Early Stone Age Notes

Early Stone Age

Introduction

Numerous prehistoric sites have been discovered in the Indian subcontinent since the 19th century, enhancing our understanding of the Stone Age, the longest period of human history. The Stone Age is divided into:

Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age)
Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)

The most plentiful and significant sources are three divisions of history:

Prehistory: The study of events before the development of writing, typically represented by the three Stone Ages (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic). Covers the period from 30,00,000 BC to 600 BC.
Proto-history: A period between prehistory and history where a civilization lacks writing but is mentioned in the written records of a contemporary literate civilization. Example: Harappan civilization, whose script remains undeciphered.
History: The study of the past after the invention of writing, using both written and archaeological evidence.

Historical Sources

Material Remains

Archaeological remains such as stone tools, pottery, artifacts, and metal implements used by prehistoric people.

Evidences

Radio-Carbon Dating: Method for determining the age of an object.
Dendro-Chronology: Scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed.
Structures: Grand stone temples of Southern India, brick monasteries of Eastern India, vertical & horizontal excavations of mounds, Megaliths (South India).

Information

Provides insights into lifestyle aspects, including pottery type, house construction design, agriculture (grains produced), domesticated animals, tool types, weapons, burial practices, and geography.
Vertical Excavations: Provide a chronological sequence of material culture.
Horizontal Excavation: Gives a complete idea of a particular culture.

Key Figures

Robert Bruce Foote: Discovered the first Palaeolithic tool in India, the "Pallavaram handaxe." Known as the "father of Prehistoric Archaeology."
Sir Mortimer Wheeler: Contributed to our knowledge of Indian prehistoric cultures and their sequence.

Coins

The study of coins is called Numismatics.
Coins are excavated and collected from the surface and catalogued in various museums throughout the country and outside.
Early coins used few symbols; later coins mention names of kings or issuers (guilds/merchants), gods, or dates, aiding in the construction of religious, cultural, and economic history with chronology.
Local and cross-border transactions tell us about various ruling dynasties and the extent of their rule.
The metal and number of coins indicate the level of trade, commerce, and wealth in a kingdom.
Few coins from post-Gupta times indicate a decline in trade & commerce during that period.

Inscriptions

Epigraphy: The study of inscriptions.
Paleography: The study of old writings on inscriptions and other records.
Inscriptions are carved on seals, stone pillars, rocks, copper plates, temple walls, bricks, or images.
Earliest inscriptions were in Prakrit (300 BC), later in Sanskrit, and further later in regional languages.
Pictographic Harappan inscriptions are yet to be deciphered.
South Indian inscriptions are often found on temple walls.
Inscriptions convey information like royal orders and decisions regarding social, religious, and administrative matters (e.g., Ashokan Inscriptions) to officials and the general public.
Ashokan Inscriptions use scripts: Brahmi, Kharosthi, Greek & Arabic.
They also document donations, land grants, and the achievements of kings and conquerors (Samudragupta and Pulkeshin 2nd etc.).
The oldest manuscripts in India were written on birch bark & palm leaves.

Literary Sources

The four Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, Smritis and Dharmasutras, Epics, Jain & Buddhist texts, poetry, Sangam Literature, plays etc.
Kautilya's 'Arthashastra' provides exhaustive coverage of a king and his economy, polity, administration, and society.
"Purana" provides dynastic history up to the Gupta rule.
These sources indicate the usage of language, script, and style of writing.
Rajatarangini: Written by Kalhana, it depicts the social and political life of 12th-century CE Kashmir.
Sangam literature: The earliest South Indian literature produced by poets who assembled together (Sangam), provides information about the social, economic, and political life of the people living in deltaic Tamil Nadu.
Literary work of Kalidasa: The works of the great poet Kalidasa comprises kavyas and dramas, the most important being Abhijnanasakuntalam.

Foreigner's Accounts

Accounts of Greeks, Romans, or Chinese, serving as official historians, diplomats, pilgrims, or navigators/explorers.
Alexander's invasion is solely reconstructed based on Greek sources.
"Indica" of Megasthenes provides information about the Mauryan period.
Pliny's "Naturalis Historia" gives an account of trade imbalance between India and the Roman empire.
Fa-Hein, a Buddhist traveler, left a vivid account of the age of the Guptas.
Hsuan-Tsang, a Buddhist pilgrim, visited India and gave details of India under the reign of King Harshavardhana and the glory of Nalanda University.

