Why In News:
- Mesolithic Rock Painting Recently, a fascinating discovery emerged in Orvakallu village, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, where an ancient rock painting from the Mesolithic period was unearthed.
- The painting vividly portrays a person engaged in tilling a piece of land using natural white kaolin and red ochre pigments. Ochre, composed of clay, sand, and ferric oxide, was employed as the pigment.
- The significance of these paintings lies in their ability to shed light on the social life and culture of the people who inhabited the region during that era.
- One of the paintings showcases a man capturing a wild goat with his left hand while wielding a hook-like implement to control it, offering insights into their hunting practices. Another intriguing scene depicts two couples standing with raised hands, accompanied by a child standing behind them.
- The Mesolithic period, also known as the Middle Stone Age, served as a transitional phase between the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age).
- It is estimated to have occurred approximately 12,000-10,000 years ago. During this era, human societies were primarily hunter-gatherer communities, relying on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plant resources for sustenance.
- The stone tools from this period, known as microliths, were relatively small and were likely affixed to bone or wood handles to create tools like saws and sickles. Despite these innovations, older types of tools were still in use during this time.