Mesolithic Culture

The Mesolithic culture, bridging the gap between the Paleolithic and Neolithic, emerged approximately 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. This transitional period marked a significant shift in human lifestyles as communities began to adopt more sedentary and complex ways of behaving. Often referred to as “Middle Stone Age” people, Mesolithic people continued to rely on stone tools but also developed innovations such as microliths and tiny stone blades used for a variety of purposes.

Unlike their nomadic Paleolithic predecessors, Mesolithic communities engaged in more sedentary hunting, fishing, and foraging and utilized diverse ecosystems. These changes led to increased social organization and the development of rudimentary agriculture, plant cultivation, and animal domestication.

The Mesolithic period varies regionally, with different cultural adaptations around the world reflecting the environment and available resources. It represents a pivotal moment in human prehistory when communities transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to more complex societies that eventually gave rise to agriculture and the foundations of modern civilization.

Mesolithic Culture

Introduction Mesolithic culture

Sometime around 8000 BC, the Pleistocene ended and the environment changed. As a result of these changes, climatic conditions were very similar to the present day, i.e. warmer and wetter. This was especially true in western, northern, and central India. As a result, new resources became available and the population expanded. The flora and fauna also changed, so much so that the one-horned rhinoceros entered the interior parts of Assam, whereas in the Pleistocene it was found only in Gujarat. All these changes resulted in changes in tool-making technology. Tools made during this phase are generally known as microliths. “From a traditional archaeological point of view, the Mesolithic is considered to be characterized by a reduction in the size of stone artifacts and the presence of a higher proportion of ‘geometric’ microliths.” Changes in the Mesolithic phase are supposed to lay the foundations for more fundamental changes in the Neolithic culture phase. Therefore, the Mesolithic phase is known as the transitional phase between the Paleolithic culture and the Neolithic phases.

Tools

Microliths, as they are known, are very small in size and range in length from 1 to 8 cm. Blade, core, point, triangle, lunate, and trapezoid are the main Mesolithic tools. However, some tools used earlier, such as the scraper, engraver, and chisels, continue.

Mesolithic Sites

• (i) Many microliths have been found in the Pachpadra Basin and Sojat area of ​​Rajasthan and an important settlement site has been discovered at Tilwara. There are many microlithic industry sites near the freshwater lake at Budha Pushkar. These sites were primarily residential or camping sites. The pottery shows some affinities with the Chalcolithic culture sites of Ahar and Bagor. A copper fish hook was also found at one site. These show the overlap in time. B. and R. Alchin (1982, 1997) suggest that the subsequent religious significance of the site may date back to prehistoric or Middle Paleolithic times. Another Mesolithic site in Rajasthan on the Kothari River, Bangor is the largest Mesolithic site in India. This is also the most fully explored and best-documented Mesolithic site in the entire subcontinent. Excavated by V.N. Misra includes three cultural phases. Charred bones of wild and domestic animals were found everywhere. Burials associated with all three phases have been found. Phase I dated to c. 5000-2000 BC based on C14 yielded evidence of huts with tiled floors. The industry here is mostly based on blades. Stone objects include ring stones.
• (ii) The basins of the Tapti, Narmada, Mahi, and Sabarmati rivers in Gujarat have yielded many Mesolithic sites. Akhaj, Valasana, Hirpur, and Langhnaj are some of the important sites. Of these, Langhnaj was excavated by H.D. Sankalia, “has the distinction of being the first site discovered in an arid zone to demonstrate the development of a Mesozoic culture…” More than a hundred sites have been found here on the consolidated sand dunes. Langhnaj revealed three cultural phases. Phase I yielded microliths, burials, and animal bones. Microliths are mainly blades, triangles, crescents, scrapers, and scratches.
• (iii) The mountainous region of central India is rich in Mesolithic sites. The survey revealed that these are campsites or temporary housing. There are a number of larger factories that indicate foreign trade. Barasimla, Barkaccha, and Sidhpur had large factories. A sharpened stone ax butt was found at Barkachha. Both of the latter sites are located where the Gangetic plains meet the hills of central India, suggesting some contact between the plains and the Mesolithic hill hunters.
• (iv) In the Allahabad-Pratapgarh area, Sarai-Nahar-Rai is an extensively explored and studied site. It seems to be a more permanent place to live. It was excavated by G.R. Sharma who considered it a small settlement or a semi-permanent camping site. Here we have several small hearths, one large common hearth or hut floor, and several burials.
• (v) Bone artifacts were produced at Mahadasha, a Mesolithic camp. These include arrowheads and bone ornaments. Cobblestones and mullers are also found here. Remains of bosa, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, deer, pig, turtle, and birds are recorded. A number of burials have also been recorded, including some double burials. At Birbhanpur on the Damodar River in West Bengal, a number of holes interpreted as post holes have been recorded. The site has been identified as a combined factory and housing site on which shacks were built.
• (vi) Adamgarh Group of Rock Shelters in Hoshangabad District in M.P. yielded 25,000 microliths. Major finds in these shelters include broken maces, ring stones, bones of dogs, cattle, buffaloes, goats, sheep, pigs, sambhars, barasingha, spotted deer, hares, porcupines, monitor lizards, etc. Shells have been radiocarbon dated to 5500 BC year. The stone industry was based exclusively on parallel blocks. Similar rock shelters with rock paintings have been found at Morhana Pahar in UP. Rock paintings here depict two chariots, one pulled by four horses and the other by two, pulled by a group of men on foot armed with bows, arrows, and spears. This shows the association of bows and arrows with microlithic artifacts.
• (vii) Two Mesozoic rock shelters were also found near Pachmarhi. They are Jambudip and Dorothy Deep. Here, the α-ceramic microlithic phase was followed by a ceramic phase. Lekhania in Mirzapur (UP) has provided another group of Mesozoic rock shelters. At Bhimbetka in central India, layer 3 yielded a microlithic industry without ceramics, and layers 2 and 1 yielded a microlithic industry with ceramics.
• (viii) The site of Chopani Mando at Allahabad provides a continuous sequence from the Late Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Mesolithic with coarse hand-made pottery decorated with a cord-impressed pattern. The circular floors of the huts were found here. One floor of the cottage in the later phase was paved with stone. Lumps of burnt clay with reed and bamboo prints were found in this phase, indicating wickerwork and mud walls. Other remains include hammerstones, anvils, slingshot balls, ringstones, etc.
• (ix) K.R.V. Todd described a group of coastal microlithic sites around Bombay in 1950. The people probably had some boats and fish formed an essential part of their diet. These sites were probably temporary or permanent dwellings of coastal fishing communities. In coastal Konkan, Mesolithic sites like Kasushoal, Janyire, Babhalgo, Jalgarh, etc. have yielded microliths. Dhulia and Poona districts in Maharashtra have also yielded similar microliths.
• (x) In peninsular India Mesozoic industry is based on milk quartz. A group of sites at Jalalahalli (Bangalore) produced a significant quartz industry. New to the tool industry is the “D” shaped cross arrowhead design. Similarly, Kibbanhalli, Giddalur, (Eastern Ghats) Calicut, Goa, Nagarjunakonda, Belgaum, Berapedi Caves, Sanganakadlu etc. have yielded quartz microliths.
• (xi) A distinct group of coastal sites known as the Teri group appeared in Tamilnadu. The predominant material is quartz and light brown hornblende. The flake tradition is strong and small discoidal cores and flakes, lunates, transverse arrowheads, and points are the primary tools. A very small proportion of blades and blade cores are found. Scratches and grooves are also represented. The dunes provided sheltered campsites near the sea, lagoons, and estuaries suitable for fishing and birding. This industry is a coastal Mesozoic fishing community.

