1 Introduction to Prehistory

Ravi Korisettar

Objectives

This chapter introduces basic terms that frequently occur in the later chapters. Palaeoanthropological information regarding the evolution of humankind is described according to the taxonomic nomenclature, including the binominal systems. The genus and species names are mentioned as in the case of Homo erectus, meaning the human who stood upright or a biped human. The term Homo refers to the genus and erectus the species it represents. Homo habilis and Homo erectus and later human ancestors were tools makers and were the authors of culture. The origin development culture (human behaviour) is traced through the stone tools, that were made, used and discarded by human ancestors. Discarded artefacts constitute an important body of evidence and knowledge of past human societies. Hence understanding the types and techniques developed by human ancestors is important to obtain a clear picture of the life-ways of the extinct societies and the way they evolved from the simple to infinitely complex. Therefore the chapter introduces the basic terminologies as well as periods during which time technologies evolved from the simple to the more and more complex, i.e. during the Stone Age. These aspects are dealt with in greater detail in the following modules.

Introducing Human Ancestors, Cultural Origins, Migrations and Stone Tools

The history of preliterate societies is reconstructed from a scientific study of all surviving material and organic remains and a scientific understanding of their systemic relationships. This is a multidisciplinary endeavour and archaeologists work with a variety of specialists to arrive at a coherent picture of the life ways of prehistoric societies. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of human prehistory is characterised by the rise and development of hunter-gathering way of life from the simple to more and more complex technologies facilitating progress in the way hunter – gatherer societies reached the threshold of agricultural way of life. These societies never looked back. The Indian subcontinent is one of the world’s oldest landforms and was home for prehistoric people. The existing Stone Age evidence from the subcontinent and its chronological framework refers to the African origins and to date Africa occupies important place in the study of origins of humans and culture.

The African palaeoanthropological record provides the oldest and the most continuous fossil record of both apes and human ancestors. In Section I of this chapter a brief account of various fossils beginning from pre-Australopithecines to anatomically modern humans (AMHs), including recent palaeoanthropological discoveries and issues relating to their long survival are discussed humans are given in the next two chapters. Section II of this chapter gives an outline of periodisation in prehistory and distinctive tools types. Lithic technology and typology is dealt with in detail in separate modules. Section III introduces the new field of enquiry into the human past through a study of ancient genes preserved in the fossils, now a major endeavour called molecular archaeology. This field of study has enriched our understanding of the dispersal of ancient human populations out of Africa; of course there are ongoing debates.

Current research on human origins addresses two important questions: (a) when and (b) where exactly the origins took place possessing distinctive behavioural traits in comparison with the great apes. Another important concern of anthropologists is what factors were responsible for peopling of the earth: (a) is this because of origins took place in one geographical region and spread worldwide through dispersal or (b) the origins took place in multiple regions? The story of human origins and development is built upon two sets of evidence: (a) fossil record and (b) archaeological evidence of human behaviour. The available geochronological methods have enabled dating the human ancestor fossils and placing the oldest of them in Africa.

Some of the oldest fossils to date are represented by Sahelanthropus tchadensis or Tumai, was found in Central Africa’s Chad region. This has been dated to 6-7 Myr. This has a flat cranial base indicating that it was perhaps a biped. Another equally old (6 Myr) fossil human ancestor is known as Orrorin tugenensis, from eastern Africa. Therefore East Africa has remained the focus of study of human prehistory and many fossil discoveries that have enriched our understanding of human bio-cultural evolution come from this region. In the following some of the famous fossils are described.

Human Ancestors

Ardipithecus ramidus

Ardipithecus ramidus is a bipedal hominin ; more than 100 specimens have been recovered from several different sites in the Afar province of Ethiopia in eastern Africa. This is dated to 4.4 million years ago. This was a tall, capable of climbing tree and is said to have possessing a vegetarian diet and lived in woodland ecosystems. There is no evidence tool making as yet.

A. ramidus is tentatively believed to be ancestral to Australopithecus : but it is a million years older than Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis (ca. 3.7 million years ago), and older than Australopithecus anamensis (3.9-4.2 million years ago). Both the latter were not took makers.

