Prehistoric Archaeology and Material Culture
Prehistoric archaeology reconstructs past human behaviour from material remains, without written records. The exam tests lithic technology, cultural periods, dating and Kerala's own sites.
Periods and technology
- Palaeolithic: Lower (choppers, handaxes), Middle (Levallois flakes, prepared cores), Upper (blades, burins, art).
- Mesolithic: microliths (blades and geometric pieces under about 2 cm), hunting-gathering with early pottery in some regions.
- Neolithic: ground and polished stone tools, domestication of plants and animals, pottery, villages.
- Megalithic/Iron Age: dolmens, cists, urn burials, iron tools. Kerala evidence includes Edakkal caves in Wayanad with Neolithic-early historic petroglyphs, and megalithic monuments such as dolmens, cists and urn burials at Marayur and Ariyannur. Context-stratigraphy, association and site formation-is as important as the artefact.
Worked example
A stone piece is 5 cm long, has parallel ridges on its dorsal face and a length-to-breadth ratio above 2:1. It is a blade, characteristic of Upper Palaeolithic and later assemblages. If it were 1.5 cm long and geometrically shaped, it would be a microlith. The reasoning uses technology and metrics, not the colour of the rock.
Traps
Do not equate polished stone with the Neolithic everywhere; a cave need not be Palaeolithic; a handaxe is a shaped core tool, not any large stone; do not ignore stratigraphy or claim an artefact's date from its appearance alone.