Chapter 01

First Farmers
Homo Habilis made the first stone tools. These tools were useful only for simple
jobs like scraping meat from the hides of dead animals, splitting bones to extract
marrow, breaking nuts, etc. To strike the stone with just enough impact and to
remove flakes from a stone in order to shape a tool, was the mankind’s first big
step in the field of technology.

Through close observation of the seasonal cycles in the nature, the Mesolithic
people could domesticate various plants and animals. It resulted into the rise of the
‘Neolithic Age’. Cultivation and Pastoralism (animal husbandry) became a way
of life for neolithic people. It was the end of nomadic-semi nomadic life for them.
Settled villages came into being. The archaeological evidence shows that
systematic agriculture began some 12000-11000 years ago. The progress in the
techniques of systematic cultivation resulted in the rise of the most ancient river
valley civilizations of the neolithic age. The river valley civilizations grew in four
regions of the world. Those regions were Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indian
Subcontinent and China.
You would like to know : Scientists in the Bar Elan University of Israel have found out
that ancient people had attempted cultivation, some 23000 years ago. They have
recovered its archaeological evidence from ‘Ohalo’, a palaeolithic camp site near the
Sea of Galili. At Ohalo the evidence of Barley and some other cereals, seeds of fruits has
been found along with traces of human occupation.

River Valley Civilizations

[Link] Valley of Euphrates and Tigris – Mesopotamia
1. Ancient Mesopotamia included modern Iraq, Syria as well as the
western regions of Iran and south-eastern regions of Turkey.
2. Mesopotamia is the Greek name of the region between the two rivers,
Tigris and Euphrates.
3. Mesos means the ‘middle one’. Potamos means ‘river’. The region
between two rivers is ‘Mesopotamia’.
4. The Mesolithic people began to stay in this region for longer times
because of the availability of ample water. Also both the rivers
flooded annually, making the soil on their banks very fertile.
 5. The camps of Mesolithic people developed into the first settled
neolithic villages. These first villages are dated to 10000 years B.C.E.
6. The farmers in these villages grew wheat and barley.

B. The Valley of Nile - Egypt:

1. The country in the northern parts of the African continent and in the
valley of the Nile River is ‘Egypt’.
2. Napoleon Bonaparte had taken along many scholars from various
fields during his invasion of Egypt in 1798.
3. They studied the ancient remains in Egypt and published it. These
studies received a momentum because of the decipherment of the
Rosetta inscriptions.
4. It became possible to read the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
5. The first neolithic villages in Egypt came into being at about 6000
B.C.E.
6. The first crops grown in these villages were wheat and barley.

C. The Valley of the Huang He - China:

1. The valley of Huang He river is considered to be the region of origin of
the Chinese culture. The Chinese culture evolved here.
2. Agriculture in the neolithic villages of China began at about 7000 B.C.E.
3. Wheat, foxtail millet and rice were grown by the farmers in these
villages.

[Link] Valleys of Sindhu (Indus) and Saraswati - Indian

Subcontinent:
1. The region of the valleys of Sindhu and Saraswati is now divided
between India and Pakistan.
2. The archaeological excavations at Harappa on the banks of Ravi in
Punjab and Mohenjo Daro on the banks of Sindhu in Sindh, indicate the
existance of a fully developed civilisation in the Indian subcontinent.
3. A number of archaeological sites of neolithic villages have been now
discovered.
4. It proves that there were well settled villages in the Indian subcontinent
as early as 8000 B.C.E.
5. Barley was the main crop grown by the farmers in these villages.
6. However, wheat was also grown on a smaller scale.
7. They kept cattle and goat-sheep.
8. They lived in mud houses.
9. The archaeological site at Mehrgarh in Baluchistan has yielded evidence
 of the continuous human occupation from the neolithic times to the rise
of Harappan civilisation and the material culture of the respective
periods.

Beginning of Cultivation: Agricultural Production

1. The transition from hunter-gatherer’s life to the beginning of cultivation was
a very slow process drawn over thousands of years.
2. Beginning of cultivation is also the beginning of the neolithic age.
3. This period marked the beginning of domestication of animals along with
the beginning of cultivation.
4. Barley was the main crop in this period.
5. Other crops were wheat and flaxseed.
The blades used for Mesolithic tools were removed from siliceous stones by the technique known
as ‘ Fluted Core technique’ . These blades are as tiny as our fingernails. So they are called ‘ microliths’
. The Mesolithic people used wooden arrows fixed with microlithic arrowheads.

