Welcome dear students! Today we are going to learn about Introduction to History and Early Society from Class 6 Social_Science. In this chapter, we will understand the meaning of history, its importance, the sources used to form it, how letters help classify history, the different stages of the Stone Age, and the role of metals in civilization. Let us begin our journey.
The systematic presentation of past events is called history. It introduces the journey of human beings. It tells about the failures and success of humans in that journey. While explaining the historical incidents, the accuracy of time, place and person is maintained. This means, when the incident took place? Where? And by whom? These should be clear. Without clarity in these, history becomes a story. Note the difference between story and history. A story says, once upon a time, there was a king in one place. He fought a battle. History says, in 261 BC, the King Ashoka who was ruling Pataliputra, fought the battle against Kalinga state.
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Now let us think about why we need history. Children, imagine you are touching the flames of the fire. What will happen? The fire will burn, won't it? This is called experience. Will you touch the fire again? No, because you have already experienced burning sensation. We call this memory, memory power or retention. Think what would human beings do if they had no memory power? They might have repeated the mistakes again and again. Hence humans progress is not possible. As memory power plays a vital role in the development of human beings, even for society or for a country memory power is needed for its development. That memory power is history. History tells our ancestors experiences of joys and sorrows and problems faced when decisions taken at the time of good or bad. It warns when taking further decisions. The philosophies and ideologies of our ancestors in history has become the model and beacon to the future generations. Their bravery, prowess and sacrifices will be an inspiration to them. Besides this, history creates admiration and respect by introducing our culture and heritage. Herodotus of the Greece country was the first person to show how to create history. Therefore he is called as the Father of History.
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Let us move on to sources. Those who specialize in the study of history are called historians. They use evidences to tell history concretely and definitely. Hence it is said that without the proper source there is no history. There are two types of historical sources. First is Literary Sources. Second is Archaeological Sources. The historical background of the literary sources are in the form of written and oral, which has passed from one to the other. There are two types of Literature. One is written Literature and Two is oral Literature. Written literature is further divided into native and foreign literature. Oral literature includes folk songs, stories, ballads and legends. While the writers of the written literature are literates but the oral literature is illiterates. Archaeological Sources are the remains of the physical objects constructed, built or used by the prehistoric men. The remains embedded in the earth will be extracted through excavation. Archaeological sources includes pot shards, coins, inscriptions, monuments and other remains. Excavation is the scientific method of digging out of ancient human remains or fossils using brush, trowel, knife and wooden needle-like sharp implement. The remains extracts like pot shards, coins, beads, crystals and bones found in the soil are taken out and subjected to study.
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Let me describe the sources chart for you so you can visualize it. Under Literary Sources, we have Written Literature and Oral Literature. Written Literature branches into Native Literature and Foreign Literature. Oral Literature includes Lavanies, Ballads, Folk Tales, Historic tales, and Legendary tales. Under Archaeological Sources, we have Monuments, Coins, Inscription, and Other archaeological remains. This classification shows how historians organize their evidence. Next, we will learn about Chronology in History. Chronology has started from a significant day. Such Chronology is called Shaka. The Christian Era begins with the specific timeline in which Jesus Christ lived. If we say Vijayanagara Empire was founded in 1336 AD means 1336 years have passed since the year of Jesus. Chronology is done in other Shaka forms. There are shakas like Shalivahana, Gupta, Vikrama, Hijira and others. Generally at present the historical narrative practice is in Common Era. A century is hundred year. We are in the 21st century of the Common Era, which is from 2001 to 2100. Years help us to understand the progress of human kind. The purpose of years indicate the sequencing of events chronology in order. Years are not there only for the memorization.
