The Advent of Food Production PDF

The advent of food production
Subject: History
Lesson: The advent of food production
Course Developer : Deeksha Bhardwaj
Assistant Professor, Gargi College, University of Delhi
Language Editors: Bharati Jagannathan and Naina Dayal
Production Editor: Ashutosh Kumar

Assistant Professor, Lady Shri Ram College, University of
Delhi
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Institute of Lifelong Lerning, University of Delhi
NOTE:
The dates in modern historical writings are generally given according to the
Christian calendar. In recent years, the use of AD (Anno Domini) and BC (Before
Christ) has to some extent been replaced by BCE (Before Common Era) and CE
(Common Era). Both usages are acceptable, and both sets of abbreviations have
been used in these e-lessons.
Table of contents
Chapter 3: The advent of food production

 3.1: Neolithic – Chalcolithic cultures - I
 3.2: Neolithic - Chalcolithic cultures - II
 Summary
 Exercises
 Glossary
 Further readings
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3.1: Neolithic – Chalcolithic cultures - I
Introduction
For a large part of the existence of our species, we lived as hunter gatherers. In the context
of the subcontinent, that is from nearly 2 mya to around 8000 B.C. And then, we started
growing food and domesticating animals – leading to agriculture and a way of life that is the
backbone of our economy to this day. In this lesson we will see how humans in the
subcontinent, over many millennia, evolved strategies and made choices that transformed
them from predators and scavengers on nature to being active partners with nature, from a
hunting-gathering way of life to a settled, agriculture-based existence. The organizing peg
of our species moved fundamentally from survival to society/social formations.
Significance of food production in world context - characteristic

traits of the ‘Neolithic’
The concluding phase of the Stone Age, the Neolithic Age, heralded the beginning of food
production. What was the catalyst that moved humans in different parts of the world to
adopt agriculture and animal domestication? It is today generally agreed that it was a
combination of three factors, i.e., climatic changes at the beginning of the Holocene,
increasing population density and evolving cultural and technological strategies of human
groups that ushered in this transformation.
The Neolithic is also the link or platform on which all subsequent civilizations arose. That it
is a Stone Age Culture can be established by its use of stone tools. But unlike the lighter
and sharper tools of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, the neolithic tool kit was composed of
heavy ground tools – celts, pestles, mortars, grinders and pounders – as also axes and
sickles, which have a characteristic sheen on them, the result of harvesting wild or
domesticated plants and grasses.
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Figure 3.1.1: Neolithic stone tools

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic
But besides the use of stone tools, the neolithic people had little in common with their
predecessors. The palaeolithic and mesolithic humans were mobile hunter-gatherers who
travelled long distances to procure their food. On the other hand, neolithic populations all
over the world have relied on agriculture and animal domestication for their dietary needs.
Sedentism is another feature that distinguishes the neolithic period. Somewhere between
10,000 and 3,500 years ago, people all over the world, without any apparent connection,
began settling in agricultural communities that gave rise to villages, towns and then cities.
The use of pottery and the wheel and the subsequent invention of crafts like spinning,
weaving and bead-making also serve to demonstrate the uniqueness of the neolithic phase.
Most neolithic cultures start as aceramic or pre-pottery neolithic. However, soon enough,
sherds of hand-made pottery are found, often followed by turntables and finally, wheel-
thrown pottery. The technological breakthrough of the wheel enabled developments like
spinning and by the time of the bonze age civilizations, the use of the wheel in carts.
All these developments made the prehistorian Gordon V. Childe designate this phase as the
‘Neolithic Revolution’. However, his critics were quick to point out that the term ‘revolution’
is synonymous with sudden or abrupt change, often accompanied by bloodshed and that the
neolithic was a gradual unfolding of developments. While the tremendous socio-economic
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impact of the neolithic cannot be denied, consensus now is that it was a ‘fundamental
transformation’ or ‘evolution’ rather than a ‘revolution’.
The second point in Childe’s hypothesis, which has direct bearing on the advent of food
production in the Indian subcontinent, is the presumption that farming was invented in a
single ‘nuclear region’ – the Fertile Crescent in Mesopotamia or the Near East from where
it spread or was diffused to other parts of the world. This diffusionist paradigm propounded
that the ‘idea’ of agriculture arose here and then spread to other regions depending on their
proximity to this core region.
Value addition: did you know?

Engines of civilization
The largest and most complex civilizations throughout history have been
based on the cultivation of one or more of just six plant genera – wheat,
barley, millet, rice, maize and potatoes – and these have thus been called the
main engines of civilization.
Source: Wenke, Robert J. 1999. Patterns in Prehistory. New York &
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 269.
Sources & analysis
Emerging from archaeological explorations and excavations, our primary sources are tools
associated with food production, floral and faunal analysis i.e. identification of floral
(seeds) and faunal remains (teeth, bones) as being that of domesticates, evidence of
sedentism/ habitation in the form of dwellings, hearths, storage pits, burials etc. Additional
evidence of craft activities like pottery, bead-making and spinning (from presence of
impressions or spindle whorls) completes the picture of self-sufficient settlements. Hunting
and gathering continued, though, over time the bones of hunted animals decline and those
of the domesticated ones increase.
Value addition: what the sources say

Identification of domestication and food production in the
archaeological record
The result of domestication through taming and selective breeding over thousands of
years manifests itself in the morphology of animals – domesticates are smaller in
size, face becomes shorter in relation to the cranium, teeth become smaller and
horns also reduce in size. Animals found outside their natural habitat also indicate
domestication. Similarly, selected plant breeds become sturdier, cob size increases
(maize) and in the case of domesticated wheat and barley, for e.g., the ears break
up only at the stage of threshing.
Source: Singh, U. 2009. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. New
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Delhi: Pearson Education, 98-99.
Review of onset of agriculture in India
For a long time, the Indian subcontinent was viewed as having borrowed the idea of food
production from its western neighbour, Mesopotamia, via the Iranian plateau. However, it is
now generally believed that agriculture in India was an independent, indigenous
development rather than an import from outside. Admittedly, unequivocal evidence is
available for only barley and wheat, from Mehrgarh, in Baluchistan, where the two earliest
neolithic levels have been placed between the 8th and the end of 6th millennia B.C.
The data for both rice and millets remains ambiguous and inconclusive. However,
increasingly, scholarly opinion is regarding the Vindhyan edge of the central Ganga plain as
the westernmost fringe of an independent rice-producing zone. Wild rice is plentiful here
and rice remains have been reported from the mesolithic site of Damdama, and sites like
Koldihawa (7th-6th millennium B.C.) and Lahuradeva (7th-5th millennium B.C.), pushing back
the antiquity of rice domestication. In the case of millets too, while many have a proven
African ancestry – sorghum millet/jowar, pearl millet/bajra and finger millet/ragi – samai or
little millet is supposed to be of peninsular Indian origin.

The story of rice
Rice is a wild perennial plant, the distribution of which extends from East Asia to
West Africa. In Asia, the rice belt extends from South China and Southeast Asia
through eastern India to the Ganges valley and into the peninsular coastal strips.
Wild rice is still found in all these areas. The development of the cultivated variety of
rice, Oryza sativa, involved the selection of varieties having non-shattering panicles
and seeds capable of rapid germination. This process of observation and
experimentation probably went on over thousands of years, during which people may
have collected and consumed many wild and hybrid varieties of rice.
Source: Allchin, Bridget & Raymond. 1997. Origins of a Civilization: The
Prehistory and Early Archaeology of South Asia. New Delhi: Viking, Penguin
Books, 97.
The evolution of food production in India was spread over a few millennia – from the 8th
millennium B.C. to c. 1000 B.C. Today, as a result of extensive explorations and
excavations, the distribution and nature of the Neolithic in the subcontinent has been
brought to light. Some scholars, like R. S.Sharma, divide the neolithic settlements into three
groups – the north-western, north-eastern and southern, based on the types of axes used
by the neolithic settlers (Sharma 2006:59). Others, for e.g., B. K. Thapar, recognize six
different geographical regions: (i) Northern, covering the Kashmir valley (ii) Belan valley,
covering the Vindhyan plateau in districts Allahabad, Mirzapur, Rewa and Sidhi (iii) Mid–
eastern, covering north Bihar (iv) North-eastern, covering Assam and the sub-Himalayan
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regions (v) Central-eastern, covering the Chhota Nagpur plateau and adjoining areas in
West Bengal and Orissa (vi) Southern, covering peninsular India (Thapar 1987:247).
The Neolithic in India was not a homogeneous phenomenon. There is no single-centre

origin, no domino or ripple effect that had the results of one area being replicated
elsewhere. Different resources were experimented with, depending on availability – rice,
wheat, barley, maize or millet – and different phases evolved and often co-existed –
Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Neolithic-Chalcolithic. These did not develop everywhere at the
same time nor did they end simultaneously. In fact, there were many neolithic cultures that
coexisted with the copper-bronze using, urban Harappan Civilization (2600-1900 B.C.).
These cultures, besides having different time frames, exhibit some regional variations too.
For e.g., in the northeast region, neolithic tools have been found but there is no evidence so
far of plant cultivation. While most of the neolithic cultures evolved out of the preceding
mesolithic cultures, no such evidence is reported from the Kashmir valley. Bone tools have
only been recovered from sites in Kashmir and from Chirand in Bihar and in terms of cereal
consumption, while wheat and barley predominate in Mehrgarh in Pakistan, it is rice from
central India and millet/ ragi cultivation from the south Indian neolithic sites (Jain 2006: 78-
79).
Figure 3.1.2: Distribution of Neolithic sites in the subcontinent

Source: http://www.indohistory.com/images/prehistoric_india.jpg
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Regional distribution of neolithic cultures
Northwest India
Comprising the province of Baluchistan and the Indus plains in Pakistan, this area
represents the earliest evidence of the neolithic culture in the subcontinent, indicated by the
growth of farming and animal husbandry. Basically an inhospitable mountainous region with
a climate of extremes, Baluchistan has nevertheless revealed many traces of early
settlements in its valley pockets. The important sites are Mehrgarh in the Kachhi plain, Kili
Gul Muhammad in the Quetta Valley, Rana Ghundai in the Loralai valley and Anjira in the
Surab valley.

Antiquity of irrigation in north-west India
The inhospitable climate of the region was not a deterrent for the early human
settlers of the region. Ancient irrigation works are conspicuous in each region. In
Quetta valley – wells and the Karez system, where the sub-soil water available in the
lower slopes of the hills is taken to the valley by digging a long underground canal
with regularly spaced entrance shafts from the top. Khozdar area – reservoir dams
and gabarbands, where walls were erected on hill slopes so that the soil washed by
the rains could collect behind them. Kolwa plateau & Kej valley – dams, canals and
karez system.
Not just technological marvels, ancient irrigation systems reflect in-depth knowledge
of the environment and concerted community work that the building of these
dams/reservoirs must have entailed.
Source: Chakrabarti, D. K. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 116-126.
The Indus plains provide a sharp contrast in the archaeological setting to that of
Baluchistan. Neolithic sites start appearing in the North-West Frontier Province – Gumla,
Rehman Dheri, Tarakai Qila and Sarai Khola. Jalilpur and Harappa are the important sites in
Punjab.
Mehrgarh
The earliest evidence of agricultural life based on wheat, barley, cattle, sheep and goat in
the subcontinent comes from the site of Mehrgarh on the bank of the Bolan river in the
Kachhi plain of Baluchistan. Its chronological point is c. 7000 B.C. For the next two to three
millennia, the evidence of this type of agriculture seems to be limited to Baluchistan,
although by the end of this period it is found spread all over its major areas (Chakrabarti
1999: 117).
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Figure 3.1.3: Site of Mehrgarh

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neolithic_mehrgarh.jpg
Excavations at the site have revealed an uninterrupted continuity in the growth and
consolidation of village life in the area. In all, there are seven periods of which only the first
three, I-III, are regarded as neolithic. The time frame for each of these is as follows: Period
I from c. 7000- 6000 BCE, Period II, from c. 6000-4500 BCE, and Period III, from 4500-
3500 BCE.
The earliest level of occupation, Period I, marks the transition from nomadic pastoralism to
agriculture. It is an aceramic level with stone tools consisting of polished axes, chisels,
querns and microliths, and bone tools comprising awls, needles etc. The neolithic character
of the site can be gleaned from bones of cattle, sheep and goats, indicating their
domestication as also the bones of water buffalo, which is the earliest instance of the
domestication of this animal in the subcontinent. Evidence of plant domestication comes
from the charred seeds of wheat and barley as also Indian jujube/ ber and dates. The
beginning of sedentism is evident from foundations of mud-brick houses and small, cell-like
compartments which might have been used for storage of grains.
However, perhaps the most surprising piece of information concerns long-distance trade and
craft production. As part of grave goods were found turquoise beads, probably from the
Nishapur mines of Iran, shell bangles, with the seashell brought from the Arabian Sea coast,
and beads of lapis lazuli, sourced from the Badakshan region of Afghanistan. This clearly
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demonstrates that the neolithic people of Mehrgarh, Period I, were not an isolated
community but engaged in exchange activities with other contemporary cultures.
Period II is characterized by an intensification and diversification of the economic base.

