Stone Age – Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

Paleolithic Age – It is the longest phase divided in to 3 phases.

1) Early (lower) – 500K -50K BC
2) Middle – 50K – 40K BC
3) Late (upper) – 40K – 10K BC
Followed by the Mesolithic Age(9K to 4K BC) which is regarded as a transitory phase and
then Neolithic Age. Neolithic Age began at different times in different parts of the country.
But generally Neolithic settlements found in India are no older than 2500 BC.
EVOLUTION OF TOOL TECHNOLOGY

Tools were made by keeping one stone fixed and striking it with another stone. If the
tools were made out of the larger leftover ‘core’, they were called core tools. If made
using the smaller piece of stone ‘flaked’ out, they were called flake tools.
EARLY PALEOLITHIC AGE – Made of core part.
1. Chopper: using a bowl shaped piece of stone, a heavy and bold tool was created. Only
one side was worked on (unifascial).
2. Chopping tool: same as the chopper but with 2 edges worked on (bifascial). Chopper
and chopping tool are characteristic of lower palaeolithic.
3. Hand axe: A tool requiring much greater control than the chopper, a narrower tool
with vertical working edge.

4. Cleaver: cleavers are different from hand-axes in having a transverse or horizontal

working edge.
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC AGE – Flake tools. They are lighter, more precise
1. Blades: Parallel working edges.

2. Scraper: parallel working edges on the sides, similar to blade, with the difference being
blades are much longer than they are wide. This is also a flake tool.
3. Points: sharpened up to a tip: like a point. 2 sideways working edges meet up to the tip.
These are sometimes grafted onto a wooden handle, for which a shoulder is present.
UPPER PALEOLITHIC – Flint Tools
1. Burins: unlike a point, the tip is flat like the end of a screwdriver
2. Bone tools: Eg. harpoon: used for fishing as fishing hooks. May be one sided or two
sided.
MESOLITHIC AGE
In this age, we get Microliths. These are very small tools (1cm to 8cm) often geometrical
in shape, these were used for beautification (eg) tattooing, shaving etc.
Sometimes they were grafted onto wooden shafts: called composite tools.
Names were according to the shape of the tool: trapezoid, lunate, microlith points,
microlith blades etc.
 NEOLITHIC AGE – Polished Tools
• We see remarkable Polished tools. Rounded heavy tools discovered, which could have
been possibly used to level the ground. May have the provision for a handle as well.

1. Celt: used for digging the ground, like an edge.

 Chalcolithic Age
Malwa Culture(1700BC- Jorwe Culture (1400BC- East – UP, Bihar and
Ahar Culture
1200BC) 700BC) – newest Bengal
oldest

Western Madhya Pradesh Western Maharashtra

Malwa, Kayatha and Eran. -Jorwe, Nevasa, Vidhyan region of
South Eastern Rajasthan
Navdatoli – largest Daimabad in Ahmednagar Allahabad district.
Ahar and Gilund lie in
Location settlement of Malwa. District. Chirand, West Bengal –
Banas valley spread over 4
Kayatha – Junior -Chandoli, Songaon and Randu Rajar Dhibi in
acres.
contemporary of Inamgaon in Pune District Burdwan
Harappan Culture. -Prakash and Nasik

Daimabad and Inamgaon

reached urban stage.
Inamgaon 2 phases – Mud
houses with ovens and
circular pits.
Gilund used burnt bricks. Kayatha and Eran – Chirand – post-holes and
Settlement 2- 2 tier settlement.
Ahar – Stone houses fortified. round houses.
1>Houses with 5 rooms, 4
rectangular and 1 circular.
Suggests house of chiefs.
2>Craftsmen lived on the
western fringes.

