The Mesolithic people were highly mobile. They moved in search of animals and plant foods. They made temporary huts and also used caves and rock shelters. Circular huts with postholes and burnt clay lumps bearing reed impressions have been found.
Many of caves and shelters feature paintings. Circular huts are seen in rock paintings. The temporary huts were built using perishable materials. Traces of oval and circular huts and possible wattle daub are found in Chopani Mando and Damdama in Uttar Pradesh and Bagor and Tilwara in Rajasthan.
Burials The Mesolithic people buried the dead, which suggests their beliefs and humane relationships. Human skeletons have been found in Mahadaha, Damdama and Sarai Nahar Rai in Uttar Pradesh. At Mahadaha, a man and a woman were buried together. One burial had an ivory pendant as the grave good.
XI History - Lesson - - Early India: From the Beginnings to the Indus Civilisation The Neolithic cultures of India are divided into various regional cultures and they flourished in different time periods. In the north-western part of India and Pakistan, it began at a very early date. In north-eastern India, Neolithic cultures appeared at a very late date, around the early historic time. The Neolithic Culture of North-Western India The Neolithic culture of north-western India is the earliest to have evidence of plant and animal domestication in India.
Mehrgarh, Rana Ghundai, Sarai Kala and Jalilpur are some of the Neolithic sites. These sites are now situated in Pakistan. The site of Mehrgarh has produced evidence of early Neolithic times, dating to c. BCE.
Wheat and barley were cultivated and sheep, goat and cattle were domesticated. This culture preceded the Indus Civilisation. The first cultural period (I) of the Neolithic age at Mehrgarh dates from c. to BCE.
The people belonging to this age did not use pottery, but cultivated six- row barley , emmer and einkorn wheat , jujube and dates , and also domesticated sheep, goat and cattle. They were semi-nomadic, pastoral groups. They built their houses with mud and buried the dead. They used