Mesolithic Blade
Microliths usedas
arrowheads

Fluted Core

The serrated knife made by

hafting microliths
The serrated knife made by hafting microliths

6. The technique of removing long stone blades had been developed in the
Upper Palaeolithic age.
7. In the Mesolithic age the same technique was used and blades as small as
fingernails were removed to make tools.
8. These blades known as microliths were either hafted on the tips of
wooden/bone shafts or in the grooves made on those shafts.
 9. Thus, modified composite tools like fishing harpoons, spears and arrows
could be made
10. Tools like sickle and scythe were made by hafting microliths for harvesting
the cereals and fruits. Thus, the technology evolved; the techniques of
hunting and obtaining food improved; food became available in plenty.
[Link] resulted in making the Mesolithic people stay at one place for a longer
time of the year.
[Link] of naturally grown cereals led them into systematic cultivation.
The technique of agricultural and pastoral operations (animal husbandry)
continued to evolve.
[Link] nature of these operations is such that the farmer is compelled to settle
down permanently near the cultivated land. He doesn’t need to go out in
search of food.
[Link] prepared the ground for the rise of the Neolithic Age.
[Link] transition was drawn over a prolonged period. Nevertheless,
considering radical changes in the way of life during the Neolithic Age, the
Australian archaeologist Gordon Childe coined the term ‘Neolithic
Revolution’.

First Farmers of India

1. Neo means ‘new’. Lithic means ‘of stone’. Neolithic age got its name
because of the stone tools of completely new types.
2. It included short and long heads of axe, made of polished stone and polished
stone rings.
3. The axe heads were hafted on wooden shafts and used for cutting trees,
scraping wood to give it a desired shape, etc.
4. We have already seen that the site of Mehrgarh came into existence around
7000 B.C.E. This site is of great importance among the neolithic villages in
the Indian subcontinent established by the first farmers.
5. The Mehrgarh farmers cultivated barley and wheat.
6. There is another site of a neolithic village that is contemporary to Mehrgarh.
The site was found at ‘Lahuradeva’ in Sant Kabirnagar district of Uttar
Pradesh.

In Maharashtra
1. The mesolithic man existed during 10000-4000 B.C.E.
2. He stayed in natural caves and under rock-shelters.
3. He made microliths from silicious stones.
4. However, no evidence of purely neolithic sites has been found in
 Maharashtra.
5. What we have instead, are the Chalcolithic villages
6. The Chalcolithic people were the first farmers of Maharashtra. Inamgaon,
in the Shirur taluka of Pune district, is an important site of the village of
Chalocolithic farmers in Maharashtra.

Agricultural Settlements: Organization and Administration

1. When Mesolithic people were witnessing the transition from nomadic-semi
nomadic life to settled life, there could have been 25-40 people in any given
group.
2. Life dependent on regular cultivation would need that number to increase at
least to 50. A village with at least a population of 100 could meet the needs
of individual members who would be completely dependent on agriculture
and animal husbandry.
3. Neolithic villages were small in size.
4. Permanently occupied dwellings (mostly round huts) were characteristic of
these villages.
5. The internal settlement pattern of the village indicates that the transactions
related to food production were centrally controlled.
6. Accordingly a hierarchical chain of power positions must have been
established.
7. At the same time other social norms were also established. For example:
boundaries of individual households- families, ownership of land, food
production to meet the needs of individual household- family and rules of
kinship.
8. The tradition of imparting training of unique family skills of production to
the younger members is supposed to have begun as early as the neolithic
times.
9. The culture known as ‘Jomon Culture’ of Japan was a mesolithic culture,
which has yielded evidence of pottery making.
[Link] making, along with the polished stone tools, is supposed to be an
essential characteristic of the neolithic cultures. The earthen pots were used
for the purpose of cooking, serving food and for storage.
[Link] the beginning these pots were handmade.
[Link] a later stage, wheel- made pottery was introduced.
[Link] neolithic pottery in the beginning was in monochrome (single colour),
with a burnished surface
[Link] neolithic people began to decorate their pots with painted designs.
Pottery making
Pottery making had become an art that required special skills. To master the art of
pottery-making one needs to possess knowledge of following things:

 To know the source of clay of excellent quality.

