Introduction

We start learning History with the Stone age as the development of Human being is an important feature of this age. In this age, Human used stone tools as their primary instrument for hunting and gathering food.

The time period for the Stone Age is ranged from 2 million years ago to 3000 years ago.

This long period is further divided by historians on the basis of the type and structure of stone tools as follows :-

1. Palaeolithic age (2 million years ago – 10,000 years ago)
2. Mesolithic age (10,000 years ago – 7,000 years ago)
3. Neolothic age (7,000 years ago – 3,000 years ago)

1. The first evidence of the stone age was discovered in the form of stone tools at Pallavaram, in 1863 by Robert Bruce Foote.
   1. He was a British Indian officer while digging his garden he came across some stone tools, on further excavations yielding more stone tools.
   2. That is why he is known as the father of “Prehistoric India” or Stone Age.

Palaeolithic age

This period is the intermediate time zone where the Global Ice meltdown and the environment become Human-friendly. Palaeolithic people lived in natural caves.

Palaeolithic age is further divided into 3 parts on the bases of

Lower Palaeolithic age

The time period for this age is 2 million years ago to 39,000 years ago.

This period witnessed the origin of Human Beings as Homo Habilis and its development to Homo Erectus.

Belan valley in Mirzapur UP is the most important Site where Lower Paleolithic tools found.

Other important Lower Paleolithic sites are –

1. Soan / Sohan Valley (Pakistan )
2. Kashmir
3. Mewar plains
4. Saurashtra
5. Gujarat
6. Central India
7. Deccan Plateau
8. Chotanagpur plateau
9. North of the Cauvery River

Middle Palaeolithic age

The time period of the Middle Palaeolithic age was from 39000 years ago to 23000 years ago.

The development of Human progressed and now it is called Homo Sapiens Archaic.

The major site of the Middle Palaeolithic age is the Bhimbetka caves in the Raisen Districts of Madhya Pradesh. People of the Middle Palaeolithic age have practised paintings on the walls and rocks of caves.

Other important sites of Middle Palaeolithic age are

1. Belan valley in UP
2. Luni Valley (Rajasthan)
   1. Learn about the Luni river system in detail.
3. Son and Narmada rivers

Upper Paleolithic age

The time period of the Middle Palaeolithic age was from 23,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago.

Homo Sapiens with fully developed brain were first located in the Upper Palaeolithic age. 30 year old skeleton is discovered at Hathnora, near Narmada river.

People of the Upper Palaeolithic age continued the practice of paintings on the walls and rocks of caves.

Mesolithic Age

Mesolithic age belongs to the time period from 9000 BC to 4000 BC.

Microliths are the sharp stone tools found from the Mesolithic sites.

Adamgarh in MP and Bagore in Rajasthan are the sites where domestication of animal is found for the first time.

Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan is the place where the earliest evidence of plant cultivation is found.

Important Mesolithic sites

Birbhanpur, West Bengal

Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu

Adamgarh, Madhya Pardesh

Bagore, Rajasthan

Virendra Nath Mishra and Vasant Shinde, scholars of Deccan College, excavated this site in the 1960s and 1970s. The oldest evidence of Animal Husbandry found here.

Bagore is located in Mandal, Bhilwara district of Rajasthan on the bank of River Kothari.

Neolithic Age

This age witnessed food producing people for the first time in the subcontinent.

Important sites

1. Inamgaon
2. Burzahom (Kashmir)
3. Mehrgarh (Pakistan)
4. Daojali Hading (Tripura/Assam)
5. Hallur (AP)
6. Paiyampalli (AP)
7. Chirand (Bihar)