Comprehensive Overview of India's Stone Age: Paleolithic to Mesolithic Evolution

afternoon students I hope you're all doing well now we have already covered the first uh topic that is the sources

of ancient Indian history now moving on to the second one that

is the stone ages right now just to remind you on the

basis of which historians have classified ancient Indian history it is divided into

the prehistoric and historical phases

difference the evidence that is available for us to study these periods for the prehistoric

phase only archaeological evidence exists whereas for the historical phase both

archaeology and literature can be used to recreate the

past okay now this left a particular Gap in history writing that means there were

certain phases in ancient Indian history for which written records were available but they could not be utilized or were

not contemporary to the period of analysis and this resulted in the insertion of a new phase known

as Proto hisorical phase now there are two separate criterias for

the definition of Proto hisorical phase criteria number one

that written records exist but they can either not be

utilized or are not contemporary

okay can you site particular examples from Indian history Which F fit this criteria one phase where written records

exist but cannot be utilized haran civilization and one phase for which written records are present but do not

belong to the period of study the Vic age Vic literature was composed during the Vic period but compiled much later

take then another criteria was also added to

this phases in which agriculture started right and by this criteria even some portions of the Stone Age or

metal age also qualify as protohistoric periods such as the Neolithic age or

the calic age or the megalithic age

Etc okay now looking at this division prehistoric

phase that means those phases for which the study of history is based on the use of archeological evidence only since

written records do not exist the Stone

ages and historical phase the entire history of India from the mahaj janpad period right up to the

post Gupta period right up to the early Medieval Age 600

BC to the early Medieval Age that is 750 to 200 sorry 1200 CE hisorical phase and what does that

leave us with the heran civilization to the Vic age beginning of the harapan

civilization to the end of the Vic age that is roughly 2300

BC right up to 600 BC the stone ages that is prehistoric

phase now why is this period known as the stone

AG because human beings in this stage of their evolution were using stone tools okay now this has been divided into

three further subdivisions that is the Paleolithic Age Mesolithic

Age and Neolithic Age time period

Ina Paleolithic Age roughly five lakh years ago

to roughly 10,000 BC mic AGA roughly 10,000 BC

to 6,000 BC and Neolithic AGA roughly 6,000

BC to roughly 1,000

BC it was around 1,000 BC that the last Neolithic cultures disappeared or transformed from the Indian subcontinent

okay now theith age old Li Stone so this is the Old Stone

Age similarly Mesolithic is the Middle Stone Age and Neolithic is

the new stone age why old middle and new that is why

old it is the newest and secondly with the passage of time humans became more and more adapt in life their

dominance over the environment became stronger and their technological base improved their subsistence pattern also

changed the way in which they interacted with each other and with their environment underwent significant

changes basic differentiator the way in which human beings used to obtain

food Paleolithic Age subsistence pattern characterized human beings at this stage were foraging for food they

were hunter gatherers and Neolithic that they Bean domesticating

animals and cultivating crops right so animal domestication and

agriculture began in a major way permanently transforming the relationship that man had with nature

earlier he was simply a food consumer completely dependent upon nature for subsistence now he became a food

producer right now later on as the knowledge of archaeology improved the archaeologists and

historians came to the conclusion that this should be seen as an age of

transition age of transition between what between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages so moli

AG that some features from the pic age are going to continue and some features which would later emerge in a major way

in the Neolithic age that are also going to be present okay so while hunting and Gathering continue to remain a very

significant activity for the Mesolithic people some communities of Mesolithic people also began domesticating animals

and started uh conducting uh agriculture at a lower level of sophistication okay

now coming to the Paleolithic Age itself it can further be subdivided into three

parts the lower Paleolithic Age middle Paleolithic Age and the upper pulic

age take lower pic age why are they known as the lower middle and upper pic

ages huh to excavations vertically top to bottom right and the

layers excavated near the top they have been deposited relatively uh you can

say relatively later on right whereas the oldest deposits they are going to be at the

bottom of this entire stat graphic layer Beach middle age deposits so lower Paleolithic middle Paleolithic and upper

