Chapter 2 The Earliest People PDF

14 | Our Pasts–I Chapter 2 THE EARLIEST PEOPLE Rahul’s train journey. Rahul was going from Jammu to Delhi for his cousin’s wedding. They were going by train and he had got the window seat. As he watched trees and houses...

14 | Our Pasts–I Chapter 2 THE EARLIEST PEOPLE Rahul’s train journey. Rahul was going from Jammu to Delhi for his cousin’s wedding. They were going by train and he had got the window seat. As he watched trees and houses fly past, his uncle tapped his shoulder and said: “Do you know that trains were first used about 150 years ago, and that people began using buses a few decades later?” Rahul wondered how people travelled long distances when there were no trains or buses. Did they spend their entire lives wherever they were born? Not quite... The earliest people: why were they on the move? In the last chapter we talked about people who lived in Burzahom five thousand years back. But for historians that is not so long back. They also know about people who lived in some parts of the country two million years ago! That is very, very long ago!! Do you find it difficult to write this number – two with six zeroes - 2000000? You might also call it 20,00,000 twenty hundred thousand or twenty lakh years ago. So how did they live so long ago? Historians call them hunter- gatherers because they hunted and gathered food. They hunted wild animals, caught fish and birds, and they gathered fruits, roots, nuts, leaves, stems, seeds and eggs. None of these things was easy to do. Some animals run very fast and some are much stronger than us. To hunt animals or to catch fish and birds, people need to be alert and quick. They need to make the right tools and weapons. All this can  The Earliest People | 15 also be very dangerous. Even to collect plants and fruits the earliest people or adivasis had to find out which plants can be eaten, and which are poisonous. Just think - how did they do this? While trying out, some may have fallen ill, and told others not to eat a plant. They shared this knowledge with each other, through songs and stories, from the older to the younger generation. Over hundreds of thousands of years the adivasis discovered most of the fruits and plants which we eat and use for our medicines even today. Imagine how they learnt all this and then passed it on to us for millions of years. If you go into a thick forest you may not know all this. Which root to eat, when to dig it, which to boil, or cook on fire? Which fruit to eat and how – they discovered the mango, all types of bananas, apples, pears, pineapple, lemons, and many others. Or that honey can be collected by scaring away the bees, and then used as medicine. To do… List all the skills and knowledge the children of these earliest people had. Do you have any of these skills and knowledge? Which ones? These people had to keep moving from place to place. There are many reasons for this: If they had stayed at one place for a long time, they would have eaten up all the available plants and hunted all the animals. Therefore, they would have had to go elsewhere in search of food. 16 | Our Pasts–I Animals also move from place to place in search of food. That is why hunter-gatherers who hunted them had to follow their movements. Plants and trees produce grains and fruits in different seasons. So, people may have moved from season to season in search of different kinds of plants. Plants, animals and people all need water. But some rivers and lakes dry up in the hot season. So people living near these had to move looking for water in the dry season. Can you list some more reasons why people move from one place to another? Remember they walked, long distances, through thick jungles, facing wild animals, crossing rivers… Do you know of any people today who walk from place to place? What for? But how do we know about these people who lived so long, long ago? We know about hunter-gatherers from some of the things found, which they made with tools of stone, wood and bone. Their stone tools have survived for long... Exercise: Some uses of stone tools are given on the next page. Make a list of things these stone tools were used for. Try to see if any of these things could be done using only a natural stone (shown Stone tools may also have been used for : in E). Give reasons for your answer. Above : Digging the ground to collect edible Some of these stone tools were used to cut fruit, roots. roots, meat and bone. They also used them to On Top : Stitching clothes remove bark (bur-ze) from trees, and the skin made out of animal skin.  