Stone Age s chapter encompasses the summary of Chapter 1, 2 -VI NCERT (Our Past-I) e Stone Age was the prehistoric cultural stage, or level of human development, that was crized by the creation and use of stone tools. It began some 2 million years ago. In this ‘people have lived along the banks of rivers for several hundred thousand years. Some of the ple who lived here were skilled gatherers, that is, people who gathered their food. They “About the vast wealth of plants in the surrounding forests, and collected roots, fruits, and forest produce for their food and also hunted animals.) ‘ had been living along the banks of the Narmada River in the Indian of the areas where women and men first began to grow crops, such located in the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills of Northwest India. animals like sheep, goats, and cattle and lived in villages. agriculture developed are: of the earliest cities flourished on the banks of the Indus River 1¢ part of the subcontinent to another. ‘Himalayas, deserts, rivers, and seas, made ipossible.tion ang ing to offer instruct Iked from village to village, town to town, stopping # Religious teachers walked fro a advice ‘ wanting to discove; Ih me people perhaps travelled driven by a spirit of “leat tae end exohting $Me All these led to the sharing of ideas Names of the Land n the way harat. We often use two of the words for our country, that is India and BI hu in Sanskrit. The i hich is also known as Sind + The word India comes from the Indus, w i - Iranians and the Greeks, who came through the northwest about 2500 years ag af us J : ; familiar with the Indus, called it the Hindos or the Indos, and the land to the East of the river Indus was called India. The name Bharata was used fo mentioned in the Rigveda, t ago). Later, it was used for the Composed by Sages Taught by * @ group of people who lived in the northwest, and who were ‘he earliest composition in Sanskrit (dated to about 3500 years country. Composed of priests 1000 Hymns ‘sukta’ (well-said) ied and Language-Old/ Vedic Sanskrit Ways of Finding out about the Past There are several ways of finding out about the past: Table 1.1; Ways of Finding Out About Our Past specially prepared bark] on palm leaf, or on the specially ch grows in the Himalayas. Manuscripts ved, often preserved in tem monasteries, z These books de: the lives of ki “epics, poems and plays, , | * Many of these were written tar others were in Prakeit Hanguages used by ordinary people) and Tessin > Rate, > We can also st ¢y inscriptions to find out about the Past. Inscriptio, * are | writings on relatively hh | > Sometimes, ki ‘ard surfaces such as stone OF cae NES fot their orders inscribed so that peoPl See, read, and obey them, > There are other ki Inscriptions dwomen fi inds of inscriptions as well, where men an (nctuding "ns) recorded what they did. ttle. » Kings often kept records of victories in bat oe ae| The Palm Leaf Manuscript | | > This diagram depicts a page from a palm-leaf manuscript. This manuscript was written about a thousand years ago, > The palm leaves were cut into pages and tied together to make books. ‘The Kandahar Inscription > Itis an old inscription. This inscription dates to about 2250 years ago | and was found in Kandahar, present-day Afghanistan. | > It was inscribed on the orders of a ruler named Ashoka. > This inscription was inscribed in two different scripts and languages, Greek (top) and Aramaic (below), which were used in this area | Who are the Archaeologists and What Do They Do? ‘An archaeologist is a person who studies human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains. + They study the remains of buildings made of stone and brick, paintings, and sculptures. ‘ They also explore and excavate (dig under the surface of the earth) to find tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments, and coins. + Some of these objects may be made of stone, others of bone, baked clay, or metal + Objects that are made of hard, imperishable substances usually survive for a long time. sts ~ 4 Onn viact was different for gi, at that the pas' ten One Past or Many? ie el were different from those of kin fa hose of crafts Persons, and 56 gn)" POINTS TO PONDER a rimary SOUFCES Of informat;. | Tae study of History (like ites and archaeological) are Seneraly | based on the information Provided | by the patrons. Do you think then | the primary sources are a good repository for the reconstruction of history? ention to the ros of herders oF lifferent from # ent lay, people followed ate rue even toda a gears al ‘ z sore in different parts ot ne cane today, most people living in the ting, and mi ect hath wn, food eee pustiog a mention produce. By contrast, eee in cities depend on others for supplies of es + Differences such as these existed in the past ns a. + Besides, there is another kind of difference. aces great deal about kings and the battles they fought they kept records of their victories. , i le such as hunters, fishing folk, Sra a t keep records of what they did. gatherers, farmers or herders did not keep What Do Dates Mean? phiral to draw at Jr example, the lives o he lives of merchants were ‘Satcis a specific time that can be named, for example, a particular day or a particular ‘year. These years are counted from the date generally assigned to the birth of Jesus Some Important Dates | Christ, the founder of Christianity. > The beginning of agriculture (8000 years ago) | * ‘So, 2000 BC means 2000 years after the > The first cities on the Indus (4700 years ago) | birth of Christ. + All dates before the bi counted backw: letters BC (Befoy > Cities in the Ganga valley, a big kingdom in Magadha (2500 years ago) > The present (about 2000 AD/CE) irth of Christ are ‘ard and usually have the re Christ) added on, ‘Before Christ.’ You will Sometimes find A\ meaning ‘in the year of t * BC stands for D before dates. This stands for two Latin words, ‘Anno Domini’, fhe Lord’ (i.¢., Christ), So, 2012 can also be written as AD 2012, Sometimes, CE is used instead of The letters CE stand for ‘Before Present’ The Hunters - why were they on the Move? + The people who tive i in the subconti Hunter-Gatherers, 1 tom tae + Generally, the hy it cane Seg ‘rom the Way in va the th oa es Seeds, leaves stalk, a eta, cage fish and ye : “asons for this; / “0S C88 Hontereattae moved im ae edad Place to place. There a are many @ onvvia:How do we know about the Hunter-Gatherers? + + available plant and animal resources search of food Second, animals move from place to place citlier i search of smaller prey or, in the case of deer and wild cattle, in search of grass and leaves, That is why those who hunted them had to follow their movements, ~ Third, plants and trees bear fruit in different seasons. So, people may have moved from season to season in search of different kinds of plants. Fourth, people, plants, and animals need water to survive. Water is found in lakes, streams, and rivers. While many rivers and lakes are perennial (with water throughout the year), others are seasonal. People living on their banks would have had to go in search of water during the dry seasons (winter and summer) Archaeologists have found some of the things hunter-gatherers made and used. It is likely that people made and used tools of stone, wood, and bone, of which stone tools have survived the best. ‘Some of these stone tools were used to cut meat and bone, scrape bark (from trees) and hides {animal skins), and chop fruit and roots | Some may have been attached to handles of bone or wood to make spears and arrows for hunting. Other tools were used to chop wood, which was used as firewood. Wood was also used to make huts and tools. rappers > Because susceptible to destruction than bones, stone artefacts typically offer the best evidence of early humans lived, the di Bi: they would have eaten up all the POINTS TO PONDER Hunters and gathe history of all societies. Most to modern life. Still, we find groups of tribes in different of the world adhering to hunting and gathering. Do you think the tribal groups are a true specimen of historical hunter gatherer the social influences have affected their lifestyle | Additional Information > The earliest stone toolmaking developed by at least 2.6 million years ago > Many archaeological sites. have be excavated, consist of the accumulated debris from making and using stone tools studied, and dated, which stone tools are less here and when geographic persal, and their ability to survive in a variety of habitats. Stone tools may also have been used fo: Left: Digging the ground to collect edible roots. Right: Stitching clothes made out of animal skin. ONLYIAS STONE AGE