15 Mesolithic Cultures of India

Ravi Korisettar and Madhavi Kunneriath

Introduction

Mesolithic or Late Stone Age (as mentioned in some of the text books) represents a transition, lasting only a few thousand years, between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic period, covering only a couple of thousand years. The subsistence economy during both Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods consisted of hunting and gathering. However, despite a common mode of subsistence between the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods, there are important differences in several respects, particularly technology.

• The Mesolithic sites are much larger in number and are better preserved. This is because by the end of the Pleistocene the land surface of the country, particularly in riv er basins, had assumed its present shape and there have been no significant disturbances in it by natural agencies like climatic changes. Consequently, the archaeological sites have not been disturbed by natural factors.
• It is during the Mesolithic period that natural caves and rock-shelters came to be occupied by human groups on a significant scale. Deposits containing Mesolithic cultural material, especially in caves and rock-shelters, are largely a product of human habitational activity and therefore primary in nature.
• Because the Mesolithic sites are of a relatively recent age, particularly animal remains, is better preserved. This material is of great value for reconstructing subsistence economy and environment of the Mesolithic communities.
• A number of Mesolithic sites have been excavated, in Western and Central India but not in South India.
• Evidence for intentional disposal of the dead appears for the first time during this period. Several sites have yielded human skeletal remains from regular burials. These remains throw light on the methods of disposing of the dead, biological composition of human populations, dietary habits, diseases, and social organisation of the people.
• Art activity flourished on a large scale during this period. The earliest reliably datable rock paintings belong to this stage and they are found in abundance and in a good state of preservation over a large area of the country, particularly in Central India. These paintings are not only valuable for understanding the aesthetic expression of the Mesolithic people, but they also complement other archaeological data for reconstructing technology, economy and social and religious organisations of Mesolithic communities.
• Over a score of radiocarbon and thermo-luminescence (TL) dates from several sites provide absolute ages for Mesolithic cultures and help in understanding the process of cultural evolution.

2. Geographical Distribution, Settlement Pattern and Demographic Implications

Barring a couple of regions like north-east India and the Western Ghats, Mesolithic sites are known from all parts of the country. In the Indo-Ganga plain, the sites are known only in a limited area between Pratapgarh and Varanasi with more than 200 occupational sites – in the districts of Allahabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Pratapgarh. The majority of excavated Mesolithic sites are in Northern and Western India. In the region of Deccan the sites are associated with rocky outcrops of raw material resources.

On the other hand, the absence or sparseness of sites in some parts of the country is probably due to ecological reasons. The Mesolithic people extended human colonization into areas previously either totally unoccupied or occupied only sparsely. They settled in very different kinds of environments and exploited a great variety of food resources. This spread of settlements into new ecological niches could have been associated with favourable environment, population increase and technological innovations. In the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh Mesolithic people occupied limestone caves, as in Kurnool District, and sandy, river banks as in Chittoor District. Along the West Coast on the Salsette and other islands Mesolithic people settled on tops of low hills and rock outcrops near the sea shore, and in Kerala in caves as well as in the open. Along the east coast near the tip of the peninsula they occupied sand dunes known as Teris. In both these coastal region, marine food resources must have formed a major basis of subsistence.

List of Excavated Mesolithic sites in South India.

3. Tools, Raw materials and Technology

Microlithic stone tools of India present a considerable regional diversity in respect of typological composition and raw materials and techniques used in the manufacture of tools. The major component of the technology of this cultural stage consists of microliths – tiny tools from less than 1 to 5 cm in length. These were made from micro blades which were mass produced by removing thin, parallel-sided flakes by pressure technique from well-prepared cylindrical, pointed or squattish cores. There is evidence that to facilitate easy and efficient production of micro blades stone nodules were heat treated. These tiny blades were converted into microliths by steeply blunting one or more of their margins by removing minute flakes through pressure flaking. By secondary trimming of these blades a variety of tool forms were produced.

