Mesolithic Period: Hunting and Gathering

Mesolithic Period: Hunting and Gathering

History Optional Notes {PDF}

Complete Notes Package (Paper I & II) | 4500+ Pages | Instant Download

Discounted Price | Buy Now @ ₹1,180 →

Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Culture (8000 BC – 4000 BC)

• The Mesolithic Age began around 8000 BC. It was the transitional phase between the Palaeolithic Age and the Neolithic Age.
  • The transition from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic period is marked by the transition from the Pleistocene period to the Holocene, and by favourable changes in climate and in tools.
• The Pleistocene geological era gave way to the Holocene about 10,000 years ago. Many environmental changes took place during this transition.
  • There was a rise in temperature, and the climate became warm and dry, and in some places humid.
    • For instance, soil from the site of Birbhanpur in West Bengal shows a trend of increasing aridity.
    • Salt lake sediments and pollen grains at Didwana in Rajasthan suggest higher rainfall at this point in time.
  • The climatic changes affected human life and brought about changes in fauna and flora.
    • With the onset of the Holocene, Mesolithic culture began, and ice caps melted, forming rivers as an effect of global warming.
    • There was an expansion of flora and fauna, contributed to by increased rainfall.
    • This led to the availability of new resources to humans, and humans thus moved into new areas.
    • This period is marked by an increase in population, though the core economy of this period continued to be based on hunting and gathering.
• Towards the end of the Pleistocene, or the beginning of the Holocene, there were certain changes in the stone tool kits of prehistoric people.
  • The technology of producing tools underwent change, and small stone tools came into use. People remained predominantly in the hunting/gathering stage, but there was a shift in the pattern of hunting — from big-game hunting to small-game hunting, fishing, and fowling.
  • People started making and using very small tools called microliths.
  • Changes in tool kits must have been related to changes in environmental factors, and these material and ecological changes are also reflected in rock paintings.
• One of the features of the Indian Mesolithic phase is the spread of settlements to new ecological niches.
  • This is generally seen as a result of an increase in population, due to more favourable environmental conditions as well as technological innovations.

Note: The term epi-Palaeolithic is sometimes used for the transitional stage of tools that are smaller than those typical of the Upper Palaeolithic, but larger than microliths.

Mesolithic Tools

• The tools of the Mesolithic era are smaller in size and better finished (more geometric) than those of the Palaeolithic age, and are called microliths, or small stone tools.
  • Microliths are very small in size, their length ranging from 1 to 8 cm. Some microliths even have geometric forms.
  • A microlith is usually made of flint or chert.
• Blade, core, point, triangle, lunate, and trapeze are the main types of Mesolithic tools.
  • Besides these, Palaeolithic tools such as the scraper, burin, and even choppers, also continue during the Mesolithic Age.
• Some microliths were used as components of spearheads, arrowheads, knives, sickles, harpoons, and daggers.
• Use of the bow and arrow for hunting had become common in this period, as evidenced by many rock paintings.
• Bored stones, which had already appeared during the Upper Palaeolithic, became common during the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic periods. These are believed to have been used as weights for digging sticks and as net sinkers. Similarly, shallow querns and grinding stones also occur at several sites.
• These new technological elements led to enhanced efficiency in hunting, and in the collection and processing of wild plant foods.

Blade:

• A blade is a specialised flake. It might have been used for cutting purposes.
• The technique of Mesolithic blade production is called fluting.
• Some retouched blades are also found, which are broad, thick, and long — the retouching process sharpens the blade and makes it more effective.

Core:

• A core is usually cylindrical in shape, with a flat striking platform at the distal, horizontal end.

Point:

• A point is a broken blade in triangular form. Points were used as arrowheads and spearheads.

Triangle:

• The border of the triangle is retouched. These were used for cutting purposes, or as arrowheads.

Lunate:

• A lunate is like a blade, and looks like a segment of a circle. It could be used to obtain a concave cutting edge, or two of these could be halved back to back to form an arrowhead.

Trapeze:

• A trapeze looks like a blade, and trapezes would have been used as arrowheads.

