PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD

  • The Pre-historic phase can be roughly divided into 3 parts i.e., paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.

Paleolithic Age.(5,00,000-10,000 B.C.) (Old stone age)

  • Paleolithic Culture developed in the Pleistocene period (Ice coverd the earth surface)
  • Robert Bruce Foote (British geologist and archaeologist) was discovered first Palaeolithic tool in India.
  • The main tools used during this period are handaxes, cleavers, Choppers, flakes, burins, scrapers.
  • Their tools were made up of hard rock called ‘quartzite’.
  • The paleolithic sites are spread in practically all parts of India except the alluvial plains of the Indus and Ganga.
  • The people of this age lived on hunting and gathering wild fruits and vegetables.
  • Man during this period used tools of unpolished, undressed rough stones and lived in cave rock shelters.
  • They had no knowledge of agriculture, fire, or pottery of any metal.
  • Important Sites : Hathnora, Narmada Valley Pallavaram, Chennai, Bhimbetka, M.P., Adamgarh, M.P.
  • Homo sapiens first appeared in the last of this phase.
  • It has been pointed out that Paleolithic men belonged to the Negrito race.

  • The Paleolithic Age in India has been divided into three phases according to the nature of stone tools - Early or lower Paleolithic, middle    Paleolithic and upper Paleolithic.

Mesolithic Age.(10,000-6,000 B.C.) (Middle Stone Age) 
  • It was the transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age
  • Blade, Mesolithic tools are microliths.
  • Blade, Core, Point, Triangle, Lunate and Trapeze are the main types of Mesolithic tools.
  • Important sites of Mesolithic Age are Bagor, Langhraj, Sarai Nahar Rai, Birbhanpur.
  • Bhimbetka, Adamgarh and Mirzapur.
  • According to excavated evidence, the earliest evidences of domestication of animals in India have been found at Adamgarh, M.P. and Bagor, Rajasthan.

  • Chalcolithic Culture

    Name of the

    Culture

    Period

    Kayatha

    2000-1800 B.C.

    Ahar or Banas

    2000-1400 B.C.

    Savalda

    2000-1800 B.C.

    Malwa

    1700-1200 B.C.

    Prabhas

    1800-1500 B.C.

    Rangpur

    1400-700 B.C.

    Chirand

    1500-750 B.C.

  •  Bone implements have been reported from Sarai Nahar Rai, Damdama and Mahadaha, as per book Puratattva Vimarsh written by Dr. Jai Narayan Pandey
  • Three human Skeltons in a single grave were recovered at Damdama, U.P. A grave with four human skeltons have been found at Sarai Nahar Rai.
  • People in mesolithic age were still dependent on hunting but how they began domesticating animals like dog, sheep goat etc.