“M ESOLITHIC AGE ”

Submitted by:

Abhishek Tiwari

B.A. L.L.B (Hons) (2104)

Submitted to:

Dr. Priya Darshini

Faculty of History

Final draft submitted in the partial fulfilment of the course titled

“History” on the topic: “Mesolithic Age”

September, 2019

Chanakya National Law University, Patna

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my faculty Dr. Priya Darshini whose assignment of such a relevant topic
made me work towards knowing the subject with a greater interest and enthusiasm and
moreover she guided me throughout the project.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to my friends, who helped me immensely with
sources of research materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have
completed it in the present way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents and all those unseen hands who helped
me out at every stage of my project.

THANK YOU!
NAME-ABHISHEK TIWARI
ROLL NO-2104
1 ST Semester (BA. LLB)

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work reported in the B.A. L.L.B (Hons.) Project Report entitled
“MESOLITHIC AGE” submitted at CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,
PATNA is an authentic record of my work carried under the supervision of Dr. Priya Darshini.
I have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or diploma. I am fully
responsible for the contents of my project report.

ABHISHEK TIWARI
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA

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 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that my Project Work entitled “Mesolithic Age” submitted by
Mr. ABHISHEK TIWARI is the record of work carried out during semester-I of First Year
B.A. LL.B. Course for the academic year 2019-2020 under my supervision and guidance in
conformity with the syllabus prescribed by Chanakya National Law University.

Dr. Priya Darshini

(Faculty of History)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 6-7

 Aims and objectives 8

 Research Methodology 8

 Sources of data collection 8

 Limitation of study 8

2. Mesolithic Art 9-13

3. Mesolithic Age Tools and Inventions 13-16

4. Mesolithic Economy 16-17

5. Europe in Mesolithic Period 17-18

6. Mesolithic Age in India 18-23

7. Conclusion 23-24
Bibliography

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 INTRODUCTION

Prehistory concerns itself with the period of human existence before the availability of written
records with which recorded history begins (Renfrew 2007). It is thus a study of those pre-
literate societies of our earliest hunter-gatherer ancestors and the progress – technological and
otherwise, as they domesticated animals, gradually mastered agriculture, and settled down in
the earliest settlements, villages and towns. It follows the development of some of these
settlements into centralised human societies and the emergence of the first great civilisations
of the world. Prehistory also deals with smaller communities in some parts of the world that
continued their hunter-gatherer lifestyles or as agro-pastoralists without developing into urban
centres. The story of this progress from the earliest hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the diversity of
human activity today encompasses a vast span of time and is not uniform in different parts of
the world.

The Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic is a brief period of transition between the Palaeolithic and
the food-producing stage of the Neolithic in most parts of the world, and is characterised by
the appearance of microliths (tiny stone artefacts, often a few centimetres in size) in the
archaeological record. It is characteristically a few thousand years in duration after the last
stages of the Upper Palaeolithic and ends with the advent of agriculture. The onset and duration
of the Mesolithic varies widely in different parts of the world. Around 10,000 YBP, with the
rising of temperatures worldwide after the end of the last Ice Age, we see the evidence of
agriculture in the Near East, along with the domestication of animals (Mithen 1996). This
phase, marking the onset of the Neolithic varies between 10,000BC to 3,000 or 2500BC in
different parts of the world. The Neolithic marked the beginning of settled life for humankind,
though sections of the population still lived as nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter gatherers or
agro-pastoralists. The settlements of the Neolithic vary in nature and construction in various
parts of the world and will be dealt with separately.

There are instances of intentional extended burials with mostly east-west orientations for the
bodies during the Mesolithic, occasionally within the habitation area, with the interment of
grave-goods such as microliths, shells, pendants etc. perhaps pointing towards an idea of
afterlife.

The Mesolithic like other basic archaeological divisions is borrowed from European prehistory.
Its applicability in the Indian context is well established both in terms of its meaning and culture

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concept. According to Clark (1932) the term "Mesolithic" implies a particular group of cultures
included in point of time between Palaeolithic and Neolithic. Major characteristics of the
Mesolithic cultures are as follows. They are Holocene in age in most parts of the Old World,
but there are situations in tropical Asia and Africa where the microlithic technology extends
back to Late Pleistocene. They are characterized by hunting and gathering, fishing and foraging
way of life. Mesolithic cultures are a continuation of the Palaeolithic economy but here the
emphasis shifts from big game to small game hunting and catching fish and exploitation of
marine food resources. This difference is reflected both in the ecology and technology of the
Mesolithic cultures. There is increasing emphasis on coastal adaptations. The technology is
distinguished by the use of composite tools and the production of microlithic tools on a large
scale. The preference for crypto-crystalline silica is distinct. They are generally pre-Neolithic
and continued to coexist with the later advanced food-producing cultures in a symbiotic
relationship.