Mesolithic Sites

• One important fact about the Mesolithic era in India is that the first major human colonisation of the Ganga plains took place during this period. There are more than two hundred Mesolithic sites found in the Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, and Varanasi districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Rajasthan

• The Pachpadra basin and the Sojat area of Rajasthan are rich in microliths.
  • The significant habitation site discovered here is Tilwara, which has two cultural phases; Phase I is Mesolithic, and is characterised by the presence of microliths.
• Bagor (Rajasthan):
  • On the river Kothari, Bagor is the largest Mesolithic site in India, and one of the best documented Mesolithic sites overall.
  • It is located in Bhilwara district of eastern Rajasthan, on a sand dune close to the Kothari river.
  • It has three occupational levels: Period I (Mesolithic), Period II (Chalcolithic), and Period III (evidence of iron).
  • Tools: The microliths were mostly made of locally available chert and quartz, and most of them were made on blades, including a large number of geometric microliths, such as triangles and trapezes.
  • Habitation: House floors paved with stone slabs were found, and in some places there was evidence of roughly circular arrangements of stone that may have marked the outlines of shelters. Certain stone-paved areas with large numbers of animal bones were probably butchering areas.
  • Burial: Only one burial was unearthed, and there was no definite evidence of grave goods. Other discoveries included ring stones (perhaps used as hammer stones to make microliths), pieces of red ochre, querns, and rubbing stones (for grinding food).
  • Animals: Bones of wild animals included wild cattle, two kinds of deer, pigs, jackals, rats, monitor lizards, turtles, and fish; bones of domesticated sheep/goats and cattle were also reported.
  • Pottery: There is a possibility that small bits of pottery found at the site belong to the Mesolithic phase.

Gujarat

• The rivers Tapti, Narmada, Mahi, and Sabarmati in Gujarat have also yielded many Mesolithic sites.
  • Sites like Akhaj, Valasana, Hirpur, and Langhnaj are situated east of the river Sabarmati.
  • Langhnaj has been extensively studied and has revealed three cultural phases. It has produced microliths, human burials, animal bones, and some potsherds.
  • The microliths at Langhnaj are mostly blades, triangles, crescents, scrapers, and burins.

Uttar Pradesh

• The Satpuras are rich in Mesolithic sites.
• The three excavated sites of Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha, and Damdama lie very close to each other.
  • Sarai Nahar Rai (in Pratapgarh district, UP), in the Allahabad-Pratapgarh area:
    • It is located on the banks of a dried oxbow lake, which marks an old course of the Ganga.
    • Tools and animals: Geometric microliths were found here, along with shells and animal bones (of bison, rhinoceros, stag, fish, and tortoise).
    • Burials: Within the habitation area, there were 11 human burials in oblong pits — of 9 men, 4 women, and a child.
      • One of the buried skeletons had an arrow embedded in its ribs.
      • A multiple burial contained the remains of four persons.
      • Microlithic tools, animal bones, and shells were placed in graves as grave goods.
      • An analysis of the skeletal material revealed that the dental health of the people was, on the whole, good, though some suffered from osteo-arthritis.
  • Mahadaha:
    • It is also on the banks of an oxbow lake, with distinct areas associated with habitation and butchering.
    • Tools: The microliths were made of chert, quartz, chalcedony, crystal, and agate, all of which must have been brought over fairly long distances across the river from the Vindhyas.
    • Burials: Twenty-eight burials of thirty individuals, including two instances of a man and woman buried together, were found within the habitation area. The burials were elliptical, with a sloping base. The grave goods included microliths, shells, burnt pieces of animal bones, bone arrowheads and rings, and ochre pieces.
    • Animals: The bones found in the butchering area included those of wild cattle, hippopotamus, deer, pigs, and turtles; thousands of animal bones were found in the lake area.
    • Health: The Mesolithic people of Mahadaha were tall; their dental health was good, but many suffered from osteo-arthritis, and average life expectancy was low.
  • Damdama:
    • Excavators discovered microliths, bone objects, querns and mullers, anvils, and hammer stones, along with hearths, patches of burnt floor plaster, charred wild grain, and animal bones.
    • Burials: There were 4 multiple burials among the 41 human burials. In one grave, an ivory pendant was found among the grave goods.
    • Domesticated rice has recently been reported from Mesolithic levels at this site.
• Morhana Pahar and Lekhahia, in the Kaimur range:
  • Lekhahia: Rock shelters excavated at Lekhahia (in Mirzapur district of southern UP) have yielded blade tools and microliths. Burials were found here, and so was pottery.
  • Baghai Khor: Another rock shelter site in the same area, with a pre-ceramic and a ceramic microlithic phase. Two extended burials were identified, the first belonging to the pre-ceramic phase, and the second to the ceramic phase.
• Chopani Mando, in the Belan valley:
  • This is an occupational deposit divided into three periods. The first was epi-Palaeolithic, while the second and third were clearly Mesolithic.
  • Tools: Period II was divided into two phases — Period IIA had non-geometric microliths, such as blades, points, scrapers, and borers, mostly made of chert; in Period IIB, there were a large number of geometric microliths. The microliths continued into Period III, which was also marked by handmade pottery with cord-impressed patterns, anvils and hammer stones, querns and mullers (used for grinding and food processing), and ring stones.
  • Animals: There were bones of wild cattle and sheep/goats.
  • Habitation: Pieces of burnt clay with reed impressions show that the Mesolithic people of Chopani Mando lived in wattle-and-daub round huts.
  • Wild rice is reported from late Mesolithic levels at this site.

