Bowmen and DeerCliff Painting

Los Caballos, Spain,10,000-9000 bce

MESOLITHIC PERIOD

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

Tassili N’Ajjer 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 .

Tassili People

Tassili Animals

Tassili Hunters

Tassili Dancers and

Musicians

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 .

Gobustan People

females

hunter

Gobustanis dancing the Yally

Gobustan boats attracted the attention of

Thor Heyerdahl

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.

Bhimabetakadeer

Bhimabetaka bison and elephant

Bhimabetaka dog

Bhimabetaka hunters

Bhimabetaka warriors

Bhimabetaka dance

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