The advent of food production in the Neolithic Age

 

The advent of food production in the Neolithic Age

Introduction

The Neolithic Age, which means New Stone Age, was the last and third part of the Stone Age. In India, it spanned from around 10,000 B.C. and lasted up to 3000 B.C. The age is also called the new Stone Age which is an improvement over the Old Stone Age in several ways in so far as human civilization and progress are concerned. Thus this age had a good impact on India. The Neolithic Age saw a man turning into a food producer from a food gatherer. Apart from a natural shelter in rocks, they constructed dwellings perhaps huts of wattle and thatches, daubed with clay for themselves. They knew how to produce a fire and the art of cooking. They occupied themselves with fishing and hunting, tended flocks of domesticated animals, and also began the civilization of land. It also witnessed the use of pottery for the first time. People used microlithic blades in addition to tools made of polished stone. The use of metal was unknown. An important development of this period is that they developed the spinning wheel.

Characteristics of Neolithic Age

1. Agriculture: The people of Neolithic Age learn the art of cultivation and cultivated ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice, wheat, and barley and hence were termed food producers and had also started domesticating cattle, sheep, goats, cows, bulls, horses and dogs.

 2. Cloth: They had also learned the art of weaving cotton and woolen cloth therefore they began to use place of leaves of the trees and the skin of the animals to cover the body. Generally, a long cloth was used around the waist, and the rest of it was thrown over the shoulder. It appears that men also wore head cloth and women skirts to cover their bodies. One also finds, that during this age women knew the art of dressing their hair in several ways and also used stone and bone ornaments.

3. Tools: The tools and implements left by the Neolithic people of India have been found all over India. A stone factory of the time has been discovered in the Bellary district of Madras (present Chennai) where traces of the various stages of the making of tools and implements can be still seen. The people used microlithic blades in addition to made of polished stone tools. They used stone hoes and digging sticks for digging the ground. The ring stones of 1-1/2 kg of weight were fixed at the ends of these digging sticks. They also used tools and weapons made of bone; found in Burzahom (Kashmir) and Chirand (Bihar).

4. Fire use: The life and living of the Neolithic men showed a distinct advance from those of the previous ages. The use of fire became known to them. Production of fire by friction of bamboo or pieces of wood or flint is all known to them.

5. Foods: Their food habits had considerably changed. Since by now they had learned the art of agriculture and farming, therefore they now started using agricultural products in food. The use of animal flesh in food had considerably come down and in its place milk, curd, ghee, juice, and vegetable began to be used. They had now come to know how to use fire and thus had started cooking their food, as against the raw food which was in common use earlier.

6. Weapons: The people primarily used axes, and spears as weapons for defending themselves from wild animals. The Northwestern part of the Neolithic settlement used rectangular axes having curved cutting edges. The Southern part used axes with oval sides and pointed butts while polished stone axes with rectangular butts and shouldered hoes were used in the northeastern part.

 7. Housing: The people of the Neolithic Age lived in rectangular or circular houses which were made of mud and reed. The people of Mehrgarh lived in mud-brick houses while pit-dwelling is reported from Burzahom, the Neolithic site found in Kashmir. They still used caves and decorated their walls by painting scenes of hunting dancing, etc.

 8. Pottery: With the advent of Agriculture, people were required to store their food grains as well as to do cooking, arrange for drinking water, and eat the finished product. That’s why pottery first appeared in the Neolithic Age. The pottery of the period was classified under grey ware, black-burnished ware, and mat-impressed ware. The making of painted pottery was also known to them.

9. Architecture: The Neolithic Age is significant for its Megalithic Architecture. (In prehistoric art, a megalith is a large, often undressed stone, that has been used in the construction of various types of Neolithic, Chalcolithic, or Bronze Age monuments, during the period 4500-1000 BCE).

10. Technology: In the initial stage of the Neolithic Age, hand-made pottery was made but later on foot wheels were used to make pots.

11. Community Life: Since,  because of cultivation the people started living in one place, therefore, social life too began during the Neolithic period. Family life began to be liked and loved and several families combined together to form a tribe. Several tribes came into existence each living its own head. It was the duty of all the members of the tribe to obey their heads. Neolithic people had common rights over their property.

12. Burial: Dead bodies were now no longer allowed to rot but it appears that now they began to be buried. Some tombs of the Neolithic men which have been discovered show that they used to bury their dead in a large earthen urn. There were also tombs with stone-slab roofs on stone pillars. The period of thousands and thousands of years covered by the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages is called Prehistoric. Whether the Neolithic people were descendants of the Palaeolithic predecessors is not known for certain. 

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