 To manage to obtain clay.
 To knead and prepare the clay for pottery production.
 To be able to turn the pot to the desired shape.
 To have artistic skill for decorating the pottery.
 To know the technique of baking pottery at proper temperatures
(approximately 850º-900º Celsius).
The class of skilled potters, equipped with essential knowledge of all stages of
pottery-making. Ancient pottery can throw light on various aspects of ancient
cultures. We get to know about the cultural history, the material richness of the
place where it was found. The neolithic period also saw rise of other skilled artisan
classes based on specialized crafts.

Bead making
It is apparent that the skill of making beads of various types was acquired by
neolithic artisans from the beginning. They made beads of various types of
siliceous stones and chunk shells. Excavations at neolithic sites yield beads, waste
material cast away during bead making process, faulty and incomplete beads and
the tools used by the bead maker.

The following are the stages of bead making:

 To know the sources of siliceous stones and chunk shells.

 To obtain the raw material.
 To transport the raw material to the manufacturing site.
 To manufacture finished beads from the stones of irregular shape and the
core of chunk shells. The artisan has to be conversant with every stage of the
bead manufacturing.

In brief, agricultural production, as well as production of agricultural tools, pottery,

beads etc. is a chain of various skill based operations, which are completed step by
step. It is a complex system, which calls for systematic division of labour and
training of people for various skills. This process leads to craft specialization and
creates various classes of skilled artisans.
Trade and Transport
1. The nomadic-semi nomadic groups of Mesolithic people had a system of
barter among themselves.
2. The wheel was not yet invented.
3. In the latter half of the neolithic age people had started using beasts of
burden for transporting goods.
4. Most probably round shaped pieces of wooden logs were used as wheels.
Such round pieces can easily gain momentum.
5. Tools like axe, scrapers and chisels enabled neolithic people to cut trees and
to work on wood.
6. The neolithic people invented wheel and the technology they had developed
so far, underwent a revolution.
7. The neolithic people began to produce wheel-made pottery.
8. The wheel technology made it possible to produce pottery on mass scale.
9. The invention of wheel also made it possible to obtain raw material from
distant places in much lesser time.
[Link] became easier to send the finished goods to distant markets where it was
in more demand.

Beginning of Urbanisation
 After settling down at one place for a long time, a feeling of ownership arose
among the neolithic people. This feeling was focused on their individual
dwellings and the piece of land cultivated by them.
 Eventually the villages expanded. Along with it, awareness of collective
land holdings and the village boundaries became prominent.
 It was felt that the village community had a natural right over the immediate
territory around the village periphery. This kind of awareness of natural
right over a particular region is known as ‘territoriality’.
 Rules and social norms were created in order to manage the collective
resources, water sources, crafts dependent on it, trade and community life,
etc.
 Consequently rituals and their details gained importance.
 The need of managing and keeping records of trade, rituals, writing systems
and administrative machineries developed.
 It gave rise to administrative centers.
 Such administrative centers attract large number of population which
includes officials, people from various occupations.
Some important Neolithic sites in India
The northwest region of the Indian continent:
1) Phase I (7000- 6000 B.C.E.) No evidence of pottery (earthen pots).
2) Phase II (6000-4000 B.C.E.) Beginning of pottery making, e.g. Mehrgarh.
3) Jammu and Kashmir - around 2500 B.C.E. neolithic settlements established
at the sites of Burzhom and Gufkral.

Uttar Pradesh
Around 6000 B.C.E. neolithic settlements established at the sites of Chopani
Mando, Koldihwa and Mahagara.

Bihar
Round 2000 B.C.E. neolithic settlements established at sites like Chirand,
Senuwar, etc.

Northeast India
1) The evidence of neolithic settlement was first discovered at the site of
Daojali Hading in Assam.
2) The village was established around 2700 B.C.E.
3) The neolithic tools found here show more affinity to neolithic tools found in
China.

South India
1) The neolithic settlements in Karnatak, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu first
came into being around 4th - 3rd century B.C.E.
2) Karnatak sites - Sangankallu, Maski, Brahmagiri, Tekkalkota, Piklihal,
Hallur, etc.
3) Andhra Pradesh site – Nagarjunikonda
4) Tamilnadu - Payyampalli