PREHISTORIC INDIA

• The term Plaeolithic was coined by Archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865.
• Period 500000-10000 BC
• Hunters and Food Gatherers
• used unpolished, undressed rough stones

• Lingsugur in Raichur district, Karnataka was the first site to be discovered from India.’
• Except plains of Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra
• Material used for making tools was mainly quartzite and chert but quartz and basalt also used
• The ostrich egg shells at over 40 sites

• 10000BC-4000BC

• End of Ice Age ; Warm and Humid climate

•Increased rainfall

•Expansion of Flora and Fauna

•Availability of new resources to humans (increased in population)

•First human colonization on the Ganga plains took place during this period

 

 

•Transitional phase between Paleolithic Age and Neolithic Age

•The Mesolithic tools smaller in size and better in finishing (more geometric)

•Microliths ; not more than five centimeter (spearheads, arrowheads, knives;  bow and arrows  paintings)

•shallow querns and grinding stones

Disposal of dead and making of Graves

• The first evidence of intentional disposal of the dead

• Mesolithic human burials  

• Bagor in Rajasthan, Langhnaj in Gujarat, Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh etc

• Buried in graves both in extended and crouched position

 {in crouched position knees are bent and the upper body is brought forward and down}

• In some cases two individuals were buried in a single grave

• Grave offerings:  chunks of meat, grinding stones, stone, bone and antler ornaments

 

Mesolithic Art

•Several thousand rock shelters in the vindhyan sandstone hills

•Bhimbetka and jogimara caves

•Mostly in red and white pigments

•Mostly wild animals and hunting scenes,

•Human social and religious life such as sex and child birth