The word 'neolithic' was first coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865.

Miles Burkit enumerated four characteristics of neolithic culture 1. 2. 3. 4. Animal domestication Agricultural practice Grined and Polished stone tools and Pottery manufacture

The discovery of the tools and implements of the neolithic age was made by Le Mesurier in Uttar Pradesh in 1860. Later on, Frasher discovered such objects in Bellary in South India. The people of this age used tools and implements of polished stone. Neolithic People : The civilisation and culture of the Neolithic age shows distinct traces of progress. The Neolithic men had a settled life. They practised agriculture and grew fruits and corn. Animals, such as the cow, dog, ox, goat etc. were domesticated. The art of producing fire by the friction of bamboos or pieces of stones was known to them. Instead of eating the uncooked flesh of various animals, they now started roasting it. Besides this, bows and arrows were invented and were used for the purpose of hunting. They also learnt pottery, at first by hand and then with the potter's wheel. They painted and decorated their pots. They lived in caves, the walls of which were polished and painted with the scenes of hunting and dancing. The also learnt the art of spinning and weaving clothes. They used to bury their dead and construct tombs over them which were known as Dolmens, Menhirs etc.s Neolithic Tools : The stone tools of the Neolithic age bear unmistakeable signs of polish either all over the tools or at the buttend and working-end, or only at the working end. They fashioned their tools out of fine-grained dark-green trap, though there are examples of the use of diorite, basalt, slate, chlorite, schist, indurated shale, gneiss, sand stone and quartzite. Occupation : Neolithic settlers were cattle-herders and agriculturists. They produced ragi, wheat, barley, rice, masoor, moong, kulthi etc. Hand-made pottery is also found in the early stage. Elephant, rhino, buffalo, ox, stag remains are also found in plenty. But there is no specification of these domesticated. The pottery were well made but were coarse in nature, not that much polished. Red, Grey, Black and Red Ware, Black Burnished Ware and Mat-impressed Wars are associated with this culture. Tools making was another important occupation which included a variety of picks, scrapers, eyed needles, bodkins and pierced batons. Facts to Remember Sir John Lubbock coined the term Neolithic in his book Prehistoric Teme , first published in 1865. The term refers to an age in which stone implements were more skillfully made and more varied in form. It was V. Gardon Childe who defined the Neolothic-Chalcolithic culture as a self sufficient food economy Miles Burkit put forward the following four characteristics a culture should fulfil to be called a Neolithic Culture 1. Agriculture practice

2. Domestication of animal 3. polished and grined stone tools 4. pottery manufacture Chalcolithic: Towards the end of the Neolithic period began the use of metals. Firt metal to be used was copper and the culture of that time is called Chalcolithic cultre. The earliest settlements belonging to this phase are extended from the Chhotanagpur plateau to the copper Gangetic basin. Some sites are found at Brahmagiri near Mysore and Navada Toli on the Narmada. The transition from use of stone to the use of metals is slow and long drawn. There is no doubt that there was an overlapping period when both stone and metals were used. This is proved by the close resemblance of metallic tools and implements with those made of stone. The Chalcolithic i.e. copper bronze age or stone-copper age of India produced a splendid civilisation in the Indus Valley which spread in the neighbouring regions. Occupation: Their economy was based on subsistence agricultre, stock-raising, hunting and fishing. Their tools consisted of a specialised blade and flake of silicious material like chalcedony and chert. Copper and bronze tools were present in a limited number. The culture shares the common characteristic of painted pottery. Burial Practices: Another striking feature was the burial practice of the dead. The dead were buried in north-south position in Maharashtra but in east-west position in south India. In eastern India, only a fraction of population buried their dead. Chalcolithic Settlement Pattern Largest - Diamabad Town features at Diamabad and Inamagaon Town Planning - Inamgaon Fortification - Nagada, Inamgaon, Diamabad, Balathal Baked Brick Evidence - Gilund Stone Dwellings - Ahar Chiefly circular and rectangular houses have been found Microliths have been found from Ahar Flat, Rectangular copper axe have been found frm Jorwey and Chandoli Chief Crop Barley Evidence of Rice has been found from Inamgaon Fire Altars and Fire Worksip were prevalent Inner Funeral System North South direction of burials East West direction of burials were prevalent in South India