The Earliest People | 17 Stone tools A: These are examples of the earliest stone tools. B : These were made many thousand years E later. A B C : These were made even later. D : These were made about 10,000 years ago. E : These are natural stones. C D of animals. Some stones may have been used with handles of wood or bone, to make bows and arrows. Some tools were used to cut wood or to light a fire. Wood was also used to make other tools or their huts. Sites These are places where the remains of things (tools, pots, bones, buildings, etc) were found. People made these things, used them or left them behind. These have been found on the ground, buried under the ground or even under water. In chapter 1 we read about the site near Srinagar. What is its name? What interesting things were found there? Choosing a place to live in Hunter-gatherers lived mostly near rivers or lakes for the water they needed. As stone tools were important for them they also looked for places with good quality stone. At some of these ‘sites’ where they lived, we find blocks of stone, and tools they made. Sometimes the tools were not good so they threw them away, with the pieces of waste stone. If the stone at the site was not of good quality 18 | Our Pasts–I they moved to another site. Some sites where they lived for long were in caves or under rocks like in the picture below. Finding out about fire You have read in chapter 1 about ash being found in Burzahom. This meant that people so long ago had an idea of fire. They may have used fire to cook food, for light, to keep warm, or to scare away animals. Bhimbetka (in Madhya What do we use fire for today? Pradesh).This is an old site with caves and rock A changing environment shelters where people lived. People chose these The climate of the world has changed over many, natural caves because they gave shelter from the rain, many years. Some 12,000 years ago, the climate heat and wind. These rock of the earth became warmer. Before this, the earth shelters are close to the was much, much colder. The warmer climate Narmada valley. Can you made it possible for green plants and trees to think of why people chose to live here? grow around the world. This then led to more  The Earliest People | 19 Map 1 Some important archaeological sites Gang a Riv er er Narmada Riv Tapti River Goda vri R iver Krishna River Ka ve ri Ri ve r Some important sites found by archaelogists animals that lived on grass, such as deer, goats, buffaloes and sheep. People started following these animals in order to hunt them. People learnt about the habits of the animals, and were able to keep them on their own. They started fishing. They also collected grains of wheat, rice and barley which grew wild. They learnt about when they grew and how the grain became ripe. This made them think about growing plants themselves. 20 | Our Pasts–I Rock paintings and what they tell us People lived in caves and painted the walls of the caves. Some of the best cave paintings are of wild animals. These are in Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh and also in Uttar Pradesh. You saw a hunting scene carved on a stone at A painting from a rock Burzahom. shelter. Describe the painting Who did what? We have seen that the earliest people hunted, gathered plants and fruits, made things from stone, wood, bones and painted on cave walls. Can we find out who did what work? For example can we find out what work did children do, or what work did men or women do? At present, we do not really know. It is possible that everyone would have done many of these things together. It is also possible that some things were done only by women and others only by men. Elsewhere: Cave paintings in France Look for France in your atlas. The painting above is from a cave in France. This site was discovered by four school children more than a hundred years ago. Paintings like this were made between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. Many of these were of animals painted in bright colours. Can you guess what the animals were? Many were of bisons, wild horses, bears, etc. These colours were made from coloured stones, iron ore or charcoal. It is thought that these paintings were made for important events. Or for some ritual they did before they went to hunt. Can you think of any other reasons?  The Earliest People | 21 Imagine You live in a rock shelter like the one at Bhimbetka. Your uncle is painting on the wall of the cave. What could you do to help him? Will you mix the colours, draw the lines or fill in the colours for him? What will the colours be made of? What are the stories he might tell you while he paints? Let’s recall 1. Complete the sentences: a) Hunter-gatherers chose to live in caves and rock shelters because —————. b) Grasslands developed around ———— years ago. c) Early people painted on the ——— of caves. Let’s discuss… 2. Why did the hunter-gatherers travel from What is the word place to place? In what ways are these similar for these things in to/different from the reasons for which we your language? travel today? – fish – birds 3. What tools would you use today for cutting – honey fruit? What would they be made of? – bone – stone 4. List three ways in which hunter-gatherers – ash used fire. Would you use fire for any of these – rice reasons today? - hunter-gatherer - rock-shelter 5. Make two columns in your notebook. In - grasslands the left hand column, list the foods hunter- gatherers ate. In the right hand column, list some of the foods you eat. Do you notice any similarities/differences?