Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.4

c10.4

This process of adaptation to environment can be seen taking place over much of Europe and in North Africa from about 10,000 B.C. onwards, in the so-called Mesolithic stage. The axe seems to be invented to attack the trees of the encroaching forests in the north, and with the smaller game now available for the chase, the dog is domesticated to help in hunting. But this Mesolithic stage was only an ingenious prolongation of the Palaeolithic way of life with but little modification, and the insecurity of the food supply was still there to render the formation of large or permanent settlements impossible. The essential still lacking was the discovery of a technique of food production over which a large degree of human control could be exercised, and it is this revolutionary concept - the change-over from hunter to farmer and stockbreeder - that lay behind the ancient civilizations of the Old World. With the formation of agricultural communities, it was possible for man to live within a framework of comparative economic security, to accumulate some surplus material resources, and thereby to increase his leisure and stimulate the activities of other craftsmen on his behalf.