Hunting and Gathering (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) [^1]

Hunting and Gathering (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) ¹

2020-04-27 11:37 :29

• Hunting and Gathering (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) [^1]
  • Stone Age
    • Palaeolithic
      • Palaeolithic is Further Divided into
    • Subsistence Pattern of Palaeo and Meso Cultures All over the World
    • Tool Industry
    • Mesolithic Age
      • Tool Industry
      • Subsistence Pattern
      • Art, Socio-religious Beliefs
    • Pottery and Iron
    • Beginnings of Settled Agriculture and Community Life

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• Le Mesurier discoverd the first prehisotric tool in India near Pallavaram in 1856.
• history of Earth is divided into 4 eras or ages : Precambrian, Palaeozoic or Primary, Mesozoic or Secondary, Cenozoic or the age of mammals (Tertiary and Quarternary), it started 100mya.
• last era is further divided into 7 epoch last 2 of them is Pleistocene(1.6 mya) and Holocene (10000 ya)
• Early Holocene climate became warmer and wetter leading to an expansion of forests and grasslands

Stone Age

• divided into Palaeo, Meso and Neo on the basis of geological age, type and technology of stone tools and subsistence base
• way they acquired their food influenced the character of their relationship with Nature and also how they viewed Nature
• hunters/gatherers existed in groups was also related to mode of acquiring food this idea of group was much more flexible than in other societies
• Palaeolithic Culture developed in the Pleistocene period about 2 million years ago (last or the Great Ice Age)
• tools of the lower Palaeolithic phase include mainly handaxes, cleavers, choppers and chopping tools

Palaeolithic

• Starts 500,000 BC (Middle Pleistocene) - 8,000 BC (Holocene) developed in the Pleistocene period/Ice age
• Lower Palaeo - use hand axes, cleavers used mainly for chopping,
• Middle Palaeo - based upon flakes ex scrapers, borers, different blade like tools, pebble industry + Lower P tools
• Upper P - new flint industry, blades, burins + Lower and Middle P tools

Palaeolithic is Further Divided into

• Lower Palaeo : 2mya - 100,000ya
• Middle Palaeo : 100,000ya - 40000 ya
  • middle Palaeolithic industries are based upon flakes, and
• Upper Palaeo : 40,000-10,000
  • Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by burins and scrapers

Subsistence Pattern of Palaeo and Meso Cultures All over the World

• Primates, many giraffe-like forms, muskdeer, goats. buffaloes, bovids and pigs seem to be of indigenous origin.
• camel and the horse had North-American connection. Hippopotamus and elephants migrated to India from Central Africa.
• Hunting practices were concentrated on large and middle sized mammals especially ungulates, deer, rhino, and elephant seem to have been hunted
• people would have made extensive use of faunal and floral resources in the immediate vicinity
• diet pattern cannot be determined because of little evidence of peopleplant relationship
• earliest paintings belong to Upper Palaeo age. Bhimbetka Period I is upper P. paintings are predominantly of bisons, elephants, tigers, rhinos and boars
• usually large, some measuring two-three metres in length. Men and women can be distinguished due to their anatomical features. Hunting was the main subsistence base

Tool Industry

• Acheulian tools are marked by advanced and increasingly symmertrical handaxes and cleavers
• Handaxe: butt end is broader and the working end is narrower. It might have been used for cutting and digging purposes.
• Cleaver : This has a biface edge and is more or less transversal. It was used for clearing and splitting objects such as trunks of trees.
• Chopper: A massive core tool in which the working edge is prepared by unifacial flanking and used for chopping purposes.
• Chopping Tool : It is again a massive core tool like Chopper but the working edge is bifacially prepared by alternate flanking. Used for similar purpose as the chopper, it was more effective due to its edge being sharper.
• Side Scraper: Side Scraper is made of a flake or blade with continuous retouch along a border. It might have been used for scraping barks of trees and animal skins.
• Burin : It is like flake or blade and the working border is produced by the meeting of two planes. The burins working border does not exceed 2-3 cm. in length. It was used for engraving on soft stones, bones or walls of rock shelters.

Mesolithic Age

• Mesolithic Age began around 8000 BC. There was rise in temperature and the climate became warm and dry. Tools also underwent change and the small stone tools were used
• there was shift in the in pattern of hunting from big game to small game hunting and to fishing and fowling/hunting. can be seen in rock paintings.
  • Soil Analysis at Birbhanpur shows increasing aridity.
• Didwana suggests higher rainfall.
• About 10,000 BCE people started making microliths can be seen at Patne. This transition period is called as epi-palaeolithic and was caused due to changes in environmental factors.
• Term mesolithic is used for Holocene hunting and gathering stone age culture marked by use of microlith. But some areas show use microliths in post pleistocene period as well.
• Microliths : mostly made up of quartzite, chert, chalcedony, jasper and agate. Are miniature version of upper palaeo tools ex burins, points, scrapers.
  • Geometric shapes such as lunates, triangles, rhomboids, trapezes and trapezoids.
  • Could have been used to make spearheads, arrowheads, knives, daggers, sickles etc. and may have been poisoned tipped. ![[Pasted image 20211018115048.png]]
• Newer settlements came up in new ecological niches -> inc in pop to mor favourable env conditions and tech innovations.