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There is an activity for you: collect more information on chronology from the Internet. The timeline shows Pre-Common Era going backwards from 300, 200, 100 to 0, which marks the specific timeline in which Jesus lived. Then Common Era moves forward 100, 200, 300, with 1st, 2nd, 3rd centuries on both sides. Now let us explore Pre-Historic Society. Generally history can be classified into three major periods. They are Pre-historic Period, Proto historic Period and Historic Period. The Pre-historic Period comprises of 99.9 percent human history. But there are only few sources available to study about that period. Hence the space provided to the pre-historic in history is very limited. The only criterion used to classify these three periods is knowledge of scripts. The period in which the knowledge of script was not be found. This period is called as Pre-historic Period. For example, Stone Age. A period when scripts were understood and could not be read in the present period is called Proto historic Period. For example, Harappan Civilization Period. A period when you are familiar with the script and those scripts can be read even today is called Historic Period. In the process of life evolution firstly, unicellular organisms, followed by mollusc's, fish, plant, insect, amphibian, winged insect, reptile, birds, mammals, flowering plant, grass, apes and bipeds evolved. Approximately 18 lakh years has taken for humans evolution. Humans with modern physical structure was first found in Africa. It is said that they have migrated to different nations from Africa and settled there. This is still under criticism.
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There are three stages in Pre-historic period. First is Palaeolithic Age. Second is Mesolithic Age. Third is Neolithic Age. Let us study the Palaeolithic Age. This period is the beginning archaeological period of human history. People of this period lived upon eating fruits, tubers, corms, callus and yams. They wandered and lived as nomads in caves, taking shelter under rocks. They used knife, large stone tools and awls and flails made from pebbles. They used leaves and barks to cover themselves. Since the fruits, tubers, corms, callus and yams were not available in all the seasons, they learnt fishing and hunting during the late paleolithic period. For the first time fire was introduced. The major sites noted for this paleolithic old stone age are Bolan valley of Madhya Pradesh, Hunasagi and Baich Bal province of Karnataka, Karnool, Amaravathi of Andhra Pradesh, and Attirampakkam of Tamil Nadu. Generally the period of Old Stone Age is noted between 5 lakh years to 12 thousand years. The textbook also includes an illustration depicting a fictional scene of the life of prehistoric people.
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Next is the Mesolithic Age. This is the transitional period between Paleolithic and Neolithic age. Hence, it is called as Mesolithic Age. The human beings of this age instead of using big rock tools, they used skillful small stone weapons. Hence this period is called as Micro Age. They attached these short weapons to the edge or tip of the stick or to an arrow and used as spears for hunting. They were collecting wild grains for food. Since continuously they did not get the prey and grains, which left them hungry for many a times. The solution which they found was, to bring the animals that got injured or survived cubs and graze them. These animals became reserved emergency food for them. This slowly gave rise to pastoralism. Mesolithic human beings were constantly wandering for their food and animals fodder. In their leisure time they used to draw pictures on the stones and in the barren places. They used animals skin as their upper clothing. They had the good practice of using fire. The prominent places of this age are Bhimbetka and Aadam Ghar in Madhya Pradesh, Bramhagiri and Kanagana halli in Karnataka, Baagor and Ganeshwar in Rajastan, Birbhanpur in West Bengal, Vaanpasari in Andhra Pradesh, and Sarai Nahar Rai and Mahadaha in Uttar Pradesh. The Mesolithic period was between 12,000 to 9000 years.
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Now we come to the Neolithic Age. As Mesolithic humans were all herders, including their animals there was scarcity of the food. Instead of wandering Neolithic Age people camped in one area and focused on food production. They started the agriculture in the fertile alluvial soil which was on the banks of the rivers. Agriculture provides Neolithic Age people with grain and fodder for their livestock. So they stopped the nomadic life and started to settle in suitable lands. Thus agriculture became a step towards the rise of culture and civilizations. The earliest traces of agriculture in the Indian subcontinent are found at the site of Meharghar in Pakistan. While these people for their living they constructed dry bricks houses whereas the Burjhome people of Kashmir built underground caves. When they came across with the problem of storing of the grains produced in agriculture they found a new method like handmade pots. They also brought into use of the tools of whipping, stinging and grinding. During this period the earliest villages started to flourish. After the introduction of the wheel, variety and qualitative pots were manufactured. During this period the stone weapons were well polished and started to use them. Sanganakallu near Ballari became the centre for manufacturing this kind of stone weapons. Especially they used the hand axe and weapons made up of bones. Neolithic sites have been traced out in Banahalli, Bramhagiri, Boodihala, Halluru, Piklihala, T.Narasipura and Uttnuru of Karnataka, and Chirand of Bihar. Generally this stipulated period is identified as of now 9000 to 5000 previous years.