Microliths are usually classified as geometric and non-geometric, with the latter probably appearing earlier. These include rectangular blades, obliquely truncated blades, points, crescents, scalene and isosceles triangles and long and narrow trapezes. Some of the tool forms, especially the crescents, rhomboids, triangles and trapezes, are of perfect geometric shapes. Almost all these forms were used as components of various kinds of tools and weapons like spearheads, harpoons, knives, sickles and daggers. Some of these tools could have been used by themselves as arrowheads and drill points while hafting gave rise to composite forms also.

Besides microliths, several other types of tools also form part of the Mesolithic technology. These are usually made on flakes, though sometimes also on blades and cores. In place of the blunting of the margins as in microliths these tools are made by secondary trimming along the margins or by removal of blade-like flakes as in burins. This group of tools includes various types of side scrapers, end scrapers, pressure-flaked bifacial points as in Teri (Tamil Nadu) sites and several types of burins. The development of end scrapers, particularly of the thumb-nail type is another feature. Large flake tools like choppers and side scrapers are by and large absent in microlithic industries, only occasional examples having been found at the Teri and Bombay coastal sites.

Besides flaked stone tools, several other types of stone implements were used by the Mesolithic people. These include hammer stones, spherical stones, perforated discs or ring stones and querns and rubbers. Hammer stones were used for making stone implements as well as for splitting animal bones for the extraction of marrow. Spherical stones or sling balls were clearly used in hunting. The function of perforated discs or ring stones is not so clear. Considerable variability in their size and weight suggests that they were used for more than one purpose. They could have variously been used as mace heads, weights of digging sticks and as sinkers of fishing nets. Querns and rubbers must have been used for processing both plant and animal foods. There is also evidence of the use of bone and antler tools by Mesolithic people.

Crypto-crystalline silica stone such as quartzite, chert, chalcedony, jasper and agate were the main raw materials used for tool processing for this phase.

4. Technological and Cultural Evolution

Mesolithic technology from majority of the sites belongs to a highly developed stage, and there are very few sites where the evolution is clearly seen from a simpler stage. In the rock-shelters and open-air sites at Morhana Pahar the excavators have reported a four-phase evolutionary sequence: (1) non-geometric microlithic industry, (2) geometric microlithic industry, (3) geometric microlithic industry with pottery and (4) diminutive microlithic industry with pottery. The Teri industry of Tamil Nadu with its flake points, asymmetric geometric forms, and large tools like discoids and choppers also tends to represent an older technological stage.

The evidence for cultural evolution among the Mesolithic people through contact with more advanced communities is clearer. The microlith-using hunter-gatherer-pastoralists came into contact with metal and pottery-using settled agricultural communities and borrowed traits like pottery, metal tools and stone beads from the latter. This contact eventually enabled them to give up the use of stone tools in favour of metal ones and reduce or eliminate their dependence on hunting-gathering by adopting an agricultural way of life. As the contact between the cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers and the farmers in the river valleys in the hilly country of central India grew, the former must have come down from the hills to settle in the plains at the foot of the hills. The aboriginal communities living today in villages at the foot of the hills containing prehistoric shelters and practising a mixed farming and hunting-gathering economy are almost certainly in the direct line of descent of the stone age hunter-gatherers.

5. Subsistence

Our knowledge of the subsistence pattern of Mesolithic people is mainly based on the animal bones which have been found in large quantities and often in a well-preserved condition. This direct evidence is supplemented by depictions of scenes of hunting, trapping, fishing and plant food collecting in the rock paintings. Hunting gathering thus continued to be the main economy while incipient domestication is also evidenced at some sites.

The animals most commonly represented in the bone record are Indian humped cattle, gaur, buffalo, sambar, chital, gazelle, hog deer, nilgai, jackal, fox and monitor lizard. Besides, barasingha and rhinoceros were hunted, elephant and porcupine are reported. There are bones of tortoise and fish. Paintings at Bhimbetka and other sites show hunting of a variety of animals by spear and bow and arrow and by trapping and snaring. In the paintings there are also scenes of trapping of rats and of fishing. There is evidence of domestication of cattle, sheep and goat. The bones occur in broken, spilt open and charred conditions, showing that meat was cooked on open fires and marrow was extracted from bones. Small floors compactly paved with stone and thickly littered with bones were used as butchering places. From some sites, domesticated animal bones have been identified as at sites from north Gujarat like Kanewal, Loteshwar and Ratanpur, and from Madhya Pradesh sites like Adamgarh and Bhimbetka.