Paleolithic Age right now time period 5 lakh years ago lower p

up to roughly 50,000 BC middle

pic 50,000 to roughly 30,000 BC and upper Paleolithic from roughly

30,000 to 10,000 BC right but uh one thing I would like to

inform you at this point of time these dates are never fixed they are simply instructive in nature for

example earlier it was believed that the earliest evidence of Paleolithic phase of life in India belongs to roughly 1.5

lakh years ago Okay so or 1.25 lakh years ago so this was considered to be the

earliest date for the beginning of Paleolithic Age in India however later on discoveries at a place

called aakam in modern Tamil Nadu have pushed this date back

to 3.85 lakh years ago right

fix similarly neod 6,000 to 1,000 BC but in the

subcontinent the earliest Neolithic site was mahard over here a sophisticated

Neolithic settlement emerged as early as 7,000 BC however in the case of Tamil Nadu the

earliest Neolithic settlements emerged as late as 2000 BC okay so J say some some countries are more developed

some countries are less developed even in India some states are more developed some states are less

developed human evolution be regions is this clear now what is the

basis for the division of the stone ages into these three ages Paleolithic Mesolithic and

Neolithic first of all the technology that the people were using technology identify

asoli Neolithic just secondly

the climate Laura and paa which existed over this long

period it also evolved over time and had a direct impact on the living conditions so each period had its own distinct

climate and was dominated by its own distinct flora and FAA

then thirdly a major differentiator historically speaking was the

subsistence pattern how did human beings in these phases use to obtain their food Paleolithic there were hunter gatherers

primarily during the Neolithic Agriculture and animal domestication had replaced hunting Gathering activities to

a great extent but during the misthic transformation was taking place okay then differentiation can also be done on

the basis of settlement and dwelling

pattern right so what was the nature of settlement did people use to live for

extended periods of time in the same location or did they use to continuously move about did they build permanent

settlements artificial settlements or did they use natural shelter only right on this basis also differentiation can

be done fifthly on the basis of cultural

activities so whether they used to pursue any artistic activities art painting for example or did they have

any religious beliefs did they believe in the concept of life after death what kinds of gods did they worship what was

the nature of their religion these kinds of things as human development would go on

belief system change and finally social and

political organization basis per and you are going to find that

prehistory include for example in the case of the Paleolithic

Age what are the dimensions that we will be focusing upon first of

all human evolution how human beings evolved into modern humans that is the homo sapiens sapiens

from their primate ancestors secondly we'll have to develop a good understanding of the

climate in which our ancestors used to dwell what were the challenges that they needed to overcome climatically

speaking thirdly how did they respond respond to these challenges by adapting with their

natural environment and honing their ability to use tools technology

discussion then a discussion is going to take place with regards to their subsistence pattern

how did they use to obtain food then we should also keep an eye on their dwelling and settlement

pattern further we should also have awareness of which areas of the subcontinent were occupied by these

people right so there geographical footprint we should have awareness

of and finally what was the nature of their social and cultural activities

society and culture be development discussion right and this is

going to be used for all three phases that is the Paleolithic age Mesolithic

age and the Neolithic Age so that by the end of our discussion

you should be clearly able to identify the transformation of human life from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic period

clear here now coming to the Paleolithic Age General time

period 5 lakh years ago to roughly 50,000 years ago or 50,000

BC subdivided into the lower Paleolithic a age middle Paleolithic Age and upper

Paleolithic Age lower pic age from 5 lakh years ago to 50,000 years

ago middle pic age from 50,000 to 30,000 BC and upper peric age from 30,000 to roughly 10,000

BC what was the nature of the climate during this period

nowy 11 clearly mentioned the geographical time scale the sorry the geological time scale the past of the

Earth has been divided into a number of eras periods and epochs right and that is known as the Holocene this is a

considerably warmer period in the earth's life cycle however the earth's climate is never constant due to a

combination of various factors tempate warm right back then during the Paleolithic Age an Epoch known as the

least to see Epoch was going on this is the Earth's last great Ice Age take which lasted from roughly 2

million years ago to roughly let us

say 12,000 BC okay so almost the whole of the Ice

Age fell in the Paleolithic period sorry in the pleas epoch climatic conditions warm and humid

temperatures No harsh cold

and dry weather used to dominate in most parts of the

year in both hemispheres roughly 40% of the globe was covered in polar ice caps

so polar ice covered

roughly 60% of the Earth's surface

the mean sea level right because there was lesser liquid water available most of the water

was frozen in these polar ice caps mean sea level was approximately 200

M lower than present okay okay the

habitable zones were concentrated in the tropics and subtropical builds

Andals Dominate and plants a completely different biological

footprint was present they were dominated by large woolly

mammals take and in such a scenario do you think that human population would have been