Madhya Pradesh

• The Vindhyas are rich in Mesolithic sites.
• Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh):
  • It has a favourable ecological setup.
  • Tools: Mesolithic tools include blades and geometric microliths, such as triangles, trapezes, and crescents. Quartz was used a great deal in the Palaeolithic stage, but in the Mesolithic phase there was a shift to chalcedony.
  • Bhimbetka is famous for its Mesolithic paintings.
• Adamgarh hill, near Hoshangabad, lying to the south of Bhimbetka:
  • Its upper layers represented a Mesolithic level, which in turn gave way to a Neolithic–Chalcolithic one.
  • Tools: Microliths were found here, mostly made of chert, chalcedony, jasper, and agate — raw materials available in the riverbed of the Narmada, about 2 km away. Geometric microliths (triangles and trapezes) were very common. Mace heads or ring stones and hammer stones were also found.
  • Animals: The wild animal bones comprised those of the hare, lizard, various kinds of deer, horse, and porcupine. Bones of domesticated cattle, sheep, goat, dog, and pig have also been reported.
  • Pottery: This site has given evidence of pottery at Mesolithic levels.
• Baghor II, in the Son valley:
  • This site has both Palaeolithic sites and a Mesolithic phase.
  • Tools: The tools are of chert and chalcedony, and geometric microliths occur. Fragments of grinding stones, one hammer stone, and pieces of red ochre were found.
    • There were very few finished stone tools, and most of the total Mesolithic lithic material excavated consisted of waste material of stone tool working — this suggests that the tools were made here and taken away to other places.
  • Habitation: The location of five or six large shelters can be identified by a series of post-holes.

Eastern India

• The Chota Nagpur plateau, the coastal plains of Orissa, the Bengal delta, the Brahmaputra valley, and the Shillong plateau have all yielded microliths.
• Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic-associated microliths have been reported from the Chota Nagpur plateau.
• Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, and Sundergarh, in Orissa, have a microlithic assemblage. Kuchai, in Orissa, is another such site.
• Sebalgiri, in the Garo hills of Meghalaya, has yielded pre-Neolithic microliths.
• Paisra, in Bihar: apart from microliths, there was evidence of large and small fireplaces positioned very close to each other. The thinness of the deposit suggests only a short period of Mesolithic occupation.
• Birbhanpur, in West Bengal, located on the river Damodar in Burdwan district:
  • Mesolithic stone tools made of quartz, some of chert and chalcedony, were found here. This seems to have been both a habitation and a factory site.
  • The climate during the Mesolithic phase at Birbhanpur was drier than in the immediately preceding phase, which was wetter and more humid.
• Microliths occur at many places along the east coast of India, and seem to mark the camps of Mesolithic fishing communities.
  • The Krishna and Bhima rivers have produced many microliths, and in many cases the microliths survive into the phase of Neolithic cultures.
  • Sangankallu, on the western fringe of the Karnataka plateau, has produced cores, flakes, and points.

South India and the Deccan

• In peninsular India, microlithic sites found in the vicinity of Mumbai seem to represent coastal Mesolithic communities who exploited marine resources for food.
• Microliths have also been reported from coastal Konkan and the inland plateau — sites like Janyire, Babhalgo, and Jalgarh have been reported from Konkan.
• The Deccan basaltic plateau has many Mesolithic sites, and microliths have been reported from Dhulia district and Poona district.
• The Godavari delta is rich in microliths, where the microliths are associated with the Neolithic culture.
• Andhra Pradesh:
  • The Kurnool area has many microliths, and microliths have also been reported from Nagarjunakonda (in southern AP) and Renigunta (in Chittor district, AP).
  • On the Visakhapatnam coast, stone tablets and ring stones have been found at sites such as Chandrampalem, Paradesipalem, and Rushikonda. Similar stones are used today by local fishermen in the area as net sinkers.
• Karnataka:
  • Microliths have been found at Jalahalli and Kibbanhalli, near Bangalore.
  • Further south, the microliths are mostly made of milky quartz.
• South of Chennai, tiny stone tools, mostly of quartz and chert, have been found on old sand dunes known as teris.

