes from the Indus River
Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP."
• while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and chalcolithic (Copper
Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the chalcolithic
population did not descend from the neolithic population of Mehrgarh.

Early Harappan

• The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from
c. 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE.
• The beginning of Indus valley Civilization (3300-1700 B.C) or Harappan
Culture coincided with the Bronze Age around 3300 B.C. The Bronze Age
literally referred to the times when most advanced metal working used Bronze (an
alloy of tin and copper).
• By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame
seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo.
• Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where
the mature Harappan phase started. The latest research shows that Indus Valley
people migrated from villages to cities.

Mature Harappan (2600BCE – 1900BCE): According to Giosan et al. (2012), the

slow southward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the Indus Valley
villages to develop by taming the floods of the Indus and its tributaries. Flood-supported
38
 farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported the development of
cities.

• Brooke further notes that the development of advanced cities coincides with a
reduction in rainfall, which may have triggered a reorganisation into larger urban
centers.
• urban centres include Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-daro in modern-day
Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in
modern-day India.
• In total, more than 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the
general region of the Indus Rivers and their tributaries.

Features of Harappan civilization:

Ø Indus valley civilization is also called Harappan Civilization as Harappa was first site
discovered.
Ø IVC is also called Bronze Age Civilization as Bronze was the most prominent metal
used.
Ø Harappa was discovered by excavator “Dayaram Sahni” in 1921
Ø 2nd site discovered was Mohenjo-Daro, by “RD Banerjee” in 1922
Ø The excavation was led by Sir John Hubert Marshall.

Agriculture and Domestication

• Main food crop/staple food crop: Wheat and Barley
• Rice husk found in Lothal and Rangpur which proves growth of Rice as well
• First people in the world to grow cotton
• Sheep, goats, buffaloes, oxen, dogs were domesticated
• No remains of Cow and lion were found.

Cities (Town planning)

• The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning
and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene.
• This urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems
• Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells.
From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was
directed to underground covered drains with manholes.
• The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards,
granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of
39
 Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded
military conflicts.
• In sharp contrast to this civilisation's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient
Egypt, no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive evidence of
palaces or temples—or of kings, armies, or priests.
• Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans
• Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads
and other objects.
• Among the artefacts discovered were beautiful glazed beads.
• Seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions,
including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had
other uses as well.
• At the western end of the site is an area known as the Citadel. This area of the city
was built on top of a mound of bricks almost 12 metres high. A large staircase ran up
the side of this mound.
• Several large public buildings and structures like Great bath (Enormous, well-built
bath), Granary and assembly halls on the Citadel mound suggest that this area may
have been used for public gatherings, religious activities or
important administrative activities. Small buildings which were probably homes do
exist on the Citadel mound, however, they are not common.

40
• Most of the houses were located in the lower town. Arrangement of the houses
followed a grid system.
• Lamp posts at regular intervals indicate street lighting.
• houses were 1 to 2 storied, made of burnt bricks, size of brick was in ratio 1:2:4
• Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilisation cities were
remarkable for their apparent egalitarianism.
• All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the
impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration.
• Toilets that used water were used in the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had a bathroom and flush toilet in almost
every house, attached to a sophisticated sewage system.
• Main roads were in North-south Direction while the alleys were in the East-west
direction.
• Doors opened in alleys and not on the mainroads.
• The town planning in IVC was much ahead of its times.

Authority and governance

• Given the similarity in artefacts, the evidence for planned settlements, the
standardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of
raw material suggests effective governance.
• There was no single ruler but several cities like Mohenjo-daro had a separate ruler.
• Harappan society had no stern rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal status.

Technology

• The people of the Indus Civilisation achieved great accuracy in measuring length,
mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights
and measures.

41
• A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus
territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in
Lothal in Gujarat, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever
recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age.
• Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all
practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their
hexahedron weights.
• Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper,
bronze, lead, and tin.
• The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks.
• In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh,
Pakistan, discovered that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, from the early
Harappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was
announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic)
evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e., in a living person) was
found in Mehrgarh.
• Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults were discovered in a Neolithic
graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates from 7,500–9,000 years ago. According to the
authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming
cultures of that region.
• A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used
for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India).

