The prehistoric period in India captures a vast span of ancient indian history. It began around 2 million years ago from the emergence of homo-sapiens and wrapped up roughly between 3500-2500 BCE when the art of writing evolved. The term prehistory refers to the period for which we have no literary sources. We have to be dependent on the non-literary sources, like archaeological artifacts, fossils, artwork, inscriptions, tools, architecture, and other forms of material culture that provide evidence of past societies, their beliefs, practices, and technologies.
Although, we primarily rely on archaeological sources to learn about the prehistoric period, many archaeologists and physical anthropologists attempt to gain more information about human behavior and culture by deriving scientific explanations for it.
The term prehistory comes by the classifaction of history in three parts:
| Classification of History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Period | Time Period | Characteristics |
| Prehistory | Approx. 2 million years ago to 3500-2500 BCE | No writing; use of stone and metal tools for daily activities |
| Protohistory | 3500-2500 BCE to advent of decipherable writing | Writing evolved but scripts not deciphered; e.g., Indus Valley script |
| History | Post-advent of decipherable writing | Convenient writing practice with multiple written records for historical study |
1. Prehistory: The period when art of writing was not evolved. It is also famous for the usage of stone and metal tools for hunting, herding and other daily activities. It is the first period of ancient history from which we start our journey to study history and move ahead. Earlier the culture was also named as the premitive societies by archaeologists to describe civilizations that existed before the art of writing was invented.
The word prehistory was first used in 1836 in an English magazine named Foreign Quarterly Reviews. Since then this word started being used more extensiverly.
2. Protohistory: It is the period when the art of writing was evolved but we are not able to decipher the written scripts of that period. The indus valley script is an example for this, we have multiple writings available for these scripts but still we are not able to decipher them and know about their cultures through these available writings.
3. History: The time when writing was practiced convinently and there was availability of multiple written records for studying and understanding past events and civilizations. It is because of these writings that we are able to know about this period in more detail.
In India we find many old written works, like Vedas, Mahabharata, manuscripts and many other literary sources, through which we get a glimpse of their culture and society in more detail. We are able to know every aspect of them, be it political, cultural and economic.
A british archeoligist Robert Bruce Forte is recognised by the father of prehistoric archeology of india due to his first systematic research on human prehistoric remains and to be the first to find the hand made axes in this country (1863).
The prehistoric period is classified into different ages and its classification is based on cultural differences and tools used by prehistoric societies for various daily tasks. These parts focuses deeply on ancient indian history prior to the invention of art of writing.
Timeline of Prehistoric Period in India
Geographic timeline refers to a system of chronological dating and represents a vast period of time starting from the creation of the Earth. It covers all periods of Earth’s formation and progress, including the emergence of various life forms. Geological time is divided into many units such as era, period, epoch etc.
| Era | Neozoic | |
| Period | Quaternary | |
| Epoch | Pleistocene | Holocene |
| Timeline | 2 Million Years Ago to 10000 BCE | 10000 BCE till present |
Era is the major divison of geographical time and each era is divided into periods, another subdivision of the unit of geological time and each period is divided into Epochs. A period under neozoic era is Quarternary and then under this period there are epochs Pleistocene and Holocene.
These are the different periods under the prehistoric period and their timelines.
| Classification of Prehistoric Periods by Ages | ||
|---|---|---|
| Age | Time Period | Characteristics |
| Paleolithic | 2 million years ago to 10000 BCE | Use of stone tools; hunting and gathering lifestyle; discovery of fire |
| Mesolithic | 10000 BCE to 6000 BCE | Microlithic tools; semi-permanent settlements; domestication of animals |
| Neolithic | 6000 BCE to 1500 BCE | Ground and polished stone tools; agricultural economy; pottery and wheel invention |
| Chalcolithic | 2800 BCE to 700 BCE | Use of copper and stone tools; farming and fishing economy; wheel-made pottery |
Let’s explore each period separately one by one.
Paleolithic Period
The period is also called the old stone age. In india, it started around 2-1 million years ago and ended with the end of pleistocene i.e. about 10000 BCE. Paleolithic age is further divided into three sub-phases.
| Subdivision of Paleolithic Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Phase | Time Period | Characteristics |
| Lower/Early | 2 million years ago to 100,000 years ago | Core tools; early stone technology; no metal usage |
| Middle | 100,000 years ago to 40,000 BCE | Flake tools; hunting and gathering lifestyle; fire usage |
| Upper/Late | 40,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE | Blade tools; more efficient cutting; use of fire for various purposes |
The phases are based on the change in character of the cultural evolution of humans and this included the change in character of stone technology and stone tools. People of this period did not use metal, nor were they familiar with it. They used stone tools, but many variations have been seen in these stone tools.
In lower paleolithic phase, they used core tools. Later in middle phase they started using flake tools and in upper phase they used the blade tools.