very large natural productivity of the earth that is also low because of the lower

temperatures to kanana difficult fruit bearing plants would have been very few in number right so

human population was extremely

small and it is under these conditions that as the temperature started to become warmer human evolution process

accelerate during the lower Paleolithic Age primates that is the apik ancestors of

modern humans they evolved into the half erect hand using Man known

as homohabilis right homo in means man and habous

is hand using so he was the half

erect and using man he could only stand halfway upright okay so he was in a crouched

position and later on during the middle period of the lower Paleolithic

Age this Homo habilis who had developed OPP posable thumbs who had started using some kinds of tools gradually evolved

into the Homo erectus erectus is

upright so this was the upright man clear

now now yeah changes which area

geographically were they taking place simultaneously across the globe no what is known as the Cradle of

mankind Africa specifically central Africa primate homo emerge or homo homus Evolution

right so they emerged in central Africa and from here they began

migrating in different directions in search of food primarily and

migrated in different directions and it was this species of human beings

that is the homo erectus that arrived in the Indian subcontinent as well

right around 5 lakh years

ago and that is why Indian 5 lakh years ago over the land route or the sea

rout no most modern historians believe that they came to India VI the sea root that means many of the mid Oceanic

ridges in the Arabian Sea were exposed they would have appeared in the form of islands a small chain a long chains of

islands the continental shelf would also have been exposed that means the distance between the coast Continental

coast and these islands would also have been much shorter so these individuals or these groups of

homoerectus would have required very rudimentary kinds of rafts or Bo boats to set a sail from their original

location and hopping from one Island to the other travel between continents okay so they emerged in central Africa and

migrated in different directions arriving in the Indian subcontinent around 5 lakh years ago now in fact we

get evidence of the lower Paleolithic Age from

India belonging to around this period only atar in Mad

Pradesh homine fossil SCH right so the skull of an individual has been discovered from atar upon investigation

it was discovered that it does not belong to Modern uh modern humans rather it belong to uh pre

Homo Sapien species that is Homo erectus ominent

fossil and the n man

now it is not necessary that in all locations we are going to find skeletal remains only which cultural remains that

means the things that these people used and then left behind so there is a place called

palaram in modern Tamil Nadu earlier it was on the outskirts of the city of Madras now it is part of the suburbs of

Chennai right hand axe discovered

in 1863 by

Robert Bruce foot okay and this is considered to be the most ancient stone tool to ever have

been discovered in India okay or at least one of them so these two types of evidence clearly indicate that human

existence had started in India as early as at least 5 lakh years ago homo species from central Africa lower

pic two stages of human evolution primates to homohabilis and then homohabilis to Homo

erectus take the further story of human evolution is going to take place in

India itself during the middle Paleolithic Age during this period what is going to

happen the homoerectus is going to evolve into

the homo sapien archaic right

aric old homo means man and sapan is sentient that is

thinking so this was the old thinking

man now how do you think the homoerectus evolved into the homo sapan aric what were the differences between these

two brain size or Homo sapiens AR Homo sapiens AR this is the thinking

man and why do you think such changes came about first of all gradually throughout

the entire pale period the climate was getting gradually warmer and warmer right that means human population was

increasing as a result population pressure was also increasing human beings were having to cooperate with

each other in order to share the resources that were available conflict communication skills and

communication skills are possible only when the brain size increases so it was an

evolution evolutionary push that was given by the climate secondly by this point of time human beings had also

started using fire on a regular basis the use of fire began regularly from the end of the lower Paleolithic Age onwards

so roughly 2 lakh BC say lits yeah huh instead of consuming raw uncooked food now cooked food roasted

food could be consumed ra right so the muscles of the jaw the

teeth jaw should be heavy but cooked foodess that means the muscles that were needed earlier the heavy jaw that was

needed earlier the large teeth that were needed earlier they were no longer necessary so gradually your muscles

atrophy the bones are going to become smaller and more delicate the teeth are going to become more refined more

specialized right and as a result right and this is going to leave space for the enlargement for the uh

enlargement of the brain cavity for the brain box Cranium okay so these kinds of physiological changes were responsible

for the evolution of the homo erectus into the homo sapiens archaic now these kinds of changes

continued happening even during the upper pulic age and during this phase

the homo sapen archaic

finally evolved into modern human beings that is the

homo sapan sapiens thinking

thinking he is the wise man yeah

he has the ability to form complex thoughts and to relay them through verbal cues as well as physical cues

