The prehistoric Age refers to the time when there was no writing and development. Events that occurred before the invention of writing are considered pre-history. Prehistory is represented by the three stone ages. It’s the period when there was human life but nothing was recorded at that time. For roughly 3 million years, humans lived on Earth without leaving a written record of their lives but they left behind other kinds of remains and artifacts like fossils, which enables us to know more about the life of a human from the prehistoric period.
From the study of the prehistoric period, we now know that early humans lived in caves and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools for hunting birds and wild animals and collected berries, fruit, and nuts for a living. Later they began to cook their prey using controlled fire.
Indian Prehistoric Period:
We do not have much knowledge about the Prehistorical period of India as proper investigation and excavation are not done to date and also the climate of India is tropical which is not ideal for the preservation of the archeological remains. But still, we have found a few imprints of pre-historical time in a few fossils, cave paintings, and stone tools found. Paleolithic remains in India are mostly made up of quartzite.
Paleolithic paintings found in kaimur ranges and the Mirzapur district of India give an insight into the Indian Prehistoric Man. The roots of the original Indian pre-historic man can still be found in Negrito race of Andaman, they had short stature, dark skin, and flat noses.
To study the prehistoric period, it was divided into three periods:
- Stone Age
- Bronze Age
- Iron Age
- Stone Age:
The Stone Age begins with the first use of stone tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze. The earliest stone tools found to date to around 2.5 million years. Unlike today, the Paleolithic age had multiple other species of humans, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.
During this age, the man was a hunter as they depended on hunting to fill their stomachs and used sharp tools for hunting and other activities.
It is typically broken into three distinct periods: the Paleolithic Period, the Mesolithic Period, and the Neolithic Period.
Paleolithic Period: (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C)
In the Paleolithic period, early humans lived in caves or simple huts and were hunters and gatherers. The end of this period marked the end of the last Ice Age, which resulted in the extinction of many large mammals and rising sea levels and climate change that eventually caused the man to migrate. Bori in Maharashtra is the earliest Paleolithic site in India. Their habitat was mainly caves and rock shelters.
Mesolithic period (about 10,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.)
The Mesolithic period began at the end of the Pleistocene epoch and ended with the introduction of agriculture, During the Mesolithic period, humans used small stone tools that were sometimes crafted with points and attached to antlers bone, or wood to serve as spears and arrows. They often lived nomadically in camps near rivers and other bodies of water. The advent of Agriculture led to more permanent settlements in villages.
There are about 150 Mesolithic rock art sites across India, with a rich concentration in Central India such as Kharwar, Jaora, and Kathotia (M.P), Sundargarh and Sambalpur (Odisha), Ezhuthu Guha (Kerala). Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are also a prominent example of their habitat.
Neolithic Age (About 8,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.)
“Neolithic” means “New Stone Age”. This is the time when cereal cultivation and animal domestication were practiced. Although there were several species of human beings during the Paleolithic, by the Neolithic only Homo sapiens remained. Finally, during the Neolithic period, ancient humans switched from hunter/gatherer mode to agriculture and food production. They domesticated animals and cultivated cereal grains. They used polished hand axes for plowing and tilling the land and started to settle. Advancements were made not only in tools but also in farming, home construction, and art, including pottery, sewing, and weaving. The Neolithic remains have been found all over India except in the portion below Kaveri. They inhabited mainly the hilly river valleys, rock shelters, and the slopes of the hills.
2. Bronze Age: (about 3,000 B.C. to 1,300 B.C.)
The Bronze Age is the earliest period in which some civilizations reached the end of the prehistoric period, by introducing written records. During the Bronze Age metalworking, advances were made, as bronze, a copper and tin alloy, was discovered and was used for weapons and for the ox-drawn plow and the wheel. This time period also brought the invention of the potter’s wheel and textiles. Clothing consisted of mostly wool items such as skirts, kilts, tunics, and cloaks.
Organized government, law and warfare, as well as the beginnings of religion, also came into play during the Bronze Age, perhaps most notably relating to the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids during this time. The earliest written accounts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and petroglyphs (rock engravings), are also dated to this era.
3. Iron Age: (About 1,300 B.C. to 900 B.C.)
The Iron Age is not part of prehistory for all civilizations that had introduced written records during the Bronze Age. Most remaining civilizations did so during the Iron Age. The Iron Age refers to the advent of ferrous metallurgy.
The discovery of ways to heat and forge iron kicked off the Iron Age At the time, metal was seen as more precious than gold, and wrought iron was easier to manufacture than bronze. The Painted Grey Ware culture and the Northern Black Polished Ware were the most prominent culture of this period. This period marked the arrival of the Aryans (Vedic Period ). The Janapadas were the realms of this period and gave rise to 16 Mahajanapadas which are the16 kingdoms of ancient India.
We will be reading more about these 16 kingdoms in the coming chapters.
Stay Tuned!
