Class 9 SST Part 1 Chapter 4 Solutions – Early Humans
Looking for accurate and complete ncert class 9 social science chapter 4 solutions for the new CBSE curriculum (2026-27)? You are in the right place! In this guide, we provide step-by-step, direct, and easy-to-understand solutions for all exercise questions from Understanding Society: India and Beyond Class 9 SST Part 1 Chapter 4: Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation. These answers are crafted specifically to help students write clean, exam-ready answers in their notebooks without extra confusion or lengthy fluff.
Question 1
Do you think life became easier or more challenging after humans started farming? Give two reasons for your answer.
Life became both easier and more challenging.
- Easier: Farming provided a stable and reliable food supply, allowing humans to settle in one place and build permanent villages. This led to the development of tools, pottery, and communities.
- More challenging: Farming required hard labour (clearing land, sowing, harvesting) and made humans dependent on weather conditions. A crop failure could lead to famine, and living in settled communities increased the risk of diseases and attacks from other groups.
Question 2
The environment offers human societies both opportunities as well as challenges. Explain with reference to early farming communities and river-valley civilisations.
- Opportunities: Rivers provided fertile alluvial soil, abundant water for irrigation, and a means of transport. This allowed early farming communities to grow surplus food, which led to the rise of cities and trade (e.g., Harappan, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian civilisations).
- Challenges: Rivers could also be destructive. Unpredictable floods could destroy crops, homes, and settlements. In some regions, the environment was harsh (deserts, dense forests), requiring communities to develop new tools and technologies to survive and adapt.
Question 3
Why do historians divide early human history into different ages such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age? What does this classification tell us about human progress?
Historians divide early human history into these ages based on the main material used for making tools and weapons. This classification helps us understand the technological progress of early humans.
It tells us that human progress moved from using simple stone tools to discovering metals (copper, bronze, then iron), which led to better tools, more advanced agriculture, stronger weapons, and ultimately the rise of complex civilisations.
Question 4
Imagine you are a Neolithic farmer. Describe one day of your life. What challenges would you face that a hunter-gatherer would not?
(Sample imaginative response)
A Day in the Life: I wake up early in our mud-brick house. I go to the fields to plough the land with my wooden plough and sow wheat seeds. I spend the day weeding and protecting the crops from birds and animals. My family and I eat stored grains and vegetables.
Challenges: Unlike hunter-gatherers, I cannot simply move to a new place if food runs out. I must wait for the harvest. If there is no rain, my crops will fail, and we will starve. I also have to constantly protect our stored surplus grain from pests and other raiding groups.
Question 5
Imagine that the Harappan script gets deciphered tomorrow. What new types of information do you think historians might learn?
If the Harappan script is deciphered, historians could learn about:
- The names of their rulers, gods, and cities.
- Their trade records, how they managed their economy, and what goods they exchanged.
- Their religious beliefs, laws, and social customs.
- Whether they had a formal legal system or wrote literature.
Question 6
Prepare a table with three columns—Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic—and fill in their distinctive features: tools, settlements, art, and subsistence.
| Feature | Palaeolithic | Mesolithic | Neolithic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tools | Large stone tools (handaxes, cleavers) | Microlithic (tiny stone) tools | Polished stone tools (axes, sickles) |
| Settlements | Nomadic (caves, rock shelters) | Semi-nomadic (temporary camps) | Permanent villages |
| Art | Cave paintings (Bhimbetka) | More elaborate cave art, beads | Pottery, figurines |
| Subsistence | Hunting and gathering | Hunting, gathering, fishing | Agriculture and animal domestication |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Based on latest NCERT class 9 book.