Arts and crafts

• Various sculptures, seals, bronze vessels pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically
detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite have been found at
excavation sites.
• A number of gold, terracotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal
the presence of some dance form.
• The terracotta figurines: Made by fire baked clay included cows, bears, monkeys,
and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature period has
not been clearly identified. Mother goddess figurines have been recorded from
various sites. Terracotta female figurines were found (ca. 2800–2600 BCE) which
had red colour applied to the "manga" (line of partition of the hair).

42
• Unicorn seal: Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it has been a source of
speculation. The prevalence of the image raises the question of whether or not the
animal in image is a religious symbol.

• Dancing girl in Mohenjo-Daro: Sir John Marshall reacted with surprise when he
saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed dancing girl in
Mohenjo-Daro, "When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were
prehistoric”. In the statuette, the girl is wearing several bangles and necklace and is in
tribangha posture.

•
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• Pottery: Very fine, wheel made pottery were found. Plain pots made of red clay and
painted black and redware were the two notable types.
• Stone statuettes: Priest king Statuette made of steatite depicting a bearded man
with half closed eyes, draped in a shawl coming under the right arm and covering the
left shoulder, and a male torso made of red stone.

• Many crafts including, "shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead
making" were practiced and the pieces were used in the making of necklaces,
bangles, and other ornaments from all phases of Harappan culture.
• Some of these crafts are still practiced in the subcontinent today. Some make-up and
toiletry items, a special kind of combs (kakai), the use of collyrium ( Eye shadow)
and a special three-in-one toiletry gadget that were found in Harappan contexts
still have similar counterparts in modern India.
• Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on its head,
and another sitting cross-legged in what some call a yoga-like pose
• This figure, sometimes known as a Pashupati, has been variously identified.
• Sir John Marshall identified a resemblance to the Hindu god, Shiva. If this can
be validated, it would be evidence that some aspects of Hinduism predate the
earliest texts, the Veda.
• A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects found at
Lothal indicate the use of stringed musical instruments.
• The Harappans also made various toys and games, among them cubical dice
(with one to six holes on the faces), which were found in sites like Mohenjo-Daro.
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Trade and transportation

• The IVC may have been the first civilisation to use wheeled transport.
• These advances may have included bullock carts that are identical to those seen
throughout South Asia today, as well as boats.
• Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail,
similar to those one can see on the Indus River today; however, there is secondary
evidence of sea-going craft.
• Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged (clearing by scooping out mud
and weeds) canal and what they regard as a docking facility at the coastal city of
Lothal in western India (Gujarat state).
• An extensive canal network, used for irrigation, has however also been discovered by
H.-P. Francfort.
• During 4300–3200 BCE of the chalcolithic period (copper age), the Indus Valley
Civilisation area shows ceramic similarities with southern Turkmenistan and northern
Iran which suggest considerable mobility and trade.
• During the Early Harappan period (about 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery,
seals, figurines, ornaments, etc. document intensive caravan trade with Central Asia
and the Iranian plateau.
• There is some evidence that trade contacts extended to Crete and possibly to Egypt.
• There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and
Mesopotamian civilisations as early as the middle Harappan Phase. Such long-
distance sea trade became feasible with the development of plank-built watercraft,
equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.
• Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (astride Dasht River, north of Jiwani),
Sokhta Koh (astride Shadi River, north of Pasni), and Balakot (near Sonmiani) in
Pakistan along with Lothal in western India, testify to their role as Harappan trading
outposts.
• Shallow harbours located at the estuaries of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk
maritime trade with Mesopotamian cities.
• In the 1980s, important archaeological discoveries have been made at Ras al-Jinz
(Oman), demonstrating maritime Indus Valley connections with the Arabian
Peninsula.
• Tin and precious stones: imported from Iran and Afganistan
• Gold imported from Karnataka
• Copper from Rajasthan and Oman
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Language

• It has often been suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-
Dravidians linguistically, the break-up of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the
break-up of the Late Harappan culture.
• Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola concludes that the uniformity of the Indus
inscriptions precludes any possibility of widely different languages being used, and
that an early form of Dravidian language must have been the language of the Indus
people.
• Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and
northern and eastern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of
India and Pakistan (the Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory.
• According to Heggarty and Renfrew, Dravidian languages may have spread into the
Indian subcontinent with the spread of farming. According to David McAlpin, the
Dravidian languages were brought to India by immigration into India from
Elam (In Iran).
• Heggarty and Renfrew note that "McAlpin's analysis of the language data, and thus
his claims, remain far from orthodoxy." Heggarty and Renfrew conclude that several
scenarios are compatible with the data.