The Indian Stone Age

Divided into three categories based on geological age, the type and technology of stone tools, and subsistence level:

Old Stone Age, Palaeolithic Age
Middle Stone Age, Mesolithic Age
New Stone Age, Neolithic Age

Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age: 30,00,000 BC - 10,000 BC

The first stage of the Stone Age, emerging during the Pleistocene or Ice Age, is known as the Palaeolithic Age.
Palaeolithic cultures belong to the Pleistocene geological era, while Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures belong to the Holocene era.
John Lubbock separated the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age in 1863.
Edouard Lartet proposed the separation of the Palaeolithic into the lower, middle, and higher Palaeolithic, partly in light of variations in fauna connected to various tool types.

Famous Sites of Old Stone Age in India

Soan valley and Potwar plateau
Siwalik hills on the north India
Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh
Adamgarh Hills in Narmada Valley
Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh
Attirampakkam near Chennai

Lower Palaeolithic Age in India

Subcontinent's stone age cultures did not develop uniformly along a single line. Characteristics vary regionally, with a wide range of dates.
Distributed throughout nearly the whole country except for the Indus and Ganga alluvial plains.
Recognized on rocky outcrops inside or on the edges of various valleys, such as in Sindh's Rohri Hills and the northern Vindhya Mountains.
Tools included handaxes, cleavers, chopping tools flaked on both sides, and pebble tools.
Palaeolithic humans in India, known as "Quartzite Men" because their stone tools were constructed of the hard rock "quartzite," lived in caves and rock shelters.
They were hunters and gatherers of food who subsisted on wild fruits and vegetables.
They lacked expertise in farming, home construction, pottery, or metal.
They developed an understanding of fire in later stages.
Men used unpolished, undressed rough stone tools: hand axes, cleavers, choppers, blades, bruins, and scrapers.

Locations of Lower Palaeolithic Age in India

Potwar plateau and the Siwaliks have produced significant dates. Riwat, near Rawalpindi in Pakistan's Punjab, has older dates. Stone tools with an age of $2.4$ to $2$ mya were discovered at Gurha Sahan and PS-57 embedded in the Pinjore bed of the Siwaliks.
Stone tools found in the Siwalik hills' Jammu and Himachal parts are from the same time period.
Factory locations are close to raw material sources, identified by the abundance of stone tools in various states.
Excavations in the Badarpur hills yielded thousands of early and late Acheulean tools, as well as signs of many Yamuna river palaeo-channels.
In Rajasthan, lower, middle, and upper palaeolithic tools have been found around Ajmer and stray finds in the Luni valley.
In Gujarat, lower palaeolithic tools have been found in the valleys of the Sabarmati, its Orsang and Karjan tributaries, and in the Bhadar valley in Saurashtra.
In the Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh, studies have revealed a sequence of stone age industries from the lower palaeolithic to neolithic to protohistoric.
Attirampakkam, in the Kortallayar river basin, is one of the richest palaeolithic sites in Tamil Nadu.

Middle Palaeolithic Sites

Stone tools evolved gradually. Handaxes, chopping tools, and cleavers did not disappear entirely, but smaller, lighter flake tools became more common, created using prepared core processes like the Levallois technique.
Flake culture is characterized by the excessiveness of implements made from flakes.
Middle palaeolithic tools have been discovered in numerous places, frequently in river gravels and deposits, providing information about climate.
Many stone tools, largely from the middle palaeolithic, have been discovered in the Potwar plateau between the Indus and Jehlum rivers.
A large number of stone age sites belonging to the middle palaeolithic phase onwards are located around Budha Pushkar lake.
Middle and upper palaeolithic tools are also found around Ajmer and the Luni river system.
The Nevasan industry is named after Nevasa, where archaeologist D. Sankalia unearthed the first middle paleolithic artifacts.
In South India, the middle palaeolithic culture is marked by a flake tool industry. On the Visakhapatnam coast, quartzite, chert, and quartz were frequently used to make stone tools.

