Prehistory

PREHISTORY



Q1. Explain the meaning of the following terms :-

a) Prehistoric times :- That part of story of man’s progress for which we have written records is called history. But prehistoric times is when man had no written records and the facts of history of that part has been assembled when the scholars have dug up the possible places where prehistoric man, must have lived and gathered information studying his tools, pottery, habitat etc.

b) Carbon 14 dating :- All living things whether plants or animals contain radioactive carbon called carbon 14. When the plants and animals are alive, they absorb the same amount of carbon 14 from the atmosphere as they lost through radioactivity. So, when a living thing dies, it continues to lose carbon 14 but ceases to absorb it. Thus scholar of physics can pin point exactly the date because of this loss of carbon-14.

c) Paleolithic period: The story of man when he evolved from being a tree ape to learn to walk on the earth and the various transformations that underwent on him which helped him to face climatic changes, invent various inventions that made life easier for him but the time where he was still a food gatherer and not a food producer is commonly known as old stone age on Paleolithic period.

d) Mesolithic period : The period after old stone age had fast progress where the man started making finer tools using not only stones but also bones and ivory to help him to gather the food is called Mesolithic age or middle stone age.

e) Neolithic age : The period when man evolved from being a food gatherer to a food producer is called new stoneage. The cultivation of crops, the domestication of various animals paved way for settled life and man left off being a wanderer and became a social animal. The cultivation of crops and domestication of animals gave him enough time to invent many more new things which made life easier, that is the reason Neolithic period is also known as Neolithic revolution.

f) Geological eras : The vast span of earth’s history has been divided into five eras by the geologists and named after the most characteristic forms of life. The eras span millions of years each and the last of the eras namely Cenozoic the shortest and extends over 70 million years.

g) Glacial periods : The historical climate of the earth spans into different types of climate namely the cold and the warm. The cold periods or the glacial periods have each been separated from the next by warm inter glacial periods. The glacial periods contain huge glaciers like the north polar ice cap which spreads southward into the temperate zone but would not when the climate would grow warmer to give way to thick evergreen forests.

h) Hominids: are also called early humans and have been around for a very short span of time. The first human like creatures appeared around four million years ago, they were small and looked like the ape ancestors. Gradually human types became taller with much larger brains. Fully modern human like us or the homosapiens probably evolved less than 2 million years ago. The hominid first appeared in Africa lived like the other animals, ate berries, nuts, roots and insects.

i) Microliths : The Mesolithic age is marked by the improvement of the tools used by man during the Paleolithic age. These tools were smaller comparatively smoother and could be used as arrowheads or spearheads but they still did not have a wider range of use.

j) Totems : The Neolithic period saw the evolution of community living or large group of families living together. These communities used the image of a plant or an animal or a symbol of their clan. This is called a totem. The totems gradually made the man superstitious as he was still unable to understand the forms of nature or the natural process.

k) Megaliths : The burial places of some of the communities during the Neolithic age on later periods have been marked by huge boulders or large stones called megaliths. Some examples have been found at stone henge in England where large stones are fitted to form a semicircle part of which was capped to form a doorway. Megaliths in some places have been used as places of worship to the sun god during the summer solstice.

l) Homosapiens : It is a latin word for wise man who started to walk on his two feet, his brain became larger which led him to improve his life and brought his development which has not stopped till today.

m) Evolution of man : The journey of man’s life from being an uncivilized jungle ape to a more modern civilized man and his struggle for existence from various stages of natural processes including the survival during the difficult climate changes is called evolution of man.

n) Culture : The developmental change that has never stopped can be termed as culture. The term describes how a man earn’s his living the things he produces, the skills he uses to produce these things, the knowledge he has acquired and the society he lives in, the way he relates to his fellow people and the way he uses his leisure times.

o) Civilizations : Man has always struggled to make his life easier and found better ways of living, he has never done it alone but with the co-operation of his fellow beings.
The complex varied and well organized culture becomes civilization. A civilization shows progress in all spheres like founding of cities, development of art and architecture, better social and administrative systems and improved forms of literature.

p) Mixed farming : Man developed from being a food gatherer to a food producer, he understood the ways in which the crops could be grown and stored along the way he domesticated some animals and found that they had many uses e.g: use of milk, meat, skin for leather and shelter and also for manure. He now started growing crops and also rearing domesticated animals and this is called mixed farming.

2) What is the work of an archeologist, and anthropologist, a geologist and a zoologist? How does the work of each of these scientists help in collecting facts about the pace of man’s progress?

Ans : Archaeology is the science of digging up old sites, monuments, etc. In order to shed light on the everyday life of our ancestors and their society, the scholars who are involved in this kind of science are called archeologists. We owe our knowledge of various civilizations like mohenjodaro and harappa and ancient Egypt etc to these archeologists. The tools, the pottery, the burial sites etc have been dug up and studied by these archeologists and this helps the historians to piece together the various facts of archaeology and present before us the history of our ancestors.

