Palaeolithic Age Short Note
Palaeolithic Age Short Note
Palaeolithic Age Short Note
Study Materials
THE PALAEOLITHIC MAN Potwar Plateau experienced heavy rains and the rivers
caried away boulders which formed the Boulder
(APPROXIMATELY 500000-8000 BC) Conglomerate. This formation had huge flakes of
quartzite. Many of these were thought as artefacts, as
In India, the earliest evidence of the existence they had traces of chipping on the sides.
of humans can be traced back to the Palaeolithic Age
roughly between 500000 and 8000 BC. In many
regionsof South Asia, stone tools and cave paintings
belonging to this period have been discovered. The
word ‘Palaeolithic’ has been taken from two Greek
words which mean ‘old stone’. Chipped stones have
been discovered in large numbers in various parts of
India. These have been of hard rock called quartzite.
Therefore, humans in Palaeolithic India are also called
Quartzite men. Palaeolithic men did not know the use
of fire and did not practise any form of agriculture.
Fig1.1palaeolithicage(Not well shapped)
They led a savage life, using stone weapons for
hunting.
Peninsular India
They did not know about family life and lived in caves
and wandered in jungles like other animals. According The real home of the Handaxe Culture seems'
to historians, Palaeolithic men belonged to the Negrito to be, according to the present knowledge, Peninsular
race such as the modern people living on the Andaman India, the region towards the south of the Ganges
Islands. They were short in stature and had dark skin, Plains. Because the types of tools of this culture were
curly hair and flat noses. first found near Chennai, it is also called the Chennai
are Culture. This is purely a regional name which
Punjab Plains the Kashmir Valley should, be given up, as the latest researches show that
the Handaxe Culture covered almost the whole of the
Until 1939, the evidence of three or four Stone India—Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Mysore,
Age cultures had been found in only a part of Punjab Maharashtra, Gujarat, eastern Rajasthan, the plateau
(now in Western Pakistan). These cultures have been regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal
called Pre-Sohan, Early-Sohan, Late-Sohan and except Western Rajasthan, Sindh, Kashmir, Assam and
Evolved Sohan (named after Sohan, a tributary of the the coastal strips of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
river Sindhu) and Flakeand-Blade industries. Kerala. The relics of the early Stone Age man are
mainly confined to the middle reaches of the rivers,
Many studies have been conducted in the foothills of
and to some distance, away from their basin. Altitudes,
the south-western Himalayas. These include the
higher than 750 m and heavily forested regions were
Shivaliks and the Potwar Plateau. Potwar Plateau is a
avoided by man. No early Stone Age tools have been
part of the ancient Pan Canada, drained by the Sindhu,
found in Mount Abu (Rajasthan), Mahabaleshwar
districts of Sutlej and Beas. Rawalpindi and other
(Maharashtra), Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu) and Mysore
modern districts of Western Punjab (now in Pakistan)
(Karnataka), Hand axes and other associated tools
lie in this region.
were first found in the deposits of the Second
It is believed that the existence of human being
Interglacial Age in Western Punjab, while in
in Punjab was noticed for the first time in Boulder
Peninsular India, they were found in the earliest pebble
Conglomerate which forms the top most surface in the
conglomerate bed in Narmada, which overlies the
Sindhu, Sohan and other rivers. It is suggested that
basal rock or laterite. In this conglomerate, arc also
during the Second Ice Age in the Kashmir Valley, the
found remains of extinct animals such as wild
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Palaeolithic Age in India
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elephant, wild horse, and wild ox. Hippopotamus, were almost united to constitute one large land mass
alaeindicus F. and C., Stegodon insignis F. and C., termed Pangea. The historians have subdivided the
Rhinocerus unicornis Lim., Cenozoic period into two periods−Tertiary and
Trionyx species, stegodon ganesa F. and C., Emys Quaternary. The Teritary period involves five epochs:
species, Ursus namadius F. and C., Leptobos frazerirut, (i) Palaeocene (65-56.5 million years ago); (ii) Eocene
Cravus duvancelli. (56.5-35.4 million years ago); (iii) Oligocene (35.4-
23.3 million years ago); (iv) Miocene (23. 3-5.2 years
ago) and (v) Pliocene (5.2-1.64 million years ago).
Primates started emerging nearly 70 million years ago
at the start of the Cenozoic. Bipedalism started taking
shape during the Miocene resulting into the rise of
Australopithecus. The genus Homo emerged during
the Pliocene. This was the time that Hominids stated
making tools. The Quaternary period witnessed a
major development in tool technology. This period is
further divided Into two geological epochs: (i)
Pleistocene (1.64 million—12,000 years ago) and (ii)
Holocene (12.000 years ago to the present|. We are
now living in the Holocene geological epoch.The
Palaeolithic Age of pre-history falls In the Pleistocene
geological epoch. During the Pleistocene period, the
temperature across the world fell considerably. This
caused a series of ice ages. The last known ice age
started nearly 118,000 years ago and was the most
widespread. This ice age attained the greatest intensity
about 20,000 years ago. The ice ages ended 12,000
years ago, with which began the Holocene (or
MAP 1.1 Stone Age Sites of India postglacial) geological epoch. During the Pleistocene
Latest studies conducted in the Mahi and epoch, there started biological evolution of humans.
Narmada basin show that this period could not be They were now able to adapt themselves culturally.
before early upper Pleistocene. The initial Stone Age The temperatures in Europe, Asia and North Africa
tools in the peninsular region of India include different have dropped considerably because of the last ice ago.
types of hand axes, cleavers, choppers and chopping Stone tool technology improved significantly in this
tools prepared out of pebbles or pebble halves, and period.
scrapers. Some of the tools arc regular, having placed
to help in holding, and some are two-ended and beaked
tools. These types of tools could have been used only
for cutting or engraving. Such tools were discovered in
the regions of the Krishna Basin in Karnataka.
Assessment of Pre-history
We live in the geological period known as Cenozoic. It
started nearly 65 million years ago when the
landmasses on earth got the shape that we at present
know. Before it, different landmasses or continents
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