HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student)

Paper No. : Paper-I

History of India

Topic No. & Title : Topic-3

Pre History

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture-1

Archaeological Terminology

Terms used in Archaeology

Culture – In archaeology this term is used when similar

assemblage of tools, ornaments and other products of
human labour or artefacts are found in a layer in one or
more sites along with indicators of similar customs and
beliefs in systems of disposal of the dead and ritual
symbols. A particular chronological phase or period is
important here. This is the methodology followed when
classifying things as belonging to an upper Paleolithic or
a lower Paleolithic or a Mesolithic Culture.
Site – An area with definite boundaries, bearing certain
constituents or man-made tools and artefacts, along with
eco-facts or plant and animal remains, and structural
remains like remains of ancient dwellings and their
features, like floors.

Artefacts – Tools made by man. A site may have a

variety of artefacts covering not only the end products
but also those relating to the entire manufacturing
process, as well as the tools used in doing so.

Assemblage – All the artefacts found at a site or a

group of sites together.

Typology – It is a term used to denote something that is

determined by its morphological characteristics.
Morphology refers to the study of the forms or physical
features or structure of different things.

Technology – Technique of production covering all

stages of the manufacturing process of artefacts.
Industry – A particular technique in production and the
products in one particular cultural phase or period.

Importance of Geology
Since prehistory is a time which is very remote in
antiquity, geology constitutes an important subject. The
formation of the earth is dated as being 4,600 million
years ago. Geological ages are formed of eras and
epochs. The Quaternary Epoch is linked with the
evolution of human species. The Quaternary epoch is
divided into the Pleistocene which began about 1.8
million years ago, and the Holocene, spanning the time
from ten thousand years ago up to the present time.

The standard divisions of the Pleistocene were based on

four or five major glaciations or Ice Ages and the
intervals or the interglacials between them, but with the
discovery of numerous and varied glaciations, the
previous framework have been abandoned now.

Paleo-environment – ‘Paleo’ means old; so paleo-

environment denotes the old environment. Archeology is
a multi-disciplinary subject. In order to comprehend the
paleo-environment, various parameters have to be
considered like, past temperature, rainfall, humidity,
which are known to leave behind their signatures on
various living and non-living materials e.g. trees, ice
cores, lakes, coastal and ocean alluvial, fluvial and
colluvial deposits. A combination of the study of these
factors helps in forming some idea of the Paleo-
environment in which the old cultures must be placed.

Archaeology and anthropology are interlinked, as the

former provides one with data on such factors as
habitation patterns, technologies, and living patterns, of
ancient people.

Paleo-anthropologists have used fossil evidence to piece

together the fascinating story of the biological and
cultural evolution of early humans. Human evolution
started in Africa, which makes a study of the north and
east Africa vital, to comprehending the beginnings of
human civilization.
The earliest known hominids or man-like species were
members of the Australopithecus genus who lived
roughly between 4.4 and 1.8 million years ago, and
whose remains have so far been only identified in sub-
Saharan Africa.

The earliest evidence of the Homo habilis or hand-using

man have been found at sites in Kenya, Tanzania and
Ethiopia, and are dated two million years ago. The
earliest stone tools have been dated 2.5 million years
ago, the makers of which are unknown. Early toolkits
were called Old wan, and were crude but effective. The
technology is so-named because the first specimens were
found by Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge
(situated west of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania).

The Homo erectus (named for its fully erect posture)

appeared 1.6 million years ago in East Africa from where
the species seems to have spread to various parts of
Africa, Asia and Europe. They were the makers of
Acheulian tools (name given to an archaeological industry
of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans
of the lower Paleolithic era).

Anatomically modern humans known as Homo sapiens

seem to have existed 200,000 to 40,000 years ago,
corresponding to the middle Paleolithic cultures.

The Neanderthals appeared 130,000 – 30,000 years ago

and have been assigned to the middle Paleolithic age.