Possible writing system:

• Between 400 and as many as 600 distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals,
small tablets, ceramic pots and more than a dozen other materials, including a
"signboard" that apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the
Indus city of Dholavira.
• Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of
which (aside from the Dholavira "signboard") are tiny; the longest on a single
surface, which is less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on
any object (found on three different faces of a mass-produced object) has a length of
26 symbols.
• While the Indus Valley Civilisation is generally characterised as a literate society on
the evidence of these inscriptions, this description has been challenged by Farmer,
Sproat, and Witzel (2004) who argue that the Indus system did not encode language,
but was instead similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively

46
 in the Near East and other societies, to symbolise families, clans, gods, and religious
concepts.
• Others have claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for
economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus
symbols on many ritual objects, many of which were mass-produced in moulds.
No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in any other early
ancient civilisations.
• In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science, computer scientists,
comparing the pattern of symbols to various linguistic scripts and non-linguistic
systems, including DNA and a computer programming language, found that the Indus
script's pattern is closer to that of spoken words, supporting the hypothesis that it
codes for an as-yet-unknown language.
• Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, They conclude that the
method used by Rao et al. cannot distinguish linguistic systems from non-linguistic
ones.
• Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of
Indus Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991, 2010), edited by Asko Parpola and his
colleagues.
• Edakkal caves in Wayanad district of Kerala contain drawings that range over periods
from as early as 5000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The youngest group of paintings have been
in the news for a possible connection to the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Religion:

• An early and influential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu interpretations
of archaeological evidence from the Harappan sites was that of John Marshall, who
in 1931 identified the following as prominent features of the Indus religion
• A Great Male God and a Mother Goddess; deification or veneration (Person treated
as god) of animals and plants; symbolic representation of the phallus (linga) and
vulva (yoni); and, use of baths and water in religious practice. Marshall's
interpretations have been much debated, and sometimes disputed over the following
decades.
• One Indus Valley seal (Shiva / Pashupati seal) shows a seated figure with a horned
headdress, possibly tricephalic and possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals.

47
• Marshall identified the figure as an early form of the Hindu god Shiva (or
Rudra), who is associated with asceticism, yoga, and linga; regarded as a lord of
animals; and often depicted as having three eyes.
• The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal, after Pashupati
(lord of all animals), an epithet of Shiva.

• While Marshall's work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters
have raised several objections.
• Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or yogic
posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wild animals.
• Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel also rejected Marshall's conclusions, with
the former claiming that the figure was female, while the latter associated the figure
with Mahisha, the Buffalo God and the surrounding animals with vahanas (vehicles)
of deities for the four cardinal directions.
• Writing in 2002, Gregory L. Possehl concluded that while it would be appropriate to
recognise the figure as a deity, its association with the water buffalo, and its posture
as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too far.
Despite the criticisms of Marshall's association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, it
has been interpreted as the Tirthankara Rishabhanatha by Jains and Vilas
Sangave or an early Buddha by Buddhists.
• Historians such as Heinrich Zimmer and Thomas McEvilley believe that there is
a connection between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabhanatha and the Indus
Valley civilisation.

48
• Marshall hypothesised the existence of a cult of Mother Goddess worship based
upon excavation of several female figurines and thought that this was a
precursor of the Hindu sect of Shaktism.
• In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations, Indus Valley
lacks any monumental palaces, even though excavated cities indicate that the society
possessed the requisite engineering knowledge. This may suggest that religious
ceremonies, if any, may have been largely confined to individual homes, small
temples, or the open air. Several sites have been proposed by Marshall and later
scholars as possibly devoted to religious purpose, but at present only the Great Bath
at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as a place for ritual
purification.
• The funerary practices of the Harappan civilisation are marked by their diversity,
with evidence of supine burial (Corpse lying on its back) fractional burial (in which
the body is reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to the elements before final
interment), and even cremation.

