Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s1: Origin of the Term
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s1
- Language
- English
Origin of the Term
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THIS division of the Stone Age Culture is comparatively very new for India and also new in the development of prehistoric archaeology in Europe as well. Until 1865 the development of man was divided as mentioned before into three broad divisions, the Palaeolithic Age, Copper Age and the Iron Age. It was however recognized that there were two sorts of stone implements which were quite different typologically—in shape and technique—and therefore LORD AVEBURY suggested in his book *Prehistoric Times* the use of the word "Neolithic." Even this was not found to be sufficient because among the chipped tools there were various groups and it was until very recently believed that the term "Mesolithic" was introduced by JACQUES DE MORGAN to distinguish a transitional phase between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic cultures.¹ However, it has now been shown by JUDITH WILKINS² that this term had been used as far back as 1866 by HODDER M. WESTROPP to distinguish the Lower Palaeolithic tools from the Neolithic. Unaware of this usage OTTO TORELL had coined this term in Sweden in 1874.³ Thus the term is nearly 100 years old. It has not merely a simple connotation of a transitional phase, between the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) and the New Stone Age (Neolithic), but it stands for a great change in the tools of man as well as the climatic conditions in the regions in which man lived.
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¹ Daniel, Glyn, E., *The Three Ages*, Cambridge, 1948, p. 25.
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² *Antiquity*, Vol. XXXIII, 1958, p. 130. And therefore ALLEN BROWN's usage in 1892 was not the earliest.
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³ Ibid., p. 220.