Palaeolithic Tools

Lower Palaeolithic:
- Chopper: Pebble, roughly worked on one side. Used for digging and skinning.
- Biface: Hand axe knapped on both sides. Used for cutting.
Middle Palaeolithic:
- Knife: Utensil knapped on one side. Used for cutting or as a weapon.
- Scraper: Used for cleaning animal hides and sharpening knives.
Upper Palaeolithic:
- Blade: Finely knapped. Used as spear heads.
- Javelin: Weapon for throwing. Similar to a small spear.
- Harpoon: Used for fishing.
- Spear thrower: Used to throw javelins.
- Needle: Made of bone and used for sewing.
- Perforator: Used for making holes in hides.

Upper Palaeolithic Sites

The production of parallel-sided blades was a significant technological achievement.
There was an increase in the number of burials.
The tendency toward smaller tools resulted from responses to environmental changes.
Flake-Blade culture: Due to excessiveness of implements made from Flake-Blade.
Tools Include:
- Blade
- Backed blades
- Blades with retouched margin
- Double borer on blade
The Kashmir upper Palaeolithic has been dated to around 18,000 years ago, coinciding with a warmer environment.
Due to growing aridness, there are fewer upper Palaeolithic sites in the Thar than during the previous phase. However, the area around the lake in Budha Pushkar was still occupied.
Upper Palaeolithic habitation sites have been discovered in the Vindhyas' rock shelters and caves in central India.
Between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago, the upper palaeolithic context in the Belan valley was found, and 10,000 years ago in the Son valley.
Chopani Mando in the Belan valley was a human settlement with a cultural progression from the upper palaeolithic to the neolithic.
There are many upper palaeolithic sites in the Chotanagpur region and the Damin area of the Rajmahal hills, including Paisra in Munger district.
Upper palaeolithic tools have been found in various districts of West Bengal.
There is not enough evidence of the palaeolithic phase in Assam and other parts of the north-east.
The upper palaeolithic cave sites of Kurnool and Muchchatla Chintamanu Gavi in Andhra Pradesh are the only places where tools made of animal bones have been found in an upper palaeolithic context.

Palaeolithic Art and Culture

The history of art begins with prehistoric art, serving as a window into the lives of ancient people.
Rock art includes petroglyphs, where a portion of a rock surface is removed through engraving, bruising, hammering, chiseling, or scooping.
There is substantial evidence of upper palaeolithic rock carvings and paintings in southern Africa, Australia, and Europe.
The primary motif is animals, and some of the images may have been used in ritual hunting.
Venus figurines, or female figurines, may symbolize fertility rites and beliefs.
There is not much proof of palaeolithic art in India. Bhimbetka's "auditorium cave" (Cave III F-24) provides compelling evidence of artistic-cum-cultic activity, relating to the borderline between the lower and middle palaeolithic.
A very damaged upper palaeolithic carved bone object was found at Lohanda Nala in the Belan valley (UP).
Animal teeth found in a cave at Kurnool have grooves, suggesting they may have been attached to a string and worn as ornaments.
The site of Baghor I in Madhya Pradesh has given evidence of an upper palaeolithic shrine dated c. 9000-8000 BCE.
The Kol and Baiga tribal people, who still inhabit this region of the Kaimur hills, erect circular rubble platforms and revere triangular stones as representations of the feminine principle or as deities.

The Life-Ways of Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherers

Palaeolithic lifestyles depended on adaptation to specific regional conditions.
These societies of hunters and gatherers shared fundamental traits.
People resided in structures of reeds, grass, twigs, or rocks.
There were both permanent and less permanent settlements.
Habitation sites like Bhimbetka and Hunsgi show proof of long-term habitation.
Other sites indicate transient camp sites where people stayed for a while and then left.
Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers had a social structure similar to a "band society."
- Bands typically have fewer than 100 members.
- They frequently move about or are somewhat nomadic, depending on the seasonal availability of animals and plant food.
- A band's members typically have kinship ties.
- Labor is divided according to sex and age.
- Instead of economic exchange, the laws of reciprocity govern the interchange of products.
- Natural resources are not 'owned' by any one individual or group.
- Behavior is regulated through customs, norms, and social etiquette rather than force.

Mesolithic Culture or Middle Stone Age: 9000 BC - 4000 BC

The middle phase of Stone Age culture, representing the transitional phase between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.
The Holocene period includes Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures.
No snakes are depicted in Mesolithic paintings.
John Evan is credited with the discovery of Mesolithic archaeological material in India.
Mesolithic people subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering food, and later, domesticating animals.
The size reduction of well-known tool types was one of the main features.
Microliths, typically formed of crypto-crystalline silica, chalcedony, or chert, were the distinctive tools, with both geometrical and asymmetrical shapes.
Microliths range in length from under 1 cm to 5 cm.
The term epi-palaeolithic is used for the transitional stage of tools that are smaller than those typical of the upper palaeolithic, but smaller than microliths.