The domesticated variety of animals represented by their bones include those of cattle, sheep, goats, pig and dog. An interesting find is of camel bones from Kanewal.

6. Palaeoclimate and Environment

Based on sedimentological studies (mechanical analysis of fine particles, microscopic examination of sand grains and chemical analysis of the relevant soil samples), faunal analysis, lake deposit studies and palynological studies, it has been able to reconstruct the Palaeoclimate and environment for some areas during the Mesolithic period. Mesolithic phase was a period of great transition, from the Pleistocene geological era to the Holocene era, around 10,000 years ago. Palaeo climate in this transitional phase was not uniform and differed in different areas. Climatic profile from West Bengal, the site of Birbhanpur show increasing aridity while Didwana in Western Rajasthan seems to have has a higher rainfall, based on its pollen analysis as well as lacustrine deposit analysis. Didwana and Sambhar lakes unlike being saline lakes now were fresh water lakes between 10,000 and 3500 BP. Sites of Tilwara, Bagor and Langhnaj faunal remains of chital, gazelle, nilgai, black buck, sheep etc., indicate a thorny or dry deciduous type of forest during the Mesolithic. A wet and warm climate with heavy rainfalls in the summer monsoons is postulated for Eastern Madhya Pradesh. Microlith related Teri sites from Tamil Nadu were formed during an arid phase.

7. Settlements, Dwellings and Material Culture

Mesolithic sites can be classified into permanent or semi-permanent (repeatedly inhabited over periods of time). Different kinds of landscapes were occupied by the Mesolithic people. 1. Sand dunes – Often enclosing lakes or ponds, ensuring terrestrial and aquatic food resources and water these dunes of Rajasthan and Gujarat were inhabited. 2. Rock Shelters – Occupied since the Acheulian times, in some cases, these caves and rock shelters in the Central India with dense deciduous vegetation provided ample food resources and water from perennial springs or streams. Sites of Bhimbetka and Adamgarh are prime examples. 3. Alluvial Plains – Availability of food, water and raw materials always attracted ancient man to settle down near river sources. Birbhanpur on River Damodar plain is an example of Mesolithic site. 4. Lake Shores – Examples are the settlement sites from Pratapgarh in the Ganga Valley. 5. Rocky Plains – Hill tops and flat rocky plains with seasonal rain water availability would have provided a short duration seasonal habitat. Sites from Mewar and Deccan Plateau are examples. 6. Coastal environments – Teri dune sites in Tirunelveli Distrist, and Salsette Island are examples of these type of settlements which would have provided the Mesolithic people with marine food resources.

Direct evidence is limited as to the dwellings of the Mesolithic people, mainly because of the poor survival of the items made of organic materials. However, we do have some indirect evidence in the form of outlines of oval and circular huts, from Chopani Mando. Wattle and Daub huts are indicated through the evidence of burnt clay piece with reed impression. From this site, three hearths and traces of the base of bamboo and clay storage bins have been reported. Patches of burnt floor plaster have been recovered from Damdama site. In Central India in many cases these people inhabited readily available rock shelters. But from one shelter at Bhimbetka it is evident that they raised stone walls inside the shelters to partition off some areas. Rock paintings show circular huts made of tree branches and leaves. There is also evidence of circular stone-lined huts at Bagor and Tilwara in Rajasthan.

Material possessions of Mesolithic people were meagre. They included bows, arrows, spears, traps, nets, grinding stones for processing food, stone hammers, sling balls, ring stones, bone and antler tools, and ornaments. Pottery has been evidenced at Adamgarh. Rock paintings show that both men and women wore some kind of dress around the waist, probably made of leaves or animal skin. Hunters are often shown wearing masks. Human skeletons in the burials from Mahadaha in the Ganga Valley are shown wearing earrings and necklaces made of rings cut from antlers.

