Mesolithic age or Middle Stone Age

Mesolithic age or Middle Stone Age

• The period of Mesolithic age is between 10,000 BCE -8,000 BCE and this period is also called Middle Stone Age.
• The term Mesolithic is derived from two Greek words- meso and lithic. In Greek ‘meso’ means middle and ‘lithic’ means stone: Middle Stone Age.
• This age is the intermediate Stone Age culture. Both Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures belong to the Holocene era.
•  The main characteristics tool of this period were microliths which were miniature stone tools usually made up of crypto- crystalline silica, chalcedony or chert.
• Different types of tools that were used in this age: Spearheads arrowheads and sickles after hafting them on wooden or bone handles to hunt smaller animals and birds.
• The Mesolithic people lived in semi permanent and temporary settlements. They mostly lived in caves and on open ground.
• The people of this age lived n hunting, fishing and food gathering activities but later they also domesticated animals and cultivated plants.
• The first pet animal to be domesticated was wild ancestor dog and sheep and goat were also domesticated animals at this age
• The people of this era, after death they buried the dead with grave food items because they believe in life after death.
• They believe in artistic skill and rock painting. Over 150 Mesolithic art sites have been discovered across different places of India.
• In 1867, First rock panting in India were discovered at  Sohagighat Kaimur hills in Uttar Pradesh 
• Some rock art sites from Central India discovered at Bhimbetka caves, Karwar, Sundargarh and Sambapur in Orissa, Ezhuthu Guha in Kerala, Kharwar, Jaora and Kathotia in Madhya Pradesh. These pictures also depicts the image of animals in most of the rock art sites and no snakes have been depicted in art.
• The paintings from Bhimbetka depict the pictures that various animals were hunted and for this hunting men and women went together.
• Along with hunting they also depict trapping, fishing, dancing and plant food collection.
• Largest and best documented Mesolithic site in India is Bagor in Rajasthan on river Kothari.
• No snake was found in this Mesolithic period.

    Important sites from Mesolithic age: