Introduction to Prehistory and Protohistory of India by V.K. Jain

Introduction to Prehistory and Protohistory of India

V.K. Jain

Chapter – 1

Harshit Sharma

Alumnus (BHU)

Contact

What is Prehistory?

Prehistory refers to the phase when Earth was still taking shape and humans were evolving biologically through extinct species from primates to their present form.
This period is marked by early man’s struggle for survival in an adverse environment, transitioning from an animal-hunting and wild food-collecting life to a food-producing and cattle-herding settled life.
Early humans did not have writing, so their artifacts (tools made from stone, bone, pottery, ornaments, etc.) are the main sources that provide insight into their cultural and material progress.
Other sources of information include traces of huts, hearths, querns, and burials, which offer a glimpse into early human life and thought processes.
Recent excavations, new dating techniques, and a multi-disciplinary approach have enhanced knowledge and changed perspectives on Prehistory, shifting focus from just tools to understanding early humans’ efforts to feed and protect themselves.
In archaeological terminology, human history is divided into Prehistory, Protohistory, and History.
Protohistory refers to a period when man had become literate but the records are undeciphered (e.g., Harappan Civilization), leaving information incomplete and hazy.
Protohistory bridges the gap between 3000 BC and 600 BC.
History begins when there are sufficient records (literary texts and epigraphs) to cross-examine data and refine our understanding of human history.
Prehistory covers the largest chronological period of human history and is also referred to as the Stone Age, since stone was the primary material for tools.
Christian J. Thomsen, a Danish scholar, defined the past of human society in terms of technological stages (Stone, Bronze, Iron) in 1836, introducing the Three-Age System.
In 1851, Daniel Wilson coined the term Prehistory, and in 1865, John Lubbock introduced the terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic to describe different stages in tool development.
In India, the documentation of Stone Age evidence began with the discovery of a hand-axe at Pallavaram near Madras in 1863.
Significant progress in Indian archaeology over the last five decades has enriched knowledge about India’s distant past.
Indian Prehistory is divided into three broad periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic.
The Palaeolithic period (Old Stone Age) saw a shift from heavy, asymmetrical tools to flake-based tools.
The Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age) was characterized by the use of microliths (small geometric tools) like triangles and crescents.
The Neolithic period (New Stone Age) featured polished and ground tools with sharper cutting edges, along with the emergence of the first farming communities.
Farming communities domesticated plants and animals, used pottery, and lived in hut-like structures across different ecozones of India.
The improvement in tool-making from Palaeolithic to Neolithic is seen as a primary factor leading to the change from a hunting and gathering lifestyle to food production.
This concept of the reciprocal relationship between technological growth and material progress was first proposed by Gordon Childe and later popularized by Braidwood and others.
Childe used the term “Neolithic Revolution” to describe the dynamic impact of farming and settled life during the Neolithic period.
However, new archaeological data suggests the transition to farming was gradual, indicating more of a “transformation” or “evolution” than a sudden revolution.

Environmental Factors

The physical environment is considered by many scholars as a major factor influencing the process of change and progress during Prehistoric times.
The physical environment is characterized by topography, climate, and the nature of soil, which in turn determine the fauna (animal life) and flora (vegetation), the two primary sources of subsistence for early humans.
The Palaeolithic period (around 2 million years ago to 10,000 BP) occurred during the Pleistocene (Greek for “most recent”) or the Ice Age.
During this time, much of the world was covered by ice sheets, and the climate was cold and arid.
The cold climate could sustain only limited flora and fauna, such as bushes and hedges and giant, thick-skinned animals.
Human ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers or scavengers due to limited food resources.
The onset of the Holocene (around 10,000 BP) brought a change in climate to warm and wet, similar to the present-day climate.
This climatic change resulted in the melting of snow, the formation of rivers and forests, and the size and swiftness of animals decreased.
These changes not only provided new resources but also allowed for the production of cereals and the domestication of animals, which shifted early humans from hunting-gathering to food production and settled life.
The theory suggesting that the change in early human life patterns was due to the environmental change is called environmental determinism.
Environmental determinism argues that humans are a component of the physical environment, and their life and activities are governed by it.
This theory is not fully accepted today. While the physical environment plays an important role in shaping human activities, humans are not passive beings, but capable of overcoming obstacles through their skill and endeavor.
Other factors, such as cultural traditions, cultural contact (social and economic interactions with other groups), and demographic profile (e.g., the need to feed larger populations), can also trigger change.
Many factors, not just the physical environment, can encourage technological innovations leading to progress in material and cultural life.
Indian Prehistory presents a picture of cultural continuum, where each step marks further growth or evolution over the previous one.
Indian society, like other parts of the world, evolved gradually, with lithic technology developing from heavier to smaller and sharper tools, creating conditions for stage-wise cultural growth.