8. Disposal of the Dead

The earliest evidence of intentional disposal of the dead in India is known from the Mesolithic period. The only known method of disposal of the dead among the Mesolithic people was inhumation. Evidence of burial of humans in an east–west direction in shallow rectangular graves, in an extended position along with grave goods, comes from the sites of Mahadaha, Damdama and Sarai Nahar Rai. Both in rock-shelters and at open air sites the dead were buried within the habitation area. South Indian Mesolithic sites have not excavated well so far to reveal evidence comparable to central Indian sites.

9. Art

Not much is known of the portable art of the Mesolithic people although there are rare specimens of a chert core with geometric engraving from Chandravati in Rajasthan, engraved bone objects from Bhimbetka and geometric design engraved human tooth. We have, however, rich evidence for the art of painting of the Mesolithic people in Central and South India. Realistic portrayal of animals, humans and activities of hunting, gathering, collecting and dancing etc. formed the major theme. In the sandstone region of Central and Southern India several hundred painted rock-shelters are known, their major concentration being around Bhimbetka, Bhopal, Raisen and Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh and south Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Though there are minor differences both between and within the sites, there is a broad uniformity over the whole area in terms of subject matter, technique, style and pigments used, and there can be no doubt that the entire Stone Age rock art of Central India belongs to a single cultural tradition. Since pieces of haematite with ground facets produced in the process of making pigment for the execution of paintings are common in the habitation deposits of the shelters and since the older paintings depict only a hunting-gathering way of life, the latter can be certainly associated with the Mesolithic people.

10. Chronology

The chronology of the Mesolithic period is still far from securely established because of the paucity of radiocarbon dates. The site of Inamgaon near Pune has given a date of c.12, 000 B.P. in association with a microlithic industry. A date of c. 8,000 BCE. is known from Sarai-Nahar-Rai, but as it is obtained from an uncharred bone its reliability is low. Another calibrated date from here is 9958 – 9059 BCE. From Bhimbetka the oldest date is 7,790+220 BP while other calibrated dates are 6556-6177 BCE and 4895-4580BCE. From Adamgarh there is a date of 6430+200 B.P. The beginning of the microlithic industries can therefore be assigned to c. 10,000 BP. Two dates from phase II of Bagor, which has an association of copper tools and pottery with microliths, are 4,715+105 BP and 4,060+ BP. It is significant that Mesolithic occupation in Central Indian caves as well as on the sand dunes in Western India came to an end soon after the introduction of iron tools. Iron is known to have first appeared in the Ganga Valley at the beginning of the first millennium BCE. and slowly diffused to other parts of the country. As iron tools began to be available to microlith-using hunter gatherer communities, they started giving up the use of stone technology. Both archaeological data and radiocarbon dates suggest that the use of microliths had completely disappeared by the beginning of the Christian era.

11.  Important Sites Bagor

Excavated in 1968-70, this site lies on top of a prominent sand dune about 25 km west of the town of Bhilwara in Rajasthan and overlooks Kothari River with monsoonal water. Layer profiles could not be determined although on the basis of cultural remains, occupational phases have been divided into three. a. Phase I with exclusive microliths b. presence of copper with microliths in Phase II (c. 2800-600 BCE) and c. presence of iron with microliths in Phase III (c.600-200 BCE).

Phase I had evidence of large floors of schist, slabs of which were quarried from across the river, stone alignments probably indicative of windbreaks or flimsy huts. Butchering spots were marked by tightly paved stone areas with animal bone concentration. An extended skeleton with lower part of its left arm resting on the body was also found. The greatest density of the tools and animal bones were found from this phase. Tools included geometric tools of triangles and trapezes on locally available quartz and chert while faunal remains included domesticated sheep/goat, cattle, apart from wild cattle, deer, pig, jackal, rat, monitor lizard, river turtle and fish.

Other findings include fragments of shallow querns and rubbing stones, hammer s tones, pieces of red ochre etc. Phase I gave a radiocarbon date of c.5000-2800 BCE.

Paisra

Located in the Kharagpur range near Munger in Bihar, this seventh millenium BC site provides the only evidence of an early Mesolithic habitation in the whole of eastern India. A 105 sq m section of a Mesolithic floor was excavated here which yielded traces of ‘numerous big and small fireplaces only a few metres from each other’. Only 26 finished tools were found including a micro Gravette point, besides lunates, side-scrapers and backed blades. This site seems to be occupied for a very short period as indicated by the very thin deposit.