lifestyles

• (i) Paleolithic and Mesolithic represent hunter-gatherer nomadic pastoral stages of human social development. However, while evidence from the Paleolithic age provides no information about their religious practices, with the Mesolithic the first archaeological information about them is available. Anthropological theories based on ethnographic evidence sometimes help to interpret them. Remains of flowers and fauna give us ideas about the mode of subsistence, while burials and rock paintings give us ideas about the development of religious practices.
• (ii) Early Mesolithic sites have yielded bones (sometimes charred and with cut marks) of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig, dog, bison, elephant, hippopotamus, jackal, wolf, cheetah, sambhara, barasingha, black. deer, chinkara, stag, hare, porcupine, mongoose, monitor lizard, tortoise, turtle and fish. As a result of climatic changes, some of them are missing in the late Mesolithic. In addition, Mesozoic people also collected many kinds of wild roots, tubers, fruits, honey, etc.
• (iii) Some Mesolithic sites like Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Pratapgarh, and Mirzapur are known for their rich art and paintings. B. & R. Allchin prefer to call them crayons rather than paintings because the drawings are essentially individual figures or scenes. These are depicted as herds or in hunting scenes such as the rhinoceros hunts of Adamgarh. Animals are the most common subject of all these paintings. Drawings of deer are found on the walls of Morhana Pahar. The most frequently represented animals are deer or antelopes, and paintings of tigers and monkeys are rare. People are depicted with bows, arrows, and spears. Human figures with animal heads also appear. Purple, crimson, vermilion, light orange, and brown colors were used. Some paintings and engravings depict activities such as sexual intercourse, childbirth, child-rearing, and burial ceremonies. It is also the period where we find evidence of careful burial of the dead, indicating the beginning of belief in life after death.

Conclusion

The Mesolithic is the period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic and is the second Stone Age. It varies according to the place concerned. However, it dates from around 10,000 to 8,000 BC. The Mesolithic period in Europe extends from 15,000 to 5,000 BCE. People of this time mostly lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering food, but agriculture also developed steadily. The Mesolithic shows the characteristics of pastoral and horticultural societies. Mesozoic people relied on semi-permanent settlements in the form of caves and huts. The weather of this era became warmer than in the Paleolithic. People of this time used small bladed stones known as microliths.

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