The first discovery Mesolithic tools anywhere in the Old World was made by Carlleyle in the
previous century. Unfortunately, his finds were not adequately published. He reported a few
rock shelter and cave sites in the Kaimur range of hills in the Mirzapur Districts of Uttar
Pradesh and Rewa, Budelkhand and Baghelkhand areas of Madhya Pradesh.

"Epipaleolithic" is sometimes also used alongside "Mesolithic" for the final end of the Upper
Palaeolithic immediately followed by the Mesolithic. As "Mesolithic" suggests an intermediate
period, followed by the Neolithic, some authors prefer the term "Epipaleolithic" for hunter-
gatherer cultures who are not succeeded by agricultural traditions, reserving "Mesolithic" for
cultures who are clearly succeeded by the Neolithic Revolution, such as the Natufian culture.
Other authors use "Mesolithic" as a generic term for post-LGM hunter-gatherer cultures,
whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not. In addition, terminology appears to
differ between archaeological sub-disciplines, with "Mesolithic" being widely used in
European archaeology, while "Epipalaeolithic" is more common in Near Eastern archaeology.

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 Objective of the study
(1) Reconstruction of the cultural and the chronological past of the Mesolithic age.
(2) Understanding that how Mesolithic age acts as the linking stage between Palaeolithic
age and Neolithic age.

 Research methodology

Mostly doctrinal method and primary method of research was adopted in the making of
this project. Few primary and secondary methods were used. Some literary works and
books and articles were referred and the internet through various websites was used
extensively for the collection of data which was required for the study needed for this
research.

 Sources of data collection

The researcher will collect data mainly from secondary sources: -

i. The secondary sources are:

 Magazine
 Journals
 Book

 Limitation of the study:

Since the researcher is a student of law, he has access to a limited area. The researcher having
read the content through various websites is able to understand the topic but its practical
implementation would have been clearer if some more cases were referred. The researcher has
limited time for the project. The historical need and background is also necessary for having a
bird’s eye view of the particular topic and it gets developed only by effective and extended
reading over a long period of time. But the required materials are not available in our library.
But still researcher with his hard work will manage to take out the best possible work.

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 MESOLITHIC ART: -1

The term "Mesolithic art" refers to all arts and crafts created between the end of the Paleolithic
Ice Age (10,000 BCE) and the beginning of farming, with its cultivation and animal husbandry.
The length of this interim "Mesolithic" period varied region by region, according to how long
it took for agriculture to become established now that the Ice Age was over. The Mesolithic is
the first era of the Holocene epoch, which succeeded the Pleistocene, and it ushered in a new
approach to Stone Age art: for example, with the arrival of a warmer climate, cave art starts to
disappear as rock art takes to the open air. [Note in passing the Coa Valley Engravings (22,000
BCE), the one major exception to the rule that Palaeolithic engravings were only done in
caves.] Also, the need for mobiliary art is gradually reduced and domestic crafts become more
important.

To put the Mesolithic into context, the two defining periods of the Stone Age were the
Paleolithic and the Neolithic era (meaning "Old Stone Age" and "new Stone Age",
respectively). Paleolithic man was a hunter-gatherer who followed the herds of reindeer and
other game animals in a continuous quest for food. During the Upper Paleolithic his existence
was far more cloistered in Europe due to the Ice Age. As a result, he practiced portable forms
of prehistoric art, such as ivory carving, or (in certain areas) cave painting and other forms
of parietal art. In contrast, Neolithic man generally lived in settlements, cultivated crops,
domesticated animals and practiced agriculture. As a result, he developed ancient pottery and
other forms of ceramic art (but see the astonishing Xianrendong Cave Pottery which pushes
back the invention of pottery to 18,000 BCE) as well as early forms of megalithic art, associated
with burials and other religious rituals peculiar to more settled, organized communities.