Birbhanpur in West Bengal

This was both a habitation and a factory site where tools of quartz, chert and chalcedony were found.

Langhnaj

The occupational deposit was divided into three periods with Period I consisting of Mesolithic microliths, human burials, wild faunal remains and some potsherds.

Baghor II

Located in Madhya Pradesh in the Son Valley, this site was excavated in 1980, revealing 6 layers which yielded microliths beneath the surface soil. Heat treatment of raw materials of chert and chalcedony for tools like triangles and trapezes, is evidenced. Very few finished tools occur here with majority being debitage. A hammer stone and fragments of grinding stone (indicating processing of plant food), a few pieces of haemitite and ochre, burnt clay pieces, charcoal pieces, post holes indicating large, partially open, semi-permanent wind breaks or sun-shades (at least 5 of them) and tabular stone pieces for paving, sleeping or storage platforms, head rests or hearths were other important finds. Three hoof marks of a sambar deer was also seen left in the excavated soil.

Sites of Chopani Mando, Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Dam dama (Uttar Pradesh)

Chopani Mando

Located in the Belan Valley, this site has a cultural sequence from the Epi-palaeolithic to the advanced Mesolithic or proto-Neolithic. The total occupational deposit was 1.55 m. Divided into three phases, the first phase was Epi-palaeolithic followed by Phase 2a with non-geometric tools on chert- blades, borers, scrapers, points and evidence of two circular huts. One of the huts was 3.80 m in diameter with 12 post holes of 10-20 diameter around the periphery. Phase 2a was followed by Phase 2b with geometric microliths and the ground plan of five circular huts with stone fragments, microliths, small pieces of bone and burnt clay lumps bearing reed impressions.

Phase 3 had, in addition to the microliths, anvils, mullers, querns, hammer stones and ring stones, indicating processing of probable wild grains (charred rice has been recovered). Other evidence from this level are burnt clay lumps with reed marks, animal bones, thirteen circular and oval huts and four hearths. Bases of storage bins of bamboo and clay were found outside the huts. Faunal evidence from this phase include wild cattle and sheep/goat.

Sarai Nahar Rai

Located in Pratapgarh District, UP, this site is an example of a lake shore site as it is on the banks of a dried oxbow lake. This lake marks an old course of Ganga. The main findings from this site are the geometric microliths, faunal remains and human burial remains with grave goods. Animal remains include shells, bones of bison, rhinoceros, stag, fish and tortoise.

There were 11 human burials within the habitation area. The oblong burial pits contained the skeletal remains of 9 men, 4 women, and a child. There was a multiple burial with four skeletons and another skeleton had an embedded arrow in its ribs. Grave goods included microlithic tools,animal bones and shells. Skeletal analysis showed evidence of osteo-arthritis and a good dental health.

Mahadaha

At this site, also located on the banks of an oxbow lake, excavations revealed a 60 cm thick occupational deposit. Habitation area with microliths on chert, quartz, chalcedony, crystral and agate, all of which must have been brought over the fairly long distances across the river from Vindhyas. Burials include that of 30 individuals within the habitation in 28 burials. There were butchering areas with bones of wild cattle, hippopotamus, deer, pigs and turtle. Human burials were elliptical with grave goods including microliths, shells burnt animal bones, bone arrowheads and rings and ochre pieces. There were two instances of a man and a woman buried together. Skeletal analysis showed people were tall, had good dental health though many suffered from osteo-arthritis.

Damdama

Situated at the confluence of a small stream belonging to the Sai River, this site dated to early 7th millennium BCE, had an occupational deposit of 1.5 m thickness. Cultural remains include microliths, bone objects, querns and mullers, anvils and hammer stones. Hearths, patches of burnt floor plaster, charred wild grain and animal bones besides 4 multiple burials among 41 human burials (one with an ivory pendant as grave good) were other important finds. Evidence of domesticated rice was discovered from this site.

Rock shelter sites of Lekhakia, Baghai Khor, Adamgarh and Bhimbetka Lekhakia

Lekhakia is located in Mirzapur District of Southern Uttar Pradesh. Blade tools and microliths with burials and pottery were found from excavations at this rock shelter site.