Some coarse, handmade pottery is found in the lower levels which becomes profuse in the
later part of the period. Towards the end, wheel-made and painted, as well as basket-
marked sherds are found having parallels with Kili Gul Muhammad I in the Quetta valley.
Houses become larger and one structure on the site has been termed a ‘granary’. The stone
industry continued, with the addition of ‘sickle’-like tools. Charred cotton seeds indicating
cotton plantation and perhaps, spinning and weaving; ivory-making, presumed from an
elephant trunk bearing groove marks; terracotta human figurines; a steatite workshop and
beads of lapis lazuli and turquoise, all testify craft production, trade and the neolithic stage
of human evolution.
Period III at Mehrgarh, spanning c. 4500 to 3500 B.C., represents the final stage of the
neolithic phase at the site. Surplus production was achieved through a consolidation of
agriculture and animal rearing activities. Vast quantities of pottery have been found, many
of which bear painted motifs, which resemble those of Kili Gul Muhammad II and III.
Continuity in the long distance trading pattern can be assessed from the beads of lapis
lazuli, turquoise and fragments of conch shell. Copper objects found on the surface and
traces of the metal found in crucibles suggest that the neolithic people of Mehrgarh were
familiar with copper smelting. A picture of continuous growth of village life also emerges
from a number of collective graves that appear in this period and suggest an increase in
population.
Value addition: new discoveries

The Mehrgarh people
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, led by Andrea Cucina, have
discovered that the tiny stone drills used for bead perforation had another use—
relieving tooth ache of the prehistoric Mehrgarh people! While cleaning the jaws and
teeth of fossils found at Mehrgarh, they found small holes in some of the teeth.
These holes were drilled to relieve the pain in decayed teeth and were probably filled
with an organic material.
Source: Bahn, Paul. ed. 2007. The Complete Illustrated World Encyclopedia
of Archaeology, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., Hermes House, 194.
Kili Gul Muhammad
The site of Kili Gul Muhammad is in the Quetta valley. The first three levels of occupation
are ascribed to the neolithic period. Beginning as an aceramic site around 5500 BC or
earlier, its inhabitants lived in wattle-and-daub and/or mud houses. Animal remains of
cattle, sheep, goat and horse/wild ass have been discovered and the tool kit comprises
microliths, a few ground tools, bone points and spatula. The transition from Period II to
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Period III can be discerned from the evolution of a crude, handmade and basket-marked
pottery to a fine wheel-made black-on-red ware with simple geometric designs.
Rana Ghundai
Situated in the Anambar valley, Rana Ghundai lies in the ecological zone between the
Baluchi hills and the Indus plains. Periods I-III belong to the neolithic phase and lasted from
c. 4500 to 3100 B.C. The remains of Period I attest the presence of ‘a semi-nomadic
community’ and consist of handmade plain pottery, bones of domesticated animals like ox,
sheep, goat and maybe a wild ass. A mixed tool kit, of stone and bone, comprised
microlithic chips and blades, bone points and eyed needles. Developments in pottery fabric,
shapes and designs continued as the neolithic became a well-established phenomenon here,
a way of life.
Rehman Dheri
A large site, spread over more than 20 hectares, Rehman Dheri shows a clear transition
from the neolithic to the Kot Dijian and finally the Indus civilization phase. The site is
fortified right from the beginning, with a mud brick wall. Remains of wheat, barley, fish, and
domesticated cattle, sheep and goat give us clues as regards their diet. Pottery was used
from the very first settlement at the site and most of the specimens are of Kot Dijian forms
and designs. The calibrated date range of Rehman Dheri is c. 3400-2100 B.C.
Hakra ware sites
Marking the first phase of village occupation in the Indus-Saraswati system, Hakra ware
sites are dated from the beginning of the 4th millennium B.C. The characteristic ware,
identified by M.R. Mughal, is a thick and underfired pottery. The sites vary in size. Besides
pottery, terracotta and shell bangles, grinding stones, microlithic tools and terracotta cattle
figurines were also used (Chakrabarti 2006:129). Early levels of sites like Harappa in Punjab
and Kunal and Bhirrana in Haryana denote the Ravi and Sothi aspects of Hakra ware
respectively.
North India
Evidence for the north Indian neolithic cultures comes mainly from the Kashmir valley and is
represented by a large number of sites above the flood plains of River Jhelum. The two
principal sites of the area are Burzahom and Gufkral, northeast and southeast of Srinagar
respectively. Both sites are multicultural, where prolific neolithic remains are followed by
megalithic and historical habitation. An important feature of the northern neolithic is the
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absence of a preceding microlithic/ mesolithic phase and the neolithic is dated between c.
3500 and 1500 B.C.
Burzahom
The neolithic people of Burzahom, beginning with Period I around 2700 B.C, lived in circular
or oval-shaped lakeside pit dwellings and subsisted on a hunting and fishing economy, being
familiar also with agriculture. The sides of the dwelling pits were plastered with mud and
both ladders and steps were used to get inside the large pits. Storage pits containing animal
bones, stone and bone tools have been found close to the dwelling pits. The site has yielded
mostly coarse and handmade grey, buff and red pottery. The bone industry at Burzahom is
the most developed of all the neolithic cultures of India and comprises harpoons, needles,
arrowheads, spear-joints, daggers etc.
Another distinctive feature is the burials – graves, both of humans and animals, especially
dogs, have been found. Sketchy evidence for ritual practices can be gathered from stone
slabs depicting hunting scenes, or a representation of the sun and a dog. Two finds from
Period II, dated around 2nd millennium B.C, show contact with the Indus plains – a pot with
carnelian and agate beads and another pot which bears the Kot Dijian ‘horned deity’ motif.
Figure 3.1.4: Pit dwelling, Burzahom

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36177940@N04/3348589920/
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Figure 3.1.5: Pot depicting horned deity, Burzahom

Source: Original (courtesy: National Museum)
Gufkral
Literally meaning, the ‘cave of the potter’, the site of Gufkral started as an aceramic
neolithic site, probably around 3000 B.C. From Period IA were unearthed large dwelling pits
surrounded by storage pits and hearths and post-holes around the mouths of the pits and
hearths. Remains of domesticated sheep and goat as well as barley, wheat and lentil along
with wild sheep, goat and cattle, deer, ibex, wolf and bear imply a transition from hunting to
a food producing economy. Polished stone tools, including a large quern, bone/ horn tools,
steatite beads and a terracotta ball were also found. Periods IB and IC witnessed an
intensification of the Neolithic – handmade crude grey ware followed by wheel-made
pottery, abundance of stone querns, pounders, etc, along with domesticated sheep, goat,
cattle, dog and pig.
Central India & mid-Gangetic basin
The foci of the Central Indian Neolithic are the Vindhyan and Kaimur hill ranges of Uttar
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, i.e., the area having as its periphery the River Ganges in the
north and River Son in the south. The important neolithic sites are Koldihawa and Mahagara
in Allahabad district, Sinduria in Mirzapur district and Kunjun in the Sidhi district of Madhya
Pradesh. The dating of the neolithic horizon for this area remains problematic – while some
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suggest c. 6000 B.C for the beginning of the neolithic culture at Koldihawa, others assign to
it a time range of 4000-2500 B.C or 3500-1250 B.C.
Most of the neolithic sites dotting the area are found on banks of rivers and streams –
Narhan, on the banks of River Sarayu; Imlidih, on Kuwana stream; Sohagaura, on the
banks of River Rapti; Chirand, on the banks of River Ghaghra; besides other sites like
Teradih and Senuwar. The recently excavated site of Lahuradeva in Sant Kabir Nagar
district in UP has added a new dimension to the origins and antiquity of the rice debate in
the country.
Koldihawa
Situated in the Belan valley of Uttar Pradesh, Koldihawa has a rich prehistoric sequence
down to the mesolithic phase. The overlap of the microlithic and the neolithic is testified by
the presence of blades, and flakes, as well as polished and ground axes, celts, querns and
pestles. Evidence of animal husbandry comes from the bones of cattle, sheep, goat and
deer and fishing can be gleaned from the bones of turtles and fish. Domesticated rice comes
from the earliest, metal-free level of Koldihawa and occurs in a context of wattle-and-daub
houses, polished stone celts, microliths and three types of handmade pottery – cord marked
and incised ware, plain red ware with ochre slip on both sides and a crude black-and-red
ware. The dating of the site remains contested. The excavator, G. R. Sharma, put it around
5500 BC but others want these dates to be re-examined.
Figure 3.1.6: The site of Koldihawa with river Belan in the background
Source:
http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/ful
ler/Belan_files/belan-
Mahagara.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/fuller/Belan.htm&
usg=__7mehcfZsxS4IntR5cM3BwvLQCY8=&h=300&w=400&sz=32&hl=en&start=2&um=1&
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itbs=1&tbnid=a_FFExyPWplp9M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkoldihwa%
26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbs%3Disch:1
Chirand
Chirand revealed a cultural assemblage going back to the neolithic phase, dated from 2100
to 1400 B.C. The 1 km-long mound lies at the confluence of the Sarayu and the Ganga.
From Period I or the neolithic deposit of Chirand has been recovered coarse earthenware,
comprising red, grey and black handmade wares. People lived in circular and semi-circular
wattle-and-daub huts with post-holes and hearths. For subsistence, they relied on plant
cultivation and animal domestication. Among the crops are rice, wheat, barley, moong and
lentil – which may indicate the raising of two crops a year, winter and autumn. Animal
remains include a wide range from domesticated cattle to elephants and rhinoceros.
Terracotta objects including figurines of humped bull, birds, snakes and bangles, beads,
sling balls etc. have been found. A variety of bone tools and ornaments; stone tools,
including microliths and neolithic tools such as axes, pestles and querns, beads of semi-
precious stones, all suggest craft production and possibly, exchange of commodities.
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Figure 3.1.7: Bone tools from the site of Chirand

Source: Verma, B. S. 2007. Chirand Excavation Report, 1961-1964 and 1967-1970. Patna:
Directorate of Archaeology.
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Figure 3.1.8: Stone tools from the site of Chirand
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Source: Verma, B. S. 2007. Chirand Excavation Report, 1961-1964 and 1967-1970. Patna:
Directorate of Archaeology.
Lahuradeva
The mound of Lahuradeva, with a lake on three sides, stands above the surrounding plain.
The five-fold cultural sequence starts from the neolithic period, which has yielded pottery—
cord-impressed red ware and black-and-red ware— mostly handmade with a few wheel-
made specimens. People lived in wattle-and-daub houses and the plant remains include rice
and a few wild grasses. Rice husk marks embedded in potsherds link it to a domesticated
variety. The calibrated dates for Period IA at Lahuradeva fall within the late 6 th and early 5th
millennia BC.
Figure 3.1.9: Rice spikelets from Lahuradeva

Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3cjxwx5x08I/SkM_cb-
EaDI/AAAAAAAAHPM/0sTGDNZINwc/s320/Lahuradewa16-3.jpg
Eastern India
Important neolithic sites here include Kuchai and Golbai Sasan in Orissa; Pandu Rajar Dhibi,
Bharatpur and Mahisdal in West Bengal; and Barudih in Jharkhand. Since no rigorous
excavations have been undertaken, only a tentative picture of the neolithic way of life can
be hinted at and dating too remains a problem.
Kuchai
The existence of a neolithic level at Kuchai near Mayurbhanj in Orissa was established on
the basis of polished stone tools like celts and axes.
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Golbai Sasan
The site of Golbai Sasan is situated on the left bank of River Mandakini. Period I at the site
is neolithic and shows a range of dull red and grey handmade pottery with cord or tortoise
shell impressions, along with a few worked pieces of bone and traces of floors and post-
holes (Chakrabarti 1999: 239).
Pandu Rajar Dhibi
Pandu Rajar Dhibi in the Ajay valley was the first site to clearly exhibit the neolithic base of
later developments. Period I is characterized by a handmade grey ware with rice husk
impressions, painted red pottery, some sherds of black-and-red ware, ground stone tools,
microliths and bone tools. The coexistence of microliths and ground stone tools and bone
tools reveals the emergence of the neolithic from an underlying mesolithic matrix.
North Eastern India
The entire north-eastern region has yielded a rich haul of polished neolithic tools but no
consolidated picture of a neolithic level has yet emerged. The spread of the neolithic is
considered by some to be an import from South East Asia on account of the use of
shouldered axes and cord-impressed pottery, which has close affinity with the pottery from
China and South East Asia. D.P. Agrawal has dated the neolithic cultures of north-eastern
India between 2500-1500 B.C (Agrawal 2002: 201). The important sites of the region are
Daojali Hading and Sarutaru in Assam, Napchik in Manipur and Pynthorlangtein in
Meghalaya.
Daojali Hading
Situated in the North Kachhar hills of Assam, Daojali Hading revealed a 45 cm thick
occupational deposit. The site has yielded neolithic stone and fossil wood axes, adzes, hoes,
chisels, grinding slabs, querns, mullers, hand made grey to dull red cord marked pottery as
well as dull red stamped pottery and plain red pottery. No domesticated cereals have been
recovered but the presence of mullers and querns establishes the practice of agricultural
activity.
South India
The South Indian Neolithic culture, spread over the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu, has given us the largest number of neolithic settlements, perhaps because
of the easy availability of stone. The geographical terrain of this culture is that part of the
Deccan plateau bound by River Bhima in the north and River Kaveri in the south, with a
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major concentration of sites in the Raichur and Shorapur doabs. Besides the profusion of
sites, what makes the South Indian Neolithic remarkable is the presence of ash mounds and
the location of settlements on the flat-topped or granite hills or plateaux of the region. Ash
mounds are vast mounds of burnt cattle dung ash accumulated as a result of periodical
burnings.
Some of the important neolithic sites of the region are: Sangankallu, Hallur, Tekkalakota,
Brahmagiri, Maski, T.Narsipur and Piklihal in Karnataka; Utnur, Pallavoy, Kodekal, Budihal in
Andhra Pradesh; and Paiyampalli in Tamil Nadu. The chronological bracket for these sites
ranges from about 2400 to 1000 B.C.
Figure 3.1.10: Ash mound at Utnur

Source:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iLYApekpvYU/R7b35nCzlzI/AAAAAAAABBw/aWBIivJiW50/s1600-
h/Utnur-full.jpg
20
Figure 3.1.11: Ash mound at Kupgal

Source:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iLYApekpvYU/R7b3oXCzlyI/AAAAAAAABBo/tB_50aQipo4/s1600-
h/KPGashmound2in98-full.jpg
Sangankallu
Sangankallu presents a picture of a long occupation, beginning with the palaeolithic phase.
Palaeoliths are followed by a microlithic industry of quartz flakes, cores and lunates. The
classic neolithic industry of polished stone tools features next in the sequence but not before
a sterile dark brown soil was formed at the site signifying a time-gap between the neolithic
and the earlier microlithic levels (Chakrabarti 1999:236). Coarse grey-and-red pottery was
discovered which was either handmade or produced on a slow wheel. Storage pits have
given remains of charred grains and bones of domesticated animals like cattle, sheep and
goat.
Piklihal
The site of Piklihal is essentially an ash mound situated in the Raichur district of Karnataka.
The neolithic people who occupied the site were cattle herders who had domesticated
animals like cattle, sheep, goat etc. A mobile group, they set up seasonal camps surrounded
21
by cattle pens made with tree trunks or wooden posts and stakes in which they gathered
dung. When it was time to move, the entire camping ground was set afire and cleared for
the next session of camping.
3.2: Neolithic - Chalcolithic cultures - II
Introduction
Sometimes existing coterminously, sometimes evolving from the neolithic, and often
manifesting a distinctively regional trajectory in the transition to food production, the
chalcolithic cultures of India broadly span the period from c. 3,500 to 1,000 BC. ‘The term
"neolithic-chalcolithic" may not be an ideal term, but it was used to denote the first stage of
village growth in non-Harappan India, that is, India outside the Harappan distribution zone,
by V. D. Krishnaswami in 1962. This was meant to be a general term to describe a host of
regionally distinctive cultural situations before the beginning of iron’ (Chakrabarti 2006,
219).
Figure 3.2.1: Major chalcolithic sites in India
22
Source: Harishankar, B. S. 2003. Art and Archaeology of India: Stone Age to the Present.
New Delhi: Indraprastha Museum of Art & Archaeology & D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd., 75.
Significance of the chalcolithic and its characteristic traits
Beginning with the discovery and identification of the chalcolithic culture at Jorwe in 1950, a
large number of chalcolithic sites have been reported from different parts of the
subcontinent. Some of these are fairly well defined and used as archaeological parameters
owing to large scale and systematic excavations such as at Ahar, Balathal, Daimabad,
Navdatoli and Inamgaon. They encompass cultures like the Ahar and Kayatha, which were
contemporaneous with the Harappan to several post-Harappan cultures.
Chalcolithic cultures were primarily non-urban cultures and, in fact, there was a marked
increase in the number of settlements around this time. People’s reliance on stone tools
continued but what distinguishes this phase is the introduction of copper-bronze for the
manufacture of tools, weapons and ornaments. Admittedly, copper was extremely scarce,
except at Ahar, and most other sites probably imported it from Rajasthan. It is believed that
in some areas chalcopyrite may have been used to extract copper. The stone tool kit was
basically a specialized blade-flake industry of siliceous stones like chalcedony and chert.

Beginnings of copper metallurgy
The beginnings of the use of copper and its stone-like ores can, in many regions, be
traced to the neolithic-chalcolithic stage, i.e., to tribal villages. On the basis of field
observations in the Aravallis, K. T. M. Hegde suggested that the earliest copper
mining in that area proceeded as follows: fire setting (perhaps a stone age
technique), the digging of pits or deep shafts, and later the opening of narrow
galleries following the mineral veins from the sides of the shafts, the galleries being
supported by timber posts. Ores that were excavated were crushed in pits, roasted
and washed. Smelting was done in small furnaces holding up to about forty lumps.
Source: Ratnagar, Shereen. 2007. Makers and Shapers. New Delhi: Tulika
Books, 94-95.
The non-urban character of the chalcolithic notwithstanding, some improvement in

architecture and progress towards settlement planning can be discerned at sites like
Balathal and Inamgaon. However the majority of sites or village settlements do not appear
to have been planned at all. Most sites had provision for storage with structures like
granaries or simpler storage jars, pit silos and storage bins. At Inamgaon, archaeologists
unearthed the remains of an embankment to protect against floods and channel irrigation,
which would have facilitated agriculture. Similarly, the threat of floods seems to have
necessitated the building of mud ramparts for protection in Awra.
23
The general pattern of life, as spelt out in the neolithic, continued – an essentially mixed
economy based on agriculture, animal herding, hunting and fishing. Chalcolithic people
cultivated a variety of crops – barley, millets and to a lesser extent, wheat, were the cereals
they subsisted on, along with chick pea, gram pea, lentil, green gram, black gram and horse
gram. Sesame and linseed were cultivated for extracting oil. Cattle, sheep, goat, pig, deer,
fowl, pea-fowl, fish and molluscs are the commonly found archaeozoological remains from
chalcolithic sites.
While the homogeneity in these cultures regarding technology and subsistence is apparent,
so is the diversity in their pottery. The introduction and profusion of wheel-made pottery
across the country was accompanied by a diversification of wares and varied decoration of
the vessels by painted, incised and appliqué designs. The different painted ceramics, mostly
black-on-red, become the hallmark of the associated culture.
Scholars point out that these rural, peasant agricultural settlements did not develop into
full-fledged urban sites because of lack of technology for exploiting the environment. All of
them flourished during the second millennium BC and their main area of dispersal, so far
identified, was the great Indian Plateau, characterized by black cotton soil and a semi-arid
climate with scanty rainfall (500 to 1000 mm). ‘It is enigmatic that most of these
settlements were deserted by the end of the second millennium and the entire activity,
came as it were, to a grinding halt for some unknown reason’ (Ghosh 1989, 95).
In the annals of Indian prehistory, the chalcolithic takes pride of place, along with the
neolithic, in charting out the main contours and formulating the ‘typically Indian’ human-
nature interface in the form of our subsistence pattern – habitation, irrigation, and most
fundamentally, in the food that we eat.
Sources and analysis
As in the case of the neolithic, our sources for the study of the chalcolithic period emerge
from the archaeological record – of sedentism gleaned from habitations, settlements with
facilities of storage and areas demarcated for animal herding; of food production in the
shape of archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains, and from hearths, pits and
semblances of irrigation. The remains of craft production, especially relating to stone and
metal technology, burial practices and vestiges of ritual activity constitute other vital clues
in the uncovering of the chalcolithic.
The analysis of the chalcolithic record of the country has become richer due to the
interventions of ethnoarchaeology. Often termed as the study of ‘living traditions’,
ethnoarchaeology has been employed successfully by scholars beginning with D. D.
Kosambi, and specifically for the chalcolithic phase, by archaeologists like H. D. Sankalia, M.
K. Dhavalikar, V. N. Misra, amongst others.
24

Ethnoarchaeology
The term ‘ethnoarchaeology’ was coined almost a hundred years ago by Jesse
Fewkes in a paper on Native American migration traditions. The recognition of
the relevance of ethnographic material to the study of past societies gave rise
to a new discipline: ethnoarchaeology – the study of living cultures from
archaeological perspectives. It is a research strategy that aims at
understanding the relationship of material culture with the culture as a whole,
both in the living and archaeological contexts, as well as improving the quality
of archaeological interpretation and concepts.
Source: Sengupta, Gautam, Suchira Roychoudhury & Sujit Som. ed.,
2006. Past and Present: Ethnoarchaeology in India. New Delhi:
Pragati Books in collaboration with Centre for Archaeological Studies
and Training,Kolkata, xix-xx.
The chalcolithic picture in India
The chalcolithic being a largely post-independence entrant in the field of archaeological

studies, the picture is still developing and expanding. While the lineages and succession of
some cultures are now clear, others are either coming into prominence or co-relations are
being clarified. It is western India, central India and the Deccan especially, that have now
been recognized as the terra firma of the chalcolithic; and cultures like Ahar, Savalda,
Kayatha, Malwa, Jorwe and Ganeshwar-Jodhpur are part of the standard archaeological
lexicon.
Recent work in north and east India has shed light on cultures like the Vindhyan chalcolithic
and Narhan culture; and revealed the expanse of the chalcolithic at sites like Pandu Rajar
Dhibi in Bengal and Golbai Sasan in Orissa. The scarcity of copper or lack of access to
copper resources accounts for fewer chalcolithic sites in south India. The existence and
possibility of a southern chalcolithic is denied by some scholars who contend that the south
moved from stone to iron in its transition from the neolithic to megalithic phase. However,
spade work at sites like Watgal in Karnataka and the occurrence of the typical black-on-red
chalcolithic wares and lithic blade industry have given credence to a chalcolithic horizon in
south India, even if only as an intrusion into the neolithic.
Regional distribution of chalcolithic cultures
Western India
Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture
Located in northeast Rajasthan, the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura complex was an early centre of

agriculture and copper metallurgy in the subcontinent. More than eighty sites of this culture
25
have been identified in the Sikar, Jaipur and Jhunjhunu districts, with the largest
concentration being in Sikar.