Tool Industry

• tools were very small in size and were called microliths their length varied from 1-8 cm.
• Blade : Blade is a specialized flake with parallel to subparallel to lateral edge, its length is equal to at least twice its width. used for cutting purposes the process of production is called fluting.
• Core : Core is usually cylindrical in shape with fluting marks along its length and a flat striking platform at the distal horizontal end.
• Point : Point is a broken blade in a triangular form used as arrowheads and spearheads.
• Lunate : Lunate is like a blade and one of the borders is prepared by semi-circular retouching used for concave cutting.
• Triangle and Trapezes were also used.

Subsistence Pattern

• early Mesolithic sites have yielded the faunal remains of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig, , bison, elephant, hippo, jackal, wolf, cheetah, sambar, barasingha, black-buck, Chinkara, hog deer, hare, porcupine, mongoose, lizard, tortoise and fish
• wild buffalo, camel, wolf, rhinoceros and nilgai are present in the sites of Mesolithic tradition but these species are absent in the early Mesolithic period.
• Appearance, disappearance of the animals has to be understood in the context of changing climatic and environmental conditions.
• Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Pratapgarh and Mirzapur are rich in Mesolithic art and paintings.
• animals like, boar, buffalo, monkey and nilgai frequently depicted

Art, Socio-religious Beliefs

• paintings and engravings depict activities like sexual union, child birth, rearing of child, and burial ceremony
• indicate that during the Mesolithic period, social organization had become more stable than in palaeolithic times
• religious beliefs of the Mesolithic people was conditioned by ecological and material conditions
• At Chandravati, Raj examples of mesolithic art, chert core engraved w/ geometric design. Human tooth w/ faint geometric marks found in jaw fragment.
• ACL Carlleyle found first rock paintings in India in 1867 at Mirzapur, UP.
• VS Wakankar in 1957 discovered Bhimbetka rocks. Has 642 rock shelters 400 of which have paintings.
  • Mathpal has identified 3 main phases of rock paintings and 9 subphases. First 5 are mesolithic 6th is transitional and last 3 are historical.
  • Shows division of labour on basis of gender. No pottery depicted.
• Kharwar, Jaora, Kathotia and Lakhajoar have paintings as well.
• Both Monochrome and Polychrome, brushes made from twigs, squirrel tail, animal fur or silk cotton.
• No snakes depicted in any mesolithic paintings.
• Hunters w/ slings, wearing masks, headdress. Paintings in X-ray styles. Scene depicting pregnant animals, panther w/ tiger cubs etc. Paintings have lot of movements.
• Women given fuller forms, some men wear loincloth probably made of leaves, animal skin etc.
• Painting located in rock shelters in well lit areas, easily seen.
• Some paintings located higher location must have used scaffoldings and a lot of people -> ritualistic significance.
• In Orissa co-existence of painting and engraving are in the same shelter.
• Idukki in Kerala has rock painting in cave called Ezhuthu Guha but no Mesolithic tools found here.
• Made to express their creative urges, to decorate their homes, tell stories.

Pottery and Iron

• Cord Impressed style.
• Bagor :
  • Phase I is almost devoid of it.
  • Phase II (2800-600 BCE) pottery made its appearance, hand made with incised decoration. Made ofmicaceous clay, slipped surface is burnished, Firing done at low temperature makes them fragile. Graves had clay pots.
  • In Phase III (600 BCE - 200 CE) pottery was plentiful and entirely wheel made. Firing done at higher temp. Brick red surface and reddish or bluish core. Mostly Utilitarian and no aethetic appeal.
• Langhnaj has shown wheel made pottery
• Langhnaj has given an arrowhead and pieces of iron.
• P III at Bagor shows use of iron tools. Many amorphous bits of iron, 2 well preserved arrowheads.

Beginnings of Settled Agriculture and Community Life

• can be traced at Chopani Mando. P II and III are clearly Mesolithic.
  • Non geometric microliths have been found in IIA and IIB had large no of geometric microliths.
  • P III had pottery w/ cord impressed patterns, anvils and hammers stones, querns and mullers.
  • Wattle Doab huts, storage bins made of bamboo and clya. Wild rice from late mesolithic level.
• Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdana are very close. Refer ANKI for more details.
• Burials at Mahadaha were elliptical and their base was sloping. Grave goods had microliths, shells, burnt pieces of animal bones, arrowhead made of bones etc
• Multiple burial among 41 human burials. Buried in shallow rectangular graves in extended position.
• Male burials outnumber female, few instances of child burials at Mahadaha and Damdana.
• Difference in grave goods -> some level of social ranking.
• Burials aligned in West-East or East-West.
• Designated ares for disposal of dead and there was existence of corporate groups rights over critical resources claimed through lineal descent from deceased ancestors.
• PK Thomas identified animal bones of domesticated cattle at Bagor, Rajasthan.
• VN Misra showed evidence of wild goat, canines, pig, deer, mongoose etc.
• There was movement and interaction among communities possible at sources of raw materials.
• Some sites were temporary habitation but many were continuously inhabited.
• Certain rituals associated w/ death, belief in afterlife.
• Jewellery found on buried bodies suggest custom of adorning body before burial.

Footnotes

1. ![[2. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.pdf]] ↩