language is going to become more sophisticated vocabulary is going to increase the ability of human beings to

store away important facts and to retrieve them by memory to apply the Learned knowledge that is going to

increase right changes human beings are cognitively going to be equipped to become more dominant within their

environment clear so this is how human evolution took place throughout the Paleolithic Age a corresponding change

can also be witnessed in the type of stone tools that human beings were using throughout these three

phases soy with the passage of time are the tools going to become more or less

refined and sophisticated more refined and sophisticated during the lower

Paleolithic Age heavy and crude tools known as core

tools were used then included items such as hand

axes Choppers and Cav tools

Brute Force right these are heavy blunt objects with sharp Jagged edges they were used for

cutting trees or branches chopping

meat breaking nuts or fruits

or tto shells Etc see these stone tools were made out of a

particular type of rock known as quad Zite geograph GE

it is a metamorphic ignas

rock structure it has a Co crystalline structure

okay and properties it is extremely

hard but at the same time it is also extremely Britt but she

strength it breaks upon impact act easily take now what is going to happen if you take two such stones and bang

them together they're going to break outer layer because of the weaker Shear

strength that is going to fall off porou layer that is known as the lake the heavy inner core of the rock

okay so these kinds of tools were made from the core portion of quad Zite rocks that is why they were known as core

tools now they could be processed even further also they would already possess a sharp Jagged Edge right using the

technique of Flint napping Flint napping and then use that in order to further Flint the edges in order to get

the desired shape for example hand axis could be of two types by un Choppers can have a flattish edge or

a rounded Edge also Cleavers can also be either UNIF face or Bas that means they have one sharp edge or two sharp edges

right so types tools develop using the technique of breaking flaking the uh stones and then plint napping

e so it is the technique of further refining the sharp edge of a stone tool

right now in your books you are going to come across a term known as Alan tools

these are relatively more

advanced lower pulic age core tools now while these tools are found

from different parts of the world this they get their name from a particular suburb of

Paris so these are core tools it has been shattered so that the core portion with a sharp

Jagged Edge remains while the outer layer flakes off and Falls away that outer layer is discarded

and only the core portion of the tool is used clear during

the middle Paleolithic Age human evolution change homoerectus evolved into the homo

sapiens arcade right and with that his understanding of the technology also

improved and instead of using only core tools Now new kinds of tools came into fashion known

as plake tools flake tools these are the tools which are made out

of the flakes which were earlier being discarded to isol they included tools such

as points borers

scrapers ET and what are the kinds of activities which could be done using such

tools digging scraping the bark off of trees

skinning animals making Spears digging holes

Etc Stone tool technology from lower to middle core tools have given way to plag tools and during the upper Paleolithic

Age further improvements are going to take place and new types of more refined flake tools known

as blade tools are going to appear these are going to include tools such as blades

burins points needles

perforators hooks Etc clear what kinds of tasks are they going

to be used for no they are going to be used to do more delicate work such

as making holes in animal

hide teching or sewing fishing using hooks or n or Nets

which can be prepared using the other kinds of tools then for

making small incisions for a variety of purposes so activities more

refined blade tools is this clear so this is the change in

technology that we witness then the subsistence pattern during the Paleolithic period

human beings were in which stage of their subsistence Journey food producing

hunting Gathering hunting Gathering so human beings were

hunting and Gathering

or Scavenging or foraging for food

take so they would move around continuously searching for food what kind of food both plant material as well

as animals right they would either hunt these animals or uh they would would steal the fresh kill of other human

beings or other animals okay now what do you think was more important for fulfilling their directory needs during

this stage hunting or gathering earlier it was believed that hunting was the most important activity

for early human beings however as our understanding of those communities which are still living in

the prehistoric phase of life that has improved it has become clearer that Gathering contributes a greater portion

to fulfilling the nutritional needs of the people why is gathering more

important than hunting because meat

decomposes at a faster rate or at a slower rate as compared to plants

faster then plants and

secondly that at this stage the ability of human beings to use stone tools was not Advanced enough that they could use

their tools for hunting animals at a large steel at this stage the environment was dominated by large

woolly mammals or is rudimentary tools say it would have been very difficult to hunt for Animals Okay so

technology was not developed

enough to sustain large scale

hunting okay is this clear but it is clear

that human beings were

omnivores right that is the consumed both plants vegetarian as well as nonvegetarian