Significance of the Aravallis for copper metallurgy
The copper ore resources located in the Aravallis, in belts like Baleshwar, Khetri and
Zawar, with traces of old mining activities testify to the antiquity of copper
metallurgy in this area. It is presumed that this area played a vital role, supplying
copper both to the early Harappans and mature Harappans. ‘This area of Rajasthan
and the adjacent Narnaul district of Haryana have been extensively used for copper
throughout the different phases of Indian history up to the Mughal period and even
the present.'
Source: Chakrabarti, D. K. 2006. The Oxford Companion to Indian
Archaeology. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 225-228.
Jodhpura
The c.8 hectare mound of Jodhpura, riven by gullies, is situated on the banks of river Sabi
and was the first site where the identity of the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture was
established. The typical pottery is an orange to red wheel-thrown ware with incised designs.
The associated material culture remains comprise terracotta and stone beads and some
copper objects of indeterminate shape. Calibrated dates for this site range between 3309-
2709 BC and 2879-2348 BC.
Ganeshwar
The other archetypal site of the culture, Ganeshwar in the Baleshwar valley, has disclosed
three cultural phases. From a hunting-gathering phase (dated c. 3800 BC onwards), we
move to Period II (from c. 2800 BC), marked by circular huts with floors paved with pebbles
and rock fragments and the beginning of metallurgy. A few copper objects – five
arrowheads, three fishhooks, one awl and one spearhead -- were recovered. Both wheel-
made and handmade coarse red-slipped pottery with incised designs was retrieved, typical
shapes being bowls and jars. Period III (from c. 2000 BC) is the richest in terms of pottery
types and the yield of copper implements – arrowheads, spearheads, bangles, balls, celts
and chisels etc.
Surprisingly, ‘the site itself is not more than 3-4 hectare and bears no tell-tale evidence of
copper smelting. However, this site, excavated for a number of years between 1979 and
1987-8, has yielded the largest number of copper objects ever found from a single site in
the subcontinent. It is in a sense amazing that this comparatively small site has yielded
roughly about 2000 copper objects in all in different seasons of excavations’ (Chakrabarti
26
2006, 227). On the basis of the evidence of Harappan pottery and double spiral-headed
pins, contact between Ganeshwar and sites of the Harappan culture is postulated.
Ahar culture
Among the earliest chalcolithic cultures in India, the Ahar or Banas culture was discovered
in the Mewar region of southeast Rajasthan. Nearly one hundred sites of the culture have
been located along its principal axis, i.e., the valleys of river Banas and its tributaries and
subtributaries in Banswara, Udaipur, Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara, Bundi and Ajmer districts.
Remnants of this culture are also found in the Malwa area of Madhya Pradesh. Excavations
have been carried out at four sites – the type-site Ahar and Balathal in Udaipur district,
Gilund in Rajsamand district and Ojiyana in Bhilwara district. On the basis of nearly thirty
five radiocarbon dates, the duration of the Ahar culture has been established from 2600 to
1500 BC.
27
Figure 3.2.2: Ahar culture sites

Source: Chakrabarti, D. K. 2006. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 232.
28
Ahar
The mound at Ahar, 305X 270X13 m, revealed a fairly large settlement that had several
building phases, covering a two-fold sequence of cultures of which Period I is protohistoric
and period II belongs to the early historical phase, with a hiatus of over one thousand years
between them. Protohistoric Ahar has further been subdivided into three phases, Phase IA –
c. 2600-2150 BC, Phase IB, c. 2150-1950 BC and Phase IC, c. 1950-1500 BC.
People lived in single, double and multi-roomed rectangular, squarish and circular houses
with plinth of roughly dressed slabs of schist and walls made of stone, mud brick or mud.
Timber was used for pillars and long, horizontal beams, which probably supported sloping
roofs, thatched with bamboos, and additionally covered with grass and leaves. Overground
and underground grain storage bins, kitchens with u-shaped chullahs or ovens, stone saddle
querns and rubbers for grinding cereals and pulses were an invariable feature of every
household.
The economy was based on cultivation, animal husbandry and hunting. People subsisted on
millets, rice, lentil and vast quantities of animal bones, charred and broken, indicate that
meat of domesticated and hunted animals formed part of their diet. Bones of turtle, fish,
goat, sheep, deer, pig and cattle have been found, with bovines dominating the animal
remains.
The Ahar culture has yielded seven main wares, with the white painted black-and-red ware
being the distinctive type. The common shapes in this wheel-made pottery are bowls, jars
and dishes. Large quantities of red and grey wares were also found and bowls, lotas and
ribbed vessels constitute the main shapes in the red-slipped ware.
The technology at Ahar was based mainly on copper and very few microblades and
microliths have been discovered. Copper objects include flat axes, choppers, knives, razors,
chisels and tanged arrowheads. Other relics include bone points, beads of semi-precious
stones, steatite and terracotta, rings and petalled ornaments of copper and bone and
terracotta objects such as ear studs, dice, bangles etc.
29
Figure 3.2.3: Artists’s reconstruction of Ahar

Source: Sankalia, H. D., S. B. Deo & Z. D. Ansari. 1969. Excavations at Ahar (Tambavati).
Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute.
Balathal
The recently excavated (1994-2000) site of Balathal stands on a c.2.5 hectare mound and
its first period of occupation yielded protohistoric remains. The small circular wattle-and-
daub houses with mud plastered floors and two plastered storage pits were followed by
larger, rectangular units built of mud, mud brick and stone on stone foundations, around an
irregularly shaped, fortified enclosure. The walls of this enclosure are 4.8 to 5m wide,
revetted with stones on both inner and outer sides and had bastions. A street of irregular
width oriented northeast-southwest ran across the settlement, along with a small lane.
While the function of this enclosure remains puzzling, the kitchens and storage areas within
the three multi-roomed complexes establish them as domestic units. Two potters’ kilns were
also brought to light.
A diet comprising both plant and animal remains emerges from the archaeological record.
The plant remains of wheat, barley, two varieties of millet, black and green gram, pea and
linseed have been identified. Cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pigs were the domesticated
animals, cattle being the predominant group, accounting for 73% of the faunal remains. The
presence of several varieties of deer, turtle, pea fowl, fowl, fish and molluscan shells is also
attested.
30
The main ceramic wares discovered at Balathal are thin red ware, tan ware, black-and-red
ware, buff ware, reserved slip ware, thick red-slipped ware and grey ware. A limited
quantity of microliths occurs alongside a range of copper artefacts, such as choppers,
knives, razors, chisels and arrowheads. Bone tools, points and scrapers, stone querns,
grinders and hammerstones and other antiquities such as beads of semi-precious stones
and terracotta and terracotta balls and bull figurines constitute the remaining archaeological
repertoire.
Figure 3.2.4: Copper artefacts from Balathal

Source: Agrawal, D. P. & J. S. Kharakwal. 2003. Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia. New
Delhi: Aryan Books International, Pl. 4-7.
Calibrated dates going back to the 4th millennium BC make chalcolithic Balathal
contemporary with the early Harappan phase and the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture.
Value addition: new leads

Evidence of leprosy from chalcolithic Balathal
DNA testing of a 4000 year old skeleton from Balathal has given evidence of
leprosy. According to the Director of the Excavation, V. S. Shinde, ‘The
skeleton, on the one hand, is the perfect specimen of earliest archaeological
evidence for human infection with mycobacterium leprae in the world, while
on the other, it is the first substantiation for the disease in prehistoric India.’
Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, a skeletal biologist on the team, elaborated: 'We
analyzed the bones of a male aged 32 to 42, whose body was buried inside a
stone enclosure between 2500 and 2000 BC and found erosion and pitting of
the bone around the nose and cheeks. Loss of bone around the nose and
destruction of the nasal spine is a hallmark of leprosy.'
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Leprosy-
belonged-to-Ahar-Chalcolithic-era-Expert
31
Prabhas culture
The Prabhas culture is one of the sub-Indus cultures in Gujarat, so defined because the
material culture seems to be derived from the Harappan civilization. Contemporaneous with
the late Harappan in the region, calibrated dates give it a range from c. 2000-1400 BC.
Concentrated in south Saurashtra, very few sites of this culture are known, the important
ones being Prabhas Patan and mixed assemblage sites like Khambhodar and Kinnarkheda.
Prabhas Patan
The type-site of Prabhas Patan or Somnath lies on the southwest coast of Kathiawar on the
mouth of the river Hiran. A five-fold sequence of cultures was revealed, of which the first
three periods belong to the chalcolithic phase. The cultural deposit of Period I --Pre-Prabhas
(c.3000-2800 BC), represented by potsherds and fragments of wall plaster with reed
impressions, was washed away because of marine transgression.

Marine archaeology
Marine archaeology deals with the study of ancient human settlements along the
coasts of the world and leads to the exciting discoveries of ancient port towns, now
submerged, and shipwrecks. In India, marine archaeologists from the National
Institute of Oceanography have been actively pursuing research around areas like
Dwarka, Bet Dwarka, Somnath, Sindhudurg, Vijaydurg, Goa, Poompuhar and
Lakshwadweep.
Source: Gaur, A. S., Sundaresh & K. H. Vora. 2008. Underwater Archaeology
of Dwarka and Somnath (1997-2002). New Delhi: Aryan Books International
& Goa: National Institute of Oceanography.
32
Figure 3.2.5: Marine Archaeology

Source: http://hindu.com/2007/02/23/images/2007022301242201.jpg
The Prabhas culture which flourished for about six centuries is divided into two phases –
early Prabhas culture (c. 2000-1700 BC) and late Prabhas culture (c. 1700-1400 BC),
representing Periods II and III respectively in the cultural sequence. People lived in
rectangular houses built of the soft miliolite stone. A huge structural complex belonging to
Period III unearthed during the 1972 excavations is built of stones set in mud masonry. It is
a multi-roomed structure, with low walls not more than 60 cm at the most. There is no
provision for poles to support a roof or any marked entrance. It appears that the building
was not meant for residential purposes and was probably a storage place/warehouse.
The typical Prabhas pottery is a fine, painted ware with a pinkish or orange wash, which in
several instances has turned greyish. Bowls, jars and the Harappa-inspired dishes-on-stand
and perforated jars are the common forms of vessels. Very few stone blades, some copper
axes and bits of the metal, beads of semi-precious stones and faience and dentalium shells
used as beads are other finds. Two unique discoveries from this site are a gold ornament
from late Prabhas levels and a steatite seal with stylized deer depicted on both sides from
early levels of the late phase. Transverse perforation indicates that the seal may have been
used as an amulet.
33
Rangpur culture
The other sub-Indus culture of the Saurashtra region, the Rangpur culture, is also known as
the Lustrous Red Ware culture. It was at Rangpur that the characteristic pottery – a fine
fabric red ware with a bright red slip which bears a high polish and is painted in black-- was
discovered and so christened. The culture lasted from c. 1700 to 1400 BC.
Rangpur
The ancient site of Rangpur is situated on the river Bhadar in Surendranagar district. This
extensive settlement c. 1200 X 900m was excavated by different archaeologists who came
to varying conclusions, till S.R.Rao temporarily settled the debate through the chronology
he established after his 1953-55 excavations.
Value addition: interesting details

