Prehistoric-period / Prehistoric period / Neolithic Period

Neolithic Period

Introduction

  • Refers to the last stage of the Stone Age
  • Significant for megalithic architecture, spread of agricultural practices, and use of polished stone tools
  • Humans no longer entirely dependent on nature, but exploiting it to their advantage

Neolithic Culture

Agriculture

  • Neolithic Revolution: origin of agriculture, animal domestication, and settled way of life
  • Transformation from hunting-gathering to agropastoral economy
  • Cultivated ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice, wheat, and barley
  • Domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats

Tools

  • Use of polished stone tools and axes (celts)
  • Tools and weapons made of bone
  • Neolithic tools appear more refined than those of the Palaeolithic period

Living

  • Introduction of domestication led to large quantities of grains and animal food
  • Pottery-making emerged for storage and cooking
  • Rectangular or circular mud and reed houses
  • Large villages developed with permanent residences

Pottery

  • Pottery first appeared in the Neolithic Age
  • Classified under grey ware, black-burnished ware, and mat-impressed ware

Architecture

  • Significant for megalithic architecture (large stone structures)

Community Life

  • Surplus food production led to development of early urban cultures
  • Neolithic people had common rights over property and led a settled life

Neolithic cultures of India

  • Regional variations due to local ecological conditions
  • Farming and pastoralism based sedentary/semi-sedentary village culture
  • Divided into various regional cultural groups
  • The Neolithic sites of the Indian subcontinent or South Asia are divided into various regional cultural groups, as follows:
     

Region

Important Places

Characteristic Features

North-Western Region – Pakistan and AfghanistanMehrgarh in the Kacchi plains, Kili Gul Muhammad in the Quetta valley, Rana Ghundai in the Loralai valley and Anjira in the Surab valley.It is one of the earliest regions of the world which has given combined evidence of plant and animal domestication.
Northern Region – KashmirBurzahom, Gufkral and KanispurThe Neolithic culture of Kashmir region was contemporary with the Harappan civilization.
Vindhyan Hills, the Belan and the Ganga River ValleysThe sites of ChopaniMando, Koldihwa, Lehuradeva and Mahagara in the Ganga valley are the important excavated sites of this regionThe Belan river valley witnessed one of the earliest Neolithic occupations in India.
Mid-Eastern Ganga Valley RegionChirand (on the banks of the river Ghagra in district Saran), Chechar, Senuwar
(near Sasaram) and Taradip
The Neolithic sites of this region also have evidence for transition to the Chalcolithic
Central-Eastern Region Kuchai, Golbaisasan and Sankarjang are some of the important Neolithic
sites of this region
These cultures show similarities with the Neolithic complexes of east and Southeast Asia
North-Eastern IndiaMarakdola, Daojali Hading and Sarutaru are the Neolithic sites of Assam
region
In north-eastern India, the Neolithic culture belongs to a slightly later period.

This region today has evidence for shifting cultivation, cultivation of yams and taro, building stone and wooden memorials for the dead, and 
the presence of Austro-Asiatic languages.
South India Sanganakallu, Kodekal, Budihal, Tekkalakota, Brahmagiri, Maski, T.Narsipur, Piklihal, Watkal, Hemmige and Hallur in Karnataka; Utnur, Pallavoy, Nagarjunakonda, Ramapuram and Veerapuram in Andhra Pradesh; and Paiyyampalli in Tamil NaduThe Neolithic people of South India had an agro-pastoral economy.

Further, the Neolithic sites of South India have ash mounds in the early stages and evidence of plant and animal domestication is found.

 

Social Organization and Belief System

  • Limited evidence for understanding social organization
  • Sedentary and semi-sedentary settlements with tribe-level social organization
  • Ownership of land and plants emerged
  • Presence of small houses suggests nuclear families
  • Ceramics and beads suggest improved material cultural production
  • Demarcation of territories
  • Dead buried within houses and animal burials found, suggesting adoption of certain rituals and worship of the dead
  • Worship of natural forces and limited evidence of art objects

Conclusion

  • Transition from hunting-gathering to food-producing brought important changes in social and cultural development
  • Foundations for earliest Indian villages laid in Neolithic times