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Unit2 - Fggfcvbhy
BA (Hons.) History
University of Delhi
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Geographical Regions and
UNIT 2 PREHISTORIC PERIOD* Sources
Structure
2 Objectives
2 Introduction
2 Nomenclature
2 Birth of Prehistory
2 Geographical Features of India
2 Phases within the Indian Palaeolithic and Dating
2 Archaeological Record of the Palaeolithic
2 Lower Palaeolithic Stage in India
2 Middle Palaeolithic Cultures
2 The Upper Palaeolithic Culture
2 Mesolithic Culture
2 Summary
2 Key Words
2 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises
2 Suggested Readings
2 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, you will learn about:
the birth of Prehistory in India; how Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultures are defined; the kind of archaeological evidence that is available to reconstruct tool typology, technology; sites and their regional settings; and the salient features of Indian Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultures.
2 INTRODUCTION
In this Unit, we shall learn about the earliest stage in the history of man’s biological and cultural evolution. This is the stage when creatures ancestral to Humans began to branch off from their ape-like cousins. This journey covers a time span of 2 million years. It involved improvements both in aspects of the biological make-up like bipedal posture and brain enlargement. In cultural behaviour the critical factor was the intentional preparation of tools out of natural materials like stone and wood.
In this Unit, we will be studying the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultures; archaeological evidence which has been used to reconstruct tool typology and technological aspects; different sites of these cultures, their regional setting and salient features.
- This Unit has been adopted from MAN-002, Block 5 and 6
Reconstructing Ancient Indian
History 2 NOMENCLATURE
The branch of archaeology which deals with the study of the initial stage of human history is called Prehistory. Stated in other words, Prehistory deals with the origins and growth of human societies before the advent of writing systems. This stage is succeeded by Proto-history which is a transitional stage between Prehistory and History in India. The Proto-History stage covers the third and second millennia and early half of the first millennium before the Common Era. It is characterized by the rise of many early agro-pastoral Neolithic-Chalcolithic communities characterized by settled village life, domestication of animals like cattle and sheep/goat, cultivation of crops like wheat, barley, rice and millets, and the emergence of various crafts and arts. In the Indus valley, this phase eventually led to the growth of an urban civilization based on town planning and bronze technology.
Another way of classification is that of the division of human past or History into three main periods, namely:
- Stone Age,
- Bronze Age, and
- Iron Age.
These are not simply technological stages. They do not just imply that tools and implements were made of stone during the Stone Age, of bronze during the Bronze Age and of iron during the Iron Age. These Ages imply much more than technology. They imply subsistence economy or the ways of acquiring food, social organization, including caring for the weak, sick and old, modes of disposing of the dead, art and other aspects of life.
Stone Age is divided into three periods, namely:
- Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age,
- Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, and
- Neolithic or New Stone Age.
The word ‘lithic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘lithos’, meaning stone. Palaeolithic means Old Stone Age, Mesolithic means Middle Stone Age and Neolithic means New Stone Age.
2 BIRTH OF PREHISTORY
The birth of prehistory took place in 1859 when the findings of primitive stone implements in association with fossilized bones of extinct species of wild cattle and other large mammals were ratified before the Royal Society in London in northern Europe. It became clear that northern Europe was occupied by humans much before its landscape assumed its present form. A long phase of infancy was, thus, prefaced to human history. In his book Prehistoric Times (1865) Sir John Lubbock announced the birth of a new science called Prehistory. He divided the Stone Age into Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Neolithic (New Stone Age) Ages. And by the end of the 19th century, not only an intermediate stage called the Mesolithic was introduced between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic, but several stages were identified within the Bronze and Iron Ages. Furthermore,
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History
the hill ranges. They represent various formation processes ranging from true in situ or undisturbed sites found on weathered bedrock or else in soft silts to occurrences in colluvium and river-borne gravels. Cave and rock shelter sites occur in hilly areas covered with sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones). Bhimbetka complex in Madhya Pradesh and Kurnool caves in Andhra Pradesh are well-known examples.