Human Evolution and Indian Prehistory

Prehistory is closely linked with the evolution of man and his efforts to survive in an adverse environment through technological modifications of his tools and weapons.
The earth formed around 4,600 million years ago (m.y.a.), and organic life appeared in the form of algae or seaweed around 2,000 m.y.a.
Human evolution occurred in the last geological epoch called the Quaternary period, subdivided into two phases: Pleistocene and Holocene.
All humans belong to the family Hominid, with the genus Homo, diverging from apes and evolving into modern humans through various extinct sub-species like Homo habilis (handy-man), Homo erectus (upright-man), and Homo sapiens (wise-man).
Human evolution involved three functional features:
1. Bipedal locomotion (walking on two legs) associated with modifications of pelvis and lower extremities.
2. Changes in the upper body leading to rotating shoulder movements.
3. Increase in cranial capacity or brain size, with modern humans’ brain size estimated at 1200-1450 cc.
These changes allowed humans to use hands for making tools and their larger brains helped in planning and evolving new strategies for finding food.
The earliest ancestor to walk partially on two legs, Australopithecine africanus, appeared about 4 m.y.a. in Africa, as indicated by fossils and foot-prints found at Laetoli (Tanzania) and the skeleton of Lucy discovered in Hadar (Ethiopia) in 1974.
Lucy’s skeleton is dated to 3.2 m.y. and represents one of the earliest examples of bipedalism.
The first known evidence of stone tools was found at Hadar, Ethiopia, dating back to 2.3 m.y., made by striking pebbles to create sharp edges. These tools are called Oldowan tools.
Homo habilis, the earliest known tool-maker, lived from 2.5 m.y.a. to 1.5 m.y.a. and marked a significant step in human technological advancement.
The evolution continued with the development of Homo erectus, leading to Homo sapiens sapiens around 40,000 BP.
An important discovery was the mastery of fire, traditionally attributed to Homo erectus, providing light, heat, and protection from predators.
Fire enabled humans to move out of tropical areas into colder regions. Evidence of early fire use includes burnt clayfrom Chesowanga (Kenya) dated 1.4 m.y.a., and charcoal found in Choukou-tien (China) dated to 500,000 BC.
Homo erectus spread out of Africa, settling in Europe, Western Asia, and China, developing into various local species like Java man, Peking man, and Neanderthal man.
Some scholars argue that human culture (tools and weapons) could develop independently in similar ecological conditions without external influence.
In the Indian sub-continent, no definitive hominid fossils have been found. Ramapithecus, initially thought to be a human ancestor, is now considered an orangutan ancestor.
Palaeolithic tools found across India confirm early human activity, with tools at Riwat near Rawalpindi dating back 2 million years.
The discovery of a skull-cap from Hathnora (Madhya Pradesh, India) in 1982 marked a significant milestone, with some identifying it as Homo erectus or an archaic Homo sapiens.
The exact age of the “Narmada man” skull is uncertain, but it was found alongside Lower Palaeolithic tools like hand-axes and cleavers.
India was once part of the supercontinent Gondwana land, which began drifting apart in the Mesozoic era (225 m.y.a. – 65 m.y.a.), suggesting early human evolution in Indian tropical or sub-tropical regions independently from Africa.
The idea that tool-technologies evolved independently in India from those of Africa is still under investigation.

Scientific Dating and Related Techniques

Knowledge of a sound chronological framework is essential for studying Prehistory and understanding the evolution of human culture.
Early Prehistorians relied on “relative chronology,” based on stratigraphy and typology of tools, implements, and material remains.
Stratigraphy: Lower layers are older, and typology suggests that more refined tools are later in date.
The concept of tools or pottery with similar forms found at different sites being contemporary was key in relative chronology.
New scientific dating techniques since 1950 allowed for establishing absolute or chronometric chronology, offering a more specific time-frame.
These new techniques don’t provide exact dates but can offer approximations within a few centuries.
Commonly used dating methods:
1. Radiocarbon (C14) Dating: Developed by W.F. Libby in 1949, based on the decay of C14 in dead organisms, which can be used to estimate age.
2. Initially, C14’s half-life was thought to be 5568 years but was later adjusted to 5730 years after cross-examination with dendrochronology (tree-ring dating).
3. C14 dating is effective for dates up to 50,000 years, but AMS (accelerated mass spectrometry) allows dating as far back as 100,000 years.
4. Thermoluminescence (TL) Dating: Used for dating inorganic objects like pottery by measuring the light released when a sample is heated.
5. Potassium-argon (K-AR) Dating: Measures the proportion of potassium and argon in volcanic ash, useful for dating objects up to 5 million years old.
6. Palaeomagnetic Dating: Based on analysis of particles in sediments, which indicate the formation time of rocks containing artifacts or fossils.
7. Uranium Thorium (U-TH) Dating: Measures radioactive decay of uranium isotopes and is useful for dating objects from 50,000 to 500,000 years old.
8. Electron Spin Resonance (ESR): Used to date materials like tooth enamel that decompose when heated.
New scientific methods are used to supplement archaeological studies:
1. Optical Emission Spectrometry: Analyzes trace elements in artifacts, helping identify the source of materials and trade contacts.
2. Micro-wear Analysis: Developed by Semenov in 1964, it examines wear on tools to determine their use (e.g., cutting wood or meat).
3. Remote Sensing: LANDSAT satellites use infrared radiation to trace underground channels and archaeological sites, like the Sarasvati river in India.
4. SONAR: Used in underwater archaeology to locate objects by sending out sound pulses, useful in locating shipwrecks and undersea sites.
5. In India, SONAR helped locate a “township” off the coast of Gujarat.
6. DNA Analysis: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is used to study genetic differences or similarities between fossil remains of early humans.
7. M. Walpoff proposed that modern humans may have emerged simultaneously in different regions of the world based on genetic studies.
Scientific techniques have helped archaeologists reassess archaeological data and have challenged old theories of diffusion, which suggested that agriculture and metal technology spread from Mesopotamia.
New dates support the theory that agricultural and technological developments may have occurred independently in different regions, not through diffusion from the West.

New Theoretical Perspectives

Archaeology is the primary source of information in the study of Prehistory, which is the period without written records.
Archaeology helps recover unwritten records of the past through material remains of early humans, but excavation alone is not enough.
Excavated materials need to be interpreted and analyzed to understand early human behavior and mindset.
Archaeology is not just about digging up “things,” but about digging up “people.”
An archaeologist must use a multi-disciplinary approach, collaborating with scholars from fields like anthropology, sociology, chemistry, and zoology for a holistic understanding of the past.
The cultural-historical or collection and narration approach was earlier used by archaeologists, focusing on:
- Describing the typology of tools, pottery, and material remains (shapes, forms, fabrics).
- The concept of diffusion, suggesting that activities like tool-making, pottery-making, and agriculture spread from a single core area.
- Seriation: Dating materials based on layers of deposits, with the bottom-most layer being the earliest.
- Gordon Childe’s theory: Archaeological remains found together represent the “culture” of the people.
Stuart Piggott and Wheeler were key proponents of this perspective in the Indian context.
Since 1950, the use of scientific dating techniques and new site discoveries has advanced prehistoric research.
In the 1960s, scholars like Lewis Binford, Flannery, and David Clark introduced “new archaeology”, now known as “processual archaeology”.
Processual archaeology focuses on:
- Analyzing material remains to understand socio-economic change and progress.
- Examining questions about life-patterns, trade, exchange, social inequality, and political authority.
- Viewing culture as a system with interrelated components (society, economy, environment), where interactions trigger change.
Processual archaeology integrates knowledge from anthropology and ethno-archaeology, which studies existing societies with similar tools and artifacts to those of prehistoric times.
Ethno-archaeology focuses on understanding the limitations and opportunities offered by the environment, not on historical continuity.
Paleobotany and palaeozoology are also incorporated into the study of archaeology to understand early human food resources.
Post-processual archaeology, coined by Ian Hodder in 1986, critiques processual archaeology and emphasizes:
- Viewing archaeology in the context of the history of the people rather than from an external viewpoint.
- Recognizing that each region follows its own developmental trajectory, with unique cultural traditions.
- Cognitive archaeology, the study of remains and symbols to understand the beliefs and ideologies of early humans.
- Gender archaeology, which presents women as active participants in cultural transformation, highlighting their role in agriculture, craft-production, religion, etc.
New approaches to archaeology have shifted the focus from mere narration and description to interpretation of archaeological data from social, economic, political, and religious perspectives.
S.C. Malik (1968) first called for a shift from descriptive methods to an anthropological and analytical approach in India, but his plea went largely unnoticed.
H.D. Sankalia (1977) helped bring attention to the relevance of new archaeology in India, influencing scholars like D.K. Chakrabarti, K. Paddayya, D.P. Agrawal, and Ravi Korisettar.