But hunter-gatherers don't transform themselves into settled farmers overnight. So in-between
these two defining eras we find an elastic third period which acts as a bridge between them.
This third period is called the Mesolithic ("Middle Stone Age"). It begins at the end of the Ice
Age - roughly 10,000 BCE - and ends with the arrival of agriculture. It is elastic because
different areas of the world developed agriculture at different times: Northern and Western
Europe, for example, were greatly affected by the Ice Age and consequently became an

1
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/mesolithic-art.html, Accessed on 17-09-2019 at 21:03 IST

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agricultural society some 4,000 years after the Middle East. The northern European Mesolithic
is therefore much longer than its Middle Eastern cousin.

 Mesolithic Chronology

• In North/Western Europe, the Mesolithic lasted from 10,000 to 4,000 BCE

• In Central Europe, it lasted from 10,000 to 5,500 BCE
• In East Asia, it lasted from 10,000 to 6,000 BCE
• In Southeast Europe, it lasted from 10,000 to 7,000 BCE
• In the Middle East and elsewhere, it lasted from 10,000 to 8,000 BCE

NOTE: Dates are given as a rough guide only, as disagreement persists as to classification and
chronology. Some scholars, for instance, only use the term "Mesolithic" to refer to north
western Europe. Some archaeologists call the non-European Mesolithic "Epipaleolithic". For
more dates, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline.

Characteristics of Mesolithic Art

 Rock Paintings

First, due to the warmer climate, Mesolithic rock art moves from caves to outdoor sites such
as vertical cliffs or sheer faces of natural rock, often protected from the elements by
outcroppings or overhangs. These Mesolithic rock paintings have been discovered in numerous
locations across Spain, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. The largest grouping of
this ancient art can be found in eastern Spain, while other famous examples are listed in
chronological order below:

• Pre-Estuarine X-Ray paintings (c.9,000 BCE) Ubirr, Arnhem Land, Australia.

• Bhimbetka rock paintings (9,000 BCE) India. See India, Painting & Sculpture.
• Pachmarhi Hills paintings (9,000 BCE), central India.
• Tadrart Acacus paintings/petroglyphs (c.9,000 BCE), Libya.
• Tassili-n-Ajjer rock art (c.8,000 BCE), Algerian Sahara. See: African Art.
• San bushman rock paintings (c.8,000 BCE) Waterberg area, South Africa.
• Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin (8,000 BCE).

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Another characteristic of Mesolithic rock painting concerned subject matter. Whereas
Paleolithic cave paintings and engravings mostly depicted animals, Mesolithic painters and
engravers tended to focus on humans - usually groups of humans engaged in hunting, dancing
and various other rituals, as well as everyday activities. The painting technique varied - both in
the painting tools adopted (feathers, reeds, pads/brushes) and the colour pigments used: for
more, see: Prehistoric colour palette - but generally representation was non-naturalistic and
highly stylized. The humans looked more like stick-figures or matchstick men. In fact, many
of the men and women in Mesolithic rock paintings look more like pictographs or petrograms
than pictures. Other figures seen in Mesolithic tribal art include various anthropomorphic
hybrid figures, as well as X-ray style figures characteristic of aboriginal rock art of the late
Stone Age. For more, see the pictographs among Ubirr Rock Art (c.30,000 BCE but
unconfirmed) and Kimberley Rock Art (c.30,000 BCE also unconfirmed).

 Mesolithic Cave Painting

Not all Mesolithic rock paintings and petroglyphs were executed at open air sites. Artists
continued to decorate caves that provided essential shelter or were established places of
residence. The Mesolithic rock engravings at Wonderwerk Cave (8,200 BCE), for example,
were done in a cave that had been inhabited by humans for some 2 million years. The stencilled
hand paintings (8,000 BCE) in the Kalimantan Caves and Gua Ham Masri II Cave (8,000 BCE)
in Indonesia, were created in rock shelters in the middle of inhospitable jungle terrain. Note
also the Fern Cave hand stencils (from 10,000 BCE) in North Queensland, Australia. See
also: Oceanic Art.

The most famous example of Mesolithic cave painting is surely the Argentinian Cueva de las
Manos (Cave of Hands) in the valley of the Pinturas River, Patagonia, which contains a host
of hand stencils and handprints, carbon-dated to 7,300 BCE. Other images include prehistoric
abstract signs like geometric shapes and zigzag motifs.