food now from the end of the lower Paleolithic Age onwards a major change took place in the

dietary pattern of human beings which put them on the fast Highway of cognitive development and that

is the use of fire became

common and as a result cooked food replaced raw

food as the main diet is this

clear this was their subsistence pattern now looking at

their geographical footprint were they spread across the entire subcontinent did they inhabit

every physiographic division of the Indian subcontinent no

so they occupied the entire

subcontinent except the G indog gantic

Plaines and the coastal plains of

Kerala in fact they preferred regions such as Hills

or rift valleys or plate

or rocky out crops the most frequent collection of Paleolithic sites comes from places such

as the chur Plateau

the NADA Valley the shivalik

hills the soan valley

the portar plateau the salt

range India Pakistan so any specific reason why the

Paleolithic man did not use to inhabit the Indo gtic ples that thetic PLS are the most

densely populated regions not only in India but one of the most densely populated in the entire

world because of a number of limiting factors which prohibited the habitation of pic people in the Northern Plains

limiting factors what kind of tools were they using metallic tools or stone tools stone

tools what were where were they living in artificial houses made made of muds or bricks or in caves and natural

shelters caves and natural shelters endog gantic ples what kinds of planes are they are they erosional

planes or depositional planes depositional planes they have been created by the deposition of alium

brought down by the Indus and gantic river systems right so aluvial ples do you think that there are going to be a

large number of Boulders or rocks or cave formations in these ples no and since the thic people depended upon

large availability of rocks and rock shelters therefore they stayed away from the indog gantic planes so first of

all there was lower availability

of rocks for making

tools Rock shelters and caves for

dwelling in the alial North Indian

Lanes factor to secondly what was the nature of what is

the nature of these Rivers are the perennial rivers or ephemeral Rivers perennial Glacier fed Rivers take

how are they categorized as Old river systems or as relatively new river systems young river systems young river

systems in fact the entire indog gantic plane is believed to be only around 2 million years old okay so geological

time scale they extremely young back then they were even younger and quality young river

systems that they are always more prone to flooding so the

young perennial river systems of North India

were prone to frequent flooding that is why the Paleolithic

people tended to avoid them okay thirdly what was the vegetative cover

like in the Northern Plains thick cover Forest sparely cover extremely thick

forests right and in these thick forests would it would it be easy for people to move about no it would be extremely

difficult especially since they did not have the ability to clear the forests at a large scale and thus

foraging that is moving around in search of food was difficult and

finally the Northern Plains were inhabited by large wild animals in these thick forests

and very easily the paleolithic hunters could themselves have become the prey over here

so as a result of a combination of these factors the Paleolithic people inhabited all other parts of the subcontinent

except for the Northern Plains and the coastal plains of Kerala coastal plains of Kerala may be same conditions Prevail

same limiting factors were applicable there is only one exception in the whole of the

subcontinent there is only a single Paleolithic site situated in the Northern gantic

Plains kpy in modern day up

me yes frequent floods lack of stones Etc good

clear so this was their geographical

footprint now talking about there society and

culture so at this stage what was the nature of the Paleolithic

Society do you think complex social organization was taking place well established social institutions were in

place primitive form and why do you think this was so what was the nature of human

interaction at this point of time why because of the limited availability of food sources of shelter

of sexual partners Etc there was intense competition between human beings and population was also quite low the

ability of human beings to organize resources so that they could support larger populations their technological

sophistication Etc they were not welld developed and as a result by nature in the initial

phase initially humans had a solitary

existence and then began living

in small groups of two to four

individuals okay and why was this there was intense competition

for food and

shelter resource availability was low and

human population was

small okay so at this

stage were complex social organizations and institutions possible

no write down at this stage the idea

of social organization at uh uh sophisticated

level was inconceivable pi was

inconceivable now with the passage of time the climate began to warm up right human population started to increase

human technology began to improve and the ability of human beings to mobilize the natural resources that started to

grow so from that same parcel of land more resources became available and thus the size of these groups is going to

increase now bands of 20 to 40 individuals are going to start living together they're

going to start roaming their surroundings in search of food and shelter okay

gradually the size of these groups

began increasing and by the end

of the Paleolithic Age bands

of 20 to 40 individuals emerged right so this means that human beings

had started to cooperate with each other at a more developed scale okay and what were the factors behind this

