At the end of the Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, there was a gradual transition from Upper Palaeolithic to Mesolithic ‘toolkits’. Mesolithic people used smaller blades to make microliths, which were mounted on shafts or handles to make arrowheads and knives.

After the arid conditions of the Upper Palaeolithic, the humid climate of the Mesolithic seems to have encouraged an increase in population. Caves, rock-shelters and open-air sites were occupied, either as semi-permanent settlements, temporary encampments or simply as factory sites for stone tool production.

The 10,000 year old site of Sarai-Nahar-Rai in Uttar Pradesh was a small settlement situated on the edge of an ox-bow lake surrounded by forest. Smaller hearths and one larger, perhaps communal hearth, were excavated. Several burials were also discovered, orientated east to west. One of the males still had an arrowhead embedded in his rib, showing that these tools were not just used for hunting. A similar site at Mahadaha also contained burials with two of the skeletons wearing bone necklaces. The people seem to have been extraordinarily tall, with the average male measuring 1.92 meters in height. When people living in the plains areas first began farming, hunting still continued in some hilly areas.