Anthropologist : An anthropologist studies a man’s physical characters, his cultures, his customs, his modes of behaviour his relations with other men which help the historians to get a better picture of the life of the people. The anthropologist bases his studies on articrafts, monuments, pictures, dwellings etc, and this enables to trace the development of human societies from prehistoric to historic period.

Geologist: A geologist studies the layers of rocks that have been formed over the earth’s surface over millions of years ago and determines their age. The internal disturbances that took place on the earth and the oceans form the main base of study of a geologist. He synchronizes the age along with the archaelogist and the anthropologist and determines during which era the particular civilization or an even ti history or prehistory that may have taken place.

The natural sciences particularly geology, biology, palaeontology has formed the knowledge that life on earth keeps on changing and evolving or bettering itself through change. The organic or the biological evolution is studied by the scientist where the species of plants, animals living in a particular environment are studied, how they may have evolved into organisms of complex cells tried to adapt to the changing environment succeeded and survived and gradually modified in form. The historian studies the cultural evolution of man taking into consideration the thinking behaviour of man at different stages, the physical change in living organisms and the relation towards the environmental change and survival.

Thus, from the above study we conclude that an archaeologist, an anthropologist, a geologist and a zoologist provide authentic proof to the historian in relation to man’s progress and evolution and civilizations and thus making history real and scientific.

Q 3 . Describe the principal characteristics that distinguish man from other animals. Give the names of different species of prehistoric men.

Ans : The principle characteristics that distinguish man from other animals is his development of speech and written language which is found amongst no other species of animals on the earth. The development of speech and subsequently thewritten language has left a written proof of his various developments down the ages. The various inventions made by our ancestors have been read and developed by the subsequent generations.

His learning to stand erect and use of only his legs to walk left his hands free to develop and make his life more comfortable day by day. It is because that is hands were free, he not only developed tools for his protection but also had time for various kinds of activities like art, literature etc which again no other species shas been able to compete.

The tools that he made have helped him to evolve from being a food gatherer to a food producer and subsequently lead to a community life, build civilizations and ultimately great cities.

The various species of prehistoric men were Australopithecies, Zinjanthropus, Pithecanthropus Erectus, Simanthropus, Neanderthal man.

Q 4 . Summarize the inventions and discoveries of stone age man.

Ans . The stone age has been divided into palaeolithic and the Neolithic age. During the palaeolithic age, man learned to make crude stone tools like hand axes, choppers and flake implements, though he improved to making tools of bone and ivory he still remained a food gatherer. Understanding the security of community life, he started living in groups and the entire group gathered food for the community. He had started drawing on the walls though it was with the primitive sense to invoke a religious blessing before a hunt. He also learned the use of necklaces and sewen garments.

The Mesolithic age saw the shrinking of the glaciers and the rise of evergreen forest, he had domesticated the dog and had developed the art of making small, sharp tools of stone which helped him in hunting, through this we come to the conclusion that during the Mesolithic age, man had enough tools to make his hunting tools better.

The Neolithic age saw the beginning of farming where we can assume that the first scientist could be found who must have evolved the art of growing crops. Man now was a food producer than a food gatherer. He started living a disciplined community life and also domesticated other types of animals like sheep, goat, cattles etc and thus laid the foundation of mixed farming . This led to development of settlements into villages, fortified towns etc. Pottery was invented during this time and as he already knew the use of fire, he started cooking food rather than eating raw. The invention of spinning and weaving started with man wearing spun cloth instead of skins of animals.


Q 5. What are the differences between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods of the stone age as shown by tools and products ?

Ans: The Palaeolithic period and Neolithic period can be distinguished chiefly based on the types of tools, inventions and the products that he used.

Tools: The tools during the Palaeolithic age where rough and crude mainly stone implements, they were not properly finished as man had not invented the tools to make these instruments smoother. By the time man reached the Neolithic age he had invented tools to help him to make instruments. Though the use of bone and ivory had started during the Palaeolithic age, the instruments during the Neolithic age where smaller, more sharper and had a clean finish.

Inventions: During the Palaeolithic age, man did know the use of fire but other than roasting the meat and keeping himself warm he did not use it for any other purpose. It was during the Neolithic age, man started using fire for making pottery, extensive cooking and other purposes. The wheel had not been invented during the Palaeolithic age, so the main means of transportation was sledge also because the climate was still in the ice age. By the time the Neolithic period came around, the ice age had given way to warmer climate and thick forests. It was around this time that he invented the wheel, this invention is one of the most important inventions of mankind. Man’s life took a turn for better because the means of transportation too increased.

Products : During the Palaeolithic age, man was just a food gatherer. Though the idea of community life had started with the intention of providing security and keeping him safe from wild animals, man roamed around in groups collecting food or hunting for the whole community. He still did not know the use of cloth and used the animals skins to keep himself warm. By the time the Neolithic age set in he had gradually become a food producer, he had domesticated other animals other than the dog and was aware that animals could be used not only for meat and skin but also for milk and transportation. The community life had become more disciplined giving way to fortified villages and towns. He had come to know the wearing of cloth and was now using the cloth or sewen garments which though were crude to keep himself warm.