Before Civilisation: India's Palaeolithic and Neolithic Past

The Stone Age in India

Human habitation in the Indian subcontinent dates back to approximately 500,000 BC. The earliest inhabitants used unpolished, undressed rough stone tools and lived entirely by hunting and food gathering. They had no knowledge of cultivation or house-building. The Stone Age in India developed during the Pleistocene geological period (the Ice Age), which preceded the Holocene or recent period that began around 10,000 years ago.

The Indian Stone Age is broadly divided into three phases:

1. Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age) - c. 500,000 BC to 8000 BC
2. Mesolithic Age (Late Stone Age) - c. 8000 BC to 4000 BC
3. Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) - c. 6000 BC to 1000 BC

Each phase is defined not merely by chronology but by the nature of tools used, climate, and the degree of human social and economic advancement.

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Chronology and Sub-phases

The Palaeolithic Age is subdivided into three phases based on tool typology and climatic conditions:

Lower (Early) Palaeolithic

• Covers the greater part of the Ice Age.
• Characteristic tools: hand-axes and cleavers - similar to those found in Western Asia, Europe, and Africa.
• Tools used primarily for chopping.
• Key sites: Soan/Sohan river valley (now Pakistan), Belan valley (Mirzapur, UP), Kashmir.
• The Belan sites contained caves and rockshelters used as seasonal camps.
• Climate: humid during this phase.
• Animal remains in Belan valley suggest goats, sheep, and cattle were domesticated around 25,000 BC.

Middle Palaeolithic

• Industries based on flakes - scrapers made of flakes, borers, and blade-like tools.
• Regional variations appear in tool types.
• Sites: Soan Valley (crude pebble industry), Narmada river, south of Tungabhadra river.
• Climate began becoming less humid.

Upper Palaeolithic

• Coincided with the last phase of the Ice Age when climate turned comparatively warm.
• Globally associated with the appearance of Homo sapiens (modern humans).
• In India: use of blades and burins.
• Key sites: Bhimbetka (40 km south of Bhopal) - caves and rockshelters used by humans; Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bhopal, Chotanagpur plateau.
• Upper levels of Gujarat dunes also yielded massive flakes, blades, and scrapers.
• Palaeolithic sites are found across India except the alluvial plains of the Indus and Ganga.

Key Fact on Beginnings

• Palaeolithic tools as old as 100,000 BC found in Chotanagpur plateau.
• Tools dating 25,000-10,000 BC found in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh (about 55 km from Kurnool), along with bone implements and animal remains.
• The Belan valley sequence (Mirzapur) uniquely shows all three Palaeolithic phases followed by Mesolithic and then Neolithic - in continuous stratigraphic sequence.

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Transition

The Upper Palaeolithic ended around 8000 BC with the conclusion of the Ice Age. Climate became warm and dry, causing changes in fauna and flora, allowing humans to move to new areas. From 8000 BC, an intermediate transitional phase emerged - the Mesolithic Age.

Key Features

• Duration in India: 8000 BC to 4000 BC.
• Characteristic tools: Microliths - tiny, geometric stone blades.
• Served as a bridge between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
• Major sites: Chotanagpur (central India), areas south of river Krishna.
• Only a few finds have been scientifically dated; it is certain they preceded the Neolithic Age.
• In the Belan valley (northern Vindhyas), the Mesolithic followed the three Palaeolithic phases and preceded the Neolithic - a rare complete sequence.

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Chronology

• Globally, the New Stone Age began earlier (c. 7000 BC in West Asia).
• In the Indian subcontinent, Neolithic settlements are not older than 6000 BC.
• South Indian and eastern Indian settlements are as late as 1000 BC.

Tools and Technology

• Characteristic tools: polished stone implements, especially stone axes.
• These axes were used for multiple purposes; the legend of Parasurama as an axe-wielding hero reflects cultural memory of this tool.
• Later: use of pottery (hand-made first, then footwheel-turned), microliths blades alongside polished tools.

Three Major Areas of Neolithic Settlement

1. Kashmir - Burzahom

• Located on a plateau ~20 km from Srinagar.
• People lived in pit dwellings - below ground level.
• Economy: hunting and fishing; no evidence of agriculture or domestication of animals.
• Used both polished stone tools and bone implements.
• Notable practice: domestic dogs buried with their masters in graves - unique in India to Burzahom.
• Pottery: coarse grey pottery.
• Earliest date for Burzahom: c. 2400 BC.
• The only other major site yielding bone implements in India: Chirand (40 km west of Patna, northern bank of Ganga).

2. South India - South of Godavari River

• Settlers lived on granite hill tops or plateaus near river banks.
• Used stone axes and stone blades; fire-baked earthen figurines indicate cattle-keeping.
• Possessed cattle, sheep, and goats; used rubbing stone querns - evidence of grain production.
• Key sites: Maski, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Kodekal, Sanganakallu, T. Narsipur, Takkalakota (Karnataka); Paiyampalli (Tamil Nadu); Piklihal, Utnur (Andhra Pradesh).
• Piklihal settlers: cattle-herders who set up seasonal cowpens; burning of camping ground created ash mounds (distinctive feature).
• Later Neolithic settlers in the south were agriculturists living in circular or rectangular mud-and-reed houses, cultivating ragi and horsegram (kulathi).
• Neolithic phase here: approximately 2500 BC to 1000 BC (scientifically determined date for Utnur: 2300 BC).