The Homo sapien sapiens refers to modern man who has

existed since the last 100,000 years. Fossil remains have
been found in Africa, from where they appear to have
reached the eastern Mediterranean around 100,000 –
90,000 years before the present, and Europe and Asia
approximately 40,000 years ago.

The time range of the lower Paleolithic or lower

Pleistocene cultures in the Indian sub-continent is from
about two million to a hundred thousand years ago.
Knowledge of ecology is vital to the study of cultures
which have to be situated in their topographic and
climatic settings. Fossil finds and dates suggest that at
least a million years ago the Homo erectus was well
established in Java and soon in north China. He could
have reached these lands from Africa only by crossing
the Indian sub-continent. Unfortunately we have a
paucity of fossil remains in the Indian sub-continent
possibly because preservation gets affected in a hot and
humid environment. There are considerable fossil
remains however in the Narmada valley.

Dating Cultural Remains

Tooth enamel found from the site of Isampur in north
Karnataka has been dated as belonging 1.2 million years
ago, making it the earliest find in Indian prehistory. At
Bori in Maharashtra, Paleolithic artefacts have been found
in gravel which cuts into the ash-bed at a number of
sections. The dating of Tefra ash found fro m this gravel is
taken to be similar to Acheulian artefacts belonging to
0.5 million years ago. Though still shrouded in
controversy, the early date cannot be ignored.
Late Pliocene dates (which is earlier than Pleistocene) of
artefacts have been found from Siwalik Hills near
Rawalpindi in Pakistan, though there is controversy about
it.

While surveying Paleolithic culture, we have to remember

that traditions do overlap. The transition from one stage
to another was never sudden. So the transition from
lower Paleolithic to middle Paleolithic which signified a
change in technology was not sudden either.

Regional Survey of Paleolithic Cultures

Chronology
Lower Paleolithic tools have been found from different
parts of the sub-continent especially in peninsular India
leaving aside the coastal areas. In Rajasthan there is a
detailed profile of the Didwana area, with a sequence
extending from the early to the middle Paleolithic. The
lower Paleolithic tools here belonged more than 390,000
years from the present. The sites at Nevasa date back
more than 350,000 years ago. The Hsungi (a tributary of
Krishna), and Krishna valleys have yielded lower
Paleolithic tools dating 358,000 years ago. Tools
belonging to this period have also been discovered at
sites in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Damoh, and Raisen,
along with those in the Narmada, upper Son and
Mahanadi valleys.

Middle Paleolithic tools have been found in many parts of

the subcontinent often in river gravel and deposits dating
100,000 to 40,000 years ago on the basis of Thermo
luminescence tests.

There are some dates for upper Paleolithic contexts. Site

55 at Riwat gives the earliest date of c. 45,000 years
ago, while carbon dating of a piece of ostrich eggshell at
Mehtakheri has placed it to over 41 900 years before the
present. Dates ranging between 27, 000 to 25,000 years
(Belan valley), and 12 000 to 10 000 (Son valley) years
ago, of habitation sites are available.

The term Mesolithic is generally used for the Holocene

hunting-gathering Stone Age cultures. There is a
calibrated range of dates from various Mesolithic sites,
like 4246–3991 BCE at Baghor, 4895-4580 BCE at
Bhimbetka, 4575-4344 BCE at Bagor and 9958-9059 BCE
at Sarai Nahar Rai among others. A recent date from a
site at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh which has been
revealed to us only in 2009 and gives a date of 3,500
years from the present.

Lower Paleolithic cultures and occupations in the Indian

sub-continent are distributed over different eco zones –
in semi-arid western Rajasthan, the Rohri Hills (north-
west Sindh), the Indian Siwalik belt, the river valleys in
Gujarat associated with miliolite deposits in Saurashtra,
in the sub-humid, moist deciduous woodland zones of
Central India, in the Vindhyan region, in the middle Son
and Belan valley, in tributary river valley deposits in
Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Hunsgi Baichbal valley in
the Konkan coast. Lower Paleolithic cultures are also
found in ferrecrete and ferrogenous colluvial deposits, in
stream and sheet flat deposits in Tamilnadu, coastal and
inland regions of Andhra and the core and periphery
region of Chhotanagpur region. These cultures have
different contexts.