transformation write down the the factors responsible for this

work first of all the changing climate the warmer climate

secondly the better technology

thirdly cognitive development fourthly the

emergence of speech fly the use

of fire and finally higher primary

productivity as the climate started becoming warmer the amount of plant life started

to increase and since plant life was increasing that means food availability also

increased okay next Point

th by the end of the upper pic Age A Band

Society had emerged baned Society had emerged right what was the nature of

these societies yeah sharp socioeconomic political

divisions are all individuals going to live roughly the same kind of Life they are going to live roughly the

same kind of life so write down these societies were

characterized by an egalitarian organization sharp distinctions or sharp

economic political and social distinctions were absent

okay now while it is pro that sharp stratification within the society was

not possible because of the pattern of their life and the nature of their economic activities but gener generally

whenever a group of human beings come together they naturally start organizing themselves into a hierarchy to economy

soci distinction right WR

down but do we know is power division basis we cannot know that with in the absence of literature

however it is impossible to pinpoint

the exact nature of social

relationships and exchange in these

societies so whether the concept of family existed or not whether uh there was regulation of

social interaction between different individuals whether resources were divided equally or unequally that we

cannot know for sure but basic pattern of the society egalitarian

clear now did they use to perform any cultural activities yes

so from the upper Paleolithic Age onwards prehistoric

paintings begin emerging prehistoric paintings cave

walls Rock shelters and other

objects examples the earliest paintings at beim bka also belong to the upper Paleolithic

Age then there's a place called p in

Maharashtra from where fragments of an ostrich eggshell have been found

and carvings with some Stone right or some etching has been done so an edged or

ostrich eggshell with geometrical etchings have also been

found clear now what are the kinds of scenes that are most frequently

depicted birds and animal figures they are most frequently depicted apart from

that a few hunting scenes are also seen

right but in contrast very few scenes

of community life are present there is one location in present

day utra known as the ludar

caves from where we find a collection of handprints and fingerprints along with

human figures holding hands

right what does this tell us the absence of community seems what does this tell

us was the sense of community where well developed no this

indicates that the sense of

community was not welld developed

although human beings had started cooperating on each other the basis of human life was seen or was perceived

through the individual lens rather than the collective lens the individual perspective dominated

human consciousness right and this means

that in the upper Paleolithic Age humans had reached which stage of a

social cooperation the initial stage or the final stages initial stage had

entered the initial stage

of social organization and

cooperation do we find any evidence Ence of human beings having any religious beliefs some evidence we do get but the

kind of evidence and the volume of evidence we get from later stages of human history

volume so we get limited

evidence of uh religious beliefs in the form

of a statue of the mother goddess from a place called

lard Nala and we also

get the evidence of burial of dead

bodies from the balen Valley covered

in a red or AER colored shroud that means these people were not

discarded to decompose in the wild rather they were ceremonially buried with certain rituals so this

indicated ritual burial and rituals are always part of some kind of belief system religion

right and these kinds of things indicate that religious beliefs had started to emerge but do we get such evidence from

across the subcontinent no in the majority of cases such activities were not present okay so we get limited

evidence of religious beliefs red or AER colored shroud AER gang

right so this was the stage of of human life during the Paleolithic

Age have we looked at human evolution yes have we looked at climate yes have we looked at

technology yes have we looked at subsistence pattern yes have we looked at settlement and dwelling pattern also

yes artificial houses natural dwellings natural

dwellings because they needed to regularly move around in search of food right and it would make no sense to

arrive at someplace find food and build a shelter over there which would take three or four days to build but you'll

have to move away after that right so I we looked at the geographical footprint and the society and culture

also yes for the Mesolithic age as well

10,000 to roughly 6,000 BC Dimensions can you remind me human

Evolution climate technology subsistence

pattern settlement and dwelling pattern social and cultural activities

and geographical footprint human evolution complete perod

so this one is not relevant for the Mesolithic or Neolithic ages we have to consider these other

things beginning with climate did any major change take place in the climatic

regime yes the PLO scene came to an end the Great Ice Age ended and the Holo scene began

the cold and harsh climate of the Pline was gradually replaced

by the warm warmer and wetter

climate Okay now the polarized caps began

shrinking and the sea level

began Rising leading to more or lesser precipitation warmer climate liquid

water availability rainfall precipitation be increase do warmer as well as wetter

climates okay now further ice

melts created lakes and wetlands and not forests but grasslands the

heavily forested areas are going to give way to Grasslands now because at the same time that this is happening

the planet is also being swept over by warm and drier winds okay so warm and dry winds are going to replace the