 Mesolithic Sculpture

The Mesolithic era also featured plastic art, although the Paleolithic liking for Venus
figurines was not maintained. Mesolithic artists tended to produce mainly relief sculpture, such
as the animal reliefs at Gobekli Tepe, although they also carved a small amount of free-standing

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sculpture, like the anthropomorphic figurines discovered at Nevali Cori and Gobekli Tepe,
dating to the eighth and ninth millennia BCE. In addition, it seems likely that, with the regrowth
of forests across Europe after the Ice Age, wood carving was also practiced widely - see, in
particular, the delicate Shigir Idol (7,500 BCE, Yekaterinburg Museum, Middle Urals, Russia)
- although few exemplars have survived.

 Mesolithic Decorative Crafts

As the number and size of Mesolithic settlements began to grow, so did the demand for personal
and domestic decorative art, including adornments like bracelets and necklaces, as well as
decorative engravings on functional objects like paddles and weapons. Ceramic art was also
developed, notably by the Jomon culture - the first highpoint of Japanese Art - whose
sophisticated pots have been dated to the 11th millennium BCE. Their clay vessels were
decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay body with cord and sticks. Chinese
pottery, fired on bonfires and decorated by stamping, was also a feature of the period at
Xianrendong in Jiangxi province, and at other sites along the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys.
It is also fair to assume that both face painting and body painting continued to be practiced.

 Architecture and Megalithic Art

Perhaps the most important and defining archaeological discovery of the Mesolithic age, is the
monumental temple complex of Gobekli Tepe, situated on a ridge near the town of Sanliurfa
in South-eastern Turkey. Carbon-dated to about 9,500 BCE, Gobekli Tepe is believed to have
been a religious centre or sanctuary serving a prosperous, well-organized settlement (or series
of settlements), as evidenced by its diverse range of megalithic art, as well as the large number
of megaliths used in the construction of its shrines (c.9500-7500 BCE). Up until its excavation
in the 1990s, experts believed that only properly settled farming communities were capable of
building a monumental complex like Gobekli Tepe.

At any rate, Gobekli Tepe contains the oldest art involving stone structures, including
numerous reliefs of animals such as wild boars, bulls, foxes, lions, gazelles, vultures and
reptiles, as well as a quantity of pictographs and petrograms. Human imagery is scant, though
it includes a striking relief sculpture of a nude female.

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A similar Mesolithic sanctuary was discovered at Nevali Cori, also in Sanliurfa Province.
Carbon-dated to 9,000 BCE, this stone temple and shrine complex also contained a large
amount of stone sculpture, including numerous statues, a larger than life-size human head, and
a carved statue of a bird. Several hundred 2-inch-high human figurines, made from fired clay
were also unearthed, along with a number of anthropomorphic limestone figures which are
believed to be the earliest known life-size sculptures.

Together with Nevali Cori, Gobekli Tepe has revolutionised archaeological and
anthropological understanding of the Middle Eastern Mesolithic. It demonstrates that the
construction of a monumental complex was within the capability of a hunter-gatherer society,
although scientists do not yet understand exactly how its builders managed to mobilize and
feed a force large enough to complete the project. It's worth noting, for instance, that during
the first two phases of construction, over two hundred large pillars, each weighing up to 20
tons, were erected and topped with huge limestone slabs. No other hunter-gatherer society has
been able to match this feat.

 MESOLITHIC AGE TOOLS AND INVENTIONS: -

The following collection of flints shows the range of stone tools used by people during the
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age). It includes an axe (top left); a flint core (top right); end scrapers
(middle left); burin (middle centre); blades (middle right); microliths (bottom left) and blades
(bottom right). The axe heads were fixed into a wooden handle and used like axes today. The
flint core was the raw material from which other tools could be made. Scrapers were used for
cleaning animal skins in the process of making leather. Bruins were used for carving or
engraving wood and bone, like a chisel. Blades were used as knives and microliths were tiny
flints that were glued/fixed to wooden shafts to make arrows or spears for hunting. 2

2
https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/mesolithic-tool-kit-11748
Accessed on 18-09-2019 at 22:24 IST

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 Photograph taken 10.08.2009 © Historic England Archive ref: DP081189

The Mesolithic was a period in the development of human technology between

the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age. Mesolithic tools are small tools
produced by chipping, and are hunter-gatherer tools, often arrowheads and points. The type of
tool is the diagnostic factor. The Mesolithic featured devices made with small chipped stone
tools. The Neolithic mainly abandoned this mode in favour of polished, not chipped, stone
tools.

