HISTORY. Subject : History (For under graduate student) Lecture No. & Title : Lecture-1 Archaeological Terminology

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1 HISTORY Subject : History (For under graduate student) Paper No. : Paper-I History of India Topic No. & Title : Topic-3 Pre History Lecture No. & Title : Lecture-1 Archaeological Terminology Terms used in Archaeology Culture In archaeology this term is used when similar assemblage of tools, ornaments and other products of human labour or artefacts are found in a layer in one or more sites along with indicators of similar customs and beliefs in systems of disposal of the dead and ritual symbols. A particular chronological phase or period is important here. This is the methodology followed when classifying things as belonging to an upper Paleolithic or a lower Paleolithic or a Mesolithic Culture.

2 Site An area with definite boundaries, bearing certain constituents or man-made tools and artefacts, along with eco-facts or plant and animal remains, and structural remains like remains of ancient dwellings and their features, like floors. Artefacts Tools made by man. A site may have a variety of artefacts covering not only the end products but also those relating to the entire manufacturing process, as well as the tools used in doing so. Assemblage All the artefacts found at a site or a group of sites together. Typology It is a term used to denote something that is determined by its morphological characteristics. Morphology refers to the study of the forms or physical features or structure of different things. Technology Technique of production covering all stages of the manufacturing process of artefacts.

3 Industry A particular technique in production and the products in one particular cultural phase or period. Importance of Geology Since prehistory is a time which is very remote in antiquity, geology constitutes an important subject. The formation of the earth is dated as being 4,600 million years ago. Geological ages are formed of eras and epochs. The Quaternary Epoch is linked with the evolution of human species. The Quaternary epoch is divided into the Pleistocene which began about 1.8 million years ago, and the Holocene, spanning the time from ten thousand years ago up to the present time. The standard divisions of the Pleistocene were based on four or five major glaciations or Ice Ages and the intervals or the interglacials between them, but with the discovery of numerous and varied glaciations, the previous framework have been abandoned now. Paleo-environment Paleo means old; so paleoenvironment denotes the old environment. Archeology is

4 a multi-disciplinary subject. In order to comprehend the paleo-environment, various parameters have to be considered like, past temperature, rainfall, humidity, which are known to leave behind their signatures on various living and non-living materials e.g. trees, ice cores, lakes, coastal and ocean alluvial, fluvial and colluvial deposits. A combination of the study of these factors helps in forming some idea of the Paleoenvironment in which the old cultures must be placed. Archaeology and anthropology are interlinked, as the former provides one with data on such factors as habitation patterns, technologies, and living patterns, of ancient people. Paleo-anthropologists have used fossil evidence to piece together the fascinating story of the biological and cultural evolution of early humans. Human evolution started in Africa, which makes a study of the north and east Africa vital, to comprehending the human civilization. beginnings of

5 The earliest known hominids or man-like species were members of the Australopithecus genus who lived roughly between 4.4 and 1.8 million years ago, and whose remains have so far been only identified in sub- Saharan Africa. The earliest evidence of the Homo habilis or hand-using man have been found at sites in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and are dated two million years ago. The earliest stone tools have been dated 2.5 million years ago, the makers of which are unknown. Early toolkits were called Old wan, and were crude but effective. The technology is so-named because the first specimens were found by Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge (situated west of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania). The Homo erectus (named for its fully erect posture) appeared 1.6 million years ago in East Africa from where the species seems to have spread to various parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. They were the makers of Acheulian tools (name given to an archaeological industry

6 of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans of the lower Paleolithic era). Anatomically modern humans known as Homo sapiens seem to have existed 200,000 to 40,000 years ago, corresponding to the middle Paleolithic cultures. The Neanderthals appeared 130,000 30,000 years ago and have been assigned to the middle Paleolithic age. The Homo sapien sapiens refers to modern man who has existed since the last 100,000 years. Fossil remains have been found in Africa, from where they appear to have reached the eastern Mediterranean around 100,000 90,000 years before the present, and Europe and Asia approximately 40,000 years ago. The time range of the lower Paleolithic or lower Pleistocene cultures in the Indian sub-continent is from about two million to a hundred thousand years ago.

7 Knowledge of ecology is vital to the study of cultures which have to be situated in their topographic and climatic settings. Fossil finds and dates suggest that at least a million years ago the Homo erectus was well established in Java and soon in north China. He could have reached these lands from Africa only by crossing the Indian sub-continent. Unfortunately we have a paucity of fossil remains in the Indian sub-continent possibly because preservation gets affected in a hot and humid environment. There are considerable fossil remains however in the Narmada valley. Dating Cultural Remains Tooth enamel found from the site of Isampur in north Karnataka has been dated as belonging 1.2 million years ago, making it the earliest find in Indian prehistory. At Bori in Maharashtra, Paleolithic artefacts have been found in gravel which cuts into the ash-bed at a number of sections. The dating of Tefra ash found from this gravel is taken to be similar to Acheulian artefacts belonging to 0.5 million years ago. Though still shrouded in controversy, the early date cannot be ignored.

