What is History

Introduction

• History is the study of past events in chronological order.
• The term history has been derived from the Greek word “Istoria” which means ‘learning by enquiry’.

Sources of History

• The written and the archaeological evidences that tell us about the period in which people lived, events,food habits, customs, culture, forms of government and literature are known as historical evidences.
• History can be divided into three parts as prehistory, proto history and historical period.
• Historical period has a proof of written evidences and other evidences.
• The written evidences are literary work, historical notes, stone edicts, copper plates and palm leaves.

Prehistory

• The period between the use of first stone tools and the invention of writing systems is pre-history.
• Stone tools excavated materials and rock paintings are the major sources of pre-history.

Proto History

• The period between pre-history and history is called Proto History.
• The period for which records in writing are available but not yet deciphered is called proto history.

Classification of prehistory

Old Stone Age

• Old Stone age also called as Paleolithic age.
• Period of old stone age is before 10,000 BCE.
• The Old Stone Age sites are widely found in various parts of the Indian subcontinent.
• These sites are generally located near water sources.
• Several rock shelters and caves used by the Paleolithic people are scattered across the subcontinent.
• They also lived rarely in huts made of leaves.

The sites of Old stone age were

• The Soan valley and Potwar Plateau – Northwest India
• The Siwalik hills – North India
• Bhimpetka – Madhya Pradesh
• Adamgarh hill – Narmada valley
• Kurnool – Andhra Pradesh
• Attirampakkam – Chennai

Middle Stone Age

• The next stage of human life is called Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age which falls roughly from 10,000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
• It was the transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age and Neolithic Age.

The sites of the Middle stone age were

• Langhanj – Gujarat
• Adamgarh – Madhya Pradesh
• some places of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

New Stone Age

• A remarkable progress is noticed in human civilization in the Neolithic Age.
• It is approximately dated from 6000 B.C to 4000 B.C.

The sites of the new stone age were

• Kashmir valley
• Chirand in Bihar
• Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh and in several places of the Deccan.

The sites which found in south India

• Karnataka – Maski, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Kodekal
• Paiyampalli- Tamil Nadu
• Utnur – Andhra Pradesh

Metal Age

• The Neolithic period is followed by Chalcolithic (copper-stone) period when copper and bronze came to be used.
• Metal Age is dated from 3000 – 1000 BCE.
• The new technology of smelting metal ore and crafting metal artifacts is an important development in human civilization.
• Most importantly, the Harappan culture is considered as a part of Chalcolithic culture.

Some of the important sites are

• Hallur and Maski – Karnataka
• Nagarjunakonda – Andhra Pradesh
• Adichanallur – Tamil Nadu