The Mesolithic culture can be set apart from that of the Palaeolithic in these ways:

1. The tool kit is more varied than Palaeolithic tools.

2. The emphasis is on small, even tiny, tools rather than the larger tools used previously.
These small tools are called microliths. The Mesolithic also saw greater use of wooden
handles for tools.

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 3. they used the adze, a carpentry tool with a wooden handle at right angle to the blade.
4. The domestication of animals has begun. Perhaps the earliest clear cultural evidence
for this domestication is the first dog found buried together with human, 12,000 years
ago in Palestine.

The lithic industry of Mahadaha and Damdama is essentially dominated by blades. At Mahadaha
blunted back and notched blades together constitute 31.67% of the finished tools and at Damdama
53.31. Chert and chalcedony are the main raw materials at both the sites. Their percentage at
Mahadaha is 89.21 % and at Damdama 96.47%. The finished tools at these sites can be divided into
two groups: microliths and other tools. Microliths can be further grouped into two: a) n on-geometric
microliths, and b) geometric microliths. Non-geometric microliths include retouched blades, backed
blades, truncated blades, backed and truncated blades, notched blades, points, arrow-heads and

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lunates, while geometric microliths comprise triangles, trapezes and trapezoids. Geometric
microliths can be further grouped into two: i) early geometric phase (occurrence of only triangle)
and ii) advanced geometric phase (occurrence of triangle and trapeze both). Sarai-Nahar-Rai falls
into the first category and Mahadaha and Damdama into the second category. Non - micro 1ithic
tools at the two sites include scrapers, borers and burins.

 MESOLITHIC ECONOMY 3

During the Mesolithic period, hunting and the gathering of wild plants, grains and shells, the
main types of the economy of the Palaeolithic man was continued. Wild goat, cattle, pig, deer,
fox, hedgehog, bird, rat and other rodents constituted the fauna of the period. A kind of
domesticated pig found at Yioura is the first evidence of animal domestication just after 8000
BC.

Considerable quantities of small and large fish from the Cyclops Cave at Yioura, Franchthi and
the Ulbrich Cave have substantiated for the first time that fishing was carried out in shallow
waters and in the open sea with the use of elaborate tool equipment (fishhooks).

The navigation of the open sea was not devoted exclusively to fishing but also to the discovery
of raw materials suitable for manufacturing resistant tools. At Franchthi Cave in Hermionid,
tools made of Melian obsidian, as well as querns of andesite (volcanic rock) from the islands
of the Saronic Gulf were found. They were used for grinding plants and grains and for
fabricating jewellery from stone and shell.

The querns together with the remains of carbonated wild barley, oat and wild lentil found at
Franchthi and Theopetra suggest that these plants were being systematically cultivated. The
collection of grains included among others, lithosperum, almonds and pistachios.

The stone industry of the period consisted of flakes, denticulates, notches, end scrapers and
geometric microliths made of flint and obsidian. Additionally, bone and antler tools were
manufactured, mainly fishhooks, needles, spatulas and small spoons made of limpet shell.

3
https://www.euston96.com/en/mesolithic, Accessed on 18-09-2019 at 21:03 IST

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It is of importance for the Mesolithic economy and the transition to the Neolithic way of life
(permanent settlement, specialisation in agriculture and farming) that we begin to find
indications of permanent settlement and of animal and plant domestication already during the
Mesolithic. Its diet based on hunting, fishing and fruit gathering, makes its economy a
collector, but in the transition from nomad life to sedentary, it will change it from collector to
producer, with the emergence and development of agriculture and livestock during the
Neolithic period.

On the other hand, Mesolithic period develops the microlithic industry, which is characterized
by small tools made of stone, used for hunting and fishing, such as hooks, arrow tips, scrapers
and chisels.

Vehicles were also built to transport by land and water. The sledge was invented, which at first
was pulled by men and then by dogs; and small wooden canoes to navigate the rivers. Many
prehistoric researchers claim that this period created the economic and social foundations of
the Neolithic.