Australopithecines Diversity

Australopithecus is one of several pre-Homo species of hominins. It is not known if this was a direct ancestor of Homo erectus. Fossils of Australopithecus have been found in Africa dating to the period between 4.2 and 1.4 million years ago. They are know to have used tools if not made tools. They walked upright on two legs, had a long forearm and lumbar column relative to African or Asian apes, stood between 1.2 and 1.5 m, and had a body mass of 30-35 kg and a brain size between 350 and 600 cc., with an average brain size of 440 cc.

Palaeoanthroplogists recognize seven species of the genus Australopithecus. The following are some of the fossils found in different parts of Africa. They come from well dated contexts.

• Australopithecus afarensis, 3.6-2.9 million years ago (mya). Laetoli (Tanzania), Koobi Fora and West Turkana (Kenya), Omo and Selam aka Dikika (Ethiopia), Middle Awash and Hadar regions in Ethiopia, Sterkfontein, South Africa
• A. aethiopicus, 2.7-2.3 mya. West Turkana in Kenya, Omo Shungura in Ethiopia.
• A. africanus, 3-2 mya. Makapansgat, Sterkfontein, Taung in South Africa.
• A. anamensis, 4.17-3.9 mya. Kanapoi and Allia Bay in Kenya, Fejej and Galili in Ethiopia.
• A. bahrelghazali, 3.5-3.0 mya. Koro-Toro in Chad.
• A. boisei (sometimes designated Paranthropus boisei), 2.3-1.4 million years ago. Chiwondo in Malawi, Olduvai Gorge and Peninj in Tanzania, Koobi Fora and West Turkana in Kenya, Omo Shungura and Konso-Gardula in Ethiopia.
• A. garhi 2.5 mya. Bouri and Omo Shungura in Ethiopia, Baringo-Chemeron in Kenya.
• A. robustus, 1.7 mya. Kromdraai, Swartkrans, Drimolen and Gondolin, South Africa.
• A. sebida, 1.977 mya. Malapa cave, South Africa.

The Genus Homo

Major discoveries of fossils of the genus Homo are reported from Eastern Africa and the oldest is dated to around 2.5 Myr. Its emergence opened up a new chapter in human evolution, as this has survived on the surface of the earth longer than any other antecedent or contemporary species by virtue of capability to produce tools, accompanied by expansion of brain, superior cognition and technological innovations. In the general scheme of human evolution the genus Homo is divided into three successive species: Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, with a couple of variants such as Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis.

Homo habilis

This human ancestor was the first tool maker and was therefore called handy man. But more recent evidence is indicating tool making to pre-date Homo habilis. The pre-Homo stone tools are dated to around 3 milion years ago (Myr), there is clear evidence about them being put to use by the maker. Homo habilis lived in east and southern Africa between 2.4 and 1.4 million years ago. The fossil remains were first discovered in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and the associated tools were called Oldowan tools. Homo habilis has a slightly larger brain case, smaller teeth and moderate protrusion of lower jaw in comparison with Australopithecus. Stands up to 4.5 ft with an average brain size of 400 cc.

Homo erectus

Homo erectus lived in Africa between 1.8 million and 250,000 years ago (kyr), was the first hominin to move out of Africa (out of Africa I). H. erectus was both heavier and taller than Australopithecus, and a more efficient walker, with an average brain size of about 820 cc. They were the first humans with a projecting nose, and their skulls were long and low with large brow ridges. The following are some of the well known sites in the Old World.

• Africa : Olorgesailie (Kenya), Bodo Cranium (Ethiopia), Bouri (Ethiopia), Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania), Kokiselei Complex (Kenya)
• China : Zhoukoudian, Ngandong, Peking Man, Dali Cranium
• Siberia : Diring Yuriakh (still somewhat controversial)
• Indonesia : Sangiran, Trinil, Ngandong, Mojokerto, Sambungmacan (all in Java)
• Middle East: Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (Israel, maybe not H. erectus), Kaletepe Deresi 3 (Turkey)
• Europe : Dmanisi (Georgia), Torralba and Ambrona (Spain), Gran Dolina (Spain), Bilzingsleben (Germany), Pakefield (UK), Sima de los Huesos (Spain)

Neanderthalensis

Neanderthals were a type of early hominid that lived on the planet earth between about 200,000 to 30,000 years ago. Our immediate ancestor, ‘Anatomically Modern Human” has been in evidence for roughly 130,000 years ago. In some places, Neanderthals co-existed with modern humans for about 10,000 years, and it is possible (although much debated) that the two species may have interbred.

