PreHistory - C. 2,000,000–7,000 BCE

Prehistory is the period before written records.

It means that the lives of people living at the time cannot be reconstructed through inscriptions, chronicles or documents. Instead, archaeologists study the physical evidence they left behind: tools, animal bones, hearths, shelters, plant remains and changes made to the landscape.

For most of Punjab’s human past, very little of this evidence has survived. Stone endures far longer than wood, hide, fibre or food. As a result, the earliest inhabitants of the region are known largely through the tools they made rather than the full range of objects they once used. But even this evidence is incomplete. Rivers have destroyed some ancient sites, buried others beneath layers of sediment and carried objects away from their original locations.
Much of Punjab’s earliest history must therefore be reconstructed from scattered discoveries rather than a continuous record.

Before “Punjab”

Punjab did not yet exist as a named state or cultural region. Its physical landscape, however, had been forming for millions of years.

The collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates raised the Himalayas to the north. As the mountains rose and eroded, rivers carried enormous quantities of stone, sand, silt and clay down towards the plains. Over time, these deposits accumulated across the land below the mountains, helping to create the broad alluvial plain that would support Punjab’s farms, towns and cities.

This was not a finished landscape. River channels repeatedly shifted, divided and rejoined. Floods cut into older ground before covering it with new sediment. Some waterways disappeared, while others altered course across the plain.

The Indus formed the great western drainage system into which Punjab’s rivers eventually flowed. The Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej carried water from the Himalayas and their foothills across the region, although their ancient courses were not always identical to those today.

These rivers deposited fertile soil, supported plants and animals and formed natural routes through an otherwise immense landscape. At the same time, they could be unpredictable. Floods transformed riverbanks, erased camps and forced both animals and very early groups of people to move. Early communities lived with a river system that offered survival but never complete stability.

Punjab During the Ice Age

Much of this period belonged to the Pleistocene epoch, commonly called the Ice Age.

In the Punjab region, land was not buried under ice. Instead, glaciers expanded in the mountains, but the plains saw repeated shifts between colder and warmer conditions, and rainfall/ monsoon strengths varied as well.

During cooler and drier phases, parts of the landscape may have opened into grassland and scrub. In wetter periods, rivers expanded and vegetation became denser. The animals available to hunt, the plants that could be gathered, and the places where water remained dependable all changed with the climate.

The Ice Age was therefore not one unchanging environment. It consisted of many climatic cycles, each reshaping the land. Human groups had to respond by adjusting where they travelled, what they ate and how long they remained in one place.

This flexibility became one of the most important features of early human life.

The First People

The earliest evidence of human activity in Punjab comes from the Pothohar Plateau and the Soan Valley in northern Punjab, now in Pakistan.

At Riwat, pieces of worked stone have been associated with deposits approaching two million years in age. The evidence remains debated, however. Some objects may have been moved from their original position, and the simplest stone tools can be difficult to distinguish from rocks broken through natural pressure. For this reason, the beginning of Punjab’s human story does not have a single certain date. The oldest finds suggest the possibility of a very early presence, while clearer evidence of toolmaking appears later across the wider Soan landscape.

Different human species left Africa and spread through Asia long before Homo-sapiens appeared in South Asia. No human remains have been found beside Punjab’s earliest proposed tools, so the identity of their makers is unknown.

Modern humans arrived much later, probably as part of movements through southern and western Asia tens of thousands of years ago. Punjab’s position between the Iranian Plateau, Central Asia and the interior of the subcontinent made it one of several possible routes through which people could move.

Migration was not a single journey made by one population. Groups entered South Asia at different times, travelled along different routes and adapted to different environments. Some may have crossed Punjab quickly. Others returned to the same rivers and foothills across generations.

Life in the Stone Age

Stone Age communities did not live in villages or occupy fixed political territories. They generally moved through the landscape in small groups, responding to water, weather, plants and the seasonal movement of animals.

Their survival depended upon detailed knowledge of their surroundings.

They needed to know where water remained during dry periods, when particular plants became edible, how animals moved and where useful stone could be found. Riverbanks offered fish, birds, animals and plant life. Wooded areas provided fuel and shelter materials, while open ground made it easier to track grazing animals.

These communities are usually described as hunter-gatherers, but hunting was only one part of their existence. People also collected roots, seeds, fruit, nuts, eggs and other available foods. The balance between hunting and gathering would have changed according to season and location.

Their camps were probably temporary. A group might remain near a river or sheltered slope while resources were plentiful and then move when conditions changed. Some places were likely revisited repeatedly, creating an early pattern of attachment to particular landscapes without permanent settlement.

Very little is known about their languages, beliefs or social relationships. They almost certainly taught skills, cared for children and shared knowledge, but the surviving evidence cannot reveal precisely how their communities were organised.

Tools Made from Stone

Stone tools were essential to life during this period.

Early toolmakers selected rocks that would break in a useful and reasonably predictable way. By striking one stone against another, they removed sharp flakes or reshaped the central piece, known as a core.

The resulting tools could be used to cut meat, scrape hides, work wood, break bone or prepare plants. Some were simple flakes with sharp edges. Others were larger chopping tools, handaxes or carefully shaped points. Tools also changed over time as people developed greater control over the size and form of the pieces they produced.

The Soan Valley became particularly important because its rivers and surrounding hills supplied large quantities of stone. Rounded pebbles and cobbles could be collected from river deposits and transformed into working tools without travelling far to obtain the raw material.

Why People Returned to Punjab

Punjab offered several advantages to mobile communities.

Its rivers provided water in a region where rainfall could be uncertain. Riverbanks attracted animals and supported a wider variety of plant life than much of the surrounding land. The foothills contained sheltered areas and sources of workable stone, while the open plains allowed people and animals to move across long distances.

Punjab also occupied a significant geographical position. Mountain passes connected the north-western subcontinent with lands further west, while the Indus system led south and the plains opened eastwards into northern India. Long before these routes carried armies and merchants, they could have guided the movement of animals and human groups.

Despite this, Punjab was not an easy environment. Floods, droughts, extreme temperatures and changing river courses made survival uncertain. Yet the same environmental variety gave people choices. When one area became less productive, another river, terrace or foothill could offer different resources.

Over thousands of generations, temporary visits became repeated occupation. People learned the landscape, returned to familiar places and adapted their tools and movements to local conditions.

By around 7000 BCE, communities near the north-western edges of the Indus world were beginning to experiment with cultivation, animal management and more settled forms of life. Punjab’s transformation would be gradual, and hunting and gathering did not immediately disappear. But the relationship between people and the land was beginning to change.

The rivers that had sustained mobile communities would eventually support farms. Seasonal camps would give way to permanent settlements. Stone tools would remain important, but they would be joined by new technologies, new forms of labour and new ways of organising society.

Civilisation had not yet appeared. The foundations that made it possible, however, were already being laid.