Chronology/periodization of Rangpur
Period I: Pre-pottery microlithic culture
Period IIa: Mature Harappan culture, c. 2500-2000 BC
Period IIb: Late Harappan culture: the degenerate phase, c. 2000-1800 BC
Period IIc: Transitional phase of Harappan culture from which the Rangpur culture
evolved, c. 1800-1700 BC
Period III: Lustrous Red Ware or Rangpur culture, c. 1700-1400 BC
Source: Rao, S. R. 1963. Excavations at Rangpur and other Explorations in
Gujarat. Ancient India 18-19, 25-27.
It is conjectured that people lived in well built houses made of mud brick, with lime being
used as the binding medium. Walls were wide, with holes probably meant for wooden posts.
A storage jar was found embedded in one of the rooms. Microliths, beads of shell, terracotta
and semi-precious stones, shell bangles, terracotta animal figurines and spheroid or
elliptical weights made of dolerite form the remaining antiquities.
The debate on the nature of the Rangpur culture has been revived in recent years, with
scholars like Gregory Possehl describing it as a late Harappan manifestation, and others like
M. K. Dhavalikar seeking a more distinct identity.
34
Central India
Figure 3.2.6: Chalcolithic Malwa

Source: Wakankar, V. S. Chalcolithic Malwa. In R. K. Sharma, ed., 1982. Indian
Archaeology: New Perspectives. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, Pl. 25/1.
Figure 3.2.7: Time line- Central India

Source: Wakankar, V. S. Chalcolithic Malwa. In R. K. Sharma, ed.,1982. Indian
Archaeology: New Perspectives. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, Pl. 25/2.
35
Kayatha culture
The earliest chalcolithic culture of central India, the Kayatha culture, is dated to the second
half of the 3rd millennium BC. More than forty settlements of this culture have been located
in the northern part of Malwa and the adjoining Mewar region of Rajasthan, in the valleys of
the tributaries of river Chambal. Of these, only two, i.e., Kayatha and Dangwada, have been
excavated.
Kayatha
First identified at the site of Kayatha (district Ujjain) on the banks of the Chhoti Kali Sindh,
part of the Chambal system, the culture, it appears, did not evolve here, but came from
outside. Excavations have revealed a five-fold sequence of cultures with different parts of
the site being occupied in different phases. The chalcolithic occupation begins with the
Kayatha culture dated from c. 2450-2000 BC, followed by the Ahar culture, c. 1950-1700
BC and the Malwa culture, c. 1700-1400 BC.

Kayatha: the birthplace of Varahamihira
Kayatha has been identified with ancient Kapitthaka, which was the birthplace of the
celebrated astronomer-astrologer Varahamihira, who records in his work Brihad-
jataka that he was born as a gift of the sun god, that his father Adityadasa was a
great devotee of the sun god and used to worship the local image of the deity. It
may be noted that a sun image going back to the early medieval period was
discovered by V. S. Wakankar at the site.
Source: Dhavalikar, M. K. 1997. Indian Protohistory. New Delhi: Books &
Books, 112-113.
Chalcolithic folk lived in small, circular or rectangular huts made of mud and reed, having
well-rammed floors. No plant remains have been recovered. Evidence of domesticated
cattle, sheep and goat and bones of turtle indicate dietary preferences. The discoveries of
horse bones as also a terracotta figurine of a mare push back the antiquity of this animal.
A rich tool kit reveals the expertise of the Kayathan craftsperson. Two mould-cast copper
axes, a chisel and bangles are reported. Associated with the copper tools are numerous
microliths, lunates and blades, made of locally available chalcedony. Two necklaces, made
of differently shaped beads of carnelian and agate, were found in two pots. Yet another pot
contained 40,000 microbeads of steatite strung in threads.
The typical ceramic of this culture is the brown-slipped, sturdy and well-baked Kayatha
ware, painted mostly in violet or deep red. Common shapes are bowls, basins and globular
jars with concave necks. The other important wares are Buff Painted Red ware, with a fine
36
fabric and the Combed Ware in which the incised decorations were probably achieved
through a comb-like instrument.
The similarity in pottery and steatite microbeads has led archaeologists to treat Kayatha as
a junior contemporary of the Harappan civilization. But this, and the connections with the
Ganeshwar-Jodhpura complex, need to be more precisely studied.
Malwa culture
The most predominant and widespread culture of central India, the Malwa culture, gets its
name from its extensive distribution all over the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh
and beyond in Maharashtra. First identified at the site of Maheshwar by H. D. Sankalia, it
can now claim more than a hundred sites, with the important ones being Nagda, Navdatoli
and Eran. Calibrated radiometric dates show that the Malwa culture thrived from c. 2000-
1400 BC.

Authors of the Malwa culture
According to H. D. Sankalia 'there are four claimants for the authorship of the
Malwa culture – the Indo-Aryans who moved into the Malwa plateau; people
from west Asia, particularly Iran who might have migrated to central and
western India; the Bhils and other tribals who were displaced from their
habitat by the Vedic Aryans or some other indigenous people; a primitive
people who came in contact with the people from west Asia. The problem,
however, remains unresolved but it is quite possible that a combination of
these may have been the authors of the Malwa culture.
Source: Sankalia, H. D., S. B. Deo & Z. D. Ansari. 1971. Chalcolithic
Navdatoli (Excavations at Navdatoli 1957-59). Poona: Deccan College
Postgraduate & Research Institute & Baroda: M. S. University, 428.
Navdatoli
The chalcolithic site of Navdatoli (west Nimar district) was discovered on the opposite bank
of river Narmada, while excavations were on at Maheshwar. Intensive, horizontal
excavations carried out over four seasons shed light on the material milieu of this sizeable
Malwa culture settlement. The available plan suggests that the chalcolithic village of
Navdatoli was a nucleated settlement of around 200 inhabitants.
Having occupied the highest terrace formed during one of the phenomenal rises of the
Narmada, people built simple, circular or oblong wattle-and-daub houses having mud walls,
with wooden posts that perhaps supported thatched conical roofs. Hard compact clay was
37
rammed with cobbles/gravels and given a lime coating to serve as floors. Houses had
storage bins and chullahs for cooking purposes.
Archaeological evidence speaks of the use of several ceramics – the Ahar/Banasian Black-
and-Red ware, Black-on-red ware, a coarse red ware associated with the Lustrous Red ware
etc. But what was used throughout was the Malwa ware – a wheel-made buff or cream
slipped pottery, painted in black or brown -- that accounts for one third of the total pottery
yield. Its main vessel shapes are lotas, bowls, storage jars, channel spouted bowls and
pedestalled goblets and it is exceptionally rich in form and vivid painted designs, geometric
and naturalistic.
Figure 3.2.8: Ceramic goblet from Navdatoli

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NavdatoliGoblet1300BCE.jpg
People subsisted on both plant and animal food. Charred grains of wheat, barley and rice
have been recovered as also remains of lentil, black gram, green gram and khesari. Linseed
was probably used for oil and fruit is represented by ber and amla. They domesticated
cattle, sheep, goat and pig and also consumed the meat of wild animals like barasingha, rat,
fish, turtle and molluscs.
Their technology consisted of both copper and stone tools and Navdatoli has yielded vast
quantities of chalcedony blades and a variety of microliths. Copper tools, though limited, are
impressive --flat celts, spearhead or sword with a midrib, fishhooks, chisels etc. Other finds
include beads of semi-precious stones, saddle querns, elongated rubbing stones and
hammerstones, terracotta spindle whorls and animal figurines.
We can also speculate about the religious or ritual life of the chalcolithic people of Navdatoli.
A squarish pit enclosed by mud walls and charred wooden posts at four corners has been
identified as a sacrificial pit or a yajnya kunda. The finds of terracotta female figurines and
bulls from other Malwa culture sites are associated with fertility rituals. At Navdatoli, a
painted human figure with dishevelled hair and holding a spear has been interpreted as
proto-Shiva or proto-Rudra. But what is most interesting is the discovery of a huge storage
jar decorated with a female figure on the right, a lizard or alligator on the left and what
appears to be a shrine in between.
38
The Deccan
Savalda culture
Named after the type-site of Savalda in district Dhule in Maharashtra, this denotes the
earliest farming culture of western Deccan. Its chronological position as preceding the
Harappan culture became clear during the Daimabad excavations. Remnants of this culture
have been found scattered between the valleys of rivers Tapi and Godavari. The culture
goes back to the 3rd millennium BC and its noteworthy sites are Savalda, Daimabad,
Apegaon and Kaothe.
Savalda
The type-site Savalda lies on the southern bank of river Tapi and a small-scale vertical dig
here exposed a 3.64m thick occupation deposit. A two-fold sequence of cultures was
established, with Period I labelled as Savalda culture and Period II belonging to the
historical age.
The distinctive Savalda pottery is a wheel-made ware with medium to coarse fabric, having
a thick slip in varying shades of brown, chocolate-pink and red, which during firing
developed crackles on the surface. It is painted over in black, purplish red or in both and a
variety of designs including geometric forms, stylized naturalistic designs -- fish, birds,
peacocks -- and even tools and weapons are found on it. The types represented include high
necked jars, basins, dishes-on-stand, dishes and bowls. Other wares associated with this
characteristic ware were a thick, coarse red and burnished grey ware. A few microliths and
some copper objects were other antiquities obtained from the site.
Kaothe
The shallow 50cm thick deposit at Kaothe is indicative of a semi-nomadic occupation of the
site. A large number of pits of different sizes were excavated and these have been classified
as dwelling pits, storage pits and pits for keeping poultry. Along the periphery of the largest
dwelling pit were 16 postholes, suggesting a superstructure, and nearby were the smaller
storage pits. A two-armed hearth, a lot like hearths used by present-day nomadic people,
was also discovered.
The excavation yielded bones of wild deer, domesticated cattle, buffalo, sheep/goat and
grains of bajra or pearl millet and two kinds of pulses, i.e., gram and moong.
Three kinds of wares were gathered from Kaothe – a sturdy red ware of fine fabric, painted
in black; the typical Savalda ware and the Kayatha ware. A remarkable feature of this site is
39
the total absence of stone as well as metal tools. Numerous bone tools like points, punches,
awls and knives constitute the tool kit and beads of semi-precious stones and terracotta
have also been reported.
The presence of Kayatha ware and the single C14 date of 1920+80 BC have been used by
M. K. Dhavalikar to give Kaothe a habitation range of c. 2200-2000 BC.
Harappan culture
The Harappan culture in the Deccan (c. 2200-1800 BC) probably started as forays into the
region for acquiring raw materials like agate and took a more permanent form at sites like
Daimabad and a number of late Harappan sites in the Tapi valley.
Daimabad
Situated in Ahmednagar district, on the banks of the Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari,
Daimabad was excavated from 1976-79. The excavations revealed a five-fold chalcolithic
sequence. Period I (before 2300 BC) belongs to the Savalda culture, Period II (2200-1800
BC) is late Harappan, Period III (1800-1600 BC) represents the Daimabad culture, Period
IV (1600-1400 BC) is an extension of the Malwa culture and Period V (1400-1000 BC)
epitomizes the Jorwe culture occupation of the site.
The late Harappan occupation saw an increase in the size of the settlement to 20 ha.
Houses were built, of mud bricks conforming to the standard proportion of 4:2:1, on either
side of a thick wall of black clay. House walls were of uniform size and built at perfect right
angles. There are several pit silos for storage.
Plant remains of millets, gram, moong and horse gram have been found.
Characteristic Harappan pottery, i.e., fine fabric black-on-red ware was retrieved with
typical shapes being dish-on-stand, bowl-on stand, dishes and vases. Handmade burnished
grey ware, ribbed bichrome and deep red ware also form part of the ceramic corpus. Two
terracotta button-shaped seals engraved with Harappan writing, four inscribed potsherds,
microlithic blades, gold, stone and terracotta beads, shell bangles, copper slag and a
terracotta measuring scale form part of the assorted assemblage.

