Primitive Man

Primitive history of man is divided into following periods:

Table of Contents

Palaeolithic age is also called Old Stone Age.

This phase was between 5,000,000 BC to 10,000 BC.
Man was food gatherer in this age as he had no knowledge of agriculture.
Man used stone tool for hunting to gather his food. He also used stone for digging, chopping and skinning.
Material used for making tools was stones, flakes and flint.
Some of the tools used were:
- Cleaver, hand-axes, choppers (made up of stone).
- Bores, scrappers, blades (made up of flakes).
- Old Stone Age sites are found in river sohan in Punjab, Bhimbetka near Bhopal, Narmada river, Tungabhadra river in Karnataka, Belan valley in Mirzapur (UP).

Palaeolithic age is further divided into three phases:

This was transition period from Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age) to Neolithic Age (New Stone Age).

This phase was between 9,000 BC to 4,000 BC.
Major climate change occurred during this age. The climate became warm and various changes in flora and fauna forced man to find new places to live.
In this age also, man was food gatherer lived on hunting, fishing etc. Towards the end of this age, man started domesticating animals.
The tools used in this age are called Microliths.
Some of sites found are in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Adamgarh in MP, central and eastern India.

This age is also referred as New Stone Age as various changes in living of human beings changed in this era.

This phase was between 4,000 BC to 1,800 BC.
This age is characterized by the domestication of animals and cultivation.
The man stopped being nomad. He became farmer and began the life style of village settlements.
He manufactured new type of tools for cultivation like chisels, axes, saws, burins, celts etc.
This age agriculture activities started dominating and food-gathering lost it relevance.
Some of the excavation sites of this ages includes:
- In Kashmir valley two sites are excavated namely Burzahom and Gufkral. In both these sites, Pit dwellings are found. At Burzahom, the culture of Dog burial along with human graves is found.
- The earliest evidence of beginning of agriculture is found in Mehargarh on the bank of river Bolan in Kacchi plain of Baluchistan.
- Some other Neolithic sites are in Belan valley in Mirzapur district of UP which includes Mahagara, Koldihawa and Chopani. These were the earliest rice producing sites.
- This phase was between 1,800 BC to 1,000 BC.
- This phase characterized by first metal discovered in India. The copper was discovered and used across.
- Major sites include area from Banas and Berach basins northeast of Udaipur to Malwa, Western Maharashtra, Bhima Valley.

This phase was between 1,800 BC to 1,000 BC.
This phase characterized by first metal discovered in India. The copper was discovered and used across.
Major sites include area from Banas and Berach basins northeast of Udaipur to Malwa, Western Maharashtra, Bhima Valley.