State PCS
The 'three-age system' of dividing the past into the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages was developed, using the collections of the museum in Copenhagen, by:
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Answer: Option C — Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
Detailed Solution
The Danish antiquarian Christian Jurgensen Thomsen (1788-1865) developed the "three-age system" while arranging the collections of what later became the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.
About the three-age system:
- In the 1810s and 1820s, Thomsen was asked to organise a large collection of ancient objects.
- He grouped them according to the material from which tools and weapons were made: stone, bronze and iron.
- He suggested that these represented three successive periods of human history: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
- His system was published in a museum guidebook in 1836.
- It became the basic framework of European prehistory, and is still used today.
Later developments:
- In 1865, the British scholar John Lubbock divided the Stone Age into the "Palaeolithic" (Old Stone Age) and the "Neolithic" (New Stone Age).
- The term "Mesolithic" (Middle Stone Age) was added later.
- The "Chalcolithic" (copper-stone) period was recognised as a transitional phase between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.
The Australian-British archaeologist V. Gordon Childe introduced the concepts of the "Neolithic Revolution" and the "Urban Revolution".
Application to India:
- In Indian prehistory, the Stone Age is divided into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.
- The Harappan civilisation belongs to the Bronze Age.
- The Chalcolithic cultures (such as the Ahar, Malwa and Jorwe cultures) used copper and stone.
- The Iron Age in India began around 1200-1000 BCE, with cultures such as the Painted Grey Ware and the megaliths.
Limitations of the system:
- The ages did not begin at the same time everywhere.
- Some regions moved directly from stone to iron, without a Bronze Age.
Why not the other options?
- ✗John Lubbock coined the terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
- ✗Gordon Childe described the Neolithic and Urban Revolutions.
- ✗Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Quick tip
Remember: three-age system (Stone, Bronze, Iron) = C. J. Thomsen (Copenhagen museum, 1836); "Palaeolithic" and "Neolithic" = John Lubbock (1865); "Neolithic Revolution" = Gordon Childe.
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Indus Valley Civilisation — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Indus Valley Civilisation, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
The Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilisation was one of the world's earliest urban civilisations, flourishing around 2500-1900 BCE. This topic covers its major sites, town planning, drainage, seals, script, trade, crafts, religious beliefs and the theories about its decline. Questions mostly link a site to its feature or its present-day location: the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, the dockyard at Lothal (Gujarat), the ploughed field at Kalibangan (Rajasthan) and the water reservoirs at Dholavira. Remember that Harappa was the first site excavated, by Daya Ram Sahni in 1921, and that the Harappan script has still not been deciphered. Practise the Indus Valley Civilisation questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.