The Daimabad bronzes
The defining moment that established Harappan presence at Daimabad was in
1974 when a farmer named Chhabu Laxman Bhil discovered the famous
Daimabad bronzes. This bronze hoard consists of a bull chariot, an elephant,
a rhinoceros and a bison, made of arsenic bronze with low tin content. The
40
objects are solid cast and heavy, weighing 60 kg altogether. Their technical
analysis reveals the phenomenal casting skill of the artisans and their cultural
analysis points to a probable ritual use and the high status of their owners.
Source: Singh, U. 2009. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India.
New Delhi: Pearson Education.
Figure 3.2.9: Rhinoceros and Bison, part of the Daimabad hoard

Source: Original (courtesy: National Museum)
Jorwe culture
The most well known chalcolithic culture of India, the Jorwe culture, was named after the
type-site Jorwe in district Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. Represented at more than 200 sites
from the Tapi valley in the north to the Krishna in the south, with the Pravara-Godavari
valleys being the nuclear zone, it marks the expansion of agricultural life in western Deccan.
Important excavated sites of this culture are Inamgaon, Daimabad, Songaon, Chandoli,
Prakash, Nevasa and Jorwe. On the basis of structural remains, subsistence pattern and
materials used, the Jorwe culture is divided into two phases – early Jorwe (1500-1200 BC)
and late Jorwe (1200-900 BC).
‘A characteristic feature of the Jorwe settlement pattern is the existence of large regional
centres surrounded by smaller villages. Besides the regional centres, the Jorwe settlements
can be classified into villages- which were in the majority- hamlets, farmsteads and camps.
Most of the settlements are 2 ha in size and their population may have been between 100
and 500 persons. However, large villages like Bahal and Nevasa may have had populations
between 500 and 1000 persons. Sites measuring only 1 ha or less, having a population of
50-100 persons may be classified as hamlets. Smaller sites located within 2-3 km of major
settlements are probably farmsteads meant for cultivation of surrounding land by farmers
living in parent villages. Prakash in the Tapi valley, Daimabad in the Godavari-Pravara valley
and Inamgaon in the Bhima valley were three regional centres’ (Misra 2001, 517-518).
41
Figure 3.2.10: A Jorwe ware spouted jar

Source: Agrawal, D. P. & J. S. Kharakwal. 2003. Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia. New
Delhi: Aryan Books International, Pl. 4-17.
Inamgaon
Located on the right bank of river Ghod, a tributary of the Bhima, in district Pune, Inmagaon
was the site of extensive excavations that brought to light a 20 ha settlement representing
a permanent agricultural community. The chalcolithic occupation is divisible into three
cultural periods: Period I- Malwa culture, c. 1700-1400 BC; Period II- early Jorwe culture, c.
1400-1000 BC and Period III- late Jorwe phase, dated c. 1000-700 BC, with considerable
overlaps between all three phases.
Excavations reveal that the early farmers of Inamgaon lived in rectangular houses with low
mud walls, having wattle-and-daub superstructures. The houses were built in rows with an
open space in between indicating elementary planning. Floors were made of well-rammed
clay and silt and houses had small, oval fire pits inside and larger pits in courtyards outside.
Over one hundred and thirty houses were excavated and it was possible to identify
residences of different artisanal groups, such as potters, goldsmiths, bead makers and ivory
carvers as also farmers and a large five-roomed house probably occupied by the ruling
chief. A granary, irrigation channel and a stone embankment are visible examples of public
42
architecture. By the late Jorwe period the site had slipped into economic decline, and small
huts with functional fire pits or two armed chullahs replaced the rectangular houses.
Their varied subsistence base comprised agriculture, hunting and fishing. Cattle, buffalo,
goat, sheep and pig were reared and evidence for the horse comes from late Period II. The
plant diet spectrum includes barley, wheat, rice, jowar, kulthi, ragi, grass pea, green gram,
black gram, lentil and hyacinth bean and fruits like ber, jamun and amla. Deer and
antelopes were hunted and fish hooks imply fishing.
The chalcolithic character of the site can also be discerned from its mixed copper and stone
assemblage. Stone tools consisted of dolerite axes and blades and microliths made of
chalcedony. A boat-shaped furnace for extracting copper was discovered at Inamgaon and
copper objects include bangles, beads, axes, chisels, knives and fish hooks.
Besides the Malwa and other associated wares, such as the Ahar ware, Inamgaon has
furnished a rich haul of Jorwe pottery. An advanced ceramic technique is evident in this
wheel-made, well fired pottery with a fine fabric and a profusion of design and form. Pottery
kilns and lime kilns have been found -- manufacturing evidence of this black-on-red pottery,
which usually has geometric motifs depicted. The typical forms are globular high necked
jars, spouted jars and carinated bowls.
Ornamental beads of semi-precious stones, gold, copper and ivory; bangles and anklets of
copper and spiral ear ornaments of gold were other noteworthy finds from Inmagaon.
A large number of human burials from Inamgaon have given us valuable information about
the diet, nutrition and health of its inhabitants as also their funerary rituals.

Unusual burials
One of the most conspicuous features of the site is its burials. While children
were buried in two urns placed horizontally, mouth to mouth, in a pit dug in
the house floor or courtyard, adults were given an extended burial. The body
was placed in a north-south direction with the head towards the south.
Funerary pots containing food and water were put next to the body. All adult
bodies had feet chopped off before burial. Was it to ‘keep the spirit of the
deceased within the house’ or to prevent the spirit of the dead from returning
to haunt the living?
Source: Misra, V. N. Prehistoric Human Colonization of India in
Journal of Bio Sciences, 26:4, 518; Singh, U. 2009. A History of
Ancient and Early Medieval India. New Delhi: Pearson Education, 235.
The ritual repertoire is represented by baked and unbaked clay figurines. These may have
been goddesses connected with fertility. Both figurines with heads and headless types are
found. A human-headed panther on a jar has been interpreted as proto-Durga. But a most
43
unusual find was that of two female figurines and a bull figurine -- all unbaked -- from a
Period II house floor at Inamgaon. A female figurine with a head was in a clay receptacle
over which was a headless female figurine and a bull. The headless female figurine and the
bull had a hole in the abdomen and back respectively, and on inserting a stick through
these, the figurine was found to sit snugly on the bull’s back!
Habitational strata continue till c. 700 BC at Inamgaon but most other chalcolithic sites in
the Deccan were deserted by the beginning of the first millennium BC. The increasing aridity
and consequent adoption of a nomadic pastoral way of life is cited as a probable reason for
this change.
North India
Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) culture
In 1951, B. B. Lal carried out small-scale excavations at Bisauli and Rajpur Parsu villages in
Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, copper hoard finds having been reported from these sites.
No more copper objects were discovered but what he found instead was an extremely rolled
and fragile pottery -- christened by him as Ochre Coloured Pottery because when rubbed, it
left an ochre colour on the hands. Subsequent explorations have put over one hundred OCP
sites on the map of north India spanning a 300 km north-south and 450 km east-west area,
covering the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. But it is the upper
Gangetic doab which is the heartland of the culture, 80 OCP sites being reported from
district Saharanpur alone.
In the excavation records, OCP is followed by a sterile layer and then the Painted Grey
ware, for example, at Hastinapura, Ahichchhatra and Jhinjhana. Or it is succeeded by the
Black and Red ware and then the Painted Grey ware, at sites like Atranjikhera and Noh. At
the sites of Bargaon and Ambkheri, OCP occurs along with late Harappan pottery. A
similarity in forms and designs has led some scholars to treat OCP as a degenerate form of
late Harappan pottery. Others view it as a local and independent ceramic tradition,
influenced by Harappan pottery in peripheral areas where the two met. Perhaps these
differences are acknowledged and echoed in the following categorization of OCP:
Zone A-Western type, showing links with the Harappan tradition -- at sites like Jodhpura,
Siswal, Mitathal, Bara, Ambkheri, and Bargaon.
Zone B- Eastern type, minus Harappan influence -- at sites like Lal Qila, Atranjikhera and
Saipai.
At several sites in the upper Gangetic basin, for example, Saipai, Nasirpur and Jhinjhana,
both OCP and copper hoards were discovered. However, associations between the two
remain conjectural and debatable.
44
Important excavated sites of the culture are Bahadarabad and Ambkheri in district
Saharanpur, Lal Qila in district Bulandshahr, Atranjikhera in district Etah, Ahichchhatra in
district Bareilly and Saipai in Etawah district, all in Uttar Pradesh.
Lal Qila
The ancient site of Lal Qila in district Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, lies off the left bank of the
Kali Nadi, a tributary of the Ganga. The first season of excavation (1968-69) proved that Lal
Qila was the first habitation site of OCP so far discovered. Thermoluminiscent dating of
potsherds from the site puts the OCP culture in the bracket of c. 2030 to 1730 BC, with a
mean date of 1880 BC. It appears from this and ‘other evidences that the OCP perhaps
preceded, coexisted and even survived the Harappan culture’ (Gaur 1995, 7).
The thickness of the deposit varies from 1 m to 2.45 m comprising three to six layers of
occupation. Hutments were either circular or rectangular in shape and a number of
postholes on rammed mud floors would have supported a thatched roof made of reed and
bamboo. Fire pits with charred animal bones and storage jars embedded in the earth give
evidence of cooking activity
It was the dense scatter of OCP sherds on the surface that attracted the attention of the
excavator. An ill-fired, wheel-made pottery, with a thick red slip and decorated with black
bands, incised designs or post-firing graffiti, OCP is often found in such a fragmented state
that it is hard to reconstruct the shape of the vessel. While one group of scholars argues
that the water-logging at these sites contributed to this, others blame the poor firing of the
wares for their dismembered state. The main pottery forms are vases, lids with central
knob, ring-footed bowls or vases, dishes-on-stand with short stem and channel or tubular
spout.
Evidence relating to food habits shows that the people were meat eaters and supplemented
their diet with cereals that they grew. Plant remains of barley, wheat and rice point to their
consumption, and the proximity to the site of Atranjikhera makes the use of moong and
khesari also possible. Faunal remains consist of domesticated cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep,
pig, horse, dog and wild deer. Many charred bones had cut or chop marks indicating
slaughter for meat.
Other artefactual remains include copper objects such as a bead, an arrowhead, broken celt
and two pendants; stone querns and beads; bone tools; terracottas – wheels, bangles,
balls, tablets, gamesmen, crucibles, discs, beads, grinders and querns and human and
animal figurines. A fertility association is ascribed to the two terracotta female figurines and
the bull figurine.
45
Figure 3.2.11: Terracotta female figurine

Source: Gaur, R. C. 1995. Excavations at Lal Qila. Jaipur: Publication Scheme, Pl. IX.
Copper hoards
‘One of the knottiest problems in Indian archaeology is the Copper Hoards and their alleged
association with the OCP. Hoards of copper implements have been discovered at several
sites, mostly in north India in the Ganga valley, and have proved to be an enigma. The first
copper hoard that was reported was found at Bithur in Kanpur district (U.P.) in 1822. It was
not a hoard as such but was a single harpoon which can now be said with certainty to have
been part of a large copper hoard. Since then a number of hoards containing copper
implements have been reported from several sites in Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Bengal,
Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and a solitary one from Karnataka. There are now over ninety sites
from which such hoards have been reported and the total number of objects would be in the
neighbourhood of one thousand artifacts. A vast majority of these sites are in U.P. whereas
those in other states are rather few and far between. The number of implements in these
hoards varies from 1 to 47 with the only exception of that of Gungeria in Madhya Pradesh
which contained 424 artifacts and 102 thin sheets of silver objects. All these hoards, save
that from Saipai, are accidental discoveries and thus there is a tremendous amount of
confusion about their stratigraphy, association with habitation sites etc. resulting in their
being in a sort of chronological vacuum’ (Dhavalikar 1997, 251).
The hoards comprise a variety of artefacts like celts, rings, harpoons with barbs and lugged
holes, flat axes with splayed sides and convex cutting edges, shouldered axes, double-
edged axes, rings, antennae hilted swords and anthropomorphic figures. It is believed
that the objects are too heavy and unwieldy to have had a utilitarian function, and most
46
were probably ritual objects. Ethnographic evidence from central India records the worship
of metal tools and weapons by Gond tribals and similarly the anthropomorphs too might
be variants of totem worship.
Value addition: typology

