1. The Stone Age

The Historical Progression

• In the Indian context, the oldest fossils of the Homo lineage have been found in Tamil Nadu and have been dated to 1.5 million years ago. However, the earliest fossil evidence of Homo erectus (ancestors of modern humans) presence in India was provided by the discovery of the fossilised skull of Narmada Human, initially named Narmada Man (most accepted date being 6 lakh years ago)
• The Quaternary Period (of Cenozoic Era), spans from 2.588 million years ago to the present, is divided into two epochs, the Pleistocene (2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today).
• Pleistocene climate was marked by repeated glacial cycles in which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. The evolution of anatomically modern humans took place during this epoch. 
• The Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age) began and ended at the end of this epoch. The earliest phase of Palaeolithic called the lower Palaeolithic is where the only hominine species found in fossil records is Homo erectus. The Middle Palaeolithic saw more varied speciation within Homo, including the appearance of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago. Fully modern man or Homo sapiens appears in the period between 100,000 BC and 60,000 BC, initially in South Africa and the Near East.
• The beginning of the Holocene epoch corresponds with the beginning of the Mesolithic age in majority areas. Mesolithic Age soon transitioned into the Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) The Late Holocene brought advancements such as the bow and arrow (at some places) and saw new methods of warfare. Spear throwers and their large points were replaced by the bow and arrow with its small narrow points beginning. Villages built on defensive bluffs indicate increased warfare, leading to food gathering in communal groups for protection rather than individual hunting
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The division of Prehistory

• The division of history was made into three groups based on the material of manufacture of these weapons and implements (Stone, Bronze and Iron)
• Stone age
• Palaeolithic Period (chipped stone tools)
  • Lower Palaeolithic
  • Middle Palaeolithic
  • Upper Palaeolithic
• Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age)- transitional period from huntinggathering to food-producing cultures
• Neolithic Period (New Stone Age with polished stone tools)
  • Bronze Age- Chalcolithic Period
  • Iron Age

Oldowan tools

Lower Palaeolithic

The first phase is called Early or Lower Palaeolithic, broadly between 600,000 and 150,000 BC (while digging, it is the earliest, therefore found at the lower strata of earth thus named “lower”). 

• Early men preferred to live near the water supply, as the stone tools are found mainly in or adjacent to the river valleys. The rock shelters may have served as seasonal camps for human beings.
• Bori in Maharashtra, and this site is considered to be the earliest Lower Palaeolithic site (600,000 BC). 
• Early Old Stone Age sites have been found in the valley of river Son or Sohan in Punjab, now in Pakistan. Several sites have been found in Kashmir and the Thar Desert. Lower Palaeolithic tools have also been found in the Belan valley in UP and in the desert area of Didwana in Rajasthan.

Technology

• The people of the Lower Stone Age seem to have principally been food gatherers. They took to small game hunting and lived also on fish and birds. 
• Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as five lakh years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, chimpanzees.
• Palaeolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and wood. Evidence shows these early hominids intentionally selected raw materials with good flaking qualities and chose appropriately sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting. 
• People use hand axes, cleavers, and choppers. The axes found in India are more or less similar to those of western Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Stone tools were used largely for chopping, digging, and skinning.

• Although they appear to have used hand axes often for various purposes of attack and defence. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots.
• The earliest Palaeolithic stone tool industry began around 2.6 lakh years ago. It contained tools such as choppers, burins and awls.
• A stone factory of the time has been discovered near Madras where traces of the various stages of the making of the tools and implements can be still seen, called Madras Factory.
• The Lower Palaeolithic hominid Homo erectus possibly invented rafts to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group of Homo erectus to reach the distant islands
• Fire was used by the Lower Palaeolithic hominid as early as 300,000 to 1.5 lakh years ago and possibly even earlier.

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Society

The social organization of the Lower Palaeolithic societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Palaeolithic hominids are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies

• Later Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 lakh years ago. However, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.

Middle Palaeolithic

• The Middle Palaeolithic, between 150,000 and 35,000 BC.
• The geographical horizon of the Middle Palaeolithic sites coincides roughly with that of the Lower Palaeolithic sites.

Technology

Middle Palaeolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool making technique. This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. It allowed Middle Palaeolithic humans to create stone tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts

• The Middle Palaeolithic industries were largely based upon flakes or small pieces of stone which have been found in different parts of India with regional variations. 

The principal tools comprise blades, points, borers, and scrapers, all made of flakes

• The use of fire only became common in Middle Palaeolithic Period. Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators. Early hominids may have begun to cook their food at the latest in the early Middle Palaeolithic (or as early as the Lower Palaeolithic). Some scientists have hypothesized that Hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.
• We did not get any evidence of paintings from lower or middle Palaeolithic age yet.

Society

• Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities such as ochre, which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago.
• Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Palaeolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (war). 
• Perhaps there no formal division of labour, where each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities.