INDIA
Most relics of this period, like the one in Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, indicate a primitive life.

20000 B.C. PALEOLITHIC AGE: The Stone Age man led a nomadic life and survived by hunting and food gathering.

AMERICA

Before the advent of the Olmecs 1200 B.C., the Mesoamerican people were villagers using simple tools.

NEOLITHIC AGE 8000 B.C.:Cultivation began but only stone was used for tools and weapons.

CHINESE

Neolithic Chinese sites have yielded stone arrowheads and fish hooks. The silk fabrics and the decorated pottery indicate a well-developed sense of design.

4000 B.C. COPPER AGE: With the discovery of metal, innovations began and so did agrarian townships.

JERICHO

Regarded as the oldest and continuously occupied city, Jericho, located near the Jordan river, has yielded remains of a four-hectare township with thick fortifications.

3000 B.C. BRONZE AGE: Civilisations blossomed into urban settlements and societies developed political and religious mores.

NILE VALLEY

The Egyptians, relying on the annual flooding of the Nile, were not obliged to build irrigation systems and remained rooted in agrarian rather than urban life, which began only after 3000 B.C.

1800 B.C. IRON AGE: Large-scale migration and trade coupled with technological revolutions marked the end of the Old World.

Compiled by Ipshita Banerji