by Harsh Kumar
Background
History has no limits as what you did in past all became history weather you did that before 1 minute or you did those 5 years or 50 years ago, all will be history for you. So, the history of started with the generation of planet Earth, it was around the 4.5 billion years ago. But the human history was yet to be start. Pre-historic is basically the period before the invention of writing skills, for that no written evidences available. Human history when our earliest known ancestor, Australopithecus, whose remains found from the Laetoli in Tanzania and Hadar in Ethiopia, got discover which are 24 million years old.
They followed by Homohabilis, who appears around 2 million years ago. Slowly over the time they started evolving from the apes. They first appear in Eastern and Southern African continent.
After Homohabilis, Homo erectus appears around 1.5 million years ago in the parts of Africa, China, Java, Europe etc. The Paleolithic age commenced from this time and it got evolved with time. After that Homo erectus reign came to end with the evolution of Neanderthal man. They came into existence about 35000 years ago. They were more short, stocky, and have a powerful physique from their ancestors. They got evolve in the regions of South-East Asia, Europe, China.
Neanderthals are the direct ancestors of today’s man, the Homo Sapiens. The modern man or we called the Homo Sapienswere evolved around the 12000-6000 century BC. Sapiens means thinking man, most evolved and thinkable species of human that currently ruling the world.
Homo Sapiens were present in South Africa around the 12000-6000 Century BC. They first appeared around 9000 years ago in west Asia and later migrated to other parts of the world. With the evolution of time, new inventions came into prominence, the discovery of Fire was the most important invention of that world that change the living pattern of major groups of that time. It also changes the dietary pattern of people as they started to consume cooked food.
The first evidence of fire was found around 500000 years ago at Zhoukoudien cave of China during the age of Homo erectus. Our stone age is typically divided into three ages, namely Paleolithic age, Mesolithic age and Neolithic age. After that they followed by Chalcolithic age whose time period often overlapped with others.
Paleolithic Age
Now in this we will discuss about the Paleolithic age like socio-cultural aspects, material culture, their evolution etc. so, the Paleolithic age got evolve around 1.4 million years ago and were in prevalence up to 10000-8000 century BC. The Paleolithic age is further divided into three time periods:
- Lower Paleolithic age (roughly 1.4 million years ago – 39k years ago)
- Middle Paleolithic age (roughly 39k years ago – 23k years ago)
- Upper Paleolithic age (roughly 23k years ago – 10k years ago)
Evolution of Material Culture
The Paleolithic people started using tools made of stones. They used quartz and quartzite stone for tool making process. They also used variety of sandstones for tool making process. During the lower paleolithic age the tools were weak, unrefined and bigger in size but over the time the tools were become small in size, got more refine.
During the lower paleolithic age, tools were based on the technique of core. In this technology a bigger stone piece was hut with another stone piece. The outer layer of stone removed and the inner layer used as tool. During the upper age the tools were based on the blade technique.
In this technique, the tools were of sharp edges as the edges were sharpened by the using the other stone. Tools made of wood also discovered of paleolithic age. For the first time, the bone tools were made during the upper paleolithic age. Antlers (stag) Horns were used for tool making. A large number of bone tools have been discovered from the Vilas Ragam cave in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. So, the material culture of paleolithic was very diverse.
Pattern of Living and Geographical Area Occupied
Paleolithic people lived in the foothills of mountains. The northern plains were not occupied because the rivers were narrow in the foothills of mountains that could be easily crossed. In plains the rivers were extremely wide. Stones were easily available in the foothills of mountains; it was not there in plains.
Caves were available in foothills of mountains which was good for taking shelter. Forests were less dense in the foothills when compared with plains that make foothills a better place to live. The paleolithic people did not build any artificial home for residential purpose, the natural caves were used by them for residential purposes. For example, Bhimbetka caves and Adamgarh site in Madhya Pradesh are typical examples of natural caves that used by Paleolithic peoples for living purpose.
Socio-Economic Life of Paleolithic People
The society was not developed during this age. There was no system of kinship during the lower paleolithic age. They survived on the roots and fruits in early age. The early humans were vegetarians as their metabolism system yet to develop for digesting meat. But slowly with the time the humans started to evolve as they started to consuming meat, that’s means they became hunter and with that started gathering of food and products for their survival.
They officially became Hunter-Gatherers. The economic was subsistent as the surplus was absent. The concept of property was yet to be evolve. The size of population during the paleolithic age was small. Therefore, the hunting and gathering were sufficient for needs of paleolithic humans.
Religious and Cultural Life
During the lower and middle paleolithic age, there was no idea of religious activities. During the upper paleolithic age, people started burial practices, that was the indication of some type of religious activity. The dead bodies were no longer thrown away, as they started to buried them under graves. Earliest graves in Indian subcontinent found at the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Through out the paleolithic age, the burial practices were only religious activity.
The paleolithic people took active interest in the art of painting. Once emerged, the art of painting flourished over the time. About 500 paintings found in the cave of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh and the oldest painting is about 1 lakh year old. Meanwhile, most of them belongs to Mesolithic age. These paintings depicted the hunting, dancing, social gathering etc. scenes. Language began to be used by man during upper paleolithic age because now brain was developed enough to process complex sentences.
Important Paleolithic Sites in India
Bhimbetka caves in Madhya Pradesh
Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh
Didwana, Luni valley, Mogara hills in Rajasthan
Chopani mando, Kalpi in Uttar Pradesh
Hiran valley, Sabarmati valley in Gujarat
Nashik, Patne, Nevasa in Maharashtra
Kurnool, Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh
Attirampakkam and Gudiyan cave in Tamil Nadu
Anangpur, Delhi etc.
The paleolithic humans were not aware of the fire, because they consumed food in raw form. So, the with the evolution of time humans get evolved with time. They more developed during Mesolithic and Neolithic ages. We will discuss them in a separate post dedicated to that topic.