Baghai Khor

It is located in the same area as Lekhakia. There are two phases of microlithic findings here. There is a pre ceramic and a ceramic microlithic phase. Extended burials, one of each were found from both the phases.

Adamgarh

Located about 2 km south of the Narmada at Hoshangabad, one of the rock shelters here were subjected to excavations in 1961. Upper layers of the deposits revealed a microlith bearing layer. The 1-3 m deposit had microliths belonging to the Mesolithic and a later Neolithic-Chalcolithic associated microliths. In one trench alone, 5000 tools and 250 kg of debitage were found. Raw materials came from the nearby river beds and include chert, chalcedony, jasper and agate. Tools were of various types like triangles, trapezes, points, blades, awls, scrapers, burins etc. Faunal remains include wild hare, lizard, porcupine, horse or donkey and deer species while domesticated animal remains of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and dog were also recovered.

Bhimbetka

Another rock shelter site, where Palaeolithic cultural remains have been found and succeeded by the Mesolithic, the microliths here include blades and geometric microliths like triangles, trapezes and crescents. While quartz was the main raw material in the preceding Palaeolithic stages, in the Mesolithic stage, we see a shift to chalcedony. Also rock art belonging to the Mesolithic stage have been found in this cave.

Peninsular Indian Sites

In Maharashtra, sites found near Mumbai represent coastal Mesolithic communities who exploited marine food sources. Milky quartz tools were found from Jalahalli and Kibbanhalli near Bengaluru in Karnataka, in Goa, and at Nagarjunakonda and Renigunta (Andhra Pradesh).

Teri Sites

South of Chennai, microliths were found on old sand dunes known as teris. These were mostly on quartz and chert.

On the Vishakhapatnam Coast, sites like Chandrampalem, Paradesipalem, and Rushikonda have given evidence of ring stones and stone tablets, probably used as net sinkers.

Explorations in Kerala since 1974 have brought to light 24 sites from Kannur, Palghat, Malappuram, Wynad, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts. Mesolithic rock shelter sites were discovered at Tenmala in Kollam District and at Ankode in Thiruvananthapuram Distric t which provided a stratified context while other findings were from lateritic surfaces and gravel beds. Thenmala rock shelter site has given a radio carbon date on a wood charcoal (Rajendran 1987, 1989, 1994) which is stated to be of Late Mesolithic (5210 years ago). The author opines that these industries show similarities with the Mesolithic industries of Sri Lanka and that they are non-microlithic, non- geometric, non-metallic and aceramic and largely on flake components unlike those found in Central and North India.

Summary

There is evidence that microlithic proportion of tools started appearing in the last phase of the Upper Palaeolithic. Epi Palaeolithic saw the occurrence of smaller tools than Upper Palaeolithic blades but bigger than true microlithic proportions of Mesolithic. Mesolithic microliths probably grew out of this phase and advanced into the true microlith and with geometric types of tools, towards a later phase. The Mesolithic period witnessed widespread human occupation to new regions, previously unoccupied or non-occupied. The sites are found in all the regions of India, irrespective of the geological formations. The use of crypto-crystalline silica enabled the Mesolithic communities to adapt to new conditions and also helped produce microlithic tools. There are ample evidence from sites like Srai Naha Rai, Damdama etc., that Mesolithic people travelled great distances to procure good raw materials in the absence of the same locally. This indicated interactions between the communities living in the northern alluvial plain with the hill people of the northern fringes of the Vindhyas and later on with the early agriculturists.

Microliths were used as composite tools, in harvesting wild grasses yielding grains, arrow points, fishing, etc. Unfortunately, in South India there are no excavated sites. Hundreds of rock shelter sites with paintings of the period are known from Kurnool, Cuddappa, Kaladgi and Bhima basins.

The burial evidences from various sites some with grave goods suggest some belief and rituals that existed. Incipient domestication of plants and animals are also evident from cultural remains from some sites and we can conclude that it is the part sedentary Mesolithic communities that laid the foundations of the Neolithic agricultural way of life.

Bibliography

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