Pre-history and Proto-history: Geographical Factors

Pre-History and Proto-History: Geographical Factors

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The study of India’s earliest past is conventionally divided into prehistory and proto-history, based on the availability — or absence — of written sources, while the settlement patterns of each of these periods were, in turn, powerfully shaped by geographical factors. This article first distinguishes prehistory from proto-history and history, before examining how geography — climate, terrain, water sources, and vegetation — influenced human settlement and subsistence through the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic ages.

Prehistory and Proto-History

1. Prehistory is concerned with the period for which there are no written sources, since history is basically based on written material.
2. Prehistoric sites differ from historical sites in several respects.
   • Generally, they are not in the form of prominent habitation remains, but principally consist of fossils of humans, plants, and animals.
   • They are found on the hill slopes of plateaus and mountains, and on the banks of nearby rivers with terraces, and comprise a variety of fauna and flora.
   • Numerous stone tools from the Stone Age have been found at these sites.
   • The remains of tools, plants, animals, and humans from the pre-Ice Age indicate the climatic conditions that prevailed at the time.
3. Proto-history:
   • Although writing was known in India by the middle of the third millennium BC in the Indus culture, it has not so far been deciphered.
     • Thus, though the Harappans knew how to write, their culture is placed in the protohistoric phase.
   • Proto-history may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians.
   • Proto-history is also considered a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilisation has not yet developed writing of its own, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.
   • The same is the case with the Chalcolithic (Copper–Stone Age) cultures, which had no writing.
   • Decipherable writing was known in India only in the third century BC, with the Ashokan inscriptions providing solid evidence for historical reconstruction from that time onward.

Geographical Factors

Geographical factors influence the patterns of human settlement and subsistence in prehistoric times.

Geographical Determinism

• Geographical determinism is the theory that human habitats and the characteristics of a particular culture are shaped by geographical conditions.
• The theory encompasses all environmental and geographical conditions and their impact on the socio-economic and political forces of a society.
• Physical features and environmental conditions that may appear unfavourable at one time may prove potentially useful later.

Geographical Factors in the Palaeolithic Age

1. The Palaeolithic age saw the evolution of Homo sapiens.
2. Ethnographic studies have shown that many hunting-gathering groups do not fully exploit the natural resource potential of their area, and that they consciously practise sensible restraint in exploiting the environment in order to conserve its resources.
3. Most of the Palaeolithic sites are located throughout India, except in the Gangetic basin and the Kerala coast, owing to the presence of rocky hills and caves — for example, the Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh.
4. In this age, humans were food hunters and food gatherers, because the Pleistocene climate did not facilitate the abundant growth of fauna and flora. People lived in small bands consisting of close-knit families and led a nomadic life.
5. The sites are densely concentrated in central India and the southern part of the Eastern Ghats, as this area received adequate rainfall, has perennial rivers and a vegetation cover, and is rich in wild plant and animal food resources.
6. Palaeolithic tools/culture has been divided into three phases, on the basis of the nature of the stone tools made by human beings, as well as due to changes in climate and environment.
   • The trend towards smaller tools during the Upper Palaeolithic phase must have been due to adaptations to environmental change.
   • Factory sites are generally located close to the sources of raw materials.
7. The Middle Palaeolithic era, in comparison to the Lower Palaeolithic era, shows a sparser distribution of sites.
   • The reason for this is that Middle Palaeolithic culture developed during the Upper Pleistocene, a period of intense cold and glaciation in the northern latitudes; in those times, the areas bordering glaciated regions experienced strong aridity.
8. Changes in the Upper Palaeolithic environment had an impact on the distribution and living ways of humans. Some of these changes were as follows:
   • There was an extremely cold and arid climate in the high altitudes and northern latitudes.
   • There was extensive formation of deserts in north-west India.
   • The drainage pattern of western India became almost defunct, and river courses shifted westwards.
   • Vegetation cover over most of the country thinned out during this period.
   • Coastal areas of south-eastern Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra, and Kutch developed quartz and carbonate dunes as a result of the lowering of the sea level.
   • During the terminal Pleistocene, south-westerly monsoons became weak, and the sea level decreased by several tens of metres.
   • In north India, the Kashmir Upper Palaeolithic coincides with the onset of a milder climate.
   • In the Thar, the number of Upper Palaeolithic sites is fewer than those of the preceding phase, due to increasing aridity.
   • Upper Palaeolithic settlements also show a distinct trend of being associated with permanent sources of water. The use of grinding stones may have been for processing plant foods such as wild rice.
9. Due to the harsh and arid climate, vegetation was sparse, though faunal fossils show the presence of grasslands.
   • The human population faced restricted food resources, and this is the reason why the number of Upper Palaeolithic sites is very limited in the arid and semi-arid regions.
10. One important discovery is that of ostrich egg shells at over 40 sites in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, showing that the ostrich — a bird adapted to arid climates — was widely distributed in western India during the later part of the Upper Pleistocene.