forests with grasslands so the Wetland and grassland

ecology is going to become dominant in the subcontinent and as a

result which type of animals are going to increase in population Wetlands May

fish and bird population is going to increase and

grasslands grazing animals population increase warmer and wetter conditions are they

better for human life or not as compared to the previous cold and harsh climate it was definitely better

and therefore human population is also going to

significantly increase take now as a result the climate presented

new opportunities as well as pressures which forced human beings to evolve further which forced human life to

become more sophisticated and in the other facets of of human

life techology that new types of tools known as microl lits began appearing for the

first time micro small and these are

small stone tools they were roughly 1 to 3 cm in size dimension 1 say 3

cm right these were either triangular

or rectangular in shape that means regular geometrical shape characterized by sharp straight

edges and points CM triangular rectangular

Tools H huh so they were meant to be Haled into wooden shafts to create bows and

sorry arrows and Spears right so they acted as Arrow

for peer heads this also tells us some other things yeah that projectile

weapons were quickly becoming the tool of choice so will there be Inver migration

from Coastal to the other areas now this is actually one question that was raised in the context of the factors which led

to food production I'm sure obviously Cal communities they may have been forced to

migrate inwards from the coastal areas but that bwood theory that is the name of the scholar that because of this

inward migration of the coastal communities population pressure started to increase and as a result human beings

were forced to start cultivation and domestication of animals but this is a very weak

argument pressure right and that is why this explanation has largely been discarded

by this point of time take is all right huh so projectile weapons started

being used and as a result there were major changes in the dietary

pattern human beings anim small animals large fast moving animals small animals

trap opportunistically K now with the use of projectile weapons they started to hunt larger animals such as big game

big game all kinds of antelopes even birds are going to become

part of their right so projectile weapon such as bows and

arrows Spears slingshots and

catapults began being used to hunt big

game and birds

and techology this is directly in response to the climatic changes that have occurred

because of the rise of human population there was need to discover a new food source and new food source was available

in the presence of in the form of new kinds of animals such as fish birds or grazing animals now to access this

resource new tools were necessary projectile weapons micro develop is this

clear technology now let us look at add their subsistence pattern now are they going to continue

hunting and Gathering or are they going to abandon it discard it hunting Gathering is going to

continue in fact it is going to remain the largest source of of food for them right

so hunting and Gathering continued but are they going to continue

hunting and gathering in the same way that they were accustomed to previously no new activities became more important

right but some changes were

visible ji fishing became the dominant

form of hunting for these people why because of the growth of the Wetland

ecology secondly they began hunting

birds and large past

mammals at a larger scale take so hunting and Gathering

would continue but with certain changes now misthic age is considered to

be the transitional phase between the Paleolithic and Neolithic Neolithic period May subsistence pattern was

characterized by the beginning of Agriculture and animal domestication so some Mesolithic communities started to

exhibit these features themselves for example there's a place

called Bor in Rajasthan fragment of chopped animal bones

okay and the quantity of chopped animal bowls is so large it means that these animals were being slaughtered at one

single site in large numbers for a long period of time that means these were domesticated animals okay so this is an

Evidence of animal domestication say Bor say another example jway in

Maharashtra from here in the misthic context we get the evidence of millets

cultivation they were cultivating millets as well right but I don't want you to get the

impression that these kinds of activities were visible across the whole Mesolithic culture cultures okay so

these were located sorry these were isolated communities who had started to practice agriculture or animal

domestication write down next point however however such

activities such activities were not widespread were not widespread

P stop they were confined they were confined only

to they were confined only to these isolated pockets these isolated pockets

okay now settlement

and dwelling pattern right what was their Chief subsistence activity sub important subsistence

activity hunting and Gathering and specifically hunting or hunting fishing right the fishing

activity was the most dominant now although full-fledged s sedentary life settled life had not emerged at this

point of time some small communities had started to build started to construct some small settlements and the earliest

villages that appeared were fishing villages the fishing communities had started to construct their Villages

along rivers or along the coast of various Lakes right write

down settled life had not emerged

fully but some fishing communities

had set up small villages

now while during the Paleolithic Age human beings were constantly moving from place to place in search of food and

shelter human beings started staying at the the same place for relatively longer periods of time and migration fixed

pattern develop based on seasonal changes right so in different seasons the communities would move from one

place to other inter nomadism okay so write down

additionally humans began living

at the same location