MESOLITHIC AGE

In 10,000 B.C. began an intermediate stage in Stone Age culture, which is called the Mesolithic Age. It intervened as a transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age and Neolithic or New Stone Age. Climate changes brought about changes in fauna and flora and made it possible for human beings to move to new areas.

Improved technologies of obtaining food would have enabled some hunter-gatherers to settle. Sites of the Mesolithic- the middle stone age that succeeded the Paleolithic -show the use of a different type of stone tools. These are tiny stone artifacts, often not more than five centimeters in size and therefore called microliths, consisting of flakes. The technique of making these was also through flaking off pieces by striking the larger stone at an appropriate angle.

The small microlith was used in a greater variety of ways than the bigger stone artifacts because it could be hafted to many more functional tools, for instance to make knives and sickles. An increase in small arrowheads points to the use of the bow and arrow. This meant that the close stalking of animals was becoming less frequent than shooting an arrow from a distance. This also reduced the fear of animals attacking the stalker. In order to make the small tools it was necessary to change from using pebble-stones to a different kind of stone, such as quartz, chert, agate, chalcedony and suchlike, which are easier to flake as small tools. This change indicates a greater confidence in relation to the environment and in controlling technology, but also points to a shift in habits closer to the new raw material. River pebbles were now less in demand and the new kind of rock was more easily available in hills and forests. That the transition was extremely gradual is evident from the many centuries between the earlier and later patterns. The new technology introduced a change in living patterns, and hunting and gathering were initially supplemented by the use of wild grains and then by domesticated animals, horticulture and primitive cultivation. A tendency to settle for longer periods in an area can be surmised. Hunting and gathering continued to a lesser degree into later times, but dependence solely on these activities for food began to gradually decrease.

If the sites excavated so far are an induction, Mesolithic activities took place a way from heavy monsoon forests and remained on the drier uplands. The characteristic tools of the Mesolithic Age are microliths. The Mesolithic sites are found in good numbers in Rajasthan, Southern Uttar Pradesh, Central and Eastern India and also south of the river Krishna, of them Bagor in Rajasthan is very well excavated. It had a distinctive microlithic industry, and its inhabitants subsisted on hunting and pastoralism. The site remained occupied for 5000 years from the fifth millennium B.C. onwards. Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Bagor in Rajasthan provide the earliest evidence for the domestication of animals; this could be around 5000 B.C. The cultivation of plants around 7000-6000 B.C. is suggested in Rajasthan from Salt Lake, Sambhar.

Many settlements were in or near rock shelters, as in Madhya Pradesh, but, judging by postholes in one case indicating circular huts and habitation areas, some were more daring in venturing beyond the caves and shelters. Mesolithic remains have also been found in Langhnaj (Gijarat), Admagarh (Madhya Pradesh), Rajasthan, Sarai Nahar Rai and Mahadada (Uttar Pradesh), and in Bihar, Primitive querns and rubbing stones at some sites suggest a more varied preparation of wild grains and plants as food. This is reinforced by the presence at one site of what seem to be potsherds of crude handmade pottery, together with an object identified as a storage bin. Animal bones in the habitation area become more frequent and include deer, boar and the now extinct ostrich, and some are bones of what were to become domesticated animals, such as bovines, sheep and goats.

Burials are occasionally within the habitation area and grave goods such as microliths, shells and an ivory pendant are placed in the grave. Some ideas of an after-life seem evident from the grave goods. The location may have developed from attachment to the person, but could have been due to more functional considerations, such as protecting the grave from animal predators. Very occasionally there are double burials, but not invariable of male and female. The skeletons suggest they were people who died between the ages of fifteen and forty, the average life expectancy being half-way. This would be usual for those times, but by our standards life expectancy was short. Some skeletons show evidence of osteoarthritis.

Such early societies would have been organized as bands of people, with possibly
some demarcation of families. Constant migration in search of food limited the numbers in a family, since children, tiring easily from walking long distance, could be an impediment to movement. Given that the population sizes were small, a disease could wipe out an entire settlement.

Rock shelters and caves in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere that were habitation sites with painting and engravings on the rock surface continue to be found after careful exploration. Some are of the Mesolithic period, but at other more extensive sites such as Bhimbetka the practice of painting continued into historical times. The latter can be dated from scenes depicting horses and elephants in processions and in battle. The themes of the earlier art focused on the life of hunters and gatherers. The hunting of animals particularly varieties of deer, was a major enterprise. Both man and animal are represented in an abstract style, while the bodies of the animals often have cross-hatching and other designs. Presumably this was part of the ritual of the hunt, the assumption being that the representation would actually materialize. 

Such representation is the expression of cognition in which sympathetic magic is thought to be unfailing. Figures of men and women symbolizing fertility are also frequent. It would be interesting to speculate whether these communities scattered across the hills of central India shared cults and rituals.

The geographical extent prehistoric rock art is impressive. Rock engravings, believed to be associated with the later stage of the Neolithic, occur in the Edakal cave in the Western Ghats in Kerala and depict human activity in an unusual style of engraving. Recently, in the exploration of the Gilgit and Baluchistan area in the far north, engravings of male figures and depictions of masks have been found, but the largest in number are of ibexes and others with highly stylized horns. It has been suggested that some of their engravings might link the upper Indus to central Asia, going back to the third millennium BC.