The primitive (prehistoric) era is the longest stage of human history: it lasted from the appearance of humans to the rise of the first states. There was no writing, so historians rely mainly on archaeological sources — tools, camps, burials and rock art. Uzbekistan is very rich in this respect: sites from every stage, from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age, have been found here. The topic underpins everything that follows: farming, crafts, inequality of wealth and the origins of the state all begin here. Exams ask you to match archaeological sites to period and region and to know the order in which tools and ways of life developed.
§1. Periodisation: how prehistory is divided
Scholars divide prehistory by the material people used for tools:
Stone Age: Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), Neolithic (New Stone Age).
Eneolithic — the Copper-Stone Age (copper objects alongside stone tools).
Bronze Age — tools of copper-tin alloy.
Iron Age — iron tools spread; in Central Asia from the start of the 1st millennium BC.
Knowing this order is the key to chronology questions: each new stage follows the previous one and opens new economic possibilities.
§2. The Palaeolithic — the Old Stone Age
The Palaeolithic is the longest period. People lived in small groups by hunting and gathering (wild plants and fruit). They made stone tools by chipping (hand axes, scrapers, points) and learned to use fire, which gave warmth, protection and cooked food.
Selungur cave (Fergana Valley) — a site about 1 million years old, among the oldest in Central Asia; the human remains found there were named “Ferganthropus”.
Teshik-Tash (Surkhandarya, Boysun mountains) — in 1938 A. P. Okladnikov found the skeleton of a Neanderthal child; ibex horns had been placed round the burial — a sign of funeral ritual and religious ideas.
Obi-Rakhmat (Tashkent region) and Kulbulak (Akhangaran valley) — Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites; Kulbulak has several cultural layers.
In the Upper Palaeolithic modern humans emerged and the clan community appeared: relatives lived and worked together and shared the catch equally. The Upper Palaeolithic site in Samarkand belongs to this time.
§3. The Mesolithic and Neolithic
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age, roughly the 12th–6th millennia BC):
The bow and arrow was invented — hunting at a distance became safer; the dog was domesticated.
Small, carefully worked stone blades — microliths — were set into wooden hafts.
The Zarautsoy rock paintings (Surkhandarya) show hunting scenes (wild bulls, archers). Machai cave is also known as a Mesolithic site.
Neolithic (New Stone Age):
Polished and drilled stone tools, pottery, spinning and weaving.
The beginnings of farming and herding — the shift from a gathering to a producing economy. Scholars call it the “Neolithic Revolution”: people no longer just took what nature offered but produced food themselves.
The Kelteminar culture of Khwarezm is a vivid example of the Central Asian Neolithic (hunter-fishers, the Janbas-Kala site, large communal houses)
Cause and effect: a producing economy created food reserves → population grew → settled villages appeared.
§4. The Metal Age: Eneolithic, Bronze and Iron
Eneolithic (Copper-Stone Age): the first copper objects (awls, knives, ornaments). Sarazm (Zarafshan valley) was a farming settlement with links to distant lands.
Bronze Age (3rd–2nd millennia BC): Sapallitepa and Jarkutan (Surkhandarya) were the first proto-urban settlements, with defensive walls, irrigated farming, the potter’s wheel, metalworking and temples. Sapallitepa was studied by the archaeologist A. Askarov.
Herding tribes lived on the steppe: the Tazabagyab culture (Khwarezm) and Zamanbaba (Bukhara oasis).
Iron Age (from the start of the 1st millennium BC): iron tools (ploughshares, sickles, swords) raised harvests and military strength; large irrigation canals were dug; fortresses such as Kuchuktepa and Kyzyltepa were built.
§5. Society: from the maternal to the paternal clan
Maternal clan (matriarchy): in gathering and early farming women played a large role and kinship was traced through the mother.
Paternal clan (patriarchy): when heavy work — herding, metalworking, ploughing — passed to men, their status rose and kinship came to be traced through the father.
Social division of labour: first herding separated from farming, then crafts became a separate occupation; exchange (trade) developed.
With a surplus, inequality of wealth grew: elders and war leaders became rich and a tribal nobility emerged.
Tribal unions formed and fortresses were built for defence — a step towards the first states.
Surplus → inequality of wealth → nobility → early state
§6. Beliefs and art
Totemism — a clan’s belief that it descends from an animal or plant.
Animism — the belief that natural objects and phenomena have spirits.
Magic — the belief that special actions can influence hunting or harvests.
Ancestor worship — burial rites and grave goods (Teshik-Tash).
Art: rock paintings (Zarautsoy), patterns on pottery and female figurines (symbols of fertility).
Traces of these beliefs survived later in Zoroastrianism and folk customs.
Worked example
“Put in chronological order: the invention of the bow; the use of fire; pottery; iron tools.”
Use of fire — Palaeolithic.
Bow and arrow — Mesolithic.
Pottery — Neolithic.
Iron tools — Iron Age.
Answer: fire → bow → pottery → iron.
Worked example
Source analysis: “In a layer inside the cave the skeleton of a child of 8–9 years was found; ibex horns had been set in pairs around it.” Which site is this, and what does the find prove?
A child’s skeleton in a cave with ibex horns is the well-known description of the Teshik-Tash find.
The site is in the Boysun mountains of Surkhandarya, found in 1938; the child was a Neanderthal.
Horns placed deliberately point to a burial ritual.
Answer: Teshik-Tash; religious ideas and burial rites already existed in the Middle Palaeolithic.
Worked example
Cause and effect: “Why did proto-urban settlements such as Sapallitepa appear in the Bronze Age?”
Irrigated farming gave reliable harvests and a surplus.
The surplus could feed craftsmen and support exchange.
Defensive walls were needed to protect wealth, and temples to serve the community.
Answer: irrigated farming and crafts concentrated people and wealth in one place.
Check yourself
In which region is Teshik-Tash cave?
Whose skeleton was found at Teshik-Tash?
To which period does the Kelteminar culture belong?
In which period did the bow and arrow appear?
Sapallitepa is a site of which period?
What is the shift from a gathering to a producing economy called?
What is a clan’s belief in descent from an animal called?
In which cave were the “Ferganthropus” remains found?
Common mistakes
Placing Teshik-Tash in Fergana (Selungur is in Fergana; Teshik-Tash is in Surkhandarya).
Putting Kelteminar in the Bronze Age (it is Neolithic).
Reversing matriarchy and patriarchy: the maternal clan came first.
Confusing totemism and animism: totemism is an animal ancestor, animism is spirits in things.
Placing the Eneolithic after the Bronze Age (it comes before).
Treating the Neolithic Revolution as the invention of new tools: its real meaning is a change in the economy — people began producing their own food.