Late Harappan

Around 1800 BCE signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE
most of the cities had been abandoned. Recent examination of human skeletons from
the site of Harappa has demonstrated that the end of the Indus civilisation saw an
increase in inter-personal violence and in infectious diseases like leprosy and
tuberculosis.

"Aryan invasion":

• In 1953 Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the invasion of an Indo-European

tribe from Central Asia, the "Aryans", caused the decline of the Indus
Civilisation. As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts
of Mohenjo-daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts.
• However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory, since the skeletons
belonged to a period after the city's abandonment and none were found near the
citadel. Subsequent examinations of the skeletons by Kenneth Kennedy in 1994
showed that the marks on the skulls were caused by erosion, and not by violence.
• The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation; a practice dominant
in Hinduism today. The Cemetery H culture was located in and around the Punjab
region in present-day India and Pakistan. It was named after a cemetery found in
49
 "area H" at Harappa. Remains of the culture have been dated from about 1900 BC
until about 1300 BC. The Cemetery H culture was located in and around the Punjab
region in present-day India and Pakistan. It was named after a cemetery found in
"area H" at Harappa. Remains of the culture have been dated from about 1900 BC
until about 1300 BC.

Climate change and drought: Suggested contributory causes for the localisation of the
IVC include tectonic disturbances, earthquakes, changes in the course of the river, and
climate changes, changes in patterns of rain fall.

As of 2016 many scholars believe that drought and a decline in trade with Egypt
and Mesopotamia caused the collapse of the Indus Civilisation.

According to Giosan et al. (2012), the IVC residents did not develop irrigation
capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons leading to summer floods. As
the monsoons kept shifting south, the floods grew too erratic for sustainable
agricultural activities. The residents then migrated towards the Ganges basin in the
east, where they established smaller villages and isolated farms. The small surplus
produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade, and the cities
died out.

Post-Harappan:

• Previously, scholars believed that the decline of the Harappan civilisation led to an
interruption of urban life in the Indian subcontinent.
• However, the Indus Valley Civilisation did not disappear suddenly, and many
elements of the Indus Civilisation appear in later cultures.
• In the aftermath of the Indus Civilisation, regional cultures emerged, to varying
degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilisation. For instance, the Ochre
Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain.
• David Gordon White, among others "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic
religion derives partially from the Indus Valley Civilisations.
• As of 2016, archaeological data suggests that the material culture classified as Late
Harappan may have persisted until at least 1000–900 BCE and was partially
contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware culture.

50
 • Harvard archaeologist Richard Meadow points to the late Harappan settlement of
Pirak, which thrived continuously from 1800 BCE to the time of the invasion of
Alexander the Great in 325 BCE.

26. What kind of society may be reconstructed from the archaeological evidences of
Harappan culture? (20M, 2019)
27. Town planning in Harappan culture (10M, 2018)
28. Discuss the significance of Harappan Civilization sites from India. (15M,2015)
29. Describe what is known of Harappan Religion. Have some of its elements
continued into later Hinduism? Discuss. (20M,2014)

PREHISTORIC ROCK ART

• The distant past when there was no paper or language or the written documents is
called as the Prehistoric period.
• Piecing together of information deduced from old tools, habitat, bones of both animals
and human beings and drawings on the cave walls scholars have constructed fairly
accurate knowledge about what happened and how people lived in prehistoric times.

Prehistoric Period: Paleolithic Age, Mesolithic Age, and Chalcolithic Age

The drawings and paintings can be categorized into historical periods.
Ø Period I- Upper Paleolithic
Ø Period II - Mesolithic and
Ø Period III - Chalcolithic.