 EUPROPE IN MESOLITHIC PERIOD: -4

The Balkan Mesolithic begins around 15,000 years ago. In Western Europe, the Early
Mesolithic, or Azilian, begins about 14,000 years ago, in the Franco-Cantabrian region of
northern Spain and southern France. In other parts of Europe, the Mesolithic begins by 11,500
years ago (the beginning Holocene), and it ends with the introduction of farming, depending
on the region between c. 8,500 and 5,500 years ago. Regions that experienced greater
environmental effects as the last glacial period ended have a much more apparent Mesolithic
era, lasting millennia. In northern Europe, for example, societies were able to live well on rich
food supplies from the marshlands created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced

4
Conneller, Chantal; Bayliss, Alex; Milner, Nicky; Taylor, Barry (2016). "The

Resettlement of the British Landscape: Towards a chronology of Early Mesolithic lithic

assemblage types". Internet Archaeology.

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distinctive human behaviors that are preserved in the material record, such as
the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the coming of the
Neolithic until some 5,500 BP in northern Europe. 5

The type of stone toolkit remains one of the most diagnostic features: the Mesolithic used a
microlithic technology – composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone
tools (microliths), while the Palaeolithic had utilized Modes I–IV. In some areas, however,
such as Ireland, parts of Portugal, the Isle of Man and the Tyrrhenian Islands, a macrolithic
technology was used in the Mesolithic. In the Neolithic, the microlithic technology was
replaced by a macrolithic technology, with an increased use of polished stone tools such as
stone axes.

There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual or astronomical
significance, including Stonehenge, with a short row of large post holes aligned east-west, and
a possible "lunar calendar" at Warren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes,
thought to reflect the lunar phases. Both are dated to before c. 9,000 BP (the 8th millennium
BC).

As the "Neolithic package" (including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber
longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and
eventually disappeared. Mesolithic adaptations such as sedentism, population size and use of
plant foods are cited as evidence of the transition to agriculture. In one sample from
the Blätterhöhle in Hagen, it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a
foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies in the area; such
societies may be called "Sub Neolithic". In north-Eastern Europe, the hunting and fishing
lifestyle continued into the Medieval period in regions less suited to agriculture, and
in Scandinavia no Mesolithic period may be accepted, with the locally preferred "Older Stone
Age" moving into the "Younger Stone Age".

5
Sandars, Nancy K., Prehistoric Art in Europe, Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art)

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 MESOLITHIC AGE IN INDIA6

It was the transitional between Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages. Its characteristic tools are
microliths, all made of stone. Microliths were first discovered by Carlyle in 1867 from
Vindhyan Rock Shelters. This age is also known by various names like Late Stone Age or
Microlithic Age.

The Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing and food-gathering. Earliest domestication of
animals has also been witnessed from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Tools are characterised by parallel-sided blades taken out from prepared cores of fine-materials
as chert, crystal, chalcedony, jasper, carnelian, agate etc. and were generally one to five
centimetres long.

Paintings have been discovered at various sites in Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, etc. In these
paintings, various subjects including animals and human scenes have been found. Animals are
the most frequently depicted subjects either alone or in large and small groups and shown in
various poses. Depiction of human figures in rock paintings is quite common. Dancing,
running, hunting, playing games and quarrelling were commonly depicted scenes. Colours like
deep red, green, white and yellow were used in making these paintings.

The Mesolithic culture in India corresponds to the second cultural phase of Pleistocene.

Early scholars considered the Mesolithic industries as ‘Proto-Neolithic’.

Most of the deposits have been discovered from stratified sites formed by the second phase of
aggradation as found in Maharashtra, especially on Godavari river valley and its tributaries.

The middle Stone Age in India bears the following characteristics;

 Microlithism is totally absent in north India.

 There was a sudden disappearance of pebble tools, which were conspicuous in the
preceding cultures.

6
Sailendra Nath Sen, Ancient Indian History and Civilization, p. 23, 1999, New Age International

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  Heavier tools were not be discovered in the microlithic assemblages, excepting a few
sites in Western and Central India.
 Microliths contain scrapers, points, scraper-cum-borers, and scraper-cum-points in
common.
 Hand-axes, choppers, discoid have also been discovered.

