GS Foundation (2025-26): AMAC
Handout 1: Prehistoric India
Introduction
Prehistoric Period Historic Period
• More than 99% of human past. • Less than 1% of human
• Main source for reconstruction of past: Archaeological past.
excavations, tools, remains of settlements, together • Both Archaeology and
with zoological, botanical and environmental Written material are used
evidence. for reconstruction of the
• Access to complex thoughts and precise ideas not past.
possible today • Personal details, name,
• Measurement of time is approximate and relative thoughts, emotions
with higher margins of error. accessible but fragmentary
• Over this enormous amount of time, early humans in nature.
made extraordinary advancements, inventions, • Dating of events is
modes of communication and language. relatively more accurate.
Proto-history: A period of transition between pre-history and history.
Three-Age system
The three-age system is a method of dividing
human prehistory into three periods based on
the materials used to make tools and weapons:
Stone Age. Bronze Age. Iron Age. This system
was developed by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen
in the 1830s. Later, John Lubbock, a 19th-
century British polymath, coined the terms
"Paleolithic" (Old Stone Age) and "Neolithic"
Thomasen Lubbock
(New Stone Age). The use of the term Mesolithic
is relatively recent.
Based on tools and stratigraphic analysis, the stone age is divided:
Stone Age
Chalco-lithic Age
Paleo-lithic Age Iron
Meso-lithic
Neo-lithic Age Bronze Age
Lower Middle Upper Age
Age
5L– 40K 40K – 20K 20K – 10K- 6K
6K – 1K BCE
BCE BCE 10K BCE BCE
Plant Various cultures
Animal
Domestication
Tools, Fire, Speech, Rock Art Domesticat Vedic Era
Wheel, Harappa
ion, Pottery
Villages
LevelUp IAS: Ph: 08062961200, 08062961201| Email: students@levelupias.com
History Optional Channel: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional, GS History and Culture: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture
Palaeolithic Era
Geological
Period Evolution Food base Tools and Technology Dwelling Sites Society and religion
Time
In Central Africa, • Generally used Quartz
primates began (metamorphic rock). It is hard, Nomadic life: • Humans moved around in
walking on feet crystalline and brittle. From it they People lived in Migratory Bands (20-100).
and evolved into made core tools like choppers, Natural They competed for
HOMO HABILIS, cleavers, hand axe. dwellings (caves food/shelter.
and then into • In India, there is a profusion of stone and rock • Discovery of Fire increased
HOMO ERECTUS Hunting tools, esp. in the period 8 lakh - 2 L shelters). chances of survival. (Belan
(upright). and years BP. Valley, UP: first evidence of
gathering Imp sites: Occupied entire controlled fire- 55,000 years BP
Lower In India, earliest – Big • Pallavaram (TN) – first time pelaeo subcontinent in India. Middle paleo)
Pleistocene human fossils woolly hand-axe was found here by Robert except alluvial • At the end, speech, language
(Great ice discovered from animals Bruce Foote in 1863. It belongs to 15 plains. Thus, evolved. (upper paleo)
age) Hathnora, MP confined lakh years BP. (at Atirampakkam Shiwalik, • They had plenty of leisure time
(Narmada Man to narrow also) Vindhya, to sleep, chat, play games, and
skull cap by Arun tropical/su • Isampur is a remarkably dense forested zones relax.
Sonakia, 1982) b-tropical concentration of 200 sites of the of Chhota • Earliest Bhimbetka paintings
zone. Lower Palaeolithic stage in KN. Nagpur, Bhima, might belong to Upper
• Jwalapuram (AP) Cuddapah Palaeolithic era. (beginning)
HOMO SAPIENS basins of south. • Auditorium cave at Bhimbetka
Middle Flake tools: points, borers, scrapers
ARCHAIC. • Baghor I (Sidhi, MP): Perhaps
Evolved into Exceptional site the oldest known deity idol in
Blade tools – blades and burins (fine – Kalpi (UP)
Upper HOMO SAPIEN India in Upper Palaeolithic era.
and regular sharp edge)
SAPIENS.
LevelUp IAS: Ph: 08062961200, 08062961201| Email: students@levelupias.com
History Optional Channel: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional, GS History and Culture: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture
Handaxe from
Narmada Valley
Robert Bruce Foote Narmada Skull discovered
(Father of Indian Pre-History) by Arun Sonakia (1982)
LevelUp IAS: Ph: 08062961200, 08062961201| Email: students@levelupias.com
History Optional Channel: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional, GS History and Culture: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture
Mesolithic Era
It was not considered as a separate stage earlier. With matured archaeological understanding, this age introduced as an age of transition from
food consumer to food producers.