Geographical Factors in the Mesolithic Age

1. With the onset of the Holocene age, the Mesolithic culture began, and ice caps melted, forming rivers as an effect of global warming.
2. 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.
     • 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.
     • The favourable climate, better rainfall, warm atmosphere, and increased food security led to a reduction in nomadism in favour of seasonally sedentary settlement.
       • This period is marked by an increase in population.
       • As the climate became favourable, Mesolithic man began the domestication of animals, and a partially settled life was enabled by the superior technology of microlith tools.
       • The core economy of this period, however, continued to be based on hunting and gathering.
3. 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.
4. One of the features of the Indian Mesolithic phase is the spread of settlements to new ecological niches.
   • This is generally seen as the result of an increase in population, due to more favourable environmental conditions as well as technological innovations.
5. Many faunal 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 the sites falling within the Mesolithic tradition.
   • The appearance and disappearance of these animals has to be understood in the context of changing climatic and environmental conditions.
6. Mesolithic people lived in the following environments: coastal areas, rock shelters, flat hilltops, river valleys, lake sides, sand dunes, and alluvial plains.
7. Sand dunes:
   • 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 lived. Naturally, Mesolithic inhabitants of sand-dune areas faced little difficulty in collecting their food.
8. Rock shelters:
   • 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Lake shore:
    • A few Mesolithic settlements are centred round the shores of lakes, as found in the Gangetic Valley of districts Allahabad and Pratapgarh.
    • The settlers likely obtained their food supply from the respective lake and the dense primeval forest of the fertile alluvial land.
12. 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 Mesolithic tool-makers produced microblades using the pressure technique, beautifully fluted cylindrical or conical cores, as well as thin parallel-sided blades, are common at these sites.

Geographical Factors in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages

1. In many parts of the world, the Holocene was marked by the onset of a milder, warmer, and wetter climate.
2. Such changes may have led to an expansion of the natural habitat area of wild cereals that had the potential for domestication.
3. Village settlements emerged as Neolithic man began to lead a settled life.
   • The pit dwellings found at Burzahom, Kashmir, indicate that extreme cold conditions prevailed in the Kashmir valley.
   • Cultivation of rice, wheat, and barley by slash-and-burn methods is generally observed at Neolithic sites.
4. V. Gordon Childe:
   • He suggested that environmental changes at the end of the Pleistocene were the impetus towards food production.
   • He argued that about 10,000 years ago, the climate in parts of West Asia became drier, owing to a northward shift of the summer rains.
     • This desiccation led to a concentration of people, plants, and animals close to water resources such as rivers and oases.
     • This enforced closeness eventually led to new relationships of dependence between humans, plants, and animals, resulting in domestication.
5. Lewis R. Binford:
   • In the context of the origins of agriculture, he emphasised external demographic stress.
   • He argued that, at the end of the Pleistocene era, as a result of a rise in sea levels, people living along the coasts migrated to less populated inland areas.
     • This upset the people–food equilibrium in inland areas and gave an impetus to the search for new strategies to increase food supplies.
6. There is not much evidence of agriculture at South Indian Neolithic sites.
   • There are only occasional discoveries of charred grain, along with indirect evidence from grinding stones, but cattle rearing seemed to dominate instead.
   • This has led to the argument that the terrain, soil, and dry climate of the area made it unsuitable for agriculture.
7. Health:
   • Studies of nutrition and disease, based on the analysis of human bones, suggest that hunter-gatherers had a high-protein diet — more varied, balanced, and healthy — compared to that of early farmers, whose diet tended to be high in carbohydrates, with an emphasis on cereals or root crops.
   • Sedentary people were also more vulnerable to infectious diseases and epidemics than nomadic groups, and hence a higher incidence of disease is reflected in the bones of early farming communities.
   • Dental health: There was a low rate of dental cavities in the early levels — this may have been due to the high fluoride levels in the drinking water available in the area.
8. The Chalcolithic culture is characterised by copper-stone tools and the existence of large village settlements.
   • A variety of food crops were grown, along with the domestication of more animals.
   • Pastoral farming gained even greater importance, and pottery of delicate, artistic quality was manufactured.

Conclusion

The rise and decline of human habitats since ancient times has been predominantly influenced by geographical factors — climate, terrain, drainage patterns, and vegetation cover shaped where and how communities of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic ages could settle, subsist, and eventually domesticate plants and animals. Yet, as geographical determinism itself suggests, the limits set by nature could, over time, be conquered by human experience and technology — a theme that becomes even clearer in the more detailed, site-specific study of each of these cultural stages.

Note: Further chapters on the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic cultures provide more detail, with examples, on their respective geographical factors.