 Important Sites

o Langhnaj

This important microlithic site is situated on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River. Three
distinct phases could be recognized:

 The first phase contained microliths, pot-sherds, graves and fossilized bones of
animals.
 In the second phase, a larger number of such findings could be discovered along with
some polished Celts and ring-stones and fragments of pots.
 The third phase is composed of numerous pot-sherds, stone arrow heads, and
fragments of corn-grinders.

o Tinnevalley

The Tinnevalley site, located at Madras, was first discovered and studied by Zeuner and Allchin
in the year 1956. Many different types of arrow heads, scrapers, curved arrow heads and borers
were found. Explorers linked these with the Middle Stone Age tools of central Sri Lanka where
the same type of Tens stratum has been found, which dates approximately 4000 B.C.

o Birbhanpur

Birbhanpur is in the district of Burdwan in West Bengal. Microliths of different geometric

designs, points, scrapers, borers of very small size are common in this site. Aspects of the
Mesolithic way of life.7

7
The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, by Richard Rudgley

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 Climate

Reconstructing the story of climate at the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the
Holocene reveals a picture that is far from uniform for the subcontinent. While soil samples
from the site of Birbhanpur in West Bengal suggested a trend towards comparative dryness and
semi-aridity, the study of pollens in Rajasthan and the study of sites in eastern Madhya Pradesh
indicated an increase in rainfall in these regions.

Paleoclimatic research, though limited, aids a few general conclusions. From the cold and arid
conditions of the Pleistocene, the climate moved towards becoming warm and wet due to the
gradual recession of glaciers. The melting of snow and formation of rivers resulted in dense
forests and vegetation that could now provide shelter to a new range of fauna.

The giant animals of the Pleistocene, gradually made way for smaller species like cattle, sheep,
goat, various species of deer, etc.

With the formation of water bodies, marine resources also became available for exploitation.

 Regional distribution and settlement patterns

The geographical spread of the Mesolithic sites clearly indicates that mesolithic sites cover
almost the entire country, with the exception of a few areas like most of the Indo-Ganga plains,
the northeast and most of the western coast.

Their absence over much of the Gangrtic Plains is attributed to the remoteness of the region
from the sources of the primary raw material – stones, for making tools. Similarly, the heavy
rainfall resulting in dense vegetation is likely to have discouraged human habitation,
accounting for the absence of sites in northeast India and their sparseness in the Western Ghats
and along the west coast.

Regions like the north Gujarat plains, Marwar and Mewar in Rajasthan, and the alluvial plain
of the Ganga in the south-central U.P.-Allahabad-Mirzapur area have a denser concentration
of sites than others.

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A significant development of the Indian mesolithic phase was the extension of settlements into
new ecological zones and virgin areas like the Ganga plains and the peninsula, south of the
Kaveri river. Archaeological investigations also reveal an intensification of habitation in
previously colonised areas like Marwar, Mewar, central India and the Deccan plateau. This is
generally attributed to an increase in population due to the new landscape and favourable
environmental conditions, as well as technological innovations.

The distribution of sites suggests the principal environments favoured by the mesolithic people
and the range of ecological zones and food resources they exploited.

In Gujarat, Marwar and to some extent Mewar, they settled on sand dunes. In the densely
wooded and hilly country of central India and the Eastern Ghats, caves and rock shelters were
the chosen habitat. The forests provided plant and animal foods in plenty. They also settled on
tops of low hills and rocky outcrops near the sea-shore. Near the tip of the peninsula they
occupied coastal dunes. Marine foods must have been the mainstay of the diet in both these
regions. Settlements in the Ganga Plain were centred around the horse-shoe lakes formed by
meandering rivers. Living close to lakes as well as to the dense forests of the alluvial plains
enabled them to exploit both terrestrial and aquatic fauna.

Elsewhere, people lived in the open, on tops of low hills, in the valleys and along the banks of
perennial as well as seasonal streams. In the Deccan plateau, microliths are found atop almost
every hill and rocky outcrop. Habitation in areas with limited rainfall suggests settlements of a
seasonal nature.

Mesolithic sites reflect different levels of sedentariness. There were camps that were seasonal
but in areas where water and food was available all the year round, it seems probable that
people would have settled permanently or at least inhabited for long periods of time. Thick
habitation deposits as well as the continuity of technological tradition, for instance at Bagor
and Bhimbetka, certainly indicates the return of people to the same campsite over long periods
of time.

 Prehistoric Rock Art

 The rock-shelters in India were mainly occupied by the Upper Palaeolithic and
Mesolithic people.

