• Prehistory is the period which has records of human

activities, civilization, using of stone tools. This period

doesn’t witness any writings from the civilians, therefore,
this period is the prehistoric period in Ancient history.
Ancient history is the summation of events from the period where there was no
human activity records and writings along with the period when there are records of the
human activities. This period has witnessed the greatest wars of Bharat Varsha that is
India as the whole country and also some efficient human civilization like Harappan
civilization. This era was witness by people from 60,000 BC to 650 AD.
• The prehistoric era is the witness of the time when there was no record of
human activity or writings. prehistory also refers to the hunter-gather lifestyle of
people in that era/ period. Pre-history is the fact of origin of human activities and
civilization thousands of years ago. In general, prehistory is divided into 3 ages and
hence the name was given ” A 3 Age System”.
• The 3 ages are Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. These 3 ages give pieces
of evidence of human activity in ancient times. These ages are evolutionary ages in
humankind.
• Stone Age is the very first age notice the
change in human civilization. Use of stone and
tools made up of stones were used. The stone
age further divides into 3 more sub-parts and they
are as follows:
• Palaeolithic Age: In Palaeolithic age or old stone
age. Humans were unaware of methods of
cooking, agriculture. the main occupation of those
times was food gathering and hunting. Everything
man used was made up of stone in this time like
his shelter, hunting tools.This period lasted from
5,00,000 BC to 10,000 BC.
• Mesolithic Age: In Mesolithic age or
middle stone age. Humans started using
bo and arrows for hunting of animals.
Hunting of small animals like fish begin
using sharp tools which are also known
as microliths-pointed. This period lasted
from 10,000 BC to 6,000 BC.
• Neolithic Age: In Neolithic age or the
last phase of the stone age. A
remarkable change in the human
civilization is marked in this age.
Cultivation of plants and domestic
animals led to human civilization.
Improvement in tools and other
equipment. Mud bricks houses were
made during this period. This period
lasted from 6,000 BC to 1,000 BC
The metal age marks the end of the stone age. Metal age is broadly
categorized into two ages and they are as follows
• Bronze Age: Bronze itself is harder
and more durable than other metals
available at the time, allowing bronze
age civilizations to gain a technological
advantage. This age was the first
witness in Egypt. Most commonly metals
in this period were copper and bronze.
• Iron Age: In the 19th century, the use
of iron increased and hence rise of Iron
Age. This age is the last age of the ” 3
Age System”. This age brought an end to
the bronze age. Weapons were also
made of iron in this era.
• Question For You
• Q1. Early people painted on the _____ of caves.
• Q2. What are they using to communicate?
• Q3. List three ways in which hunter-gatherers used
fire. Would you use fire for any of these purposes
today
• Q4. What are the 3 stages of Prehistoric period?
• Q5. What do you think are the peoples living this
era?
Ans 1: Early people painted on the walls of caves.

Answer 2: We use a knife for cutting fruit. Knives are made of steel

Answer 3: Three ways in which hunter-gatherers used fire are as follows:

Cooking
Forwarding off wild animals
Clearing forest
SUMMARY:
• Prehistory: Three stages
• Prehistory is the period that begins with the appearance of the human being,
about five million years ago, and finishes with the invention of writing, about
6,000 years ago.
• It is a long period divided into three stages: the Palaeolithic Age, the
NeolithicAge and the Metal Age.
• The Palaeolithic Age began with our first ancestors and finished about 10,000
years ago. During that period, human beings used tools made of stone and
lived on hunting and gathering.
• In the Neolithic Age, which began about 10,000 years ago, human beings lived
in villages. Human communities cultivated the land and raised cattle.
Agriculture and cattle raising gave rise to a productive economy.
• We call the the Metal Age to the period beginning about 7000 years ago, when
human beings started to make objects out of metals.
Paleolithic means Old Stone. In the Palaeolithic objects were made of stone, wood
and animal bones. Most objects were made of stone and that is why this period was
also called Stone Age.
The technique to make tools and objects out of stone was very simple. They
knocked two stones together until they got small pieces from one of them. These
pieces became cutting objects. They used them to hunt and cut animals’ skins
and meat. Examples of objects made of wood and animal bones are: harpoons,
needles and lances
Fire was discovered about half a million years ago. For human beings in the
Paleolithic Age it was one of the most important discoveries. The climate was
extremely cold and with fire they could heat and light their caves, cook their food and
frighten wild animals away
Men and women led a very hard life during the Palaeolithic Age. Human beings
believed that supernatural forces helped them in hunting, stopped children from
dying and women were more fertile, had more children thanks to them.
Palaeolithic tribes decorated their caves walls with paintings and made sculptures to
keep these divinities favourable to them. Among the sculptures that they made the
Venus forms were exceptional.
The most famous prehistorical paintings are in the caves of Altamira, in Spain, and
Lascaux, in France. This kind of art is called cave art
• Human beings discovered agriculture and cattle raising about 10,000 years ago in
the Middle East ( Mesopotamia, Egypt).
• Hunting wild animals and gathering fruits and plants were not the only way of
getting food. They learnt to cultivate plants and domesticate animals. When
human beings knew how to produce their own food their lives changed. This
process is so important that we call it revolution.
• The first plants they cultivated were cereals: wheat in the Middle East and Europe,
rice in Asia and corn in America. The first domesticated animals were horses,
dogs: goats, sheep and oxen.
• Tribes needed to live near arable land to cultivate cereals. They stopped moving
from place to place to find food and became sedentary. They built villages, usually
situated next to rivers
• Human beings made the first metal objects about 7,000 years ago. First they used
copper but it was not very strong. Then bronze and iron were used. With bronze
and iron they could make different kinds of objects: weapons, jewels, statutes, etc.
• The wheel, the sail and the plough were invented in the Middle East about 5000
years ago. We still use them today.
• The wheel had different applications: for transportation being used in carts pulled
by bullocks or in pottery wheels to make better ceramic pieces.
• The sail was used in ships to make a better use of the force of the wind.
• The plough substituted the hoe to cultivate the land. They could work faster and in
greater areas.
• Human beings needed raw materials to fabricate new tools. The search for these
raw materials was the beginning of trade.
• In the late Neolithic Age, human beings built what we can call the first monuments
using big blocks of stone, called megaliths (Big stones). The main monuments
were menhirs, dolmens and cromlechs.
• Menhirs were big, long stones vertically driven into the ground. Menhirs were
probably religious constructions dedicated to worship the sun.
• Dolmens were collective burial places. They were composed of big, long vertical
stones which formed a wall and were covered by several horizontal slabs of a
great size.
• Cromlechs were wide circles formed by several menhirs. They were probably
used as sanctuaries