Recent mitochondrial DNA studies at the site of Feldhofer Cave suggest that Neanderthals and Humans had a common ancestor about 550,000 years ago, but are not otherwise related; nuclear DNA on a bone from Vindija Cave supports this supposition although the time depth is still in question. However, the Neanderthal Genome Project appears to have settled the issue, by uncovering evidence that some modern humans hold a tiny percentage (1-4%) of Neanderthal genes.

Homo Neanderthalensis Sites:    400 -40 Kyr.

• Europe: Atapuerca and Bolomor (Spain), Swanscomb (England), Ortvale Klde (Georgia), Gorham’s Cave (Gibraltar), St. Cesaire, La Ferrassie, Orgnac 3 (France), Vindija Cave (Croatia), Abric Romaní (Catalonia).
• Southwest Asia: Kebara Cave (Israel), Shanidar Cave (Iraq), Kaletepe Deresi 3 (Turkey).

Modern Humans or Anatomically Modern Humans: Homo sapiens

Physical Characteristics of Modern Humans

The physical characteristics of Early Modern Humans are quite similar to those of modern humans, although perhaps a bit more robust, particularly seen in femora–the leg bones. They possessed an average male height of 170 cm (early) and 168 cm (late), and average female height of 157.6 cm (early) and 158.4 (late).

Where are the oldest AMHs sites?

In Africa, early modern humans appeared at least as long ago as 200 kyr, the oldest evidence comes from two sites such as Bouri in Ethiopia and Omo Kibish in Ethiopia. The earliest sites outside of Africa are at Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel dating back to about 100 kyr. There is a large gap in the record for Asia and Europe, between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago, a period in which the Southwest Asia seems to have been occupied by Neanderthals; but around 50,000 years ago, the AMHs appear again and expanded into Europe. Their presence in Israel suggests that they occupied a much wider geographical area. Their presence within and outside of Africa is basis of conflicting dispersal models currently debated among archaeologists and geneticists.

Homo sapiens sites: 200 Kyr -present

• Africa: Pinnacle Point, (South Africa), Bouri (Ethiopia), Omo Kibish (Ethiopia)
• Aterian: Grottes des Pigeons, Dar es-Soltan, Rhafas Cave (Morocco); Uan Tabu (Libya)
• Howiesons Poort: Border Cave, Klasies River Cave, Rose Cottage Cave, Boomplaas Cave, Blombos Cave, Sibudu Cave (all in South Africa)
• Asia: Niah Cave (Borneo), Jwalapuram (India), Denisova Cave (Siberia)
• Middle East: Skhul Cave, Qafzeh Cave (both Israel)
• Australia: Lake Mungo and Devil’s Lair

Sites with AMH human remains in Europe include: Predmostí and Mladec Cave (Czech Republic), Cro-Magnon, Abri Pataud, Brassempouy (France), Cioclovina (Romania), Qafzeh Cave, Skuhl Cave, and Amud (Israel), Vindija Cave (Croatia), kostenki (Russia), Bouri and Omo Kibish (Ethiopia).

Modern Humans in South Africa

The Middle Palaeolithic ends with the gradual disappearance of the Neanderthal and the ascendancy of Homo sapiens sapiens, about 40,000-45,000 years ago. That didn’t happen overnight, however. The beginnings of modern human behaviours are mapped out in the Howiesons Poort / Stillbay Industries of southern Africa beginning perhaps as long ago as 77,000 years and leaving Africa along a Southern Dispersal Route.

Human Remains at Denisova (Altai Mountains, Siberia)

The only remains of the Denisovans identified to date are two teeth and a small fragment of finger bone from Level 11 at Denisova Cave, a level dated between ~29,200-48,650 years ago and containing a variant of initial Upper Palaeolithic cultural remains found in Siberiai called Altai. Discovered in 2000, these fragmentary remains have been the target of molecular investigations since 2008. The discovery came after researchers led by Svante Pääbo at the Neanderthal Genome Project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology successfully completed the first mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence of a Neanderthal, proving that Neanderthals and early modern humans are not very closely related at all.

In March 2010, one of the small fragments, a phalanx (finger bone) of a child aged between 5 and 7, and found within Level 11 of Denisova Cave.

The mtDNA signature from the phalanx from Denisova Cave is significantly different from both neanderthals or early modern humans (EMH). A complete mtDNA analysis of the phalanx was reported in December of 2010 (Reich et al.), and it continued to support the identification of the Denisovan individual as separate from both neanderthal and EMH.

