History — Our Pasts (Ancient to Modern India) • Topic 1 of 5

Sources & Earliest Societies

History is reconstructed from sources, and CTET expects you to classify them. Archaeological sources are physical remains studied by digging - tools, pottery, coins, seals, buildings and bones. Literary sources are written records - manuscripts (often on palm leaf or birch bark), and inscriptions carved on stone or metal. The earliest people were hunter-gatherers (Palaeolithic) who moved in small groups, hunted animals and gathered fruits, roots and nuts, and made tools of stone (the long span called the Stone Age). The big turning point was the Neolithic, when people learned farming and herding - growing crops such as wheat and barley and domesticating animals (sheep, goat, cattle). This let them settle in one place, store grain, make pots and live in villages; sites like Mehrgarh (in present-day Pakistan) are among the earliest evidence of the first farmers and herders in the subcontinent. The shift from food-gathering to food-producing is the single most tested idea here.

✅ Solved examples

1. Coins, tools, seals and the ruins of buildings recovered by digging are best classified as which kind of historical source?
Archaeological sources - physical remains studied by archaeologists. Manuscripts and inscriptions, by contrast, are literary sources.
2. The major change that defined the Neolithic age was that human beings learned to:
Produce their own food by farming crops and domesticating animals, instead of only hunting and gathering. This allowed settled village life.
3. People who lived by hunting wild animals and gathering plants, fruits and roots, and used stone tools, are called:
Hunter-gatherers (of the Palaeolithic / Stone Age). They moved from place to place in search of food.
4. Mehrgarh is significant in early Indian history because it provides early evidence of:
The first farmers and herders - one of the earliest sites where people grew wheat and barley and reared sheep, goats and cattle.

✏️ Practice — try these, take hints as needed

1. Inscriptions and manuscripts are examples of which category of source?
They are written records.
Not the dug-up physical kind.
Literary (written) sources
2. The earliest tools used by humans were made mainly of:
It gives its name to the age.
Palaeolithic material.
Stone
3. The shift that allowed humans to settle in villages and store grain was the beginning of:
Food-producing, not food-gathering.
Neolithic milestone.
Agriculture / farming
4. Hunter-gatherers are described as living a life that was largely:
They followed animals and seasons.
Opposite of settled.
Nomadic / moving from place to place

📝 Topic test — 8 questions

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