An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s5.26

v1.c9.s5.26

The earliest ¹⁴C date from a Mesolithic deposit in a rock-shelter at BHIMBETKA is 7790 ± 220 B.P. Another date associated with a burial in another shelter of the same place is 6025 ± 110 B.P. The earliest date from ADAMGARH is 7450 ± 130 B.P., and that from BAGOR is 6430 ± 200 B.P. The beginning of the Mesolithic culture can therefore be put at *c.* 8000 B.P. and as more dates from excavated sites become available this antiquity is likely to be pushed back. Two dates from Bagor Phase II are 4710 ± 105 B.P. and 4060 ± 90 B.P. Several dates from the upper levels of the BHIMBETKA shelters have readings between 3000 and 2000 B.P. It is significant that occupation in the caves as well as on sand-dunes came to an end soon after iron tools made their appearance in these deposits. Iron appeared in the Ganga valley at the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C. [4.16] and slowly as iron tools began to be available to the stone-using communities they started giving up the use of stone tools and also took to adopting the agricultural way of life. It appears that about 2000 years ago the use of stone tools was given up everywhere though hunting and gathering as a way of life has survived in varying degrees right into the present century.