Which one among the following statements with reference to the 'Neolithic Period' is not correct?
- (a)The characteristic features of the period included ground and polished stone tools, agriculture, animal domestication and pottery.
- (b)This period is also known as the 'New Stone Age'.
- (c)The characteristic features appeared almost at the same time in various parts of the subcontinent.
- (d)Earliest evidence of agriculture is found from Mehrgarh around 8000 BCE.
Correct — C, The characteristic features appeared almost at the same time in various parts of the subcontinent. This is the statement that is not correct, and it is wrong by thousands of years. The Neolithic reached different regions of the subcontinent at wildly different dates: Mehrgarh in the Bolan valley of Baluchistan has aceramic Neolithic levels in the seventh millennium BCE or earlier, Chirand in Bihar and Burzahom and Gufkral in Kashmir belong to the third and second millennia BCE, the ash-mound sites of the Deccan such as Utnur, Piklihal and Sanganakallu are broadly third to second millennium BCE, and the north-eastern Neolithic is later still. Five thousand years separate the earliest from the latest, which is the opposite of appearing 'almost at the same time'.
- (a)The characteristic features of the period included ground and polished stone tools, agriculture, animal domestication and pottery. — Correct, so it is not the answer. Those four traits are the standard definition of the Neolithic — celts and axes made by grinding and polishing rather than flaking, cultivation of cereals, domesticated sheep, goat and cattle, and pottery for storing the surplus.
- (b)This period is also known as the 'New Stone Age'. — Correct, so it is not the answer. 'Neolithic' is simply the Greek for new stone, matching Palaeolithic (old stone) and Mesolithic (middle stone).
- (d)Earliest evidence of agriculture is found from Mehrgarh around 8000 BCE. — Treated as correct. Mehrgarh in Baluchistan is where the subcontinent's earliest farming is attested, and the date offered sits at the early end of the range scholars give for its first levels, which are usually placed in the eighth to seventh millennium BCE. It is a date to hold loosely, but the site is not in dispute — and in any case only one statement here is plainly false.
The Neolithic is defined by a way of life rather than by a calendar date. Its markers are ground and polished stone tools, the cultivation of plants, the domestication of animals, pottery, and settled village life with storage. Because it is defined by traits rather than years, different regions entered it whenever local conditions allowed, which is exactly why a claim of simultaneous appearance fails.
The regional spread is the examinable core. In the north-west, Mehrgarh shows barley and wheat cultivation and domesticated sheep, goats and cattle at the very start of the sequence, later adding pottery and cotton. In Kashmir, Burzahom and Gufkral are known for pit dwellings, bone tools and the burial of dogs with their owners. In the middle Ganga plain, Chirand in Bihar and Koldihwa and Mahagara in Uttar Pradesh yield rice — Koldihwa's early rice dates are contested but the site is standard. In the Deccan, Utnur, Piklihal, Sanganakallu, Maski and Brahmagiri are associated with cattle-keeping and the distinctive ash mounds. In the north-east, Daojali Hading in Assam has shouldered celts and cord-impressed pottery. Read across that list and the staggering is obvious. The point generalises: Indian prehistory did not evolve in a single neat line across the subcontinent, and examiners test that idea repeatedly by offering a statement of uniformity.
- Neolithic markers: ground and polished stone tools, agriculture, animal domestication, pottery and settled villages.
- Mehrgarh (Bolan valley, Baluchistan) carries the earliest evidence of farming in the subcontinent, excavated from 1974 by a team led by Jean-François Jarrige.
- Burzahom and Gufkral in Kashmir are famous for pit dwellings, bone tools and dog burials, in the third to second millennium BCE.
- Deccan Neolithic sites — Utnur, Piklihal, Sanganakallu, Maski, Brahmagiri — are associated with cattle-keeping and ash mounds.
- Daojali Hading in Assam represents the north-eastern Neolithic, with shouldered celts and cord-impressed pottery.
Roughly five thousand years separate the earliest of these from the latest.
- Accepting a statement of uniform, simultaneous cultural change across the subcontinent.
- Treating the Neolithic as a fixed date range rather than a set of traits reached at different times.
- Assuming pottery always precedes agriculture — Mehrgarh's earliest levels are aceramic.
Asked in the negative — three statements are textbook and the fourth claims a uniformity that Indian prehistory does not show.
Consider the following statements about Stone Age in India: 1. Different periods are identified on the basis of the type and technology of stone tools. 2. There are no regional variations in the type and technology of tools in different periods. 3. Stone Age cultures of different periods evolved uniformly in a neat unilinear fashion all over the sub-continent. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 2 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 only
The same misconception, tested three years earlier and even more directly. Its statements 2 and 3 — no regional variation, and uniform unilinear evolution across the subcontinent — are both rejected by the key, which is precisely why the CAPF statement about features appearing at the same time everywhere is the false one.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Pit dwellings and the burial of dogs with their masters are characteristic of which one of the following Neolithic sites?
- (a)Mehrgarh
- (b)Burzahom
- (c)Chirand
- (d)Daojali Hading
Answer(b) Burzahom — the Kashmir Neolithic site known for pit dwellings, bone tools and dog burials.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The term 'Neolithic' literally means
- (a)old stone
- (b)middle stone
- (c)new stone
- (d)copper stone
Answer(c) new stone — from the Greek, matching Palaeolithic (old stone) and Mesolithic (middle stone).