2 LOWER PALAEOLITHIC STAGE IN INDIA
As we have noted earlier, the Lower Palaeolithic phase in India (see map 2) consists of two principal tool-making or cultural traditions, viz.
a) The Soanian tradition forming part of the East and Southeast Asian chopper- chopping tool tradition, and
Map 2: Lower Palaeolithic Sites in India. Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Important Lower Palaeollthle sites in South Asia: 1) Riwat; 2) Pahlgam; 3) Jalalpur; 4) Dina; 5) Beas-Banganga complex; 6) Sirsa-Ghaggar complex; 7) Dang-Deokhuri complex; 8) Didwana; 9) Jayal; 10 Jaisalmer-Pokaran Road; 11) Ziarat Pir Shaban; 12) Berach complex; 13) Chambal complex; 14) Bhimbetka; 15) Raisen complex; 16) Lalitpur; 17) Damoh complex; 18 Son complex; 19) Sihawal; 20) Belan complex; 21) Sisunia; 22) Singhbhum complex; 23) Paisra; 24) Brahmani complex; 25) Wainganga complex; 26) Mahadeo Piparia; 27) Adamgarh; 27A) Hathnora; 28) Durkadi; 29) Samadhiala; 30) Umrethi; 31) Gangapur; 32) Chirki-Nevasa; 33) Bori; 34) Nalgonda complex; 35) Hunsgi and Baichbal basins complex; 36) Mahad; 37) Anagwadi; 38) Malwan; 39) Lakhmapur; 40) Nittur; 41) Kurnool complex; 42) Nagarjunakonda complex; 43) Guddapah complex; 44) Rallakalava complex; 45) Kortallayar complex; 45A) Ratnapura complex.
b) The Handaxe-cleaver or biface assemblages constituting the Acheulian Prehistoric Period tradition, which is widely known from the western half of the Old World (African, Western Europe, West and South Asia).
The term “Old World” is a term that is used in the West to refer to Africa, Europe, and Asia (Afro-Eurasia, or the eastern hemisphere), regarded collectively as the part of the world known to its population before contact with the Americas and Oceania or the “New World” (Western hemisphere). Source: en.wikipedia/wiki/Old_World
The Soanian Cultural Tradition
The existence of this tradition was recognized in 1939 by H. de Terra of Yale University and T. T. Paterson of Cambridge University in the north-western part of the subcontinent. On the basis of their field studies in the area, they identified
Fig. 2: Chopper and Flake Tools of the Early Soan Tradition. Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
The Soan assemblages from Punjab have been assigned by some workers to the Prehistoric Period Middle Palaeolithic tradition.
The Acheulian Cultural Tradition
The term ‘Acheulian’ is used for hand-axes and cleavers found as tool assemblages and representing advanced and increasingly symmetrical shapes. Quartzite was the preferred rock for tool-making. Where it was not naturally available, the Acheulian groups made use of other available rocks like limestone in the Bhima basin, dolerite and basalt in Maharashtra, and fossil wood in Bihar and Bengal. Stone hammer, soft hammer and prepared core techniques were employed for detaching flakes and shaping them into implements.
Stone tools are the main evidence through which an understanding of the prehistoric people’s lifeways is arrived at. Archaeologists use certain terms to define stone tools. If a large piece of rock is intentionally broken into two or more pieces, the largest piece is called core and the tool made out of it called a core tool. The smaller pieces detached from the parent rock are called flakes and tools made on flakes are called flake tools.
Time Range Lower Palaeolithic in India: 600,000 years BP to 150,000 years BP Middle Palaeolithic in India: 165,000 BP to 31,000 years BP Upper Palaeolithic in India:40,000 years BP to 12000 years BP
Important Sites of the Lower Palaeolithic
- Singi Talav in western Rajasthan has yielded an assemblage comprising of choppers, polyhedrons, bifaces, scrapers and points.
Fig.2: Acheulian Horizon Exposed in Trench I at Isampur, Karnataka. Source: MAN- 002, Block 5.
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History
Rock shelter III F-23 (Figure 2) at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh has yielded Acheulian, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic levels.
Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh has exposed an Acheulian level below Middle Palaeolithic deposits.
Lalitpur in Jhansi district of UP produced an early and in situ assemblage made up of granite tools
Fig. 2: Lower Acheulian Artefacts from Isampur, Karnataka: 1) Core; 2&3) Cleavers; 4 & 5) Handaxes; 6) Perforator; 7) Knife; 8) Hammerstone. Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History
- Isampur in the Hunsgi valley in North Karnataka is a quarry-cum-camp site. It has yielded cores, flake blanks, finished implements and waste product of limestone (Fig.2 & 2). Deer and shell fragments of land turtle were also found. Isampur served as a localized hub in this part of the Hunsgi valley, from where the hominins radiated onto surrounding limestone tablelands and valley floor as part of their daily foraging rounds.
- Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu), an in situ Acheulian site has yielded an Acheulian assemblage of quartzite and fossilized bones of wild cattle and other species. The site has recently been dated to 1 million years BP by an advanced scientific technique.
2 MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC CULTURES
Middle Palaeolithic culture succeeded the Lower Palaeolithic culture. As stated earlier, Lower Palaeolithic culture is characterized by heavy tools like the hand- axes and cleavers. The Middle Palaeolithic culture, on the other hand, consists of a variety of tools made on flakes; and these flakes are produced by specialized techniques. Therefore, it is widely referred to as flake tool industry. The Middle Palaeolithic culture of Europe, South-west Asia and Africa is called as Mousterian culture, named after the rock shelter of Le Moustier in France. The human species associated with Mousterian culture is the extinct Homo neanderthalensis. The popular name of this hominin is Neanderthal man. He lived during the period of Upper Pleistocene.
Hand-axe: generally a core tool. It is a bifacial tool since it is worked on both sides. It is roughly triangular in shape, broad at one end and pointed at the other. It is meant to be held in hand by the butt and sometimes hafted onto handles. Cleaver: a flattish tool made on a broad rectangular or triangular flake, on one end of which is a broad and straight cutting edge. Chopper: Large, unifacial tool, i. worked on one side only. Chopping tool: a tool made on a core or a pebble and flaked alternately on both sides to produce a wavy cutting edge. Source: H. D. Sankalia (1964) 1982: pp. 45-
Mousterian Industries The Mousterian industry is a Middle Palaeolithic tradition of tool making used by Neanderthals in Europe, South-west Asia and Africa. The widespread occurrence of stone tool industries in which flakes are predominantly used, in contrast to the hand-axes and cleavers of the previous cultural phase, begins at the close of the Middle Pleistocene period. The production of flakes heralds a technical change in the manufacture of advanced hunting tools. In this new technique, the development is the production of a complete implement, at a single blow, from a core previously prepared so as to ensure that flakes when detached conformed to specific pattern of tools. Moreover, it was possible to strike off a series of flakes by reworking (or rejuvenating) the same core; therefore, the technique was economical both of labour and raw material. Further, the flakes thus detached could easily be shaped by simple retouch into a variety of tools. It was easy to manufacture a range of tools to perform various functions.
Middle Palaeolithic in India Prehistoric Period
The Middle Palaeolithic culture phase in India is characterized by flake tool industries. In 1956, H. D. Sankalia for the first time recorded and demonstrated these flake tools occurring in Pravara at Nevasa (Maharashtra) and then later in the Godavari valley in north Karnataka. He called this industry Nevasian (like Mousterian). Soon, his subsequent surveys revealed that Nevasian was not a local phenomenon but a generalized feature of Indian Stone Age cultures. In the beginning the term Middle Stone Age was adopted for this phase in Indian prehistory. Subsequently, the term Middle Palaeolithic has been accepted.
The Middle Palaeolithic tools are made on flakes and flake-blades pro- duced by flake core, discoid and the specialized Levallois technique. In some regions, there is a continuity of Late Acheulian lithic tradition with refinement in bifacial flaking, and second marginal retouch, and inclusion of small sized hand-axes and cleavers. In many regions there is a switch over in the use of raw material from coarse grained rocks like quartzite of the preceding phase to fine grained rocks like chert, jasper, chalcedony, agate etc.