Paleo-environment
The study of the specific features of paleo-environments
forms an important part of prehistory. Among scholars
who have conducted research in this field mention can be
made of H de Terra and T.T.Paterson (although their
studies of the Son river between the Pir Panjal and Salt
ranges in Pakistan are no longer accepted),
L.A.Cammiade and M.C.Burkitt (studies of Eastern Ghats
of Andhra Pradesh), and Dr. Misra (study of western
Rajasthan, especially in Didwana). The study carried out
at Didwana is especially significant as Dr.Misra got the
profile of an entire sequence from the lower Paleolithic to
Mesolithic at one site.

Different ecological settings naturally point to different

types of environment e.g. Didwana in semi-arid
Rajasthan, differs from that of the Son or Belan valley.
In peninsular India Acheulian artefacts are found buried
in bouldery and pebbly gravels deposited in areas with
semi-arid environment, intermittent and erratic rainfall
and sparse vegetation cover.

So far as technology in the lower Paleolithic in the Indian

context is concerned it is represented by the Sohanian
tradition, denoted by pebble tools, flakes, blade cores,
and the Acheulian is represented by hand-axes, pebble
tools, scrapers, flakes, blades.

There are a lot of regional variations so far as Paleolithic

cultures are concerned. Generally early Paleolithic tools
were made of quartzite or other hard rock. The rock that
was used to make tools is termed raw material nodule,
from which a core was fashioned out. The core itself
could be used as a tool or made into other finished
products. Discoids are typical tools of the Sohanian
tradition.

The middle Paleolithic cultures developed during the

Upper Pleistocene period. During the last inter-glacial,
the sea level was very high, and the climate in India was
warm and humid. Not much data on the Paleo-
environment is available in India at present. Global
temperatures started cooling around 75,000 to 70,000
years ago which affected the Indian monsoons, and led
to an overall lowering in the sea levels. In general the
middle Paleolithic population occupied the same regions
and habitats as the preceding Acheulian population.
Ecological settings were at open air sites along perennial
and seasonal streams, along hill slopes, on stable dune
surfaces and in rock shelters.

Samnapur is a very important middle Paleolithic site in

the Indian subcontinent, which was well excavated by Dr.
Misra of the Deccan College, Pune. Faunal remains
recovered from different sites suggest the existence of
Savannah grasslands interspersed with swamps and
forests, during this period.

The middle Paleolithic age was marked by gradual

changes in stone tools. Acheulian tools like hand-axes,
Sohanian tools like cores and discoids did not altogether
disappear but the balance shifted towards smaller lighter
flake tools. A limited use of bi-faced tools (i.e. both faces
of the stone was worked upon) and heavy core tools may
be observed. Tools made more on flakes and plates
became common, while a further fashioning of these
plates occurred in the upper Paleolithic. Heavy, thick
blades were being produced in the middle Paleolithic
culture. Tools were becoming thinner and lighter. There
is evidence of the use of a particular technique called the
Levallois technique or the Prepared Core technique in
many places.

In the lower Paleolithic the choice of raw materials was

quartz, quartzite and basalt, but later along with the
continued use of these, they were supplemented in
various degrees by chert, jasper and other fine-grained
rocks. Raw material was brought from considerable
distances, which assumes significance in terms of human
behaviour. It reveals that whenever the Homo sapiens,
faced difficulties in finding stone to make tools from the
area they inhabited; they were using their cranial
capacity to exercise a choice in procuring raw material
from a distance. This also points to earliest human
mobility across the landscape, a feature of the middle
Paleolithic period onwards, and evidence of which is
found around the world.