More than forty hoards consisting of rings, celts, hatches, swords, harpoons, spearheads and human-like figures have been found in a wide area ranging from West Bengal and Orrisa in the East to Gujrat and Haryana in the West, and from Andhra Pradesh in the south to Uttar Pradesh in North. The largest hoard comes from Gungeria in Madhya Pradesh; it contains 424 copper

tools and weapons and 102 thin sheets of silver objects. But nearly half of the copper hoards are concentrated in the Ganga-Yamuna doab. All the implements of the copper hoards supplemented by stone tools led a settled life, and were one of the earliest Chalcolithic agriculturists and artisans to settle in a good portion of the doab. Copper Hoard Stretched from North-West to East and upto Tamil Nadu Black copper has been found at these sites It continued upto 1500 BC Chief Area - Gangetic Valley Chief Sites - Gungeria (MP), Saibia (UP), Bithur (UP), Visauli (UP), Rajpur Parsu (UP)

Pottery : This period was marked by two types of pottery: Ochre-Coloured Pottery which can be roughly placed between 2000 BC-1500 BC on the scientific dating and Black and Red pottery from about 1000 BC. Ochre-Coloured Pottery (OCP): A new pottery type was discovered during excavatings at Badaun and Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in 1950. It was called Ochre Coloured (OCP) as it contained a wash of ochre. The colour of the pottery ranges from orange to red. The Chalcolithic sites with such type of ware are ascribed to OCP culture. The period covered by the OCP culture is roughly placed between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. The Black and Red Ware (BRW) followed the OCP. Black and Red Ware (BRW) : Excavations of Atranjikheda in Uttar Pradesh in the 1960s brought to light a distinct pottery. The pottery, called the BRW, is sandwiched between the OCP and the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) of Iron Age or the Early Vedic Age. In Southern India, use of iron came after the use of stone. In any case, there were periods of overlappongs in the use of stone, copper, bronze and iron. Our only evidence of the transition from copper-bronze age to the iron age is the monuments like dolmens, cairns, cremolechs. These have been found in wide areas all over India such as Assam, Bihar, Orrisa, Central India, Gujrat and Kashmir. But by far the largest number has been found in south India, in Karnataka and the Decan. These iron monuments appear to have belonged to both pre-historic and historic periods. Monuments discovered in Hyderabad, Mysore, Tinnevelly district, Coimbatore, Malaba, Penumbur etc. also show varied stages of development. Neolithic, Microlithic tools along with copper, bronze and iron implements have been discovered, making it difficult to identify the actual period of transition from copper-bronze age to iron age. At this stage of our limited knowledge, no definite conclusion in this regard can be arrived at. Iron age is usually associated with the Painted Grey Ware. Painted Grey Ware (PGW) :It referes to the ceramics which have been fired grey and then painted with black designs. The name chosen is highly misleading and can lead many beginners to think this, as a type, which is painted with grey colour. The grey colour, it is believed, is obtained by firing thin clay pots to as high as at temperature as 800 degree celcius. Pre Historic Findings

Bhimbetka - Homo Sapiens' Cave 500 painted Rock Shelters Nevasa - Evidence of cotton Atranjikheda - Textile printing Hastinapur - Wild Sugarcane Inamgaon - Statue of mother goddness Mehargarh - Earliest evidence of agriculture Koldihva - Earliest evidence of rice Bagor and Adamgarh - Earliest evidences of Domestication of animal Chirand - Serpant cult Burzahom Gulfkral - Pit-dwelling