Classifying the Sites

• Since the Mesolithic age covers a long span of time, and there are many Mesolithic sites in India, an attempt has been made to classify different sites chronologically and on the basis of material remains.
  • Some sites are truly Mesolithic sites, because of the abundance of microliths and their chronological sequence.
  • Some sites are chronologically of a later time and merely reflect the influence of Mesolithic culture; these sites fall into the category of the “Mesolithic tradition.”
• Sites like Bagor, Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha, and Adamgarh are truly Mesolithic sites, because of their early dates and associated material culture.

Habitation and Living Environment

• Habitation: Mesolithic sites reflect different levels of sedentariness.
  • Some seem to have been permanent or semi-permanent settlements, or at least settlements that were repeatedly inhabited over long periods of time.
  • There are many instances of temporary Mesolithic camp sites in various parts of the subcontinent, but sites such as Sarai Nahar Rai, Damdama, Mahadaha, and Chopani Mando were inhabited continuously.
• Mesolithic people inhabited a variety of environments, including coastal areas, rock shelters, flat hilltops, river valleys, lake sides, sand dunes, and alluvial plains.

Sand dune:

• In Gujarat and Marwar, hundreds of dunes of varying sizes are found on the alluvial plain.
• Some of them enclose a shallow lake or pond, which served as important sources for obtaining aquatic creatures.
• The dunes themselves were covered with thorny scrub bushes, where many animals used to live — naturally, Mesolithic inhabitants of sand dunes faced little difficulty in collecting their food.

Rock shelter:

• The Vindhya, Satpura, and Kaimur hills of central India are very rich in caves and rock shelters, making the area a favourite of the Mesolithic people.
• As central India received ample rainfall, the hills had grown a thick deciduous forest, which provided a variety of plants and animals.
• Some of the rock shelters have been found to be occupied as early as Acheulean times.

Alluvial plain:

• From the early Palaeolithic period, humans preferred to live on riverbanks because of the availability of water and game.
• Numerous Mesolithic sites have accordingly been recovered from the alluvial plains — for example, the Birbhanpur site, located on the Damodar’s alluvial plain in West Bengal.

Rocky plain:

• On the Deccan Plateau, many microlithic sites are found — some on hilltops, others on flat rocky soil.
• Such occupations must have been seasonal or of short duration, except where a river was nearby.

Lake shore:

• A few Mesolithic settlements are centred round the shores of lakes, as found in the Gangetic Valley of Allahabad and Pratapgarh districts.
• The settlers likely obtained their food supply from the respective lake and the dense primeval forest of the fertile alluvial land.

Coastal environment:

• A large number of microlithic sites have been recovered from coastal areas — for example, from Salsette Island and from the teri dunes in Tirunelveli district. The inhabitants fed upon marine resources.
• Since the Mesolithic people produced microblades by the pressure technique, beautifully fluted cylindrical or conical cores, as well as thin parallel-sided blades, are common at these sites.