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Let me describe the map of Neolithic sites traced in India. The map shows various locations marked across the Indian subcontinent. You will see sites like Burzhome, Ganeshwar, Adamgar, Bramhagiri, Banahalli, Hunasagi and Bachbal, Kanagana Halli, Halluru, Chirand, Bagore, Mahadaha, Sarai Nahar Rai, Mehargar, Bhimbetka, T. Narasipura, Attirampakkam, Karnool, Amaravathi, and Pikhala. These markers show where archaeologists have discovered ancient Neolithic settlements and artifacts. Moving on to the Age of Metals. The use of metals started towards the end of the Neolithic period. The first metal which human beings used was the copper. They learned to add tin to this copper and produced the bronze. Bronze is an alloy which is harder than the copper. Since the number of copper and bronze weapons were very less the metal weapons continued along the way. Therefore this period is called as copper and bronze age. This has been traced out over 5000 years. Agriculture and animal husbandry were their main occupations. During this period we find the decorated pots made from wheels. Copper tools and ornaments were also found. Bronze tools were helpful to plough the land deeply and to convert the forest area into agricultural land. This led to an increase in the production of food items. This resulted in starting of new business like sending excess grain to the needy areas. As a result of this, a massive culture like Harappan Civilization was able to rise up on the banks of the Indus and its tributaries in northwest India. Historians recognize this as the first urbanization. The use of bronze was more compared to copper in South India. The sources of metal age of copper and bronze stone age is found in Halluru, Banahalli and Bramhagiri of Karnataka.
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Next is the Iron Age. Iron is very hard metal. The iron was used before the copper in South India. Iron came into use in South India as early as 3500 years before. This period is also known as the period of massive stone culture. Iron weapons and tools were aided in agriculture and handicraft production. As the use of iron became intensified in North India the agricultural activities also became more. This resulted in excess production. To control this huge surplus production there emerged a class in 2600 years before. They are only republics. Then the kingdoms like Nanda and Maurya flourished. The sites which have been traced in Karnataka are Banahalli, Hirebenakallu, Bramhagiri, Koppa, Heggadehalli, T.Narasipura, Hemmige, Hallur, Jadigenahalli, Savanadurga, Hutridurga, and Pandavaradinne.
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Now let us solve the exercises together. Exercise One asks to fill in the blanks with suitable words. Question one: A period of unfamiliarity with script is called as Pre-historic age. Question two: Microlithic age is called as Micro age. Question three: The earliest agricultural sites traced in Indian subcontinent are found in Meharghar. Question four: The Father of History is Herodotus. Exercise Two asks to answer the following questions in one sentence. Question five: What are the three main periods of history? The three main periods of history are Pre-historic Period, Proto historic Period and Historic Period. Question six: Name the tools of Palaeolithic man? The tools of Palaeolithic man were knife, large stone tools, awls and flails made from pebbles. Question seven: In which era man started farming? Man started farming in the Neolithic Age. Question eight: What was the first metal used by the humans? The first metal used by humans was copper. Question nine: Which is the sources of History? The sources of History are Literary Sources and Archaeological Sources. Question ten: What are the examples of Archaeological sources? Examples of Archaeological sources are pot shards, coins, inscriptions, monuments, beads, crystals and bones.
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Exercise Three asks to discuss. Question eleven: Write the reasons which gave rise to agriculture in Neolithic Age? The reasons which gave rise to agriculture in the Neolithic Age were that as Mesolithic humans were all herders, including their animals there was scarcity of the food. Instead of wandering, they camped in one area and focused on food production. They started agriculture in fertile alluvial soil on river banks, which provided grain and fodder for livestock, leading them to stop nomadic life and settle. Question twelve: What were the changes occurred in the Iron age by introducing of Iron? The changes that occurred in the Iron Age by introducing iron were that iron weapons and tools aided agriculture and handicraft production. Its use in North India increased agricultural activities, resulting in excess production. This led to the emergence of republics 2600 years before, and later the flourishing of kingdoms like Nanda and Maurya. Finally, let us look at the activities. First, observe the preparation of the pots on wheels and get more information from the potter. Second, make pots or vessels using the clay. These hands-on activities will help you understand ancient craftsmanship better.
Thank you for listening! Keep revising and practicing. Goodbye! [CHAPTER_COMPLETE]