Features of Mesolithic Culture

Economy: Based on hunting and gathering, but some sites show evidence of animal domestication.
Pottery: Absent at most mesolithic sites, but occurs at Langhnaj in Gujarat and in the Kaimur region of Mirzapur (UP).
Types of settlement: Some seem to have been permanent or semi-permanent, or at least repeatedly inhabited over long periods.
Crops: The last phase saw the beginning of plant cultivation. The transition from a hunting-gathering stage to the beginnings of settled agriculture can be traced at Chopani Mando in the Belan valley.
- There were bones of wild cattle and sheep/goats.
Habitation: Pieces of burnt clay with reed impressions showed that the mesolithic people of Chopani Mando lived in wattle-and-daub huts.

Mesolithic Sites

Bagor (in Bhilwara district of eastern Rajasthan) is one of the best-documented sites.
Microlithic sites found in the vicinity of Mumbai seem to represent coastal mesolithic communities who exploited marine resources for food.
Microliths have been found in other parts of Maharashtra, at Jalahalli and Kibbanahalli near Bangalore in Karnataka, in Goa, and at Nagarjunakonda (in southern AP), and Renigunta (in Chittoor district, AP).
Central Region of India: Chhotanagpur. The earliest examples of animal domestication may be found in Adamgarh, M.P., and Bagor.
Mesolithic sites from various regions provide evidence of community interaction and migration.

Mesolithic Art

Prehistoric rock art first appeared during the Mesolithic period. The first Indian rock paintings were uncovered in 1867 at Sohagi Ghat (Kaimur Hills, UP).
More than 150 Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in India, with a high concentration in Central India (Bhimbetka Caves, Kharwar, Jaora, and Kathotia (M.P.), Sundargarh and Sambalpur (Orissa), and Ezhuthu Guha (Kerala)).
Most sites feature scenes dominated by animals. Snakes and pottery are not shown.

Details of Bhimbetka

One of seven hills, distinguished by a natural setting. Nearly 400 of 642 rock shelters feature artwork, carvings, or bruising.
They date to an ancient era based on their style, topic, and worn condition.
There are sixteen distinct hues or tints, with white and light red being the most popular.
The colors were created by grinding minerals, then combined with water or another substance like egg white, marrow, or animal fat.
- Red was created using iron oxide (geru).
- White was created using limestone.
- Green was created using green chalcedony.
Paintings come in both monochrome and polychrome variations.
The brush itself is made from semal (silk cotton), animal fur, or squirrel tail.
At Bhimbetka, animals predominate in the scenes.
- The artwork features 29 different types of animals, including the chital (most prevalent), leopard, tiger, panther, elephant, rhinoceros, antelope, deer, and squirrel.
- Animals are portrayed either by themselves or as part of hunting scenarios.
- Hunters engage in solitary or group pursuits and occasionally don masks and horned or antlered headdresses.
- A few paintings are in the 'x-ray style', showing the inner organs, including foetuses in the womb of female animals.
Mesolithic paintings also depict men and women, young and old.
The paintings reflect a division of labor on the basis of gender. Men hunt, and women are shown gathering and preparing food, for instance grinding food on queens.

Other Sites of Mesolithic Paintings

In the western areas of Orissa, particularly Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts, around 55 rock shelters featuring rock art have been discovered.
- The 12 rock shelters of the Lekhamoda group in the reserve forests of Chhengapahad and Garjanpahad are the most prolific sites.
- One of these rock shelters was excavated, showing a cultural progression from the mesolithic to the chalcolithic.
- The coexistence of paintings and engravings in the same shelter is an intriguing aspect.
- Emphasis is on decorative patterns that are abstract and both geometric and non-geometric in nature. Humans are even less common than animals.
Kerala has many rock art sites with paintings and carvings. One of the oldest is the cave known as Ezhuthu Guha.
A very interesting, rather abstract painting has been found in a rock shelter at Jaora (MP). Perhaps it reflects a view of the world consisting of air, earth, and fire.