Subsistence Pattern and Social Life

• The Mesolithic economy, like the Palaeolithic, was still essentially based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, though some sites have given evidence of the domestication of animals.
  • Animal bones have been reported from Mesolithic settlement sites, and an analysis of these bones indicated the presence of bones of domesticated varieties of animals like cattle, sheep, and goat.
  • The earliest evidence of animal domestication has been provided by Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Bagor in Rajasthan.
  • The Mesolithic culture paved the way for the Neolithic, where pastoralism and agriculture supplemented hunting-gathering as the prevalent mode of subsistence.
• The early Mesolithic sites have yielded the faunal remains of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig, dog, boar, bison, elephant, hippo, jackal, wolf, cheetah, sambar, barasingha, black buck, chinkara, hog deer, hare, porcupine, mongoose, lizard, tortoise, and fish.
  • Many of these species continued to be found throughout the Mesolithic tradition. However, wild sheep, wild goat, ass, elephant, bison, fox, hippo, sambar, chinkara, hare, porcupine, lizard, rat, fowl, and tortoise are absent at sites falling into the category of the Mesolithic tradition.
  • Conversely, wild buffalo, camel, wolf, rhinoceros, and nilgai are present at sites of the Mesolithic tradition, though these species are absent in the early Mesolithic period.
  • The appearance and disappearance of these animals has to be understood in the context of changing climatic and environmental conditions.
• The diet of the people during the Mesolithic age included both meat and vegetal food.
  • The remains of fish, tortoise, hare, mongoose, porcupine, deer, and nilgai have been found at different Mesolithic sites, such as Langhnaj and Tilwara, and it seems these were consumed as food.
  • Besides hunting and fishing, Mesolithic people also collected wild roots, tubers, fruits, honey, and the like — these constituted important elements of the overall dietary pattern.
  • Plant food seems to have been more easily available than hunted animal food. Some areas seem to have been rich in grass, edible roots, seeds, nuts, and fruits, which people would have used as food resources.
  • It is argued, in the context of surviving hunter-gatherers, that the major portion of food comes from plant sources, supplemented by hunting.
  • It is difficult to establish the precise relationship between animal meat and vegetal food in the Mesolithic context, because plant remains are perishable in nature; nevertheless, it can be suggested that hunting provided a significant portion of the food resource.
• The paintings and engravings found at the rock shelters used by the Mesolithic people give us an idea about their social life and economic activities. Sites like Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Pratapgarh, and Mirzapur are rich in Mesolithic art and paintings.
  • Hunting, fishing, and other human activities are reflected in the paintings and engravings.
  • Bhimbetka is extremely rich in paintings; animals like boar, buffalo, monkey, and nilgai are frequently depicted.
  • The paintings and engravings also depict activities such as sexual union, childbirth, the rearing of children, and burial ceremonies — all indicating that during the Mesolithic period, social organisation had become more stable than in Palaeolithic times.
  • It seems that the religious beliefs of Mesolithic people were conditioned by ecological and material conditions.
• The evidence from Mesolithic sites across different parts of the subcontinent suggests movement and interaction among communities.
  • Factory sites, located at sources of raw materials, must have been meeting grounds for different groups.
  • The fact that Mesolithic tools found north and south of the Ganga are made of the same kinds of stone indicates that either the raw materials or the tools themselves were moved across the river.
  • The Mesolithic people of Sarai Nahar Rai, Damdama, and Mahadaha would have had to travel over 75 km to reach the stone resources of the Vindhyas — clearly, the communities living in the northern alluvial plain and the hill people of the northern fringes of the Vindhyas must have been interacting with each other.
  • In later times, Mesolithic communities must have interacted with early agriculturists living in their neighbourhood.
• The evidence from several sites of formal, ceremonial burials, with bodies usually laid out in a west–east direction with grave goods, suggests rituals associated with death.
  • The presence of grave goods is often taken as an indication of some belief in an afterlife — or certain belongings of the deceased may have been considered to bring bad luck to the living, and were therefore buried along with the body.
  • Instances of jewellery found on the body suggest a custom of adorning the body before burial, and may indicate high-rank individuals within the community.

Changes in Life: The Mesolithic Era

From nomadism to sedentary settlements:

• There were some further interesting changes in the lifestyle of Mesolithic-era humans.
• The favourable climate, better rainfall, warm atmosphere, and increased food security led to a reduction in nomadism, in favour of seasonally sedentary settlement.

First disposal of the dead and the making of graves:

• Sedentary settlement led to the beginning of the tradition of various ways of the intentional disposal of the dead.
• Mesolithic human burials have been found at Bagor in Rajasthan, Langhnaj in Gujarat, Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, and elsewhere.
• The dead were occasionally provided with grave offerings, which included meat, microliths, animal bone and antler ornaments, and pieces of haematite.
• The evidence from different sites indicates that four types of burials were prevalent:
  • Extended burial
  • Flexed (folded) burial
  • Fractional (secondary) burial
  • Double burials (two individuals buried in a single grave) — probably indicating the development of family units, consisting of male and female.

