Prehistoric India: Stone Age and Chalcolithic Cultures
Exam notes on prehistoric India: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic tools, sites, states, rock paintings and early farming.
By GK24 Editorial Team· Published · 4 min read
Prehistory is the stretch of the human past that left no writing behind. For India it is reconstructed entirely from stone tools, animal bones, charred grain, pottery, burials and rock paintings, which is why the examinable facts in this topic are pairs: a site and its state, a site and its characteristic find, a period and its tool type. The first Palaeolithic tool in India was found in 1863 by Robert Bruce Foote at Pallavaram near Madras, and he is remembered as the father of Indian prehistory. The periods run Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic, after which iron appears and history proper begins.
The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age
The Palaeolithic is the longest phase and is divided into three stages by its tools. The Lower Palaeolithic is the age of the hand axe, the cleaver and the chopper, worked on quartzite pebbles; its classic sites are the Sohan valley, Didwana in Rajasthan, Hunsgi in Karnataka, Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu and the lower layers of Bhimbetka. The Middle Palaeolithic is the age of flakes, blades, points, borers and scrapers, best known from Nevasa on the Pravara river and the Narmada valley. The Upper Palaeolithic brings burins, parallel sided blades and the first worked bone, found in the Belan valley of Uttar Pradesh and the Kurnool caves of Andhra Pradesh, where a bone figurine of a mother goddess was recovered. The people of the whole phase were hunters and food gatherers who did not farm, make pottery or build houses.
The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age
The Mesolithic is identified by the microlith, a tiny blade one to five centimetres long, set in wood or bone to make a composite tool such as an arrow or a sickle. Bagor in Rajasthan, on the Kothari river, is the largest Mesolithic site; Langhnaj in Gujarat, Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama in Uttar Pradesh are the others that papers name. Adamgarh and Bagor give the earliest Indian evidence of the domestication of animals. Human burials appear, some with grave goods, and the rock paintings of Bhimbetka in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, discovered by V.S. Wakankar in 1957 and inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2003, belong largely to this phase. More than seven hundred shelters there carry hunting scenes, dancing figures and animals in red and white.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age
The Neolithic is the age of farming, pottery, polished ground stone tools and settled villages. Mehrgarh, in the Bolan valley near the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills, is the earliest farming village of the subcontinent, with wheat, barley and domesticated cattle, sheep and goat from about 7000 BCE. Burzahom in Kashmir is famous for pit dwellings dug into the ground, bone and antler tools, and dogs buried with their masters; Gufkral nearby means the cave of the potter. Chirand in Bihar is known for its bone and antler industry, Koldihwa and Mahagara in Uttar Pradesh for early rice and a cattle pen, Daojali Hading in the north-east for jadeite and stone querns, and Hallur, Maski, Brahmagiri, Piklihal and Sanganakallu in the south for polished axes and ash mounds.
The Chalcolithic cultures
The Chalcolithic or copper-stone phase is the age of the first metal. These cultures used copper along with stone blades, painted their pottery, lived in villages and did not know iron or writing. The Ahar or Banas culture of Rajasthan smelted copper and used black and red ware; Kayatha and the Malwa culture of Navdatoli, Eran and Nagda in Madhya Pradesh produced the richest painted pottery; the Jorwe culture of Maharashtra covers Jorwe, Nevasa, Chandoli, Daimabad and Inamgaon, the largest of them, which had a channel to divert river water. Daimabad yielded famous bronze figures of a chariot, a buffalo, an elephant and a rhinoceros. The dead were buried inside the settlement, and at Inamgaon adults were laid out straight with the head towards the north, while in parts of Maharashtra children were buried in two urns joined mouth to mouth. Wheat, barley, lentils, rice and cotton were grown, infant mortality was high, and black and red ware runs through almost every one of these cultures.