Pääbo and colleagues believe that the mtDNA from this phalanx is of a descendant of people who left Africa a million years after Homo erectus, and half a million years before the ancestors of Neanderthals and EMH. Essentially, this tiny fragment is evidence of a human migration out of Africa that scientists were completely unaware of before this discovery.

The Culture of the Denisovans

What we know about the culture of the Denisovans is that it was apparently not much different from other Initial Upper Palaeolithic populations in the Siberian north. The stone tools in the layers in which the Denisovan human remains were located are a variant of Mousterian, with the documented use of parallel reduction strategy for the cores, and a large number of tools formed on large blades.

Decorative objects of bone, mammoth tusk and fossilized ostrich shell were recovered from the cave, as were two fragments of a stone bracelet made of a dark green chloriolite. The Denisovan levels contain the earliest use of an eyed bone needle known in Siberia to date.

New mitochondrial data reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 7, 2007, supports the somewhat still controversial Australian colonization as having occurred at about 50,000 bp–and that it was a single founder population who were subsequently isolated from the rest of the world.

Section II

Periodisation in Prehistory

The Old Stone Age (known to scholars as the Palaeolithic period) in human prehistory is the name given to the period between about 2.5 million and 20,000 years ago. It begins with the earliest human-like behaviours of crude stone tool manufacture, and ends with fully modern human hunting and gathering societies. The Palaeolithic is the earliest archaeology; anything older is palaeontology. Today scholars divide the Palaeolithic into three categories, as follows.

Lower Palaeolithic (also Early Stone Age)

The Lower Palaeolithic lasted between 2.5 million-200,000 years ago, and it was when the hominin ancestors of human beings, including Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster, roamed most Africa and Eurasia and began making the first stone tools and subsequently move out of Africa.

Middle Palaeolithic (also African Middle Stone Age)

The Middle Palaeolithic (ca 200,000 to 45,000 years ago) witnessed the evolution of Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern Homo sapiens, and some of the first glimmers of modern behaviours: sophisticated stone tools, caring for the elderly, hunting and gathering and some amount of symbolic or ritual behaviour.

Upper Palaeolithic (also African Late Stone Age)

By the Upper Palaeolithic (45,000-10,000 years ago), the Neanderthals were replaced by then by modern humans.

Modern humans spread all over the planet. The LSA is characterized by fully modern behaviours such as cave art, hunting, and making a wide range of tools in stone, bone, ivory and antler.

The Upper Palaeolithic (ca 40,000-10,000 years BP) was a period of great transition in the world. While the notion of a “creative explosion” has given way to a recognition of a long history of the development of human behaviours long before we humans left Africa, there is no doubt that things really got cooking during the UP.

Timeline of the Upper Palaeolithic

In Europe, it is traditional to split the Upper Palaeolithic into five overlapping and somewhat regional variants, based on differences between stone and bone tool assemblages.

• Chatelperronian (~40,000-34,000 BP)
• Aurignacian (~45,000-29,000 BP)
• Gravettian/Upper Perigordian (29,000-22,000)
• Solutrean (22,000-18,000 BP)
• Magdalenian (17,000-11,000 BP)
• Azilian/Federmesser (13,000-11,000 BP)

Prehistoric Tools and Periods

Africa is not only regarded as the birth place of humanity but also the birthplace of human culture and oldest stone tools recorded from archaeological contexts come from Eastern Africa. Sites such Gona (2.5 Myr), Lokosalie (2.4 Myr) and Olduvai gorge (1.8 Myr) are the oldest and represent the fact that the stone tool technology is longest surviving cultural innovation. The term technology implies the fact that there was sequential-decision making ‘involving selection of high quality raw material and employing consistent methods of flake removal from the original nodule’ of rock.

Lower Palaeolithic

The Lower Palaeolithic period, also known as the Early Stone Age, is currently believed to have lasted from between about 2.7 million to 200,000 years ago. It is the first archaeology, that is to say, that period when the first evidence of what scientists consider human behaviors occurred. The Lower Palaeolithic begins when the first known stone tool manufacture occurred, about 2.7 million years ago, called the Oldowan tradition.

Stone tools of the Lower Palaeolithic also include Acheulian handaxes and cleavers; these suggest that most humans of the period were scavengers rather than hunters. Lower Palaeolithic sites are also characterized by the presence of extinct animal types dated to the Early or Middle Pleistocene. Evidence seems to suggest that the controlled use of fire was figured out sometime during the Lower Palaeolithic.