Due to Black Cotton Soil –

couldnt practice
cultivation.
Agriculture Barley and wheat. Barley and wheat Rice+fishhooks
Barley and wheat
Navdatoli – All foodgrains
have been found.
• Pottery
• BRW with white designs. Channel spouted pots, dishes on stands and bowls on stand.
• Ochre Colored Pottery in Ganeshwar.
• Burial
• Maharashtra people buried under the floor of the house in north-south position.
• They didnt use separate cemeteries.
• Chandoli and Nevasa some children were buried with copper based necklaces.
• Inamgaon – buried with pottery and copper.
 INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
Indus Valley Civilization was the first major civilization in South Asia, which spread across a vast area of land in
present-day India and Pakistan (around 12 lakh sq.km).
The time period of the mature Indus Valley Civilization is estimated between BC. 2700- BC.1900 ie. for 800 years.
But early Indus Valley Civilization had existed even before BC.2700.
Features of Indus Valley Civilization
•BC. 2700- BC.1900 ie for 800 years.
•On the valleys of river Indus.
•Also known as Harappan Civilization.
•Beginning of city life.
•Harappan Sites discovered by – Dayaram Sahni (1921) – Montgomery district, Punjab, Pakistan.
•Mohanjodaro discovered by – R. D. Banerji – Larkana district, Sind, Pakistan.
•The city was divided into Citadel(west) and Lower Town(east).
•Red pottery painted with designs in black.
•Stone weights, seals, special beads, copper tools, long stone blades etc.
•Copper, bronze, silver, gold present.
•Artificially produced – Faience.
•Specialists for handicrafts.
•Import of raw materials.
•Plough was used.
•Bodies were buried in wooden coffins, but during the later stages ‘H symmetry culture’ evolved where bodies
were buried in painted burial urns.
•Sugar cane not cultivated, horse, iron not used.
 Introduction - Indus Valley Civilization
•Indus Valley Civilization is also known as Harappan Civilization because Harappa
was the first site to be excavated in 1921 under the supervision of Daya Ram Sahni.
•The known extent of IVC is up to Suktagendor in Baluchistan in the west;
Alamgirpur (UP) in the east; Daimabad (Maharashtra) in the South; and Manda
(Jammu & Kashmir) in the north.
•Indus Valley Civilization is the home to the largest of the four of its contemporary
urban civilizations namely Mesopotamian or Sumerian Civilization, Egyptian
Civilization, and Chinese Civilization.
•While IVC is on the banks of Indus, Egyptian Civilization flourished on the banks of
the river Nile, Mesopotamian Civilization flourished on the banks of Tigris or
Euphrates river and Chinese Civilization flourished on the banks of Hwang Ho river.
•Since it belongs to the Bronze/Chalcolithic age, it is also known as the Bronze Age
Civilization.
•In the 1920s, the excavations were carried out in the Indus Valley regions, where
ruins of the old cities were found. The first city to be unearthed was Harappa.
•In 1924, John Marshall, the then Director-General of the Department of
Archaeology announced the discovery of Indus Valley Civilization
Indus Valley Sites and Specialties
HARAPPA
•Seals out of stones
•Citadel outside on banks of river Ravi
MOHENJODARO
•Great Bath, Great Granary, Dancing Girl, Man with Beard, Cotton, Assembly hall
•The term means ” Mount of the dead”
•On the bank of river Indus
•Believed to have been destructed by flood or invasion(Destruction was not gradual).
CHANHUDARO
•Bank of Indus river. – discovered by Gopal Majumdar and Mackey (1931)
•Pre-Harappan culture – Jhangar Culture and Jhukar Culture
•Only cite without citadel.
KALIBANGAN
•At Rajasthan on the banks of river Ghaggar, discovered by A.Ghosh (1953)
•Fire Altars
•Bones of camel
•Evidence of furrows
•Horse remains ( even though Indus valley people didn’t use horses).
•Known as the third capital of the Indus Empire.
LOTHAL
•At Gujarat near Bhogava river, discovered by S.R. Rao (1957)
•Fire Altars
•Besides the tributary of Sabarmati
•Storehouse
•Dockyard and earliest port
•double burial
•Rice husk
•House had a front entrance (exception).
ROPAR
•Punjab, on the banks of river Sutlej. Discovered by Y.D Sharma (1955)
•Dog buried with humans.
BANAWALI
•Haryana
•On banks of lost river Saraswathi
•Barley Cultivation.
DHOLAVIRA
•The biggest site in India, until the discovery of Rakhigarhi.
•Located in Khadir Beyt, Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. Discovered by J.P Joshi/Rabindra Singh
(1990)
•3 parts + large open area for ceremonies
•Large letters of the Harappan script (signboards).
The religion of Indus Valley People
•Pashupati Mahadev (Proto Siva)
•Mother goddess
•Nature/ Animal worship
•Unicorn, Dove, Peepal Tree, Fire
•Amulets
•Idol worship was practised ( not a feature of Aryans)
•Did not construct temples.
•The similarity to Hindu religious practises. (Hinduism in its present form originated
later)
•No Caste system.
Indus Valley Society and Culture
•The systematic method of weights and measures ( 16 and its multiples).
•Pictographic Script, Boustrophedon script – Deciphering efforts by I. Mahadevan
•Equal status to men and women
•Economic Inequality, not an egalitarian society
•Textiles – Spinning and weaving
•3 types – burial, cremation and post-cremation were there, though burial was common.
•Majority of people Proto-Australoids and Mediterranean (Dravidians), though
Mongoloids, Nordics etc were present in the city culture. Read more on races of India.
Important Sites of Indus Valley CIvilization
Site Location River Bank
Harappa Montegomari, Punjab (Pakistan) Ravi

