Q.6 Which of these are the chief difference(s) between Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures?
1. Hunting-gathering pattern of life began not before the Neolithic period.
2. Mesolithic cultures did not practice domestication of animals unlike Neolithic people.
3. The use of bow and arrow cannot be found in Mesolithic culture, unlike Neolithic culture.
4. Evidence of pottery is absent from the Neolithic culture but is markedly found in Mesolithic culture. Select the correct answer using the codes below.
(a) 3 and 4 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) None of the above
Solution: (d) Justification:
Statement 1 and 3: Hunting-gathering pattern of life was prevalent since Old Stone Age to Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, there seems to have been a shift from big animal hunting to small animal hunting and Fishing. This is how bows and arrows were used in this period. Both 1 and 3 are thus wrong.
Statement 2: Domestication of animals, horticulture and primitive cultivation started during Mesolithic period itself. However, during Neolithic period, domestication of sheep, goats and cattle was widely prevalent. Cattle were used for cultivation and for transport.
Statement 4: During Neolithic age, wheels were used to make pottery. Pottery was used for cooking as well as storage of food grains. So, 4 is wrong.
During the Neolithic phase, the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals led to the emergence of village communities based on sedentary life. There was a great improvement in technology of making tools and other equipments used by man. Stone tools were now polished. Mud brick houses were built instead of grass huts. Large urns were used as coffins for the burial of the dead. Wheat, barley, rice, millets were cultivated in different areas at different points of time. Rice cultivation was extensive in eastern India. The people of Neolithic Age used clothes made of cotton and wool.
Q.7 The beginning of agriculture can be ascribed most suitably to which of these times?
1. 2,500 years ago with the onset of Magadha Empire
2. 4,700 years ago with the appearance of the first cities on the Indus
3. Nearly 8,000-10,000 years ago
4. About 25,000 years ago in the first Penistone glacial period
Solution: (c)
Q.8 Consider the following matches of periods with the beginning of major activities in the history of human civilization:
1. Building of megaliths: 3000 years ago
2. Cotton cultivation: 2000 years ago
3. Domestication of animals: 12000 years ago
Select the correct answer using the codes below.
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Solution: (b)
Statement 1: Beginning of cities started about 4700 years ago. Settlement at Inamgaon began between 3600 and 2700 years ago.
Statement 2: This started at Mehrgarh about 7000 years ago.
Statement 3: Domestication was a gradual process that took place in many parts of the world.
It began about 12,000 years ago. Some of the earliest plants to be domesticated were wheat and barley.
The earliest domesticated animals include sheep and goat.
Q.9 Among the earliest chalcolithic cultures in India, the Ahar or Banas culture was discovered in the
(a) Mewar region of Rajasthan
(b) Gwalior region of Madhya Pradesh
(c) Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh
(d) Kangra region of Himachal Pradesh
Solution: (a)
Nearly one hundred sites of the culture have been located along its principal axis, i.e., the valleys of river Banas and its tributaries and subtributaries in Banswara, Udaipur etc.
The technology at Ahar was based mainly on copper and very few microblades and microliths have been discovered.
Aharas were a separate culture from GJs. Located in northeast Rajasthan, the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura complex which was an early centre of agriculture and copper metallurgy in the subcontinent.
Q.10 With reference to Chalcolithic cultures in Indian subcontinent, consider the following statements.
1. Ochre-coloured pottery sites have been usually found in the Gangetic doab of India.
2. Anthropomorphic figures of worship have been found in the copper hoard culture. Which of the above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) None
Solution: (c)
Concept: The Harappan culture is generally supposed to have been followed by non-urban Chalcolithic culture characterized by the use of copper and stone. The differences between these cultures were not fundamental but were primarily confined to pottery.
Justification: Copper Hoards describe find-complexes which occur in the northern part of India.
These occur mostly in hoards large and small and are believed to date to the later 2nd millennium BCE, although very few derive from controlled and dateable excavation contexts.
A fragment of an anthropomorphic came to light in controlled excavations at Lothal and a second one at Saipai Lichchavi, Etawah district. The doabhoards are associated with the so-called Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) which appears to be closely associated with the Late Harappan (or Post urban) phase.
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