Types of copper anthropomorphs
Type I- Long arms and short legs type
Type II – Short arms and long legs type
Type II – Broad icon type
Type IV- Long arms type without legs
Source: Sharma, D. P. 2008. Newly Discovered Copper Hoard
Weapons of South Asia. Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, x.
Figure 3.2.12: Copper hoard from Madarpur

Source: Puratattva, 32
47
Figure 3.2.13: Harpoon from a copper hoard

Source: Original (courtesy: Lucknow Museum)
Figure 3.2.14: Shouldered celt

48
Figure 3.2.15: Double edged axe

The area of distribution of the copper hoards has been divided into three different zones on
the basis of typological differences between finds.
Zone A – includes sites in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and characteristic tools are flat celts,
shouldered celts, bar celts and double axes.
Zone B – covers sites in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, characterized by implements such as
antennae hilted and hooked swords, harpoons and anthropomorphs along with the standard
repertoire of celts.
Zone C -- covers sites in Rajasthan where only flat celts and bar celts have been found.
In his latest book, Newly Discovered Copper Hoard Weapons of South Asia, D. P. Sharma
has ascribed a range of c. 2800 to 1500 BC to the copper hoards. M. K. Dhavalikar assigns
them to the middle of the second millennium BC between c.1700-1400 BC. While the debate
on their chronology rages on, what can be said conclusively is that the Ganga valley was a
copper manufacturing centre between the mid 3 rd and 2nd millennium BC and had copper
linked interactions with adjoining areas.
49
Mid-Gangetic basin
Vindhyan chalcolithic
The Vindhyan chalcolithic comprises sites in the Vindhyan outcrops in north India, primarily
in the Banda, Mirzapur and Allahabad districts in Uttar Pradesh, which have given evidence
of evolution from the early stone age to the iron age with an intervening chalcolithic phase.
The chalcolithic culture evolved out of the neolithic and appears to be a junior contemporary
of the central Indian chalcolithic cultures.
This layer is distinguished by the use of wheel-made pottery, a more diverse copper, bone
and stone tool technology and the appearance at a few sites of megalithic burials.
Significant sites are Koldihwa in district Allahabad, Magha in district Mirzapur and Kakoria in
district Varanasi. The chalcolithic occupation in the Vindhyan belt is placed between c. 1500-
800 BC.
Koldihwa
Habitation of different parts of the extensive 500X200 m site of Koldihwa took place at
different times. So, while the neolithic occupation covered the southern and eastern
portions of the site, the chalcolithic settlement was in the western part. In the seven layered
stratigraphy , layer 1 represents the neolithic and layers 2 to 7 mark the chalcolithic phase.
Mud floors rammed with burnt clay clods and post holes along the periphery and two mud
walls are the extant structural remains, probable remnants of earlier wattle-and-daub
houses. The flimsy nature of the dwellings suggests that semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists
had made Koldihwa a base during the chalcolithic period.
Consumption of rice continued as also meat of cattle, sheep and goat, gleaned from the
animal bones recovered.
Chalcolithic Koldihwa saw the introduction of wheel-made pottery and common wares are
the red, black-on-red and black slipped ware, some of which bear painted and incised
decorations. Handmade and cord impressed pottery continued but their consumption
reduced vastly.
The tool kit includes copper, bone and stone tools. Microlithic tools made of quartz -- flakes,
blades, points, lunates, scrapers and triangles -- continued to be used. Copper beads and
bone tools such as specialized arrowheads are other conspicuous finds. Beads of semi-
precious stones, ring stones and terracotta gamesmen are also part of the chalcolithic
collection.
50
Another remarkable feature is the megalithic burials of the chalcolithic period identified in
the districts of Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi and Banda. A regional difference in type can
be discerned, with cairn circles dominating in Varanasi and the cist being the common type
in Banda. The sites of Magha and Kakoria are habitation-cum-burial sites, with the area for
the living and the dead clearly marked out.
Narhan culture
In the famous Sarayupara region comprising the present-day districts of Basti, Gorakhpur
and Deoria of eastern Uttar Pradesh and the district of Saran, northeast Bihar, the evolution
from neolithic to chalcolithic can be traced at sites like Sohagaura and Imlidih Khurd
(district Gorakhpur) and Khairadih (district Ballia). However, it is the unique Narhan culture
adaptation of this period that has become the hallmark of the region.
Narhan
Excavations at the ancient site of Narhan (district Gorakhpur), on the left bank of the
Ghagra, exposed a five-fold sequence of cultures of which the first is ascribed to the
chalcolithic phase, dated to c. 1300-700 BC. Termed as the ‘Narhan culture’, its 1 m cultural
deposit represents the earliest habitation at the site.
The inhabitants lived in wattle-and-daub huts that have yielded the remains of post holes
and reed marks in burnt clay lumps, two successive floors, ovens and a two-armed hearth.
Storage jars were also discovered.
‘Archaeological remains obtained from the site indicate that the inhabitants cultivated two
crops a year. The cereal grains of hulled and six row barley, club wheat, bread wheat, dwarf
wheat and cultivated rice have been obtained. The pulses include pea, green gram,
gram/chickpea; khesari and mustard oilseeds and flax/linseed also have been identified.
The presence of all these cultivated grains indicates that agriculture was the mainstay of the
economy of Narhan culture’ (P. Singh, A. K. Singh & I. Singh 1991-92, 33). The occurrence
of jackfruit is attested by its seed cotyledons. That meat was also part of their diet is
evident from the presence of charred animal bones having cut marks and antlers. Bones of
humped Indian cattle, sheep, goat, wild deer, antelope and horse have been distinguished.
The Narhan culture is characterized by a white painted black-and-red ware along with a
black slipped ware which sometimes has white paintings, a red ware and a red slipped ware.
Bowls, basins, vases and jars were the common forms of pottery.
Microliths are almost absent except for the find of a solitary polished stone axe, though a
good number of bone tools, such as points and tanged arrowheads were collected. Copper
objects include a ring and a fishhook. The remaining artefactual repertoire comprised
pottery discs, terracotta beads, dabbers and balls. A few star-shaped terracotta figurines
were also unearthed.
51
Eastern India
In eastern India, the present-day state of Bihar too was an area that witnessed a
transformation from a material milieu of the neolithic to that of the chalcolithic. The
principal excavated sites are Sonpur (district Gaya), Chirand (district Saran), Oriup (district
Bhagalpur) and Senuwar, Sakas and Dainidih (district Rohtas). The culture shares many
similarities with the adjoining Vindhayn chalcolithic which might have been the parent
culture or area of genesis. It has been assigned a time range of c. 1500-700 BC.
Sonpur
Known as Sonitpur in ancient times, the site of Sonpur in district Gaya is situated on the
bank of Yamuni river. Its excavation in 1956 and from 1959-62 revealed three main
cultures of continuous occupation, with the first divided into two sub-periods, i.e., Period IA
(marked by coarse black-and-red ware with copper, c. 1100-1000 BC) and Period IB
(marked by fine black-and-red ware with copper and a few microliths, c. 1000-650 BC). The
other two cultures are the Northern Black Polished Ware and Kushana period cultures.
Excavations uncovered the plans of small, round huts. A large, round pit, very regular on
plan may have been a pit dwelling and smaller pits may have been silos for storing grain.
Floors were well rammed and coated with lime. Post-cremation burials in circular pits have
been found and a jar in a burial contained about 5 kg of rice.
On the basis of charred grain remains from other sites, the prevalence of a rich agricultural
economy based on rice, barley, wheat, jowar, chickpea, green gram, horse gram, sesame
and linseed can be gauged.
Red ware, black ware and the black-and-red ware are the standard pottery groups retrieved
for this period. The transition from IA to IB is clear from the shift from handmade to wheel-
turned pottery with a finer exterior and forms like dishes, bowls, vases and basins occur
frequently.
52
Figure 3.2.16: Neolithic-Chalcolithic pottery from Sonpur

Source: Sinha, B. P. & B. S. Verma. 1977. Sonpur Excavations (1956 and 1959-1962).
Patna: Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, Bihar, 27.
Very few stone tools were obtained and the Bihar chalcolithic, following the earlier neolithic,
is characterized by its rich and diverse bone tool kit -- arrowheads, chisels and points. A
wire-like piece of copper from IA and a flattened bar and crusted miniature bell from IB are
the copper objects pertaining to period I of the site.
The contiguous neolithic-chalcolithic pattern of evolution can be seen further eastward in

Bengal where nearly 70 chalcolithic sites have been identified in recent years. These are
mostly located in the Damodar and Ajay valleys and the Chhota Nagpur plateau area, the
important ones being Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Bharatpur and Mangalkot in district Burdwan,
Mahisdal Dihar and Hatikera in district Bankura and Nanur in district Birbhum. The
53
occurrence of the typical black-and-red ware over a long stretch of time has resulted in the
Bengal chalcolithic being dated to c. 1500-600 BC.
Pandu Rajar Dhibi
The simple, incipient agriculture-based economy of Period I came to an end with a

devastating flood in river Ajay. Hutments erected over the natural lateritic soil were
replaced by rectangular-to-square or circular mud huts framed with thick wooden or
bamboo posts and walls made of wattle-and-daub. Floors were well rammed with terracotta
nodules or clay mixed with cow dung and given a lime plaster. Ovens and storage jars
served cooking needs.
The diet of the inhabitants consisted of both plant and animal food. Charred grains of rice
and impressions of paddy husks on the pottery show that rice was the principal cereal.
Cattle, sheep and goat were the domesticated animals while nilgai, deer and pig were
hunted. Bones of fish, turtle and fowl have also been found and that fishing was a part of
their subsistence activities is evident from fish hooks of copper, bone harpoons and net
sinkers.
The main pottery type is a wheel-turned black-and-red ware with designs painted in white
along with plain grey ware, red-slipped black painted pottery and black slipped ware. The
shapes of the vessels include bowls, basins, lotas and sophisticated forms like channel-
spouted cups and dish-on-stand.
The chalcolithic technology is apparent in the use of microlithic tools, point-cum-scrapers

and flakes, copper objects like nail parers, fish hooks and antimony rods. Other remains of
the chalcolithic assemblage are beads of semi-precious stones, terracotta figurines, iron
spearheads and slag, bone tools, such as awls, points and harpoons.
‘The people of this period practised the custom of burying the dead in three different modes,
viz. primary (extended) burial, secondary (fractional) burial and urn burial. Five skeletal
remains have been unearthed in an extended position with east-west orientation.
Sometimes perforated vases or pots of red ware and beads of copper and semiprecious
stones have been found associated with the burials’ (Chakrabarti 1989, 330-331).
Known mostly for the finds of unstratified neolithic tools, the discovery of a chalcolithic layer
at Golbai Sasan gave a new dimension to Orissa archaeology. The evolution from the
neolithic to chalcolithic observed at sites in Bihar and Bengal is reflected here too. The
Orissa chalcolithic is placed between c. 1400-900 BC.
Golbai Sasan
The people who left the remains that constitute Period II A, i.e., a 5 m deposit of the
chalcolithic, lived in round huts with rammed floors and hearths and post holes along the
54
periphery. Thirteen such huts were exposed (3.9-7.9m in diameter) and the largest hut,
according to the excavator, may have been the residence of the chief or a public structure.
Both handmade and wheel-turned pottery was discovered and the range of wares includes
the black-and-red ware, dull red ware, chocolate brown pottery and burnished black ware.
Post-firing painting in red ochre is seen on some vessels, typical forms being bowls, basins,
dishes-on-stand, jars and miniature pots.
Plant remains of rice and kulith and bones of cattle, goat and deer indicate the diet of the
chalcolithic people.
Though microliths are rare, ground and polished stone tools like axes, adzes and celts have
been obtained. Copper antiquities comprise a chisel, bangle, fish hook and ring. There was
also a bone tool industry that has yielded points, burins, chisels, a spearhead and
ornaments like ear studs and pendants.
Spindle whorls, sling balls and a crude terracotta human figure dated to the 2 nd millennium
BC complete this assemblage.