Mohenjodaro Larkana, Sindh (Pakistan) Indus

Suktagendor Baluchistan (Pakistan) Dashta

Chanhudaro Sindh (Pakistan) Indus

Rangpur Ahmedabad (India) Meedar

Kalibangan Ganganagar (Rajasthan) Ghaggar

Lothal Ahmedabad Sabarmati & Bhogva

Banawali Hissar (Haryana) Saraswati

Amri Sindh and Baluchistan Indus

Dholavira Gujarat Luni

Phases of Indus Valley Civilization
Three phases of IVC are:
•The early Harappan phase from 3300 BC to 2600 BC.
•The mature Harappan phase from 2600 BC to 1900 BC.
•The late Harappan phase from 1900 BC to 1300 BC.
•The signs of a gradual decline of the Indus River Valley Civilization are believed to have
started around 1800 BC and by 1700 BC, most of the cities were abandoned.

Urbanization and town planning

•Town planning is the most important and distinguishing feature of the
Harappan Civilization. Hence, it was called an urban civilization.
•Towns were divided into parts namely citadel and lower town. Citadels were
occupied by members of the ruling class and the lower town was inhabited by
the common people.
•Another important feature of IVC is the drainage system. Drains were built of
burnt bricks and covered by stone lids.
•Chanhudaro was the only town without a citadel
Agriculture & Economy
•They grew wheat and barley on a large scale. Other crops that they grew included
pulses, cereals, cotton, dates, melons, pea, sesamum, and mustard.
•No clear evidence of rice has been found.
•Harappan people were mostly peasants and thus the Harappan civilization was an
agro-commercial civilization.
•Harappans were the earliest people to grow cotton.
•Their most important artistic work are seals. Seals are made of steatite and they are
square in shape.
•The most depicted animal is the bull.
•Bangle making and shell ornament making was also practiced.
•Land and sea trade was in vogue in Indus Valley Civilization.
•A dockyard has been found at Lothal which is the longest building of Harappan
Civilization.
 Religion of Harappans
•Pashupati seal has been found in Mohenjodaro in which a Yogi has been depicted.
•The Yogi on the seal is surrounded by buffalo, tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, and deer.
•Signs of phallic worship has been found.
•Harappans worshipped the mother Goddess. It is evident from the terracotta
figurine recovered from Harappa.
•A building called Great Bath has been found at Mohenjodaro. It was meant for ritual
bathing.
•No evidence of temples has been found in this civilization.
•Amulets were found in large numbers

Script of Harappans
•The Harappans knew the art of writing.
•More than 4000 specimens of scripts were found in excavations.
•The script, however, is not alphabetical but pictographic and it has not
been deciphered yet.