The Mesolithic Age: Hunters and Herders
The Upper Palaeolithic age came to and end of the ice age around 10,000 BC. It may be noted that the Pleistocene marked by a succession of ice ages coincided with the Palaeolithic age in the world context and lasted from two million years ago to 12,000 BC, and when it ended, the climate became warm and rainy. Climatic changes brought about changes in fauna and flora. Human took advantage of adequate rainfall, dense vegetation, and forest. Since then no major changes have appeared in climatic conditions.
In 9000 BC began an intermediate stage in the Stone-Age culture, which is called Mesolithic age. It intervened as a transitional phase between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic or New Stone ages. The Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing, and food gathering; at a later stage they also domesticated animals. The first three occupations continued the Palaeolithic practice, whereas the last developed in the Neolithic culture. Thus the Mesolithic age marked a transitional phase in the mode of subsistence leading to animal husbandry.
The characteristic tools of the Mesolithic age are microliths or tiny tools. Mesolithic sites abound in Rajasthan, southern UP, 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 BC onwards. Adamgarh in MP and Bagor in Rajasthan provide the earliest evidence for the domestication of animals in the Indian part of the subcontinent; this could be around 5000 BC. The cultivation of plants around 7000-6000 BC is suggested in Rajasthan from a study of deposits of Sambhar, the former salt lake.
So far, only a few finds of the Mesolithic age have been scientifically dated. The Mesolithic culture continued to be important roughly from 9000 to 4000 BC, and undoubtedly paved the way for the rise of the Neolithic culture.
Art in the Old Stone Age
The people of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic ages practiced painting. Prehistoric art appears at several places, but Bhimbetka in MP is a striking site. Situated in the Vindhyan range, 45 km south of Bhopal, it has over 500 painted rock shelters distributed in an area of 10 sq. km. At Bhimbetka, the rock paintings extend from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic age and in some series even up in recent times. However, a substantial numbers of rock shelters are associated with the Mesolithic occupation. Many birds, animals, and human beings are painted, and obviously most of the birds and animals that figure in the paintings were hunted for subsistence. Perching birds that live on grain do not figure in the earliest group of paintings. These paintings evidently belong to the hunting/gathering economy.
Why did the Upper Palaeolithic people practice art? It is argued that they did this for the sake of art. This would, however, suggest too much sophistication at a very early stage in human history. It is also said that they took to art and ritual to overcome social conflict. This may apply to a complex social structure which suffers from sharp social differentiation, which hardly existed in the Upper Palaeolithic society. In all probability, people depicted various wild animals to ensure control over them, for hunting was their principal source of livelihood. Although we find some human male and female figures, animals of various types figure frequently. These animal painting rituals were realistic in the context of hunting. In the Harappan context, animal paintings become conventional. Animals continue to be depicted on the Harappan seals although the people largely lived on the food they grew.
Earliest Human Organization
How are humans organized socially? It is clear whether they lived in a band or pre-band society. Bands were formed formed for hunting, and the maximum number of person could be around 25. There could have been a form of alliance between various bands for mutual aid, and the number in such a large group would not have exceeded around 500. Rituals could have been conducted to ratify such a alliance. Eventually the band turned into an exogamous group called clan in the Neolithic phase. Members of a clan would always marry outside of the clan, but bands established mutual aid relationships. In the Upper Palaeolithic phase, members of a band shared the fruits of hunting and food gathering in a society based on these occupations. Formation of bands and groups of bands may have been facilitated by a use of common language which seems to have originated in the Upper Palaeolithic phase, and communication may have played an important role in keeping the people together.
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