Palaeolithic Cultures
V.K. Jain
Chapter – 3
Table of Contents
Introduction
- The Palaeolithic period (Old Stone Age) is the longest phase of Prehistory, covering the Pleistocene epoch from about 2 million years ago (m.y.a.) to 10,000 BP.
- During this period, early humans coexisted with various wild and giant animals or megafauna such as buffalo, rhino, tiger, elephant, etc.
- Early humans started making stone tools for survival in a hostile environment.
- The Palaeolithic Age is divided into three cultural phases: Early (Lower) Palaeolithic, Middle Palaeolithic, and Late (Upper) Palaeolithic.
- The division is based on the progressive improvement in tool types, leading to better efficiency and ease of use.
- Lower Palaeolithic is marked by the use of heavy pebble tools, termed chopper-chopping tools and hand-axes.
- Middle Palaeolithic is characterized by tools made on flakes.
- Upper Palaeolithic is characterized by sharp blades and burins.
- Tools from all periods, with regional variations, show remarkable similarity in their form, technique, and raw materials across the Indian subcontinent.
- The transition from one phase to another was not sudden; in areas with clear stratigraphic profiles, the evolution of lithic industry is noticeable, gradually transforming from Lower to Middle to Upper Palaeolithic.
- De Terra and Patterson (1939) found evidence in the River Soan Valley near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, with five different terraces containing progressively finer tools.
- In the Belan Valley (from Allahabad to Varanasi), a complete sequence from Lower Palaeolithic to Neolithic and even Chalcolithic cultures is observed.
- Bhimbetka, near Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), has evidence of continuous Prehistoric occupation from the Early Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic period.
- Patne in Jalgaon (Maharashtra) shows a continuous sequence from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic Age.
- Our knowledge of the exact function of most Palaeolithic tools is still imperfect, despite micro-wear analysis.
- However, it is certain that tools served various purposes like hunting, butchering, skinning animals, digging roots, and making wooden tools or weapons.