PREHISTORIC ROCK ART BASED ON THE STUDY OF BHIMBETKA

PAINTINGS

Paleolithic Age Art

• The prehistoric period in the early development of human beings is commonly known
as the ‘Old Stone Age’ or ‘Palaeolithic Age’.
• The Paleolithic period can be divided into three phases:
Lower Palaeolithic
Middle Palaeolithic
Upper Palaeolithic
• We did not get any evidence of paintings from lower or middle paleolithic age yet.
51
• In the Upper Palaeolithic period, we see a proliferation of artistic activities.
• Subjects of early works confined to simple human figures, human activities, geometric
designs, and symbols.
• Continuous occupation of the caves from more than 60,000 to 1000 years ago
• Thus, it is considered as an evidence of long cultural continuity.
• Consists of nearly 500 painted rock shelters in five clusters.
• These rock shelters were discovered in 1957.
• One of the oldest paintings in India and the world (Upper paleolithic). Bhimbetka

(1) UPPER PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD:

• Paintings are linear representations, in green and dark red, of huge animal figures, such
as Bisons, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos and Boars beside stick-like human figures.
• Mostly they are filled with geometric patterns.
• Green paintings are of dances and red ones of hunters.

(2) Mesolithic period Art:

• The largest number of paintings belongs to this period.

• Themes multiply but the paintings are small in size.
• Hunting scenes predominate
• Hunters in groups armed with barbed spears pointed sticks, arrows, and bows.
• Trap and snares used to catch animals can be seen in some paintings.
• Mesolithic people loved to paint animals.
• In some pictures, animals are chasing men and in others, they are being chased by
hunter men.
• Animals painted in a naturalistic style and humans were depicted in a stylistic manner.
• Women are painted both in nude and clothed.
• Young and old equally find places in paintings.
• Community dances provide a common theme.
• Sort of family life can be seen in some paintings (woman, man, and children).

One of the most spectacular images from this period is that of a large animal with an
enormous face, horns like a bull and hair on its back in shelter III- F19 on bull rock.
According to archeologist V.N. Misra, it is probably a mythological scene.

(3) Chalcolithic period Art:

• Copper age art.

52
• The paintings of this period reveal the association, contact and mutual exchange of
requirements of the cave dwellers of this area with settled agricultural communities of
the Malwa Plateau.
• Pottery and metal tools can be seen in paintings.
• Similarities with rock paintings: Common motifs (designs/patterns like cross-
hatched squares, lattices, waves etc)
• Men are seen grazing animals which is an evidence of domestication of animals.
• The difference with rock paintings: Vividness and vitality of older periods disappear
from these paintings.

Some of the general features of Prehistoric paintings (based on the study of

Bhimbetka paintings)

• Used colours, including various shades of white, yellow, orange, red ochre, purple,
brown, green and black.
• But white and red were their favourite.
• The paints used by these people were made by grinding various coloured rocks.
• They got red from haematite (Geru in India).
• Green prepared from a green coloured rock called Chalcedony.
• White was probably from Limestone.
• Some sticky substances such as animal fat or gum or resin from trees maight be used
while mixing rock powder with water.
• Brushes were made of plant fiber.
• It is believed that these colours remained thousands of years because of the chemical
reaction of the oxide present on the surface of rocks.
• Paintings were found both from occupied and unoccupied caves.
• In many rock art sites, the new paintings are overlapped on top of an older painting.
• In Bhimbetka, we can see nearly 20 layers of paintings, one on top of another.
• It shows the gradual development of the human being from period to period.
• Scenes were mainly hunting and economic and social life of people.
• The figure of flora, fauna, human, mythical creatures, carts, chariots etc. can be seen.

30. OLDUVAI GORGE (2019,10M)

• The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important
paleoanthropological sites in the world. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift
Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is
located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Laetoli, another important archaeological site
of early human occupation.
• Olduvai Gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
53
• The area preserves a nearly continuous record of human evolution and climate
change between 2 and 1 million years.
• It creates a complete history of biological and cultural evolution of humans. Acts as
a classic site for the whole world as an index to understand biological and cultural
evolution of man.
• The Olduvai Gorge is an area where several important hominid fossils and Stone
Age tools were discovered, indicating that at least three distinctly different ancestors
to humans had once coexisted in the area.
• Man is considered to have evolved in Africa and one site we can narrow down
as the site of human evolution is Olduvai Gorge.
• The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team Mary and Louis Leakey
established and developed the excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge
which achieved great advances of human knowledge and world-renowned status.
• Homo habilis, probably the first early human species, occupied Olduvai Gorge
approximately 1.9 million years ago (mya); then came a contemporary
australopithecine, Paranthropus boisei, 1.8 mya, followed by Homo erectus, 1.2
mya. Our species Homo sapiens, which is estimated to have emerged roughly
300,000 years ago, is dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago.

