Articles from General Knowledge Today

Introduction to Prehistory
2011- 05- 04 08:05:55 GKToday
The past of humankind has been divided int o t wo broad cat egories viz.
Prehistoric and historic. Prehist oric period belongs t o t he t ime bef ore t he
emergence of writ ing and t he hist oric period t o t he t ime f ollowing it . It has
been so f are believed t hat Modern Humans originat ed in Af rica and have lived
on our planet f or around 150,000 years. In recent t imes, t here have been some
challenges t o t his t heory.
The ant hropologist s have long t heorized t hat humans emerged f rom Af rica
and int o East and Sout heast Asia around 60,000 years ago; t here has been a
signif icant lack of f ossil evidence t o support t hese claims. The earliest skull
f ossil evidence in t he region had dat ed back 16,000 years and was f ound in
t he early 20
th
cent ury. In August 2012, a new skull was found that dates back to
46,000 to 63,000 years. This discovery has bolstered the genetic studies that point
to modern humans inhabiting Laos and the surrounding environs at that time,
according to a report of the anthropological discovery published in the latest edition
of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The skull has
been found in Tam Pa Ling, "the Cave of the Monkeys" in northern Laos. It
helps fill in this mysterious gap in the fossil record.
Advent of writing
But , man learnt writ ing only about 5000-8000 years ago. Writ ing most likely
began as a consequence of polit ical expansion in ancient cult ures, which
needed reliable means f or t ransmit t ing inf ormat ion, maint aining f inancial
account s, keeping hist orical records, and similar act ivit ies. It has been
concluded t hat around t he 4
th
millennium BC, t he complexit y of t rade and
administ rat ion out grew t he power of human memory, and writ ing became a
more dependable met hod of recording and present ing t ransact ions in a
permanent f orm. The earliest record of human writ ing may be t he Dispilio
Tablet, dat ed t o t he 6
th
millennium BC.
So, we humans have not learnt writ ing f or
a long t ime, even t oday 10-12 % of the
Human Population is illiterate. So,
writ t en hist ory gives us account of only
0.1% of human hist ory. Then, bef ore t he
invent ion of print ing t echnology in t he
medieval period, writ t en document s were
f ew and f ar bet ween, and many of t hem
have been lost due t o being writ t en on perishable mat erials like t ree bark,
palm leaf , papyrus and clot h. This means t hat t he st ory of humankind has t o
be reconst ruct ed largely wit h t he help of non-lit erary or archaeological
sources. These sources comprise object s t ools, weapons, ornament s,
st ruct ures and art ist ic creat ions which were produced and used by humans
and which have survived t he ravages of t ime.
Archaeology & Ethnoarcheology
Like ot her creat ures, we humans also had t o adapt ourselves t o t he
environment , but unlike ot her beings, we have done so wit h t he aid of
t echnology and mat erial cult ure (mat erial object s like t ools, weapons, ut ensils,
houses, clot hes, ornament s, et c). Since, t he component s of environment such
as landscape, climat e, f lora and f auna also t ends t o change over t ime,
archaeologist s have t o reconst ruct past environment s as well. Moreover, t he
biological remains of men have cont ribut ed t o t he underst anding of not only
his biological evolut ion but also cult ural evolut ion. Archaeology, t hus, is a mult i-
disciplinary st udy involving disciplines like geology, palaeont ology,
palaeobot any, biological ant hropology and archaeological chemist ry.
Then, t he cult ural changes t ake place at an uneven pace in dif f erent regions.
In many part s of t he world, f or example in India, prehist oric ways of lif e have
survived more or less unchanged int o modern t imes. The discipline, under
which we st udy t he non-indust rialized societ ies, especially t hose pract ising
hunting-gathering, fishing, primitive cultivation and pastoralism, is known as
et hnoarchaeology. This st udy cont ribut es t o int erpret ing t he archaeological
record.
Origin of Man
The origin of man begins in t he Miocene period, around t went y million years
ago, when t he great apes, f rom whom t he humans evolved, f lourished in large
areas of t he Old World. Prot o humans appeared in t he Pliocene period, around
f ive million years ago, and t heir cult ural evolut ion largely t ook place during t he
Pleist ocene period, which began about t wo million years ago. While biologically
humans dif f er f rom t he ot her apes in t heir upright post ure, abilit y t o walk on
t wo f eet or hind limbs, ext remely versat ile hand, and an unusually powerf ul
brain, cult urally t hey dif f er in t heir abilit y t o manuf act ure and use t ools.
Prehistoric Period: Classif ication
The prehist oric period is divided int o t hree ages, namely t he st one, bronze
and iron ages. These ages, besides being t echnological st ages, also have
economic and social implicat ions. The St one Age is divided int o t hree periods,
viz. Palaeolit hic, Mesolit hic and Neolit hic. The suf f ix lit hic indicat es t hat
t echnology in t hese periods was primarily based on st one. Economically the
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods represent the hunting-gathering stage while the
Neolithic represents the stage of food production, i.e. plant cultivation and animal
husbandry.
Concept: Absolute and Relative Chronology
Chronology of t he past can be eit her relat ive or absolut e. Relat ive chronology
dat es prehist oric event s in relat ion t o ot her event s and geological deposit s.
The relat ive chronology t ells us if a part icular event is earlier or lat er t han
anot her event . On t he ot her hand, t he Absolut e chronology dat es event s and
phenomena in solar calendar years. The t echniques such as Radiocarbon,
K/Ar, f ission t racks, t hermoluminescence, TH230/U234 and dendrochronology
are t he t echniques of absolut e chronology. Out of t hen, t he dendrochronology
is applicable only t o a period of a f ew t housand years and only in t he f ew
areas where old wood samples have been preserved. Then, t he radiocarbon
dat ing can dat e event s up t o sixt y t housand years old. The ot her met hods
can, however, dat e event s belonging t o t he ent ire prehist oric period. However,
t heir applicat ion is dependent on t he availabilit y of suit able mat erials such as
volcanic ash and rock at archaeological sit es.