8 Late Pliocene dates (which is earlier than Pleistocene) of artefacts have been found from Siwalik Hills near Rawalpindi in Pakistan, though there is controversy about it. While surveying Paleolithic culture, we have to remember that traditions do overlap. The transition from one stage to another was never sudden. So the transition from lower Paleolithic to middle Paleolithic which signified a change in technology was not sudden either. Regional Survey of Paleolithic Cultures Chronology Lower Paleolithic tools have been found from different parts of the sub-continent especially in peninsular India leaving aside the coastal areas. In Rajasthan there is a detailed profile of the Didwana area, with a sequence extending from the early to the middle Paleolithic. The lower Paleolithic tools here belonged more than 390,000 years from the present. The sites at Nevasa date back more than 350,000 years ago. The Hsungi (a tributary of

9 Krishna), and Krishna valleys have yielded lower Paleolithic tools dating 358,000 years ago. Tools belonging to this period have also been discovered at sites in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Damoh, and Raisen, along with those in the Narmada, upper Son and Mahanadi valleys. Middle Paleolithic tools have been found in many parts of the subcontinent often in river gravel and deposits dating 100,000 to 40,000 years ago on the basis of Thermo luminescence tests. There are some dates for upper Paleolithic contexts. Site 55 at Riwat gives the earliest date of c. 45,000 years ago, while carbon dating of a piece of ostrich eggshell at Mehtakheri has placed it to over years before the present. Dates ranging between 27, 000 to 25,000 years (Belan valley), and to (Son valley) years ago, of habitation sites are available. The term Mesolithic is generally used for the Holocene hunting-gathering Stone Age cultures. There is a

10 calibrated range of dates from various Mesolithic sites, like BCE at Baghor, BCE at Bhimbetka, BCE at Bagor and BCE at Sarai Nahar Rai among others. A recent date from a site at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh which has been revealed to us only in 2009 and gives a date of 3,500 years from the present. Lower Paleolithic cultures and occupations in the Indian sub-continent are distributed over different eco zones in semi-arid western Rajasthan, the Rohri Hills (northwest Sindh), the Indian Siwalik belt, the river valleys in Gujarat associated with miliolite deposits in Saurashtra, in the sub-humid, moist deciduous woodland zones of Central India, in the Vindhyan region, in the middle Son and Belan valley, in tributary river valley deposits in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Hunsgi Baichbal valley in the Konkan coast. Lower Paleolithic cultures are also found in ferrecrete and ferrogenous colluvial deposits, in stream and sheet flat deposits in Tamilnadu, coastal and inland regions of Andhra and the core and periphery

11 region of Chhotanagpur region. These cultures have different contexts. Paleo-environment The study of the specific features of paleo-environments forms an important part of prehistory. Among scholars who have conducted research in this field mention can be made of H de Terra and T.T.Paterson (although their studies of the Son river between the Pir Panjal and Salt ranges in Pakistan are no longer accepted), L.A.Cammiade and M.C.Burkitt (studies of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh), and Dr. Misra (study of western Rajasthan, especially in Didwana). The study carried out at Didwana is especially significant as Dr.Misra got the profile of an entire sequence from the lower Paleolithic to Mesolithic at one site. Different ecological settings naturally point to different types of environment e.g. Didwana in semi-arid Rajasthan, differs from that of the Son or Belan valley.

12 In peninsular India Acheulian artefacts are found buried in bouldery and pebbly gravels deposited in areas with semi-arid environment, intermittent and erratic rainfall and sparse vegetation cover. So far as technology in the lower Paleolithic in the Indian context is concerned it is represented by the Sohanian tradition, denoted by pebble tools, flakes, blade cores, and the Acheulian is represented by hand-axes, pebble tools, scrapers, flakes, blades. There are a lot of regional variations so far as Paleolithic cultures are concerned. Generally early Paleolithic tools were made of quartzite or other hard rock. The rock that was used to make tools is termed raw material nodule, from which a core was fashioned out. The core itself could be used as a tool or made into other finished products. Discoids are typical tools of the Sohanian tradition. The middle Paleolithic cultures developed during the Upper Pleistocene period. During the last inter-glacial,

13 the sea level was very high, and the climate in India was warm and humid. Not much data on the Paleoenvironment is available in India at present. Global temperatures started cooling around 75,000 to 70,000 years ago which affected the Indian monsoons, and led to an overall lowering in the sea levels. In general the middle Paleolithic population occupied the same regions and habitats as the preceding Acheulian population. Ecological settings were at open air sites along perennial and seasonal streams, along hill slopes, on stable dune surfaces and in rock shelters. Samnapur is a very important middle Paleolithic site in the Indian subcontinent, which was well excavated by Dr. Misra of the Deccan College, Pune. Faunal remains recovered from different sites suggest the existence of Savannah grasslands interspersed with swamps and forests, during this period. The middle Paleolithic age was marked by gradual changes in stone tools. Acheulian tools like hand-axes, Sohanian tools like cores and discoids did not altogether

14 disappear but the balance shifted towards smaller lighter flake tools. A limited use of bi-faced tools (i.e. both faces of the stone was worked upon) and heavy core tools may be observed. Tools made more on flakes and plates became common, while a further fashioning of these plates occurred in the upper Paleolithic. Heavy, thick blades were being produced in the middle Paleolithic culture. Tools were becoming thinner and lighter. There is evidence of the use of a particular technique called the Levallois technique or the Prepared Core technique in many places. In the lower Paleolithic the choice of raw materials was quartz, quartzite and basalt, but later along with the continued use of these, they were supplemented in various degrees by chert, jasper and other fine-grained rocks. Raw material was brought from considerable distances, which assumes significance in terms of human behaviour. It reveals that whenever the Homo sapiens, faced difficulties in finding stone to make tools from the area they inhabited; they were using their cranial capacity to exercise a choice in procuring raw material

15 from a distance. This also points to earliest human mobility across the landscape, a feature of the middle Paleolithic period onwards, and evidence of which is found around the world.