PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD

PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD
In the Palaeolithic Age (which lasted 1 mi,llion and 10,000 years ago) the human beings used stone tools, roughly dressed by crude chipping, which have been discovered throughout the country except the alluvial plains of the Indus, Ganga and Yamuna rivers. They barely managed to gather their food and lived on hunting. They had no knowledge of cultivation and house-building. This phase continued till about 9000 BC.

The Palaeolithic Age in India is divided into three phases according to the nature of the stone tools used by the people and also according to the nature of change in the climate. The Lower (early) Palaeolithic Age covers the greater part of the Ice Age; its characteristic tools are hand­axes, cleavers and choppers. In this period climate became less humid. The Middle Palaeolithic industries are mainly based upon flakes; the principal tools are varieties of blades, points, borers and scrapers made of flakes. Irl the Upper Palaeolithic phase, the climate became warm and less humid. This phase is marked by burins and scrapers. In the world context, it marks the appearance of new flint industries and of men of the modern type (Homo sapiens).