Emergence of art:

• The Mesolithic man was a lover of art, evident from paintings in several thousand rock shelters in the Vindhyan sandstone hills of central India.
  • The paintings have been found in both inhabited and uninhabited shelters. The rock painting of the Mesolithic period is found at Adamgarh, Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh), and Pratapgarh, Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh).
  • The paintings are made mostly in red and white pigments, made from nodules found in rocks and earth (red made from minerals of iron oxide, and white from limestone).
• These paintings give us an idea about the social life and economic activities of the Mesolithic people, and also tell us about the division of labour on the basis of sex.
• The subject matter of the paintings is mostly wild animals and hunting scenes, though some are related to human social and religious life — such as sexual activity, childbirth, the rearing of children, burial ceremonies, gathering plant resources, trapping animals, eating together, dancing, and playing instruments.
  • Animals are the most frequent subjects. Other subjects include animal-headed human figures; squares and oblongs, partly filled in with hatched designs, which may represent huts or enclosures; and what appears to be depictions of unusual events, such as chariots waylaid by men armed with spears, bows, and arrows, at the Morhana Pahar group of rock shelters near Mirzapur.

Clothing and ornaments:

• The human figures in the rock shelter paintings are shown wearing a loin cloth.
• Some figures are elaborately decorated with ornaments, headgear, feathers, and waistbands; shell, ivory, and bone beads are also evident at various sites.

Recreation:

• Mesolithic man in rejoicing moods is to be seen in the paintings at Bhimbetka.
• Some of the dances depicted may be of ritual significance; the musical instruments depicted include blowpipes and horns.

Hunting methods:

• The use of composite tools revolutionised hunting, fishing, and food gathering. The Mesolithic paintings at Bhimbetka throw interesting light on contemporary hunting practices and the kinds of weapons used.
  • The bow and arrow, barbed spears, and sticks were used in hunting, while ring stones were used as stone clubs.
  • Masks in the form of animal heads — such as of rhinoceros, bull, deer, and monkey — were used as disguises to deceive the game.
  • In one scene, animals are shown falling down a cliff — probably animals were driven down a cliff and killed in this manner. The paintings also show men carrying dead animals suspended on a wooden bar.
• A fantastical composite animal, called the “Bhimbetka Boar,” has the body of a boar, but a snout like a rhinoceros, the underlip of an elephant, and the horn of a buffalo.
• Interestingly, no painting or engraving of a snake is found at any Mesolithic site.
• A very interesting and abstract painting has been found in a rock shelter at Jaora (Madhya Pradesh), perhaps meaning to represent a world consisting of air, earth, and fire.
• An interesting feature of the rock art of Orissa is the co-existence of painting and engraving within the same shelter.

Food production:

• Core economic activities now included hunting, fowling, fishing, and the gathering of wild plant food.
  • A study has suggested the cultivation of plants around 7000–6000 years ago, near Sambhar lake in Ajmer, Rajasthan — though agriculture had not fully developed at this stage.
• The first animals to be domesticated were the dog, cattle, sheep, and goat, and the first plants to be cultivated were wheat and barley. The cultivation of yams and taro also took place in this region.
  • Domesticated animals proved useful not only for meat, but also for milk, hide, agricultural operations, and transport.
• This new subsistence economy, based on food production, had a lasting impact on the evolution of human society and the environment.
• In the humid lands, rice cultivation and the domestication of the pig were later accomplished, since rice and pigs existed in wild form in these regions.

Pottery:

• Pottery is absent at most Mesolithic sites, but occurs at some sites, such as Langhnaj in Gujarat and the Kaimur region of Mirzapur (UP).
• Pottery came to be associated with the Mesolithic culture after the introduction of geometric tools.
• At most sites, the sherds were very small, making it difficult to determine shapes; shallow and deep bowls with featureless rims are the most popular types.
• Pottery was wholly hand-made, and usually coarse-grained, with incised and impressed designs occurring only rarely.

Structural activity:

• Evidence of structural activity, in the form of hutments, paved floors, or wind screens, comes from a number of Mesolithic sites.
  • The houses were roughly circular or oval in plan, with post-holes around them; some hutments had stone-paved floors.
  • Paved floors and wattle have been noticed at Bagor, and the Mesolithic folk at Bhimbetka also made floors using flat stone slabs.

Conclusion

The Mesolithic period marks a crucial transitional phase in India’s prehistory — one in which the warming, wetter climate of the Holocene, the miniaturisation of stone tools into microliths, and a gradual shift towards seasonally sedentary settlement together laid the groundwork for the later Neolithic transition to farming and pastoralism. From the richly documented sites of Bagor, Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha, Damdama, and Chopani Mando, we gain not only a picture of subsistence still firmly rooted in hunting, fishing, and gathering, but also our earliest substantial evidence of ceremonial burial, art, ornamentation, and social differentiation on the subcontinent — a record that, through its rock paintings and grave goods, offers an unusually vivid window into the social and religious life of Mesolithic communities across India.