Middle Palaeolithic (Middle Stone Age)

The Middle Palaeolithic period (ca 200,000 to 40,000 years ago or so) is the period during which Archaic humans including Homo sapiens neanderthalensis appeared and flourished all over the world. Handaxes continued in use, but a new kind of stone tool kit was created–called the Mousterian, it included purposefully prepared cores and specialized flake tools.

The living method in the Middle Palaeolithic for both Homo sapiens and our Neanderthal cousins included scavenging, but there is also clear evidence of hunting and gathering activities.

Deliberate human burials, with some evidence (if somewhat controversial) of ritual behaviour are found at a handful of sites such as La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave.

By 55,000 years ago, archaic humans were tending to their elderly, in evidence at sites such as La Chapelle aux Saintes. Some evidence for cannibalism is also found in places such as Krapina and Blombos Cave.

What were the tools like?

Beginning about 50,000 years ago, the tool kit associated with EMH is the Aurignacian, characterized by what archaeologists call a ‘blade industry’. In blade technology, the knapper has sufficient skill to purposefully produce a long thin sliver of stone that is triangular in cross-section. Blades were then converted into all kinds of tools, sort of the Swiss army knife of early modern humans.

Other things associated with early modern humans include ritual burials, such as that at Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal, where a child’s body was covered with red ochre before being interred 24,000 years ago. The invention of the atlatl was at least as long as 17,500 years ago, the earliest having been recovered from the site of Combe Sauniere. Venus figurines are attributed to early modern humans of about 30,000 years ago; and of course, let’s not forget the amazing Lascaux Cave.

Middle Stone Age and the Aterian

A handful of sites seem to suggest that the dates for the change to the Upper Palaeolithic are way out of whack. The Aterian, a stone tool industry long thought to have been dated to the Upper Palaeolithic, is now recognized as Middle Stone Age, dated perhaps as long ago as 90,000 years ago.

One Aterian site showing early Upper Palaeolithic-type behavior but dated much earlier is at Grottes des Pigeons in Morocco, where shell beads dated 82,000 years old have been discovered. Another problematic site is Pinnacle Point South Africa, where red ochre use has been documented at ca 165,000 years ago. Only time will tell if these dates continue to be held up.

Tools of the Upper Palaeolithic

Stone tools of the Upper Palaeolithic were primarily based on blade technology. Blades are stone pieces that are twice as long as they are wide, and generally have parallel sides. They were used to create an astonishing range of formal tools, tools created to specific, wide-spread patterns with specific purposes.

In addition, bone, antler, shell and wood were used to a great degree for both artistic and working tool types, including the first eyed needles presumably for making clothing about 21,000 years ago.

The Upper Palaeolithic is perhaps best known for the cave art, wall paintings and engravings of animals and abstractions at caves such as Altamira, Lascaux and Coa.

Another development during the Upper Palaeolithic is mobiliary art (basically, mobiliary art is that which can be carried), including the famous Venus figurines and sculpted batons of antler and bone carved with representations of animals.

Section III :

Molecular Archaeology and Dispersal

Questions such as (a) who were our ancestors?; (b) where did they originate from? (c) which migratory route they followed during the course of peopling of the world? and ; (d) how did they lived in varying climatic conditions now seem to have arrived at resolute answers, as a result of development of molecular archaeology. The discipline deals with fossil genes preserved in fossil hominin specimens. Ancient mtDNA and Y-chromosome (non recombining) can be extracted with precision and they have become important tools in the study of prehistoric human evolution and reconstruction of migration patterns. In addition these datasets have become tools for testing theories of modern human evolution and expansion out of Africa, including the paths of dispersal and timing of dispersal.

While molecular archaeology deals with mtDNA sequence and Y-chromosome in ancient and modern population dispersal refers to geographic and temporal origins of humans, i.e. spatial and temporal distribution of human populations across the planet earth. While earlier models of dispersal were based on fossil and archaeological parameters, in terms of measurable morphological similarities and differences between fossil and stone tool assemblages the coming of genetics has added higher resolution to the ongoing debate.

The simple assumption that genetic similarities between species are due to shared descent, similarly genetic similarity between scattered populations is also due to shared descent had led to rapid advances in the field of molecular archaeology.

