NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Social Science Chapter 4 Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation
Updated on 2026-09-08
About this chapter
Almost all of human history has no writing in it. Fig. 4.3 puts the split exactly: more than 99 per cent of human history falls before writing (about 3 million years ago to 5000 years ago ) and less than 1 per cent after it. For the 99 per cent the only witnesses are artefacts — tools, bones, pottery, hearths — so dating is approximate ; after writing, documents name people and give specific dates, so dating becomes relatively accurate . The chapter's account of our ancestry is built on two kinds of find: stone tools and fossils . The earliest stone tools are dated to about 3.3 million years ago — the moment the chapter treats as the start of 'human behaviour', because animals lack the cognitive ability to make such tools. Fig. 4.6 gives the sequence: Homo habilis (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
- Chapter opening
- Fig. 4.1, Harappan script on a seal
- Migration out of Africa
- Fig. 4.6, Skulls of early humans and modern humans
- Fig. 4.7, Periods in Early Human History
- Fig. 4.20, Harappan stone weights
- Bronze Age Civilisations Outside India
- Mesopotamian Civilisation
- The Sumerians and the ziggurat
- The Beginning of Writing
Exercises
- Chapter opening — The Big Questions Page 61
- Fig. 4.1, Harappan script on a seal — LET'S EXPLORE Page 62
- Migration out of Africa — THINK ABOUT IT Page 65
- Fig. 4.6, Skulls of early humans and modern humans — LET'S EXPLORE Page 66
- Fig. 4.7, Periods in Early Human History — THINK ABOUT IT Page 67
- Fig. 4.14, Transition to the agricultural way of life in different parts of the world — THINK ABOUT IT Page 71
- Fig. 4.20, Harappan stone weights — THINK ABOUT IT Page 76
- Bronze Age Civilisations Outside India — THINK ABOUT IT Page 77
- Mesopotamian Civilisation — LET'S EXPLORE Page 79
- The Sumerians and the ziggurat — LET'S EXPLORE Page 80
- The Beginning of Writing — LET US RECALL Page 81
- The Akkadians — LET'S EXPLORE Page 82
- Fig. 4.29, An illustration from the Papyrus of Ani — THINK ABOUT IT Page 85
- Fig. 4.30, The region in which the Egyptian civilisation flourished — LET'S MAP Page 86
- Fig. 4.32, Social hierarchy Pyramid — LET'S EXPLORE Page 87
- Fig. 4.33, Daily items used by the Egyptians — THINK ABOUT IT Page 88
- The Chinese Civilisation — In-text Questions Page 89
- The Chinese logographic script — LET'S EXPLORE Page 90
- Fig. 4.38, The Great Wall of China — THINK ABOUT IT Page 92
- Silk and the Silk Route — LET'S RECALL Page 92
- The chapter's recap points, expanded with their evidence — Before we move on … Page 93
- End-of-chapter exercise — Questions and activities Page 93–94