Period, tool and leading sites
| Period | Typical tools | Sites to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Palaeolithic | Hand axe, cleaver, chopper | Sohan valley, Didwana, Hunsgi, Attirampakkam |
| Middle Palaeolithic | Flakes, blades, scrapers | Nevasa, Narmada valley, Bhimbetka |
| Upper Palaeolithic | Burins, bone tools | Belan valley, Kurnool caves |
| Mesolithic | Microliths | Bagor, Langhnaj, Adamgarh, Sarai Nahar Rai |
| Neolithic | Polished ground axes, celts | Mehrgarh, Burzahom, Chirand, Koldihwa, Hallur |
| Chalcolithic | Copper tools with stone blades | Ahar, Gilund, Kayatha, Navdatoli, Inamgaon, Daimabad |
Points that decide answers
- Palaeolithic people neither farmed nor made pottery; the Mesolithic begins animal domestication; the Neolithic begins agriculture and village life; the Chalcolithic begins metal.
- Bhimbetka is a Palaeolithic and Mesolithic rock shelter site in Madhya Pradesh, not a Neolithic village.
- Burzahom and Gufkral stand for the northern Neolithic of Kashmir, with pit dwellings.
- Inamgaon is the largest Jorwe settlement and the standard example of Chalcolithic burial practice.
Exam Point of View
Papers ask three things from this topic. First, the site and its state or its find: Bagor with Rajasthan, Burzahom with pit dwellings, Daimabad with the bronze chariot, Inamgaon with north-facing burials. Second, which period a named site or tool belongs to, where the favourite trap is Bhimbetka, a Palaeolithic and Mesolithic shelter that students wrongly mark Neolithic, and Inamgaon, a Chalcolithic village often mistaken for a Stone Age camp. Third, the firsts: the first Palaeolithic tool found in 1863 by Robert Bruce Foote, the earliest farming at Mehrgarh, the earliest animal domestication at Adamgarh and Bagor. Statement-based questions on the Chalcolithic also appear, usually testing that these cultures were rural, used copper and black and red ware, and did not know iron.
Important Facts
| First Palaeolithic tool in India | Pallavaram near Madras, 1863, by Robert Bruce Foote |
|---|---|
| Signature tool of the Mesolithic | Microliths, blades of one to five centimetres set in wood or bone |
| Largest Mesolithic site | Bagor, Rajasthan, on the Kothari river |
| Earliest animal domestication in India | Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Bagor in Rajasthan |
| Bhimbetka | Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh; discovered by V.S. Wakankar in 1957; World Heritage Site in 2003 |
| Earliest farming village | Mehrgarh, Bolan valley, with wheat, barley, cattle, sheep and goat |
| Pit dwellings | Burzahom, Kashmir, in the northern Neolithic |
| Bone and antler industry | Chirand, Bihar |
| Largest Jorwe settlement | Inamgaon, Maharashtra, with a water channel from the river |
| Bronze chariot and animal figures | Daimabad, Maharashtra |
| Chalcolithic pottery | Black and red ware, usually painted, used across these cultures |
Practice MCQs on this topic
What is the first age in the prehistoric period called?
- A.Palaeolithic age
- B.Metal age
- C.Copper age
- D.Neolithic age
Show answer
The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age is the first and by far the longest phase of prehistory, the time of hunting and food gathering, of hand axes, cleavers, flakes and burins, and of people who had neither agriculture nor pottery.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is a Palaeolithic site?
- A.Inamgaon
- B.Hallur
- C.Bhimbetka
- D.Burzahom
Show answer
The rock shelters of Bhimbetka in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh were occupied from the Lower Palaeolithic onwards, and their lower layers have yielded hand axes and cleavers along with the earliest of their paintings.
Read the full explanation →At which place was it a general practice to lay the dead with the head towards the north?
- A.Inamgaon
- B.Burzahom
- C.Mehrgarh
- D.Bhimbetka
Show answer
At this Chalcolithic settlement on the Ghod river in Maharashtra the dead were buried within the habitation area, laid out straight with the head pointing north, and pots with food and water were placed beside them.
Read the full explanation →In some areas people started living in villages about 8000 years ago. Which of the following were among these areas?
- A.Areas around Narmada
- B.Sulaiman and Kirthar hills
- C.Ganga and Yamuna doab
- D.Deccan and Konkan
Show answer
The north-western hill belt of the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges holds Mehrgarh in the Bolan valley, the earliest village of the subcontinent, where wheat and barley were grown and cattle, sheep and goat were kept about eight thousand years ago.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements is false about the Chalcolithic cultures of India?
- A.Chalcolithic cultures were predominantly a rural culture.