Geological
Food base Tools, Technology Dwelling Sites Society and religion
Time
Population of grazing
animals increased sharply. • Population increases → more sites • Artificial dwellings of animal
New kinds of tools known across the country. skin tents, wattle-and-daub
Increase in human as Microlith • Temporary dwellings (Nomadic) huts with thatched roofs.
population also, hunting and • small (less than 3 cm) • Band → Tribes
gathering no longer sufficient • Sharp edges Imp sites: • Belief in afterlife – Generally
Holocene → • Geometric shapes • Bagor (RJ) E-W burial.
(warm domestication of animals • Bhimbetka (MP) • Rock Paintings in profusion –
climate) (first ones – goat, sheep, and Composite tools (arrows, • Damdama, Mahadaha, Chopani indicate gender division of
dog). spears, sling shots) Mando, Baghai Khor, Lekhahia work and abstract paintings
(UP) with philosophical
The earliest evidence of animal Beginning of pottery (eg. • Birbhanpur (WB) developments.
husbandry has been found at Langhnaj in GJ) • Bellary (KN) • Religion – primitive animism,
Bagore in RJ and Adamgarh in • Tuticorin (TN) nature worship.
MP
Microliths:
LevelUp IAS: Ph: 08062961200, 08062961201| Email: students@levelupias.com
History Optional Channel: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional, GS History and Culture: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture
Neolithic Era
Geological
Food base Tools and Technology Dwelling Sites Society and religion
Time
First time agriculture started – • Microlith tools disappeared.
barley and wheat were the first Tools were highly polished Emergence of sedentary
crops to be domesticated. Soon, it and refined. Instead of life and permanently
became the most important source quartz, igneous rocks such as settled villages. • Mud-brick houses – more
of food. basalt and granite. • Mehrgarh permanent.
• Mehrgarh (Balochistan, Bolan o Celt (tools with (Balochistan) • Tribe → chiefdom formation
River valley): wheat, barley, handles) – ground, • Burzahom, Gufkral • Emergence of exchange
Holocene
sheep, goat, cattle (7000 BCE) sharp, polished axe. (JnK) networks connecting several
• Belan valley (Mirzapur) – • Wheel – Transportation • Koldihwa (UP) communities
(climate
Koldihawa, first time rice revolution (earlier evidence • Chirand (BH) – • The remarkable technological
warmed up
evidence of 5500 BCE. in India about 3000 BCE) antler/bone tools progress prepared the ground
further)
o Recent study • Wheeled and fired Pottery. • Daojali Hading for the emergence of
Lahuradewa (Sant Kabir • Proto-Writing → around (Assam) civilisation, characterised by
Nagar district, UP) rice 5000 BCE. (easternmost site) intensive agriculture, large
as far back as 6500- (The earliest known true • Maski and cities and extensive trade.
8000 BCE. writing system is cuneiform, Brahmagiri (KN)
• Millets in south India developed by the Sumerians
• Supplemented by animal diet in Mesopotamia 3200 BCE.)
India’s first village – Mehrgarh, Balochistan Rock etching of hunting with a dog at Burzahom
Domesticated dog burial at Burzahom
(7000-2200 BCE)
LevelUp IAS: Ph: 08062961200, 08062961201| Email: students@levelupias.com
History Optional Channel: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional, GS History and Culture: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture
Ashmounds are a distinctive feature of the South Indian Neolithic sites. A well over a
hundred Ashmound sites have been discovered in southern Deccan. Important sites are
Utnur, Sangankallu, Tekkalkota, Piklihal, Budihal and Kupgal.
These large mounds consist of ash layers,
created by the continuous burning of organic
materials like wood, dung, and animal bones.
While their exact purpose remains uncertain,
researchers believe they may be linked to
ritualistic activities, cattle penning, or domestic
tasks.
Natural Caves in Nandyal district, AP (near Jwalapuram)
Irawati with human remains from the Mesolithic period, in Langhanaj, Gujarat, 1944.
6
Page
2nd Floor, 45 Pusa Road, Opp. Metro Pillar 128, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005
Ph: 08045248491, 7041021151 | Email: students@levelupias.com
