Periodization

Paleolithic Age To begin with the Paleolithic Age, also called the Old Stone
Age, covered the long period from the time the first ancestors of modem
human beings started living in the Indian subcontinent, i.e., from roughly 3
lakh BC, to 8000 or eighth millennium BC. Archeologists divide it into three
phases—the Lower or Early, the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic Ages—
according to the nature of the stone tools used by the people.
Mesolithic Age Then came the Mesolithic Age, also known as the Late Stone
Age, which broadly covered the period from the eighth to fourth millennium
BC. It is the intermediate or transitional stage between the Paleolithic and
Neolithic Ages. The tools of this age are called microliths (very small tools).
Neolithic Age Third in the sequence is the Neolithic Age or the New Stone
Age that covered the period roughly from 4000 to 1800 BC and was marked
by the use of polished stone tools.
Chalcolithic Age Next is the Chalcolithic Age or Stone – Copper Age, which
generally covered the period from 1800 to 1000 or 800 BC. This period was
marked by the use of copper (the first metal to be used in India) as well as
stone.
Srinagar Valley in Kashmir to Karnataka and Andhra in the south.
In these regional cultures lay the roots of the future formation of Indian
village communities because their total cultural assemblage was certainly
extremely significant in the context of the early historical settlements of the
Iron Age.
Food-gathering Communities: Early Man of the Stone Ages
Lithic records of man’s activities in India, beginning at least 250,000 years
ago from now, have been studied by prehistorians against the drastic climatic
changes of the Pleistocene epoch, and the search for the elusive fossil of the
earliest man in India and his habitat continues.
Meanwhile, Early Stone Age tools have been found in different areas of
the subcontinent, the most notable among which are the Potwar plain bisected
by the Soan river in northwestern Punjab; the Beas and Banganga valleys;
Nevasa in the valley of Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari; Gudalur in
Gundlakarnma basin in Andhra Pradesh; Nagarjunakonda in the Krishna
valley, a string of sites (Vadamadurai, Attirampakkam, etc.) in the coastal
plain near Chennai, and the districts along the north bank of the Mahanadi in
Orissa.
In fact, if our knowledge of the earliest man is limited to his crude tools,
one thing is certain, and that is that there must have been an undeniable
attraction for these early men in the hills and valleys of the subcontinent, for
every survey produces their implements and underlines the ubiquity of their
presence.
Recent research suggests that not earlier than 35,000 years from now a
new technology, possibly deriving from that of the Early Stone Age, emerged
in India. Not only were the tools different, being made out of flakes or flake-
like nodules from such fine-grained material as flint, jasper, chalcedony, etc.,
the environment of the Middle Stone Age man seems to have been different
too, being less wet than in the Early Stone Age. In regions such as
Maharashtra, remains of the contemporary fauna have also been found.
The Middle Stone Age cultures were, however, not of similar antiquity or
duration in different parts of the country; the known dates range from about
33,000 BC to about 16,500 BC. There are, besides, indications that in some
regions like Western Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh the flake-making
technique was of a more improved variety than in others.
These regional variations in dates and the total cultural assemblage
became more prominent in the Late Stone Age heralded by the use of smaller
tools, the microliths. In Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and several
other areas, a long time span of 8500 BC– 1700 BC has been suggested for
these cultures.
Microliths, being compound tools, suggest a substantial technological
change; being hafted in bone, wood or bamboo they foreshadowed the forms
and functions of later-day metallic implements.
And there appeared, at least in a few areas, along with the microliths the
technique of pot-making—a technique of great significance in human history
as it came to be closely associated with food production and settled life,
which the Indian Late Stone Age anticipated in several ways.
Langhnaj in Gujarat and Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh testify to the
presence of domesticated animals; there is evidence too of the exchange of
commodities between different areas and communities.
Distribution and Characteristics of Paleolithic Cultures
Paleolithic Tool Traditions There has been a gradual accumulation of data
on the early Pleistocene tools in the Indian Siwaliks. Uttarabaini in the
Jammu area has revealed early Paleolithic artifacts in the Upper Siwaliks.
Ample evidence has also come from the Siwalik region of the Potwar plateau
in Pakistani Punjab. The crucial site in the present context is Riwat, southeast
of Rawalpindi. The subsequent related evidence has emerged from the Pabbi
hills, to the east of Jhelum. Another area that is noteworthy is the Kukdi
valley in the Pune area of Maharashtra. There are eight volcanic ash
exposures near the village of Bori. Paleolithic artifacts are mostly found in
gravel. This is not early Pleistocene and earlier, as in the case of the Indian
Siwaliks, Riwat and the Pabbi hills, but if its dating is universally accepted,
the Acheulian industry in the Deccan can be taken to date from early middle
Pleistocene. In fact, the Paleolithic remains occur practically in all eco-zones,
or atleast in most of them, outside the major alluvial deposits, between
Baluchistan and the western borders of Bangladesh, and between Ladakh and
the Palghat area of Kerala.
Growing Knowledge about Habitat Our forefathers were certainly
knowledgeable about the suitability of different types of local stones as raw
materials for their tools and where such stones were not available, as was the
case in Tripura and Bangladesh, they preferred a suitable type of fossil wood.
They obviously knew the terrain they were living in. They had to know about
the local food and water resources and plan their activities accordingly. They
were, thus, the first explorers of Indian landscape. As we get back to the
lower Paleolithic, one of the burning questions is the evaluation of the Indian
subcontinent as a geographical zone in the overall scheme of human
evolution. What we can assert on the basis of the Hathnora evidence is that
the region was within the distribution area of archaic Homo sapiens