Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation Class 9 Notes

Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation is Class 9 Social Science chapter 4. It traces the human story from the first stone tools in Africa to the farming villages and great river civilisations of India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. This guide follows the chapter in order and ends with important questions, a revision list and common mistakes.

Before writing and after writing

History has two broad phases.

• Before writing: from about 3 million years ago to 5000 years ago. This is more than 99 per cent of human history. Archaeologists rebuild it from artefacts such as tools and other objects. With no written dates, timing is only approximate.
• Historical period: began about 5000 years ago with writing. Historians use both material remains and written documents, which give names, coronation dates and details of cultural life.

Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics have been deciphered. The Harappan script (Sindhu lipi) is still a mystery.

Human evolution and the journey out of Africa

Biological evolution means the physical and genetic changes from early ancestors such as australopithecines (australis = southern, pithecus = primates) to modern humans, Homo sapiens. A key milestone came around 3.3 million years ago, when 'human behaviour' appeared as the ability to make stone tools. Tools worked as 'extra-corporal limbs', doing jobs bare hands could not.

These migrations were probably driven by changing environments and the search for resources. A fossil is the preserved remains, traces or impressions of ancient life turned to stone, and it shows how our ancestors looked and changed.

Stages of the Stone Age

'Lithic' comes from the Greek word for stone. Palaeo = old, Meso = middle, Neo = new.

Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age): the longest period. People hunted and gathered and used large tools like handaxes and cleavers. In India, tools at Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu) and Isampur (Karnataka) were made of quartzite and limestone. Later Palaeolithic people developed symbolic communication, cave paintings such as those at Bhimbetka, and pigments for body decoration.

Mesolithic: began around 12,000 years ago as the climate warmed. People used microliths, tiny sharp stone tools fixed into handles. Forests and grasslands spread, so people used more resources, such as fish and wild grains. This led to the first big population explosion in human history.

Neolithic: the shift from collecting food to producing it, called the Neolithic Revolution. People domesticated plants (wheat, barley, rice) and animals (sheep, goats, cattle). This allowed sedentism, living in one place, and the first villages. Mehrgarh (present-day Pakistan) is the oldest known Neolithic site in the subcontinent, dating to 7000 BCE. People there lived in sun-dried brick houses, built granaries, raised the zebu humped bull, and made earthenware pots to store surplus food.

The Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation

This Bronze Age civilisation grew out of earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone Age) settlements. By 2600 BCE it reached its Mature phase, with planned cities and advanced drainage. Early Harappan bead-making has been found at Harappa (Pakistan), Kunal (Haryana) and Datrana (Gujarat).

Life rested on farming and crafts. A ploughed field at Kalibangan has furrows in two directions, horizontal and vertical, showing double-cropping: two crops grown in the same season. The Harappans used standard weights. Smaller weights followed a binary pattern (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on); larger ones went in multiples of ten.

Mesopotamia, Egypt and China

Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates (modern Iraq and Kuwait), had four cultures: Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian. The Sumerians pioneered irrigation and a number system based on 60, which gives us the 60-minute hour and the 360-degree circle. They wrote in cuneiform, wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay. Their records mention trade with Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman peninsula) and Meluhha (the Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation). Cities centred on ziggurats, stepped pyramid temples. King Hammurabi (c. 1792 BCE) compiled a Code of Laws.

Egypt grew along the Nile. Egyptians called their land Kemet, the black land, after the rich soil left by floods. They had a 365-day calendar with three seasons: Inundation, Peret (growing) and Shemu (harvest). Pharaohs were buried in pyramids to protect their 'ka', or spiritual double. They wrote on papyrus, made from river reeds. Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphics in 1822 using the Rosetta Stone. Women could own property and run businesses; Cleopatra (69–30 BCE) became queen at eighteen. Society ran from Pharaoh at the top, through nobles, priests and officials, then artisans, merchants and landholders, down to serfs and slaves.

China grew along the Huang He (Yellow River) and the Yangtze. History is organised by dynasties such as the Shang and Zhou; the name China comes from the Qin dynasty, which unified the country. The script is logographic: characters stand for words. Silk production led to the Silk Route. China first used paper currency and a civil service chosen by public examinations. Walls built against nomadic raids were joined into the Great Wall, a project lasting nearly 2000 years.

Remember this

• Before writing = over 99% of human history; dating is approximate.
• Homo erectus was the first to leave Africa; Homo sapiens evolved in Africa about 300,000 years ago.
• Microliths = Mesolithic; domestication = Neolithic.
• Mehrgarh, 7000 BCE: oldest Neolithic site in the subcontinent.
• Kalibangan = double-cropping; Meluhha = Harappan land in Mesopotamian records.
• Cuneiform (Mesopotamia), hieroglyphics (Egypt), logographic script (China).

Important questions with model answers

1. Why is dating before writing only approximate? There are no documents giving dates of events like wars or coronations, so archaeologists rely on material remains, which give only estimated dates.

2. What were microliths and why did they matter? Tiny stone tools fixed into handles. They made fishing and gathering more efficient and supported a growing population.

3. Why is the shift to farming called a revolution? It changed life from mobile hunting to settled farming, bringing permanent homes, surplus food and, later, cities.

4. What shows the Harappans practised double-cropping? The ploughed field at Kalibangan, with vertical and horizontal furrows, shows two crops in the same season, like today's Rabi and Kharif cycles.

5. What was a ziggurat? A stepped pyramid temple at the centre of city life: a holy place, a palace for rulers and a storehouse for treasure and trade goods.

6. How was the Egyptian script deciphered? Through the Rosetta Stone, which had the same text in Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. Scholars could read Greek and used it as the key.

7. What were oracles in ancient China? Animal bones or tortoise shells carved with symbols and heated until they cracked; priests read the cracks to predict the future.

8. Why was the Silk Route significant? Named after China's most valuable export, it linked China with other regions, including India, and carried goods and ideas such as Buddhism.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up Mesolithic microliths with large Palaeolithic handaxes.
• Writing that the Harappan script has been read. It has not been deciphered.
• Confusing Meluhha (Harappan land) with Dilmun (Bahrain) or Magan (Oman).
• Thinking writing began with humans. It began only about 5000 years ago.

For quick revision rounds on these civilisations, study this chapter with Joy.