No written records are available. History is constructed by the use of plenty of archaeological remains such as stone tools, pottery, artifacts, metal implements, paintings, etc.
Stone Age
- Paleolithic or Old Stone Age (before 10,000 BC)
- Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (10000 BC to 6000 BC)
- Neolithic or New Stone Age (6000 BC to 4000 BC)
Metal Age
- Chalcolithic or Copper age
- Iron age
Stone Age
Paleolithic
- Sites generally located near water sources
- Hunter-gatherer society
- Stone tools; hand sized flaked off; large size
- made up of Quartzite
- Hunting: large animals by a group of people
- Attempt of domestication
- Proliferation of painting as oldest art form in upper paleolithic age
Mesolithic
- Transition period
- Tools: Tiny stone artifacts (Microliths)
- Hunter-gathering continued
- Shift from large to small animal hunting and fishing
- Use of Bow and Arrow begun
- Domestication of animal, horticulture, and primitive cultivation started
Neolithic
- Practice of agriculture and domestication of animals --> Emergence of village communities
- Crops: Rise, wheat, millets, barley, etc.
- Polishing of stone tools
- Pottery started; Use of wheels to make pottery; use: for storing grains, cooking, burials of dead in large urns
- Mud brick houses instead of grass huts
- Used cloths of cotton and wool
- Mehrgarh- a neolithic site is considered as precursor to Indus Valley Civilization
- It was one of the earliest example of farming and herding in S. Asia
Metal Age
Chalcolithic
- Technological developments: Smelting metal ores, crafting metal artifacts, etc.
- Copper and Bronze along with stone tools
- Network of chalcolithic cultures due to long-distance travel for metal ores
- Harrapa is considered to be chalcolithic
- Generally, these cultures grew in river valley
Iron age
- Iron age of southern peninsula is often related to Megalithic Burials.
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