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used for making tools:

(i) The Paleolithic Period or Old/Ancient stone age (2.5 million-12,000 B.C.) - The age in human culture was characterized by the use of rough or chipped stone tools. Man was essentially a food gatherer and depended on nature for food. He learnt to control fire, which helped him to improve his way of living. At the end of this age, the modern human being (Homo sapiens) first appeared around 36,000 B.C. The Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age) is from 2.5 million-12,000 B.C. with earliest tool-making human beings and ends when people learned to produce higher quality tools around 12,000 B.C. and to farm around 8,000 B.C. The Old Stone Age is the ‘Age of food-

gatherers’, while the New Stone Age (the New Stone Age or the Neolithic Age (12000 to 4000

B.C.)) is referred to as the ‘Age of food producers’. This puts the Bronze Age onwards as the ‘Age of civilization’, starting towards the end of the Neolithic Age. There are three major life- style groupings viz., (i) Hunter gatherer, (ii) Agriculture, and (iii) Technological civilization. Civilization requires, or may be defined by, settlement in definite territories, the building of

towns and cities, the evolution of defined systems of government and the development of trade and commerce. This social system has and does exist together with the first two.

Hunter gatherers - Over the period called the Middle Paleolithic (called the Middle Stone Age in Africa), 200,000 to 40,000 years ago, stone tools found are quite similar, representing a uniform technology world-wide. The oldest site of tool use comes from East Africa where pebble tools were in use 1.7 million years ago. Tool and fire are ancient “landmarks” on the path to humanity. There is evidence that fire was first used by Homo erectus at Ghoukoutien, China 300,000 to 400,000 years ago.

Hunter-gatherers had a practical, but excellent knowledge of their natural environment, be it plants, animals or the physical conditions. In productive areas, Australian aborigines had up to 250 food plants from which to choose. Poorer areas had about 50 food plants. Paleolithic (Stone) Age lasted up to 12,000 B.C. Primitive man used tools and implements of rough stone. Man was essentially a food gatherer and depended on nature for food.

Ice Age (Upper Paleolithic - 35,000 to 8,000 B.C.) - During this period, a culture of mammoth hunters lived in Eastern Europe and Siberia. These hunting nomads had a diet mostly of meat as did the Eskimos until recently. All their requirements would have come from their prey which also included bison, horses, reindeer, birds, fish, arctic foxes and hares. Vegetable foods would have formed a minor supplement. They even built huts from carefully interlocked mammoth bones covered with skins. A typical Australian aborigine’s catch for the day may include snakes, lizards, anteaters, frogs and grubs, and a wallaby or two. Semang people of Malaysia rely on small creatures (fish, birds, rats, squirrels, lizards and sometimes wild pigs, tapirs and deer), wild plants (nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, shoots, and tubers) and honey collected from the forest. They use a poisoned dart propelled from a two-metre long bamboo blowpipe to kill some animals.

Beginning of agriculture - Demographic pressure probably led to the adoption of crop cultiva- tion and animal husbandry, leading to modern civilization. As the population grew, there was an increased dependence upon plants. Next, consumer demand within a constrained space forced the adoption of some form of intensive agriculture. Other evidence for this trend is found in Peru where people domesticated camelids and guinea pigs 2,000 years before crop cultivation. Agri- culture would have been started with the end of the last Ice Age between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago. Before this, people living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle depended upon what was available. Historical evidences showed that agriculture started around 8,500 years ago from the Near East, reaching Britain around 6,000 years ago and Spain and Portugal by 5,000 years ago. American Indians of central Brazil, called, the Kayapo are a modern version of hunter gatherer people. With chickens, crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, sweet manioc and yams and a hunting lifestyle they represent a transition from a hunter-gathering lifestyle to an agricultural lifestyle. What they caught by hunting, be it a tortoise, deer, fish or a wild pig, they had to share and they discouraged selfishness. Women worked in groups to gather fruit, nuts and plants from the same forest where the men hunt. Ironically, on finding a high fruit tree, they cut it down with a metal axe to harvest the ripe fruit. Domestic crops and animals become more important as food than wild animals and plants. Agriculture is relatively new, only emerging between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago and has often caused environmental damage, but has led to the social changes that have allowed the formation of our modern civilization. The domestication of dogs and turkeys followed agriculture. People made tools such as bone reaping knives with flint cutting teeth (Refer Table 1.1 of Chapter 1).

(ii) Mesolithic period or Meso stone age (12,000 to 7,500 B.C.) - The Mesolithic age began and continued up to 4000 B.C. in India. It is characterized by tiny store implements called microliths. During this time, sharp and pointed tools were used for killing fast-moving animals. The begin- ning of plant cultivation also appeared. The human beings learned to produce higher quality tools around 10,000 B.C. and to farm around 8,000 B.C. Semi-permanent agricultural settle- ments took place in Old World. The human culture characterized by cultures moving from a food-gathering society to a food-production society. Tools in this age often had “barbs” or hooks, or interchangeable. The beginning of plant cultivation also appeared. Chotanagpur pla- teau, central India and south of the river Krishna are some of the various Mesolithic sites.

Table 2.1. The Type of Economy and CultureDuring the Mesolithic Period-Bronze Age

Period Type of economy Type of culture

12000-8500 B.C. Hunter/gathering economy with more Nomadic culture. intense use of animals plantings.

8500-7600 B.C. Exploitation of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, Village development at Jericho wheat, barley, peas, lentil, etc., cultivated. barter began burial of dead. 7600-6000 B.C. Domestication of sheep, goat, expansion Increase in settlement size.

range of cultivated crops. More varied artifacts. 6000-5000 B.C. Increasing concentration on agriculture and Pottery making began, use of plough.

harding as hunting diminished in importance. Cattle and pigs domesticated.

5000-3700 B.C. More productive agriculture and herding Development of copper culture, wider economy. range of pottery styles. Increased population.

(iii) Neolithic or New Stone age (7500 B.C. to 6500 B.C.) - The word ‘lithium’ comes from a Greek word, “lithos”, which means stone while ‘Neo’ means ‘new’. Human settlement in the Indian sub-continent is from 7500 to 4000 B.C. Man began to domesticate animals and cultivate plants, settling down in villages to form farming communities. Beginning or discovery of Agriculture takes place in Neolithic period. Agricultural Revolution has occurred in western Asia during the same period. Invention of polished stone implements has taken place. The age in human culture characterized by the use of arrows, polished stone tools used in farming, the creation of pottery, weaving cloth and making baskets. In Neolithic period, two major periods were covered viz.

I. 8000-6000 B.C.- Early agricultural settlement with domestic architecture and variety of