History timeline is divided into three parts-
- Pre-History or Stone Age ( No written record)
- Proto History ( Have Written record but not yet deciphered)
- History ( have written record and also deciphered)
Pre-History or Stone Age:
Robert Bruce Foote is known as the father of India's Prehistory.
The prehistoric period is the early development of human beings. It is commonly known as the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic Age. There was no paper language or written document in the prehistoric period.
The prehistoric period is classified into the following subcategories;
- Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age): From the beginning of human beings to 12,000 BP ( Before the present)
- Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age): 12,000 BP – 10,000 BP
- Neolithic Period (New Stone Age): 10,000 BP – 8,000 BP
Paleolithic sites:
Important Paleolithic site of India includes Bhimbetka, Hunsgi, and Kurnool Cave. Bhimbetka cave is located in Madhya Pradesh and it is famous for rock painting ( human, animal, and geometric patterns).
Bhimbetka cave was discovered by Dr. Vishnu Shridhar Vakankar in 1957.
In Hunsgi sites, a large number of tools were found.
In Uttar Pradesh, Paleolithic sites include Belan Valley ( Prayagraj), Singarauli ( Sonbhdra), and Chakia ( Chandauli).
Innovation in fire happened in the lower Paleolithic period.
Ostriches were found in India during the Paleolithic period.
Mesolithic sites:
At the beginning of the Mesolithic period ( 12000 years ago), there were changes in the environment, that gave rise to the grassland ecosystem (grasses, deer, goat, cow, etc) due to increasing atmospheric temperature.
Important Mesolithic sites of India include Bagor ( Rajasthan), Kaimur ( Mirzapur, UP), Brahmagiri (Karnataka), Adamgarh Hills ( Madhya Pradesh), and Adichnallur ( Tamil Nadu). Evidence of the domestication of animals is found in Bagor and Adamgarh Hills.
Neolithic sites:
Neolithic sites of India include Mehargarh ( Pakistan), Burzahom ( Jammu and Kashmir), Chirand (Bihar), Belan Valley (Uttar Pradesh), Hallur (Karnataka), etc.
Belan Valley in Uttar Pradesh is famous for the Stone Age [ all three-paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods]
Koldihwa and Mahogora are two neolithic sites that are found in Prayag Raj in Uttar Pradesh. Evidence of circular huts and evidence of the oldest rice are found in India.
Important Facts about the Historic Period:
- Fire Invention: Lower Paleolithic age
- The main occupation of the Paleolithic age was Hunting
- Animal domestication: Mesolithic
- Agriculture: Neolithic
- Rice is first grown in the North of the Vindhya Range
- Earlier Hunter Gather site: Narmada Valley
- Earlier evidence of Agriculture in the Indian Subcontinent: Mehergarh, Baluchistan, Pakistan.
- Development of Agriculture: Garo Hills
- Pit House dug into the Ground: Burzahom ( Jammu and Kashmir)
- Important Paleolithic sites are Hunsgi ( Karnataka), Bhimbetka ( Madhya Pradesh)
- Important Neolithic sites are Mehargarh ( Pakistan), Burzahom ( J & K), Chirand ( Bihar), Koldihwa ( Uttar Pradesh)
- Early Village: Inamgaon ( Maharashtra)
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