The tool types of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic are scrapers of various types: single side, double side, side-cum-end, straight, oblique, concave, convex, concavo-convex, notched, and core scrapers; awls; borers; simple unilateral or bilateral points; Levallois points; tanged or shouldered points; miniature hand- axes and cleavers; and utilised flakes. Anvils and Hammers are also found at some of the manufacturing sites (Figure 2).
Fig.2: Tools of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic. Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Anvils and hammer stones are also found at some of the manufacturing sites. The techniques used for tool manufacture are stone hammer, cylinder hammer, and Levalloisian. The raw materials used for the manufacture of stone tools are medium to fine grained quartzite, chert, jasper and chalcedony.
Prehistoric Period 5) Budha Pushkar in Rajasthan
Luni river system denoting tool industries west of the Aravallis
Chirki Nevasa in Maharashtra
Kalpi in Uttar Pradesh
Check Your Progress Exercise 1
- Stone Age is divided into how many periods? Write a few lines about the birth of Prehistory. .......................................................................................................................
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- Discuss the main cultural traditions within the Indian Lower Palaeolithic?
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- Discuss any two sites of Indian Middle Palaeolithic?
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2 THE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC CULTURE
The Upper Palaeolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Palaeolithic and it is characterized by the first great climax of human achievements. Upper Palaeolithic cultures flourished in Europe, South-west Asia, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia during the later stages of the Upper Pleistocene, often referred to as Late Pleistocene.
Very broadly, the age of the Upper Palaeolithic falls between 40,000 and 10, years ago. The human species associated with this cultural phase is Anatomically Modern Home sapiens (AMHS), the extant and the only surviving human species. We belong to this species. Upper Palaeolithic cultures succeed the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian or other flake tool cultures in different parts of the Old World.
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History The Upper Palaeolithic is marked by technological advances in stone tool manufacture by the production of parallel sided blades which are finished into a variety of tools by blunting one side or by backing. Blades are flakes, but very refined flat narrow ones, elongated in shape and having parallel sides. For producing blades, the cores are first trimmed all around to remove the roughness. Then, by striking along the circumference of the core, using a punch, a series of blades are removed. That means blades are produced by indirect percussion but not by direct percussion. After the removal of the first series of blades, a second, third and fourth series and so on are removed, until the core is exhausted. Thus, in this blade production technique, numerous blades are removed from a single
Map 2: Distribution of Upper Palaeolithic Sites in India. Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History
The primary occupation sites in the Rallakalava (Vedulacheruvu, Nallagundlu) and Gunjuna (Peddarajupalli; Vodikalu, Bellu) valleys in the southern Eastern Ghats have yielded the best known evidence of the blade-and-burin industries in the country (Figures 2 – 2).
Fig. 2: Artifacts of the Blade-and-Burin Industry from the Rallakalava Valley, near Renigunta. 1-2, Backed Knives; 3-12, Backed Blade and Bladelet Tool Variants (5 and 6 are Backed Pen Knives); 13, Awl; 14, Unifacial Point; 15, Tanged Point; 16, Blade Core (After Murty, 1979). Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Radiocarbon dates for the Upper Palaeolithic obtained from different part of India and the Thermoluminiscence (TL) dates from the Kurnool caves indicate a time period falling in the range of 40,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE. The faunal remains from Kurnool caves, found in association with the Upper Palaeolithic also belong to the Late Pleistocene Age.
Prehistoric Period
Fig. 2: Artifacts of the Blade-and-Burin Industry from the RallakalavaValley, near Renigunta. 1, Convex Scraper; 2, 4, Side Scrapers; 3, Ovate Scraper; 5, 6, 7, End Scrapers (after Murty 1979). Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
Upper Palaeolithic Sites
The following are some of the prominent Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent:
Rohiri hills in upper Sindh
Milestone 101 in lower Sindh
Chopani Mando in Belan valley
Baghor I in Madhya Pradesh
Paisra in Munger district of Bihar
Lalmai hills of Bangladesh
Haora and Khowai river valleys in western Tripura
Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh
Muchchatla Chintamanu Gavi in Andhra Pradesh
Prehistoric Period
Fig. 2: Bone Tools from Muchchatla Chintamanu Gavi Cave I (MCG I), Kurnool Caves.