Molecular archaeology is armed with mtDNA, i.e. mitochondrial DNA (deoxyribonucleic acitd) and Y-chromosome (non-recomining). The mtDNA is inherited by the offspring from the mother, whereas Y-chromosome is inherited from the father. The mode of inheritance of mtDNA is suitable for reconstruction of matrilineal descent. According to geneticists the ancestral mother to all humanity on earth today lived in Africa between 200 and 150 Kyr. This has also strengthened the idea that human evolution first occurred in Africa and later migrations have led to the peopling of the world. some time between 80 and 60 Kyr a genetically distinct mtDNA haplotype known as L3 migrated out of Africa from East Africa via the southern route, suggesting that all contemporary non-African humans have descended from one African lineage (L3) which later split into two founding lineages known as M and N. M lineage descendants are found in Eastern Africa, South Arabia, India and Southeast Asia. The descendants of N lineage are found in western and central Eurasia.

Section IV : Colonisation

Colonization during the Upper Palaeolithic

Modern Humans colonized Australia and the Americas by the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, and moved into hitherto unexploited regions such as deserts and tundras. There is ongoing debate about the origins and spread of modern humans. One school advocated recent African origins of modern humans and the other school argues for in situ development of modern humans from archaic populations.

Out of Africa or Multiregional Hypothesis?

The archaeological evidence from Australia has been used in the past to support two broad-based theories of human evolution: the Out of Africa hypothesis and Multiregional hypothesis. Basically, the out of Africa hypothesis postulates that Homo sapiens evolved once, in Africa, and migrated outward, replacing the earlier forms of human being; while the multiregional hypothesis suggests that human evolution occurred several times in several parts of the world as a result of an African-derived Homo sapiens group mixing genes with older human forms such as Homo erectus or Neanderthal archaic populations.

Investigations into mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of aboriginal Australians and New Guineans support the out of Africa hypothesis. The mtDNA data of Australians and New Guineans fall within the same mitochondrial branches as other human populations who left Africa between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago. These data suggest to researchers that the settlement of the entire region of Australia and New Guinea was undertaken by one early founder group shortly after the African exodus.

Evidence for the Australian Settlement

The first Australians arrived on the continent, according to Australian archaeological consensus, probably at least about 60,000 years ago.

Archaeologists still debate the precise date; but there are over 150 archaeological sites that date to at least 40,000 years ago, and fairly firm older evidence has been identified at sites such as Devil’s Lair (Western Australia, 60,000 bp), Lake Mungo (New South Wales, 62,000 bp), Malakunanja II (Northern Territory, 56,000-61,000), and Nauwalabila I (Northern Territory, 30,000-60,000 bp).

Approximately 45,000 years ago, the sea level was some 200 meters lower than it is today, and Australia and adjacent islands (including New Guinea and Tasmania) were connected in what archaeologists refer to as Sahul. Sahul was still separated from mainland southeast Asia (called Sunda) by a deep channel in which many small islands are located still, called Wallacea. Wallacea was a natural barrier to the movement of animals for many many thousands of years, which led to the isolation and hence creation of so many different species of animal in Australia found nowhere else on the planet.

The archaeological site evidence for the fairly late 45,000 year-old human colonization of Australia is bolstered by the fact that more than 20 genera of large-bodied fauna (or megafauna) disappeared from Sahul during the middle-late Pleistocene.

Conclusion

This chapter has introduced basic concepts in prehistory, terminologies (which are elaborated in separate modules), typologies and the way genetics has impacted on our understanding of human evolution and migration out of Africa. The subsequent modules are developed against this background so that it becomes easy to comprehend prehistory in a scientific perspective.

The terms prehistory and protohistory are commonly found in Indian archaeologycial literature. The term prehistory refers to the study of preliterate societies, from the earliest times to the time of invention of writing. The appearance of the oldest written record marks the beginning of historical period. However in the Indian subcontinent there is a peculiar situation wherein the oldest script referred to as Indus script has so far not deciphered and until such time of its decipherment the period covered by the Indus civilization is referred to as Prohistoric period or protohistoric civilization. Furthermore the subcontinent also witnessed the rise of second urbanisation in the Ganga valley from the 6th century BC, wherein the earliest evidence for a written language appear. The Mauryan period marks the beginning of historical period in Indian history. This was the time of the rise of second urbanisation in India.