- Core and flake tools:Â These tools are produced by hitting or striking two pieces of stones. When stone tools are made of core, they are known as core tools and when the stone tools are made of flakes, they are known as flake tools.
- Blade tools:Â It is the specialized kind of a flake which is more effiecient in cutting and built with sharp edges.
In paleolithic times, there is no evidence of settlements, either they lived in open space or in the rock cut caves. They were mainly dependent on the hunting and food gathering for their food and. This is the period when human started using fire. They used fire for roasting the food they hunted, and also used fire for illumination and to scare away animals.
Mesolithic age
The word Mesolithic is made up with the combination of two greek word ‘Mesos’ and ‘Lithos’. Mesos stands for middle and lithos for the stone. This age is also called as the middle stone age. In inida, mesolithic age is between 10000 BCE to 6000 BCE. In this age, the stone tools were largerly microliths.
Microlithis:Â Characteristic features monoliths are tiny stones with about 1 cm too 5 cm. They are of two types, geometric and non geometric. Many of the microlithis were attatched to the bone handle or the wooden handle in order to create a composite tool.
People in this age also used open space or rock shelters for living, but there are some evidence of semi-permanent huts also. The hunting and food gathering economy continues in this period, but there is some evidence of domestification of animals. Burial practices and grave goods throw light on small religious beliefs of mesolithic people.
This period was remarkable for painting and art where we find multipe rock paintings or cave paintings. Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh is an important site where many cave arts were discovered.
| Key Features of Mesolithic Age | |
|---|---|
| Features | Description |
| Tools | Microliths attached to handles; composite tools |
| Settlements | Open spaces and rock shelters; some evidence of semi-permanent huts |
| Economy | Hunting and food gathering; some evidence of animal domestication |
| Art and Culture | Rock paintings; Bhimbetka site notable for cave art discoveries |
Neolithic Age
Neolithic age captures the timiline of 6000 BCE to 1500 BCE with respect to india. It is also called the New Stone Age. The term Neo-lithic is made up with the fusion of two greek words ‘Neos’ and ‘Lithos’, we already know the meaning of lithos as stone, the term ‘Neos’ stands for new. In this age, stone tools were ground and polished tools. Axe, celt and adze are the three types of tools were charecteristics of neolithic period. During this period, animal husbandry became very popular.
| Characteristics of Neolithic Age | |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | Description |
| Tools | Ground and polished stone tools; specialized tools like axe, celt, adze |
| Economy | Mainly agricultural economy; shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle |
| Innovations | Invention of pottery and wheel; animal husbandry became prominent |
| Cultural Shift | Burial practices more prominent; emergence of small settlements |
It was these people who were the first to start farming. These people became dependent mainly on agriculture for food. Due to these reasons their economy is called agricultural economy. During this period, humans changed their way of living from a nomadic life to a sedentary one. There emergerd small settlements marked by small houses. The first evidence of pottery came from the neolithic phase. The invention of wheel is the contribution of neolithic phase. Burial practices were more prominant in this phase also.
Chalcolithic Age
The term chalcolithic is the fusion of two greek words khalkos and lithos. Khalkos is the synonym of copper in greek. In india, this period is assumed to be started in 2800 BCE and ended in 700 BCE. This age is also called the Eneolithic, Aeneolithic and copper age. This refers to the age when people started using copper and stone simultaneously. Before this period humans was not aware with metal technology, this is the age when they were started using their first metal and that is copper.
| Features of Chalcolithic Age | |
|---|---|
| Features | Description |
| Metal Usage | Use of copper and stone tools simultaneously; bone tools found |
| Cultural Variations | Eastern, Western, and Central Indian cultures; rice and barley cultivation |
| Artifacts | Sun-dried mud brick houses; wheel-made pottery in various styles |
| Housing | Burials under house floors; evidence of north-south orientation |
The culture was also classified in two parts, eastern culture and western and central indian culture. While eastern culture was based on rice cultivation the western and central indian culture were based on barley cultivation. In eastern indian chalcolithic culture, different type of bone tools were found. Points, awls, needles, harpoons, combs and gaming pisces are some of them.
In this period, they started living in houses which is made up of sun-dried mud bricks and organic materials available at that time. There was also multiple evidence of wheel made pottery which was mainly in three types red and black ware, black and crimson-hues and ochre colored. In this period, died bodies was buried under the floors of their houses in north-south direction. We have discussed an in depth anlysis of this period separetly, you can read it by clicking on the link below.
Conclusion
Overall we can say that prehistoric period represents a vast timeline of ancient indian history. It focuses how the modern human being came into existence. It also represents the old traits of society and details of those like hunting tools and more. The phase is also divided into varios parts based on different characteristics and changes. It also gives us the details about ancient humans and their life and how we are connected with them in today’s modern world.
