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CHAPTER II
PREHISTORIC ORISSA The cultural stages of man, antecedant to the time when until metal was first exploited by him, are collectively known as the Lithic (Greek: Stone) Age from the materials chiefly used by him in fabricating the tools with which he began his career of power and control over the environments. This Age has customarily been divided into two main divisions, christened by Lubbock in 1863,1 as the Palaeolithic (Old Stone) Age and the Neolithic (New Stone) Age.
In the palaeolithic period, man was like his contemporary animals, parasitic upon nature for his food, hunting them with stone implements, characteristically chipped and flaked.
In subsequent periods, man learnt to live in co-operation with nature so as to increase his food-supply through agriculture and the domestication of animals, and to practise some of the basic arts of civilised life. The stone artifacts, now employed by him, are characterised by a grinding and polishing system that have led some to name this stage as the Polished Stone Age; and during these 1. Daniel G.E.-The Three Ages, Camb. Univ. Press, 1943;
J. Coggin Brown was of opinion, however, that in the presont state of prehistoric archaeological science in India, it was not possible to sub-divide the Pleistocene period into shorter stages as had been accomplished with success in Europe. (Cat. of Pre-historic Antiquities in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 1917, p. 1.)
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