Prehistoric Man

     Prehistoric man  in his present form emerged on the earth about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Quite early in his existence he made tools and weapons made of stone. He lived by gathering food or hunting. This period is called the Stone Age. It is divided into three parts: the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). The Old Stone Age lasted upto about 10,000 BC During this time he made nearly all his tools and weapons from hard stones such as flint and quartzite. During the Mesolithic Age when the earth became covered with swamps and forests he  became a fisher and a hunter of birds and harvested fruits and grains. During the New Stone Age he settled down and organised agriculture and cattle rearing . The first villages sprang up and by the middle of the period the first great cities appeared.

Sumerian Civilisation

     Sumeria was one of the great kingdoms of the past. It grew up between 4000 and 3000 BC in the land enclosed   by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It was also called Mesopotamia. This land is now in the Southern part of modern Iraq.

     Sumeria consisted of city states. Nippur and Ur were two of them. 'Ur' was known for its high temple called Ziggurat. This temple was dedicated to Nannar, the moon god who was the patron god of the city.

     Sumerian society was well organised. They had a form of writing called "Cuneiform". They wrote on clay tablets and baked them for strengthening them.

     Agriculture was their main occupation. They had  a highly developed skill of metal working.

The Egyptian Civilisation

      More than 5000 years ago the ancient Egyptians ruled in the Nile Valley and developed a grand civilisation.

     It was around 3100 BC that a king called Menes brought all Egypt under his rule. The kings of Egypt were called ‘Pharaohs". Isia and Osiris were the two important gods of the Ancient Egypt.

     Egyptians believed that the Pharaohs were gods, descended from the heavens to rule over them. When a pharaoh died, his soul went back to heaven. So they worked out ways of embalming the bodies of the Pharaohs after death and kept them in tombs called ‘pyramids’. The largest and the most famous of the pyramids is the Great Pyramid built for Pharaoh Khufu in about 2500 BC. It is more than 480 feet high and about 760 feet long on each side of its square base. The possessions of the Pharaohs were buried with them in the tombs. These consisted of an enormous variety of things like jewellery, objects of metal, pottery, clothing, furniture etc., which gives us a picture of their culture.

     The early Egyptians developed a form of writing called ‘hieroglyphics’. They discovered the use of a reed called ‘papyrus’ base material for writing. They devised a calendar, which with slight modifications has lasted till the present. Their sculptures and paintings show their high attainments.

Indus Valley Civilisation

    Indus Valley Civilisation is the first Civilisation of India grew up in the fertile Indus valley from around 5000 BC. There are pre-Indus cultures dating back to about 8000 BC. Excavations in the valley have uncovered two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. It is found that these were well planned cities with wide main streets parallel to one another and smaller streets at right angle to them. The cities had an excellent drainage system and public baths.

     The people of the Indus Valley used copper and bronze in great quantity. A bronze statue of a female dancing figure from Mohenjo-Daro is a masterpiece of art. They wore jewellery of gold, silver or shell. Their pottery, plain or painted, show great craftsmanship. Their seals, made of steatite, reveal a great variety of figures of animals or gods and also contain writing, whose decipherment has not produced general agreement among scholars.