Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s19: Environmental change
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s19
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Environmental change
c8.s19.1
In all the regions, an environmental change was definitely there, though differing in intensity and nature from region to region. But on the whole, a climate drier than in the preceding phase may be generally postulated. This had, as in many parts of the world, created sand-dunes. These as well as raised, dry, lightly forested regions were preferred as habitations by the microlithic people. Except in Northern and Central Gujarat no idea can be had of the contemporary fauna or flora (though even in Gujarat the evidence for the flora is almost nil). In Gujarat, the man was practically a hunter, and almost all the animals on whom he subsisted were wild (or of hunting type) except perhaps the dog. It is argued from the presence of small flat querns (found so far in numerous fragments which cannot be put together and hence no idea can be had of its size) that man probably pounded (wild) grains and might thus be placed in the higher rung of the ladder between a food-collecting and food-producing stage. This view does not seem to be justified. Firstly, the querns are indeed too small to pound anything on it. These are more like stones used today for preparing sandalwood and other pastes. Secondly, the writer, so far, has not come across a single grain in any one of the numerous excavations on the site or elsewhere in the region. The pottery evidence is also negligible. Not more than 10 to 20 sherds, not one indicating the probable shape of the vessel, have so far been recovered. Thus the Langhnaj Culture has got to be regarded as a Hunting and Food-Collecting one, whatever be its exact antiquity.
c8.s19.2
With regard to the microliths—whether they contain geometric element or not—they might have evolved from the earlier "blade and burin" industry or from Series II or Middle Palaeolithic tool complex. But nowhere such an evolution is available stratigraphically. The Kurnool evidence is not from one stratified site, but a typological grouping of the collection from a number of sites.
c8.s19.3
So we may end with the observation that the microlithic industries have a wide distribution, excluding Assam, the Panjab plains and Kerala and are associated with an environmental change; that they do indicate a change in the mode of life of man in India; but it is not exactly clear whether the microliths developed out of the earlier lithic industries or due to the influence of some external stimuli.