PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD

The Stone Age is a period spanning Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic ages, where stone was the primary tool source. Robert Bruce Foote discovered the first palaeolithic tool in India, the Pallavaram hand axe. Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s contributions to prehistoric culture included the Southern sites of Arikamedu and Brahmagiri. The earliest Stone Age period developed during the Pleistocene period or Ice Age. Famous Stone Age sites in India include Shivalik Hills in North India, Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, Adamgarh Hills in Narmada valley, Soan Valley and Potwar Plateau in North West, Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, and Attirampakkam near Chennai.

Prehistoric Ages and Their Characteristics

Palaeolithic Age (500,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE)

Common Features

• People belonged to the ‘Negrito’ race.
• Lived in open areas, river valleys, caves, and rock shelters.
• Primarily food gatherers and hunters.

Lower Palaeolithic Age (Up to 100,000 BCE)

• Occurred during the Ice Age.
• No knowledge of agriculture, pottery, fire-making, or metallurgy.
• Used rough and heavy stone tools such as hand axes, choppers, and cleavers.
• Associated with the Sohan Culture (Pakistan) and Bori site (Maharashtra).
• Limestone was also used for tool-making.
• Key sites: Soan Valley, Thar Desert, Kashmir, North of Cauvery River, Belan Valley, Singrauli Basin (UP), Didwani (Rajasthan), Attirampakkam (Chennai).
• Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh) contains some of the oldest known stone-age paintings.

Middle Palaeolithic Age (100,000 BCE – 40,000 BCE)

• Known as the ‘Age of Flakes.’
• Tools became smaller, lighter, and thinner (flakes, blades, scrapers, borers, and pointers).
• Decline in hand axe usage.
• People lived in caves, under rocks, and in hollow tree trunks.
• Key sites: Belan Valley (UP), Luni Valley (Rajasthan), Son and Narmada Rivers, Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh), Tungabhadra River Valleys, Potwar Plateau (Pakistan), Sanghao Cave (Pakistan).

Upper Palaeolithic Age (40,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE)

• Coincided with the last phase of the Ice Age when the climate became warmer and less humid.
• Emergence of Homo sapiens.
• Advancement in tool-making: bone tools, needles, harpoons, fishing tools, and burin tools.
• Evidence of rock paintings and carvings (Bhimbetka).
• Artistic expressions in red and green colors, depicting animals such as bisons, elephants, tigers, boars, and rhinoceros.
• Key sites: Bhimbetka, Belan Valley (UP), Son Valley (UP & MP), Chota Nagpur Plateau (Bihar), Kurnool and Muchchatla Chintamani Gavi caves (Andhra Pradesh).

Mesolithic Age (10,000 BCE – 6,000 BCE)

Characteristics

• Transition phase between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.
• People were hunters, fishers, and food gatherers, later domesticating animals and cultivating plants.
• First domesticated animal: ancestor of the dog; also sheep and goats.
• Lived in semi-permanent settlements, caves, and open grounds.
• Buried the dead with food and goods, indicating belief in life after death.
• Used microliths (small stone tools) and bows and arrows.
• Developed rock art depicting hunting, dancing, and food gathering.
• First human settlements in the Ganga Plains.
• Key sites: Lahanghanj (Gujarat), Adamgarh (MP), Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Bagor (Rajasthan), Langhnaj (Gujarat), Bhimbetka (MP), Sundargarh (Odisha), Ezhuthu Guha (Kerala).

Neolithic Age (6,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE)

Characteristics

• Use of polished stone tools and bone weapons (needles, scrapers, borers, arrowheads).
• Agriculture began: crops like ragi, horse gram, wheat, and rice.
• Domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats.
• Pottery types: Greyware, Black Burnished Ware, Mat-impressed Ware.
• Ochre-colored pottery was used.
• First use of fire.
• Knowledge of gold as a metal.
• Lived in rectangular or circular mud houses.
• Wore clothes made of cotton and wool.
• Knew boat-making, spinning, and weaving.

Key Sites

• Mehrgarh (Pakistan): Earliest evidence of agriculture.
• Burzahom (Kashmir): Pit dwellings and pet burials.
• Koldihwa & Mahagara (UP): Earliest evidence of rice cultivation.
• Chirand (Bihar): Paddy husks and bone tools.
• Paiyampalli (Tamil Nadu), Durgadevi (Odisha), and several sites in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Belan Valley contains evidence of all three prehistoric phases.

Chalcolithic Age (3,500 BCE – 1,000 BCE)

Characteristics

• Marked the beginning of metal use (copper alongside stone tools).
• Agriculture and cattle rearing flourished.
• Crops: wheat, rice, bajra, pulses, black gram, and green gram.
• Pottery: Black and Red Ware, Ochre-colored Pottery.
• Rural settlements, no use of burnt bricks.
• Evidence of social inequalities (chiefs in rectangular houses, commoners in round huts).
• Developed spinning, weaving, and copper smelting.
• Worship of Mother Goddess and bull figurines.
• Wore shell and bone ornaments, manufactured semi-precious stone beads.

Key Sites

• Ahar (Rajasthan): Copper smelting, rice cultivation.
• Daimabad (Maharashtra): Bronze artifacts like a chariot with a rider.
• Malwa (MP): Rich ceramics, spindle whorls.
• Kayatha (MP): Pre-Harappan elements in pottery.
• Chirand (Bihar), Mahishdal (West Bengal), Inamgaon and Nasik (Maharashtra).
• Navdatoli (Madhya Pradesh): One of the largest Chalcolithic settlements.
• Paiyampalli (Tamil Nadu): Copper and bronze artifacts.

Iron Age (1,000 BCE – 500 BCE)

Characteristics

• Extensive use of iron began around 1300 BCE, became widespread by 1000 BCE.
• Sometimes linked to Achaemenid influence, though some excavations in Tamil Nadu suggest iron usage as early as 4000 BCE.
• Associated with the Painted Grey Ware and Black and Red Pottery cultures.
• The Iron Age marks the transition from the Chalcolithic to early urbanization.
• Use of iron tools led to advanced agriculture and warfare.
• Megalithic burials were common, covered with large stone slabs.

Key Sites

• Hallur & Maski (Karnataka), Nagarjunkonda (Andhra Pradesh), Adichchanallur (Tamil Nadu).
• Irrigated rice cultivation became prominent.

This structured overview provides a clear chronological breakdown of prehistoric periods, emphasizing key characteristics and sites.