31. DISCUSS WITH EXAMPLES THE MEGALITHIC CULTURE OF INDIA

IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT (2019,20M)
• Megaliths, derived from Latin meaning large stones, are monuments which lasted
from the Neolithic Stone Age to the early Historical Period (2500 BC to AD 200).
Constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral)
(Sepulchral=sad/gloomy) memorials, these structures are the earliest surviving
man-made monuments we know of.
• The burial sites are of different types such as dolmenoid cists (box-shaped stone
burial chambers), cairn circles (stone circles with defined peripheries) and
capstones (distinctive mushroom-shaped burial chambers found mainly in
Kerala).
• The urn (Rounded vase) or the sarcophagus (coffin) containing the mortal
remains was usually made of terracotta.
• Non-sepulchral megaliths include memorial sites such as menhirs (Long standing
stone). “Constructing a menhir is one of the simplest things man could have done.
54
 • In India, the majority of the megaliths belong to the Iron Age (1500 BC to 500
BC), though some sites precede the Iron Age, extending up to 2000 BC.
• Around 2200 megalithic sites are found in the Indian peninsular, concentrated in
the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the
Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.
• Korisettar, a retired professor of archaeology at Karnatak University says the
megaliths were built for the elite or the ruling class and that the very idea of
burying the dead along with burial goods indicates a strong belief in life after
death and possibly rebirth among megalithic people. Paddy husk found in burial
sites shows the commitment of the people towards ensuring the dead a
comfortable afterlife. They also believed in some idea of a soul.
• Gond people used to connect the past and the present. Their beliefs and traditions
help in creating a clear picture of the megalithic culture. “The Gond people
believe in life after death, they believe that every human being has two souls: the
life spirit and the shadow. The life spirit goes to bada devta but the shadow still
stays in the village after the erection of the stone memorial. Gond people believe
that the first and foremost duty of the shadow spirit is to watch over the moral
behaviour of the people and punish those who go against the tribal law,” notes a
paper by S. Mendaly on the living megalithic culture of the Gonds of Nuaparha in
Odisha.
• The massive endeavour of constructing megaliths required the active involvement
of the community, “Experiment on the reconstruction of a burial from Vidarbha
suggests that 70 to 80 individuals were required to construct a burial having
13.5m diameter with a deposit of 80 to 85 cm in two and a half to three days
without any leisure… Participation in construction by the community members
could be social norm without labour charge. If not by any labour charge, a feast
was probably prepared to honour the labour force provided by community
members.

32. NATUFIAN CULTURE (2020,10M)

55
Discovery: Dorothy Garrod coined the term Natufian based on her excavations
at Shuqba cave (Wadi an-Natuf), the type site of Natufian culture, in the western Judean
Mountains.

Time span: It is a Late Epipaleolithic, or Mesolithic archaeological culture of

the Levant, dating to around 15,000 to 11,500 years ago.

(Note: Mesolithic is an intermediate period followed by Neolithic, some authors prefer

the term Epi-Palaeolithic for hunter gatherer cultures that are not succeeded by
Agricultural traditions / Neolithic revolution. E.g., Natufian culture)

Tools and technology: The Natufian had a microlithic industry centered on

short blades and bladelets. The microburin technique was used. Geometric microliths
include lunates, trapezes, and triangles were used.

Culture and lifestyle:

• People were mainly hunters.

• The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary

population even before the introduction of agriculture.

• The Natufians supplemented their diet by gathering wild grain; they likely did
not cultivate it.

• Some evidence suggests deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the

Natufian culture, at Tell Abu Hureyra, (One of the major sites of Natufian culture)
the site of earliest evidence of agriculture in the world.

• They had sickles of flint blades set in straight bone handles for
harvesting grain and stone mortars and pestles for grinding it.

• Some groups lived in caves, others occupied incipient villages.

• They buried their dead with their personal ornaments in cemeteries. Carved bone
and stone artwork have been found.

(The terms paleolithic and Neolithic were introduced by John Lubbock in his work
“Pre-Historic times”)

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