Mesolithic Rock Painting

Key findings:

• The paintings were made with “natural white kaolin and red ochre pigments”, 
• Ochre is a pigment composed of clay, sand, and ferric oxide.
• Kaolinite is a soft, earthy, and usually white mineral produced by the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar.
• These paintings throw light on aspects of the social life and culture of the people who lived in the area.
• One of the paintings depicted a man catching a wild goat with his left hand while wielding a hook-like implement to control it.
• Another showed two couples standing with their hands raised while a child stood behind them.

What is the Mesolithic period?

• It is also called Middle Stone Age which existed between the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age).
• Timeframe: This period is generally considered to have occurred between approximately 12,000-10,000 years ago
• Lifestyle: During the Mesolithic period, human societies were predominantly hunter-gatherer communities.
• People relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plant resources for their sustenance.
• Stone tools found during this period are generally tiny, and are called microliths.
• Microliths were probably stuck onto handles of bone or wood to make tools such as saws and sickles.
• At the same time, older varieties of tools continued to be in use.

Q1) What is the Paleolithic Age?

The Paleolithic Age, also known as the Stone Age, is a prehistoric period that spanned from about 2.6 million years ago to around 10,000 BCE (Before Common Era). It is the earliest and longest period of human history, characterized by the use of stone tools by early human beings.

Source: Archaeologist reports Mesolithic-era rock paintings in Guntur

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