3. Eastern India - Hills of Assam and Garo Hills (Meghalaya)

• Neolithic tools found in hills of Assam and Garo hills.
• Additional sites: northern Vindhyas in Mirzapur and Allahabad districts (UP) - Allahabad district noted for rice cultivation in the sixth millennium BC.
• Baluchistan Neolithic settlements also appear fairly old.

Neolithic Significance: On the Threshold of Civilisation

• Period 9000-3000 BC saw remarkable technological progress in Western Asia: cultivation, weaving, house building, animal domestication.
• Indian subcontinent's Neolithic began around the sixth millennium BC.
• Important crops - rice, wheat, barley - came to be cultivated; villages appeared.
• Pottery became essential for storing foodgrain and milk, cooking and eating.
• Orissa hill areas: Neolithic celts found; rice cultivation and small-scale settlements began early.
• Limitation of Stone Age people: total dependence on stone tools confined settlements to hilly areas and river valleys; surplus production was impossible.

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• The Neolithic Revolution in India marked the shift from nomadic food-gathering to settled food-producing communities.
• Domestication of animals and cultivation of crops laid the foundation for surplus production, which later supported urban civilizations.
• The Belan valley sequence (all three Palaeolithic -> Mesolithic -> Neolithic) is archaeologically significant as a continuous cultural record.
• The limitations of stone tools - inability to settle in alluvial plains - were overcome only with the advent of metal tools, enabling the Indus Valley and Gangetic civilizations.
• Stone Age cultures show India's role in the global transition from Pleistocene hunting societies to Holocene agricultural ones.

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• Lithic assemblages: Hand-axes, cleavers, scrapers, microliths, polished celts - primary evidence for tool typology and phase identification.
• Bone implements: Burzahom and Chirand.
• Ash mounds: Piklihal and Utnur - evidence of pastoral camps.
• Cave paintings: Bhimbetka rockshelters.
• Pottery: Coarse grey (Burzahom); hand-made and footwheel pottery (south India).
• Fire-baked figurines: South Indian Neolithic - evidence of cattle-keeping.
• Animal remains: Belan valley (domestication evidence), Kurnool caves.

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• GS Paper I - Prehistoric India: Stone Age phases form the baseline for understanding India's cultural continuity from prehistoric to historic times.
• Technology and Social Change: Each phase transition (Palaeolithic -> Mesolithic -> Neolithic) reflects a shift in the human relationship with nature - from passive exploitation to active transformation.
• Continuity vs Change: The Belan valley sequence exemplifies continuity; the Neolithic shift to agriculture represents the most decisive change in human prehistory.
• Ecological Determinism: Palaeolithic sites absent from Indus/Ganga plains demonstrates how environment shaped human settlement patterns - a recurring theme in Indian history.
• Interlink: Stone Age -> Indus Valley Civilisation - the Neolithic agricultural base and village formation directly preceded and enabled the Bronze Age urban revolution.
• Gender and Labour: The domestication of animals and grain cultivation implied new divisions of labour - foundational to later social stratification.

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1. Bhimbetka is Upper Palaeolithic, not Mesolithic: Students often misplace Bhimbetka. It belongs to the Upper Palaeolithic phase but continued into later periods. Bhimbetka is 40 km south of Bhopal - not in Andhra Pradesh.

2. Burzahom != Agriculture: A common error is assuming all Neolithic people practised agriculture. Burzahom people had a hunting-fishing economy with no evidence of agriculture or animal domestication.

3. Microliths = Mesolithic, NOT Neolithic: Microliths are the characteristic tool of the Mesolithic (Late Stone Age), not the Neolithic. Neolithic tools are polished stone axes and celts.

4. Homo sapiens appeared in the Upper Palaeolithic, not the Lower: The modern human type first appeared in the Upper Palaeolithic Age globally.

5. Chirand is NOT in Kashmir: Chirand is 40 km west of Patna on the northern bank of Ganga - a Neolithic site famous for bone implements. Do not confuse with Burzahom (Kashmir).

6. Soan/Sohan Valley is in Pakistan (Punjab region), not India: Often students assume all major Palaeolithic sites are within modern India's borders. The Soan valley is now in Pakistan.

7. Mesolithic != 4000 BC onwards: Mesolithic ended around 4000 BC. The Neolithic begins from around 6000 BC in the subcontinent - the two phases overlap chronologically in different regions.

8. Ash Mounds != Burial Mounds: Ash mounds at Piklihal/Utnur are the remains of burnt cattle camps, not burial or religious structures.

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• Man in India since: ~500,000 BC
• Palaeolithic ended: ~8000 BC
• Mesolithic: 8000-4000 BC; tools = microliths
• Neolithic in subcontinent: not before 6000 BC
• Burzahom: pit dwellings, dogs buried with masters, NO agriculture
• Chirand: only other site in India with significant bone implements
• Piklihal/Utnur: ash mounds, cattle-herders
• Bhimbetka: caves, Upper Palaeolithic
• Belan valley: complete Palaeolithic -> Mesolithic -> Neolithic sequence
• Stone Age sites absent from: alluvial plains of Indus and Ganga
• Homo sapiens first appeared: Upper Palaeolithic
• Domestication at Belan valley: goats, sheep, cattle by ~25,000 BC