- Scraper; 2-3) Perforators; 4-6) Chisels; 7-8) Spatulas; 9) Tanged point; 10) Shouldered Point, broken; 11) Bone Blank; 12) Bone with both ends cut (After Murty, 1979). Source: MAN-002, Block 5.
2 MESOLITHIC CULTURE
The Mesolithic Age began around 8000 BCE. It was a transitional phase between the Palaeolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. There was a rise in temperature and the climate became warm and dry. The climatic changes affected human life and brought about changes in fauna and flora. The warmer climate was associated with the onset of the Holocene Age. Holocene followed the Pleistocene. Holocene is known as the Recent or Neo-thermal phase. We are living in the Holocene period. Holocene began around 10,000 BCE.
Geological Ages Today, geologists divide the history of the earth into four eras or ages related to the evolution of life forms: i) Primary (Palaeozoic), ii) Secondary (Mesozoic), iii) Tertiary, and iv) Quaternary.
The Tertiary and Quaternary together form the Cenozoic or the Age of the Mammals which began about 100 million years ago. The Cenozoic is divided into seven epochs of which the last two — The Pleistocene and the
Reconstructing Ancient Indian History Holocene— are especially important in the story of hominid evolution. The Pleistocene began about 1 million years ago, and Holocene (or Recent Period in which we live) about 10,000 years ago. Source: Upinder Singh, 2008, page 60.
The Mesolithic people, in their subsistence level were much like the Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, however their mode of hunting-gathering became more intensified. Their long experience and interaction with plants and animals made them species-specific hunters and gatherers. This means that they favoured some species of plants and animals over others. Culture that was produced in Europe during the post Pleistocene period, that is early Holocene, is known as the Mesolithic culture.
Terminology A. C. Carlyle, an Assistant to Alexander Cunningham, founder Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, found a large number of small stone implements from the caves and rock shelters of Vindhyan hill regions of Central India. The assemblage comprised of small stone tools in form of crescents, trapezoids, triangles and delicate knife-lets. No tool was more than 1 cms in length. The tools were never found in association with polished or ground implements. Carlyle found enough stratigraphic evidence to suggest that these small implements were lying in an intermediate position between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic stages. The accompanying culture connected with both the ages. Carlyle termed this intermediate stage as the Mesolithic.
The end of Pleistocene is conventionally placed around 10,000 BCE. The date for Mesolithic in Europe is around 9,500 years BCE. Mesolithic is considered to have ended with the introduction of agriculture around 6000 and 5000 BCE (Price, 1991).
Tool Types and Technology Microliths are the predominating and the most common tool types of this cultural phase. Technologically, this is a continuation of types from the Upper Palaeolithic period. Microliths start occurring in the last phase of the Palaeolithic culture but they predominate in the Mesolithic culture. Three cms. is taken as the limit for the length for determining a microlith. Moreover, the microliths of Mesolithic period were made by highly skilled tool making techniques. This is mainly reflected in retouching of the working edge of the tool or blunting of the hafting edge of the tool.
The technique employed was punch and pressure, which developed during the Upper Palaeolithic period. For this reason, identification of Mesolithic microliths largely depends on the context of its finding and dates.
Microliths are described in terms of geometric and non-geometric shapes. Geometric ones are types such as trapeze, triangle, lunate or crescent. The non- geometric types are named by the nature of blunting of the back, such as partly, fully or obliquely blunted blades or after their functions such as scraper, point, knife, blade, awl, burin and borer (Figure 2).
Microliths were used as composite tools for plant gathering and harvesting, slicing, grating, plant-fibre processing; for lines, snares, nets and traps; shell openers;
Unit2 - Fggfcvbhy
Course: BA (Hons.) History
University: University of Delhi
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