Short Questions: On The Trail of the Earliest People | NCERT Summary: UPSC PDF Download

Q1: Explain the term “Palaeolithic Age”.
Ans: The word “Palaeolithic” is derived from two Greek (language) words—Palaeo and Lithic. The literary meaning of Palaeo is old one, the literary meaning of Lithic is Stone. In short we can say that the term “Palaeolithic Age” stands for old Stone Age or the earliest Stone Age.

Q2: Discuss in short the art of Rock Paintings done by the people of the early stone age.
Ans: Many of the caves in which the early people lived in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods have painting on the walls. Some of the best examples are from Madhya Pradesh and Southern Uttar Pradesh. These paintings show wild animals, drawn, with great accuracy and skill.

Q3: Who were the earliest people of the Indian subcontinent? Write a few lines about them.
Ans: The earliest people lived in Indian subcontinent as early as two million years ago. Today they are called hunter-gatherers. The name comes from the way in which they got their food, by wild animals, caught fish and birds and by gathering fruits, roots, nuts, seeds, leaves, stalks and eggs.

Q4: How were stone tools used in the past?
Ans: Some stone tools were used to cut meat and bone, scrape bark from trees and hides le. animal skins, chop fruit and roots. Some were used as handles of bone or wood. Some were used to make spears and arrows for hunting. Other tools were used to cut wood.

Q5: Mention the two techniques that were used to make stone tools.
Ans: The two techniques of making stone tools were:

• Stone on stone technique: In this technique the pebble from which the tool was to be made was held in one hand. Another stone, which was used as a hammer was held in the other hand. The second stone was used to strike off flakes from the first, till the required shape was obtained.
• Pressure flaking: In this technique, the pebble or core was placed on a firm surface. The hammer stone was used on a piece of bone or stone that was placed on the core, to remove flakes that could be shaped into tools.

Q6: What do you know about habitation-cum-factory sites?
Ans: Usually, we find blocks of stone, tools that were made and perhaps discarded because they were not perfect, and chips of waste stone left behind at factory sites. Sometimes, people lived here for longer period of time. These sites are called habitation-cum-factory sites.

Q7: What do you know about the work division among men and women in the ancient past?
Ans: It is totally difficult to know about it. However, we can mention atleast two possibilities which are:

• It is likely that both men and women may have done many of the work like hunting, gathering plant produce, etc. together.
• It is also possible that some tasks were done only by women and others only by men. And again, there could have been different practices in different parts of the sub-continent.