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DAILY
CLASS NOTES
Ancient History

Lecture – 01
Paleolithic Age
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Paleolithic Age
 History is not about dates
 History is about:
 Political dimensions / Dynasties
 Administration
 Economy
 Society (caste, religion, status of woman)
 Culture
Topics to be Covered:
 Evolution Story + Technical
 Prehistoric India
 Paleolithic Basics
 Lower Paleolithic age
 Middle Paleolithic Age
 Upper Paleolithic Age
 Mesolithic Age
 Neolithic Age
 Chalcolithic Age
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Note: From 66 million years ago, we had primates. Story of Primates starts from the Cenozoic Era.

Story of Human Evolution:

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Somewhere around 66 million years ago, humans started evolving in multiple stage
Africa - Cradle of Mankind:
 Human evolution started from equatorial forests.
 The lack of resources in the equatorial forest could have prompted humans (primates) to migrate outside the
forests.
 Further, they started moving into the grasslands.
 Grasslands provided new opportunities for evolution.
 Increased the cranial capacity due to danger of animals and new experiences of the environment.
 Due to the absenteeism of tall trees in the grassland area, now the hands of primates were free which
started bipedalism (movement on feet).
 As the grasslands catch fire during the summer season, they discover fire.
 Previously in the forest region, they relied on food gathering. But after the discovery of fire, they focused
on hunting.
 They started to eat cooked meat, after which their digestion system changed.
 Changed the dental structure for new food habits.
 As they wanted to protect themselves from wild animals in the grasslands, they used to peep out of the
tall grasslands, which might have ultimately helped in straightening their back.
 Cranium size (size of the skull) also started developing.
 In order to save themselves from wild animals, they started using rocks which also gave rise to the stone age.
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Australopithecus (5.5 to 1.5 Million Years Ago):

 Ape along with human-like features.
 Small brain case 400 centimeters cube.
 Bipedal: Using two legs
 Potbellied: No abs.
 Found in Africa.
 Protohuman.
 Last of pre-human hominids.
Homo Habilis (2 to 1.5 Million Years Ago):
 Handy and skillful man.
 Skillful in breaking stone into pieces and sharpening the latter to use as tools.
 Lightly built braincase (500-700 centimeters cube)
Homo Erectus (1.8/1.6 Million Years ago to 100k Years Ago):
 They had a straight backbone, hence could take long steps.
 Size of braincase (800-1200 centimeter cube).
 New types of stone tools like hand axes were discovered.
 They knew how to use fire.
 They traveled long distances.
 Found in Africa, China, South Asia &
South East Asia.
 With some time gap or delay, there
occurred transfer of knowledge
because of migration. Migration took
place due to:
 Search of food
 Changing season
 After Homo Erectus, humankind
started migrating.
Homo Sapiens (1.15 lakh Years Ago):
 Full fledged modern man.
 Larger forehead.
 Thinner bones.
 Diverse stone tools.
 Skull size (1200-2000 centimeters cube)
 Found in South- Africa in the late stone age.
 Upper Paleolithic Period.
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Additional Information:
● Lithic Age: From Homo Habilis to Homo Sapiens age.
● All the Archeological findings in India are done by the Archaeological Survey of India.
 Sources of knowledge used by them:
○ Excavations
○ Archaeology

Indian Context:
 First human settlement was not earlier than the middle Pleistocene i.e. 500,000 BC
 Only a few fossils were discovered, earliest in Shivalik hills in the Potwar Plateau of Punjab in Pakistan.
 These skulls are called Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus.
 Skulls Found: Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus (Brahmapithecus)
 Some hominid features were mostly like apes.
 Dated between 10-14 mya.
 God apes of Shivaliks.
 Came to a dead end and extinct.
 Recent artifacts from Bori in Maharashtra trace the origin of man in India as early as 1.4 million years ago
(subject to further research).
 Present research suggests that India was settled after Africa.
 Early man in India used tools of stone roughly dressed by crude chipping.
 The tools have been discovered throughout India except the alluvial plains of Indus, Ganga-Yamuna
regions.
 In this period man lived on hunting.The phase continued till 11,700 years ago.
 Later, an archaic homosapiens skull was discovered in Narmada Valley at Hathnora, Madhya Pradesh by
Arun Sonakia (1982).
 It is called Narmada man.
 The Narmada fossil could be 500,000 to 600,000 years old.
 Its name is given to Homo Erectus Narmadensis.
 Fossilized fragment of cranium of 30 years old women.
 Represents homo erectus.
 Large skull of 1155 to 1420 cc.
 Few late acheulean tools found in India.
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Additional Information:
● Dryopithecus was a distant Miocene forerunner of gorillas and chimpanzees.
● A form close to this branching of the dryopithecus stock is represented by the genus
Ramapithecus, distinguished by its more advanced dentition.
● The dryopithecines probably inhabited forest areas.

Additional Information:
● Bats evicted from prehistoric Manipur cave for tourism: The Khangkhui Cave system in
Ukhrul district had yielded Paleolithic artifacts and a shelter for locals during World War II.
● The Khangkhui, locally called Mangsor, is a natural limestone cave about 15 km from Ukhrul, the
headquarters in Ukhrul district.
● Excavation carried out by Manipuri archaeologists revealed the cave was home to Stone Age
communities.

Palaeolithic Age:
 In 1863, John Lubbock coined the term “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic” to denote the Old and New Stone
Ages, respectively.
 According to John Lubbock only two ages were important: Paleolithic and Neolithic age
 Palaeolithic = Palaeo (Old) + Lithic (Stone) i.e., Old Stone
 Roughly around 2 million years ago we had the Paleolithic age.
 The Neolithic Age is the age when agricultural activities started.
 However, John Lubbock missed one important thing:
 During the Quaternary period, there were two epochs: Pleistocene Epoch and Holocene Epoch (from
2.6 million years ago)
 The Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million years ago) was the ice age era. Hence, this was a very different
period.
 During the Holocene epoch, climate change took place. Climate became warmer and animal sizes
became smaller.
 This transition from where climate change occurred till the discovery of agriculture was known as the
Mesolithic period.
 Therefore, there are three ages:
○ Paleolithic (dependent upon food gathering, cold weather)
○ Mesolithic (warmer temperature, transition phase, domestication of animals)
○ Neolithic (agriculture dependent)
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Why was Agriculture Important?

 Agriculture was so important because it was like a new innovation.
 At the time of the Paleolithic period we
were dependent upon food gathering
and hunting.
 During the Palaeolithic age, even if
humans hunted huge animals, it did not
ensure food security as it could not be
stored due to lack of space/mechanism
to preserve the same.
 Hence, this problem was solved by the
arrival of the Neolithic age where
humans discovered the way of
agriculture.
 Hence, these two ages (Paleolithic and Neolithic) were important for mankind.
Anno Domini (AD) / Before Christ (BC):
 The terms "A.D." and "B.C." have their roots in Christianity.
 "A.D." stands for Anno domini (Latin for "in the year of the lord"), and it refers specifically to the birth of
Jesus Christ. "B.C." stands for "before Christ."
 The system labels years based on a traditional notion of when Jesus was born— with the "A.D." denoting
years after his birth and "B.C." designating the years that predate his birth.
 In English, it is common for "A.D." to
precede the year, so that the
translation of "A.D. 2022" would read
"in the year of our lord 2022."
 In recent years, an alternative form of
B.C./A.D. has gained traction. Many
publications use "C.E.," or "common
era," and "B.C.E.," or "before common
era" in order to make non-Christians
more comfortable using the system.
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