- B.The people of Chalcolithic cultures mostly lived near hills and rivers.
- C.Black and red ware were widely used in these cultures.
- D.Jorwe is a Chalcolithic site, which belongs to Malwa culture.
Show answer
The correct answer is D, because Jorwe is a Chalcolithic site in Maharashtra that gives its name to the Jorwe culture, not to the Malwa culture, which is named after its own region in Madhya Pradesh and is represented by Navdatoli, Eran and Nagda.
Read the full explanation →Who discovered the first Palaeolithic tool in India in 1863 at Pallavaram near Madras?
- A.Robert Bruce Foote
- B.V.S. Wakankar
- C.Daya Ram Sahni
- D.John Marshall
Show answer
A geologist with the Geological Survey of India, he picked up a stone hand axe at Pallavaram near Madras in 1863, the first recorded Palaeolithic tool from the subcontinent, and his later surveys in the south earned him the name of the father of Indian prehistory.
Read the full explanation →Bagor, the largest Mesolithic site in India, is located in which state?
- A.Gujarat
- B.Madhya Pradesh
- C.Rajasthan
- D.Uttar Pradesh
Show answer
Bagor lies on the Kothari river in the Bhilwara region of Rajasthan and is the largest Mesolithic settlement known in India, with thousands of microliths, stone floors, human burials and bones of sheep, goat and cattle that give the earliest Indian evidence of animal keeping.
Read the full explanation →Which Neolithic site is known for its pit dwellings and for dogs buried along with their masters?
- A.Chirand
- B.Burzahom
- C.Koldihwa
- D.Daojali Hading
Show answer
This site in the Kashmir valley is the type site of the northern Neolithic, where people dug pits into the ground, roofed them and lived inside, made tools of bone and antler, and buried dogs with their human dead, a custom found nowhere else in the Indian Neolithic.
Read the full explanation →The famous bronze figures of a chariot, a buffalo, an elephant and a rhinoceros were found at which Chalcolithic site?
- A.Ahar
- B.Navdatoli
- C.Daimabad
- D.Gilund
Show answer
This Jorwe culture site on the Pravara river in Maharashtra yielded a hoard of solid cast bronze figures, among them a chariot drawn by two oxen with a driver, and figures of a buffalo, an elephant and a rhinoceros, the finest metal work of Chalcolithic India.
Read the full explanation →Microliths are the characteristic tools of which period of prehistory?
- A.Lower Palaeolithic
- B.Mesolithic
- C.Neolithic
- D.Chalcolithic
Show answer
A microlith is a very small blade, usually one to five centimetres long, that was fixed into a handle of wood or bone to make a composite tool such as an arrow, a harpoon or a sickle, and it is the defining tool of the Middle Stone Age at sites…
Read the full explanation →Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first age of the prehistoric period called?
The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age. It is the longest phase of the human past, is divided into Lower, Middle and Upper stages by its tools, and belongs to people who lived by hunting and gathering without farming or pottery.
Which site is the earliest evidence of agriculture in the Indian subcontinent?
Mehrgarh in the Bolan valley, in the hill belt of the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges. Its early levels show wheat and barley and the bones of domesticated cattle, sheep and goat, and the village is dated to about seven thousand years before the common era.
Why is Bhimbetka important in prehistory?
It is the largest group of prehistoric rock shelters in India, more than seven hundred of them in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. Their paintings, mostly Mesolithic with earlier beginnings, show hunting, dancing and animals, and the site has been a World Heritage Site since 2003.
What distinguishes a Chalcolithic culture from a Neolithic one?
A Chalcolithic culture uses metal. Copper tools appear alongside stone blades, pottery is painted, and villages are larger, but iron and writing are still unknown. Neolithic cultures use only polished stone tools with farming, pottery and settled life.
Which places in India show the earliest domestication of animals?
Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Bagor in Rajasthan, both Mesolithic sites. Their bone remains of sheep, goat and cattle are taken as the earliest Indian evidence that animals were kept rather than only hunted.
Sources
- Our Pasts I (Class VI), chapters on the earliest people and the first farmers and herders — NCERT
- Themes in Indian History Part I (Class XII), chapter on bricks, beads and bones — NCERT
- Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, World Heritage property — Archaeological Survey of India
