Bowmen and Deer Cliff Painting Los Caballos, Spain, 10,000-9000 bce

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Bowmen and DeerCliff PaintingLos Caballos,
Spain,10,000-9000 bce
MESOLITHIC PERIOD
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MESOLITHIC PERIODbegan 12,000 bp

• Mesolithic tool kits were based on chipped stone
  
• Hunter-gatherers began to store food in
  containers
• Relied less on large mammals for food -- more on
  fish and small game
• Domestication of animals began with
  domestication of dogs
• Rock art paintings and carvings increasingly
  depict human communal activities as well as
  animals

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Tassili NAjjer Algeria

• 8000 years ago, the Sahara Desert used to be a
  fertile land with rivers full of fish and rich
  grassy hills full of game .
• Cultures followed one another leaving their own
  records
• Era of Hunters 6000 to 4000 B.C.
• Era of Stockbreeders 4000 to 1500 B.C.
• Era of Horse 1500 B.C. to 1st century A.D.
• Era of Camel from 1st century on
• They left painted or engraved testimonies making
  one of the most complete catalogs ever found
  about prehistoric life .

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Tassili People
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Tassili Animals
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Tassili Hunters
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Tassili Dancers and Musicians
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GobustanAzerbijan

• Gobustan (the territory of Gobu) a plain
  situated between the south-eastern slope -of the
  Greater Caucasian Range and the Caspian Sea.
• Over 6000 rock carvings, settlements, and
  tombstones, the oldest from 12,000 bce are in the
  mountains of Gobustan .

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Gobustan People
females
hunter
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Gobustanis dancing the Yally
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Gobustan boats attracted the attention of Thor
Heyerdahl
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BhimabetakaIndia

• Bhimabetaka, is located 45 km to the south-east
  of Bhopal near a hill village called 'Bhiyanpur'.
  
• Bhima's sitting place is the literal meaning
  of Bhimabetaka
• Atop the hill a large number of rock-shelters
  contain more than 130 paintings.

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Bhimabetakadeer
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Bhimabetaka bison and elephant
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Bhimabetaka dog
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Bhimabetaka hunters
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Bhimabetaka warriors
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Bhimabetaka dance
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As the nomadic hunter-gatherers domesticated more
animals and began to cultivate crops -- wheat,
rice and corn -- around the world, Mesolithic
cultures entered into the Neolithic Revolution