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  The rock-paintings depict a variety of subjects related to animals and the scenes
including both people and animals. Besides animals and birds, fishes have also been
depicted in the rock paintings.

 Following were the important rock-painting sites −

o Murhana Pahar in Uttar Pradesh

o Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Lakha Juar in Madhya Pradesh

o Kupagallu in Karnataka

 The rock paintings portrayed human-beings involved in various activities, such as

dancing, running and hunting, playing games, and engaged in battle. The colors used
in these rock paintings are deep red, green, white and yellow.

 The rhinoceros hunting scene from the Adamgarh rock-shelters reveals that large
number of people joins together for the hunt of bigger animals.

 CONCLUSION

Floral and Faunal remains give us ideas about the subsistence pattern whereas the burials and
rock paintings give us ideas about the development of religious practices.

The animal bones and stone tools found at various sites form the chief evidence of the
subsistence pattern of the Mesolithic people. This direct evidence is supplemented by the
depiction of scenes of hunting, fishing, trapping of mice, and plant food collection in the
contemporary rock paintings. The early Mesolithic sites have yielded the faunal remains of
cattle, sheep, buffalo, pig, bison, elephant, hippo, wolf, cheetah, black buck, and fish. The
appearance and disappearance of the animals has to be understood in the context of changing
climatic and environmental conditions. The diet of the people during Mesolithic Age included
both meat and vegetal food. The remains of fish, tortoise, hare, mongoose, porcupine, deer, and
nilgai have been found from different Mesolithic sites like Langhanaj and Tilwara and it seems
these were consumed as food. At Bagor, a paved floor littered with bones has been identified
by V. N. Mishra as a place for butchering animals or a slaughter house. At Bagor and
Adamgarh, there is evidence of domestication of cattle, sheep, and goat. According to Allchin,
sheep or goats were domesticated in this period.

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The Mesolithic people also collected wild roots, tubers, hits, honey etc. and these constituted
important elements in the overall dietary pattern. Some areas seem to have been rich in grass,
edible roots, seeds, nuts and fruits, and people would have used them as food resources. It is
difficult to establish co-relation between the animal meat and vegetal food in the context of
Mesolithic age because the plant remains are perishable in nature. It can be suggested that
hunting provided significant portion of the food resource. The economy was primarily based
on hunting and gathering. Men lived along the banks of the rivers and foothills where raw
material was easily available.

The paintings and engravings found at the rock shelters, which the Mesolithic people used,
give us considerable idea about their social life and economic activities. Sites like Bhimbetka,
Adamgarh, Pratapgarh and Mirzapur are rich in Mesolithic art and painting and they reflect
Hunting, food gathering, fishing and other human activities. It could also be said that during
the Mesolithic period, social organization had become more stable as the paintings and
engravings depict activities like sexual union, childbirth, rearing of child, and burial
ceremonies. There is evidence of human burials in India at various sites such as Langhanj,
Bagor, and Sarai Nahar Rai. The dead were buried inside the habitation area, and the most
common form of burial was the extended burial, a body lying on the back with face upward.
There is also evidence of secondary or fractional burials, having only a few bones. Sometimes,
the dead were buried in a flexed position with arms and legs folded as if in sleeping position.

Therefore, concluding that it can be said that Mesolithic phase of prehistory was
characterized by the introduction of new technology in the form of material and composite
tools as well as by some progress towards the domestication of animals and plant collection.
This Mesolithic age paved the way for the people of Paleolithic age to advance towards
Neolithic age.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Sailendra Nath Sen, Ancient Indian History and Civilization, p. 23, 1999, New Age
International.
 Sandars, Nancy K., Prehistoric Art in Europe, Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art)
 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
 The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, by Richard Rudgley
 N. Galanidou and C. Perles (eds.), The Greek Mesolithic: Problems and Perspectives [BSA
Studies 10] (London 2003).
 C. Runnels, “The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Remains,” in B. Wells and C. Runnels
(eds.), The Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey 1988-1990 (Stockholm 1996) 23-35.
 Conneller, Chantal; Bayliss, Alex; Milner, Nicky; Taylor, Barry (2016). "The
Resettlement of the British Landscape: Towards a chronology of Early Mesolithic lithic
assemblage types". Internet Archaeology.

WEBSITES VISITED: -

 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/mesolithic-art.html
 https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/mesolithic-
tool-kit-11748
 https://www.euston96.com/en/mesolithic

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