Common beliefs
An extended burial discovered at Golbai Sasan with the skeleton’s head and
feet missing recalls similar evidence from chalcolithic Pandu Rajar Dhibi and
the burial customs of the Jorwe people, where the portion below the ankles of
the dead was deliberately chopped off. A common superstition amongst the
chalcolithic Indians perhaps explains this practice.
Source: Original
South India
The chalcolithic horizon in south India is found as an intrusion into the neolithic deposits or
coexisting with them. Remains of the neolithic-chalcolithic phase are found on top of granite
hills or plateaux and on hillsides or levelled terraces. Subsistence derived from agriculture,
animal domestication and hunting, with ragi and horse gram found as staples. A mixed
pottery corpus with inadvertent occurrence of black-and-red ware and new forms is
encountered. Unearthed at sites like Utnur, Watgal, Budihal, Sanganakallu, Brahmgiri,
Piklihal, Maski and Hallur, this phase is dated broadly between c. 2100-1050 BC.
Brahmgiri
Situated in district Chitradurga in Karnataka and the site of two Minor Rock Edicts of
Ashoka, Brahmgiri yielded a sequence that finds resonance at many sites in south India. R.
55
E. M. Wheeler who excavated the site after M. H. Krishna in the 1940s, designated Period I
as the Polished Stone Axe culture, now known as neolithic-chalcolithic. The other two
cultures of the three-fold sequence are the megalithic culture and the Andhra/early
historical culture. Period I has been further sub-divided into period IA (neolithic) and Period
IB (neolithic-chalcolithic).

Brahmgiri in Mauryan times
Two Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka were discovered at Brahmagiri in 1891. They
not only indicate the southern-most extent of the Mauryan empire, but also
inform us that the locality was known as Isila and that it was the
headquarters of the mahamatras of Suvarnagiri.
Source: Ghosh, A. ed., 1989. An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology,
Vol. II. New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research & Munshiram
Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 82.
Inhabitants lived in wattle-and–daub huts now indicated by post holes. There was also some
stone support at the base and the post holes were probably connected by low walls of
granite blocks. Pieces of saddle querns of granite and storage jars form part of the domestic
equipment.
Handmade coarse grey ware was the main type of pottery found in shapes such as channel
spouted bowls, spouted vases and dishes-on-stand. Stray finds of black painted red ware of
the Jorwe type have also been reported and some black-and-red ware, marking an overlap
between Period IB and II.
The most distinctive feature of the culture is polished stone axes of dolerite. Parallel-sided
blades and microliths were also discovered. Copper tools such as a chisel and rod and a
bronze rod and finger ring suggest a limited use of metal.
Beads of semi-precious stones and an unbaked clay figurine of an animal are the other finds
from this period.
Burial practices associated with this period are of two kinds: infant urn burial and adult
inhumation burial with the head pointing towards the east and grave goods such as a
spouted vessel.
56
Summary
 The Neolithic or New Stone Age saw the advent of food production – agriculture and
animal husbandry – independently in different parts of the world.
 This fundamental change occurred between 10,000 and 3000 BP.
 It is believed that a combination of climatic change, demographic pressure and

different cultural and technological strategies triggered this massive change.
 The neolithic tool kit comprises heavy ground, pecked or polished tools such as
mortars and grinders and celts and sickles.
 With the beginning of agriculture, people started settling down in one place –
Sedentism, a key feature of the Neolithic, manifests itself in the archaeological
record as settlements of different sizes.
 Proof of agriculture comes from remains of charred seeds of domesticated plants and
that of animal domestication from the bones and teeth of animals showing significant
morphological changes.
 Pottery, invention of wheel and crafts like spinning, weaving and bead making reveal
both the skills and exchange networks of neolithic people.
 From the Indian subcontinent, the earliest evidence of food production comes from
Mehrgarh in the Kachhi plain of Baluchistan. The first three periods of occupation
characterizing the neolithic phase are dated between the 8th and 6th millennia BC.
 In terms of grains, north and northwest India are characterized by wheat and barley;
central, east and northeast India by rice consumption. Millets, especially ragi, come
from south India.
 Lahuradeva and Koldihawa in Uttar Pradesh have given fresh evidence pushing back
the antiquity of domesticated rice in the subcontinent to the 6 th millennium BC and
establishing the region as an independent rice producing zone.
 Hakra ware sites, with local adaptations, mark the earliest village settlements in the
Indus-Saraswati plains.
 Pit dwellings, animal burials, especially of dogs, and an advanced bone tool industry
are the hallmarks of the northern neolithic sites like Burzahom.
 A well-developed bone tool industry was also present at the neolithic site of Chirand
in the mid-Gangetic basin.
 The easy availability of stone explains the proliferation of neolithic sites in south
India. Ash mounds are a unique feature of this region.
57
 The Neolithic was a multilineal and varied phenomenon in the subcontinent. Across
the country, varying between the 6th and 1st millennium BC, humans were moving
towards a ‘neolithic’ way of life – settled dwellings, practice of agriculture and animal
husbandry, pottery and craft production and often, exchange networks.
Summary
 The chalcolithic or copper/bronze + stone age ushered in food production along with
the neolithic in different parts of the subcontinent. It evolved out of a neolithic
matrix, coexisted with it or sometimes evolved independently from the preceding
mesolithic substratum.
 Its broad time range is from c. 3,500 to 1,000 BC.
 The time span of this phase makes it antedate the mature Harappan civilization at
places. Sometimes the chalcolithic and the mature Harappan were contemporaneous.
For the most part, the chalcolithic flourished as a post-Harappan phenomenon in the
2nd millennium BC.
 The typical chalcolithic tool kit comprises microliths, lunates, flakes, points etc. in
locally available siliceous stones like chalcedony and a few copper-bronze artefacts.
 Another distinguishing feature is the wide range of wheel-made pottery that becomes
available around this time. The black-and-red ware dominates the corpus and a
plethora of forms and designs have facilitated the nomenclature of cultures and
pottery types.
 The Ganeshwar-Jodhpura complex identified in the Aravalli ranges in northeast

Rajasthan was perhaps the copper supplying area to the Harappan civilization and
other cultures to its east and southeast. The Gujarat cultures are largely sub-Indus
manifestations.
 While chalcolithic cultures dot different parts of the country, it is the Deccan and
Malwa regions with black soil and semi-arid conditions that have yielded the richest
and most prolific chalcolithic cultures – also the most well-studied and documented –
the Kayatha, Malwa, Savalda and Jorwe cultures.
 The north Indian chalcolithic, characterized by cultures like the OCP and copper
hoard culture, presents some of the most complex problems for Indian archaeology –
the authorship, modus operandi and migration patterns of these communities remain
unresolved and the subject of speculation.
 East India and south India present convincing evidence of the simultaneous
prevalence or evolution from the neolithic, till the advent of the iron age.
Independent chalcolithic cultures like the Narhan culture depict regional adaptations
to food production.
58
 The disappearance of the chalcolithic cultures especially in Rajasthan and the Deccan
is attributed to the increasing aridity around the end of the 2nd millennium BC.
Elsewhere, the cycle of time and its concomitant change led to their merging with
and making way for the iron age cultures.
3.1: Exercises
Essay questions
1) What makes the Neolithic a distinctive phase in human evolution?
2) Do you think the Indian subcontinent should be regarded as an independent zone for
the advent of food production? Why?
3) Imagine you’re an archaeologist. Using examples from a site, demonstrate how you
will establish its occupation in the Neolithic period.
Objective questions
Question Number Type of question LOD
1 Match the following 1
Question
Match the following:
a) Burzahom i) Ash mounds
b) Lahuradeva ii) Bone tools
c) Mehrgarh iii) Pit dwellings
d) Piklihal iv) Earliest evidence of wheat & barley
e) Chirand v) Earliest evidence of rice
Correct Answer /
a) and iii), b) and v), c) and iv), d) and i), e) and ii)
Option(s)
Justification/ Feedback for the correct answer

a) The neolithic people of Burzahom, beginning with Period I around 2700 B.C, lived
in circular or oval-shaped lakeside pit dwellings.
b) Lahuradeva (7th-5th millennium B.C.), has pushed back the

antiquity of rice domestication.
59
c) The earliest evidence of agricultural life based on wheat and barley comes from
the site of Mehrgarh.
d) The site of Piklihal is essentially an ash mound situated in the

Raichur district of Karnataka.
e) A variety of bone tools have been discovered at Chirand.
Resource/Hints/Feedback for the wrong answer
Reviewer’s Comment:
2 Fill in the blanks 2
Question
Fill in the blanks:
a) ___________ and _________ have yielded Neolithic bone tools.
b) Evidence of domestication of water buffalo comes from _________.
c) On account of the use of __________ and ___________, the north eastern

Neolithic is supposed to be an import from South East Asia.
Correct Answer / a) Chirand and Burzahom

Option(s) b) Mehrgarh
c) shouldered axe and cord impressed pottery

a) The sites of Chirand and Burzahom have yielded Neolithic bone tools.
b) The neolithic character of Mehrgarh can be gleaned from bones of cattle, sheep
and goats, indicating their domestication as also the bones of water buffalo, which is
the earliest instance of the domestication of this animal in the subcontinent.
c) The spread of the neolithic is considered by some to be an import from South East
Asia on account of the use of shouldered axes and cord-impressed pottery.
60
3.2: Exercises
Essay questions
1) Examine and evaluate the contribution of the chalcolithic cultures to food production
in the subcontinent.
2) Technological innovations in metallurgy and pottery define many chalcolithic

cultures. Picking up one of the above mentioned activities, elaborate further and
elucidate with suitable examples.
3) Take a contemporary artefact which could have been used in the past and subject it
to ethnoarchaeological analysis.
Objective questions
1 Match the following 1
Question
Match the following:
1) Discovery of maximum number of copper tools i) Malwa Culture
2) Earliest chalcolithic culture of central India ii) Savalda Culture
3) Depiction of tools & weapons on pottery iii) Vindhyan Chalcolithic
4) Megalithic burials iv) Ganeshwar
5) Association with Indo-Aryan migration v) Kayatha Culture
Correct Answer /
1) and d), 2) and e), 3) and b), 4) and c), 5) and a)
Option(s)

1) The site of Ganeshwar has yielded the largest number of copper objects ever
found from a single site in the subcontinent.
2) The earliest chalcolithic culture of central India, the Kayatha culture, is dated to
the second half of the 3rd millennium BC.
3) The distinctive Savalda pottery is painted over in black, purplish red or in both,
61
and a variety of designs including geometric forms, stylized naturalistic designs- fish,
birds, peacocks- and even tools and weapons were depicted.
4) The Vindhyan chalcolithic is distinguished by the use of wheel-made pottery, a
more diverse copper, bone and stone tool technology and the appearance at a few
sites of megalithic burials.
5) According to H. D. Sankalia ―there are four claimants for the authorship of the
Malwa culture – the Indo-Aryans being one.
2 Fill in the blanks 2
Question
Fill in the blanks:
a) The heartland of the OCP culture is the ___________ region.
b) The ‘Sub-Indus Cultures’ tag defines sites in _____________.
c) The chopping off the feet of the dead before burial is associated with
_____________ culture.
d) The Daimabad bronze hoard consists of _______, _______, ________ and

________.
e) The earliest evidence of leprosy comes from the site of _________.
Correct Answer / a) Upper Gangetic doab

Option(s) b) Gujarat
c) Jorwe culture
d) Bull chariot, elephant, rhinoceros, bison
e) Balathal

a) It is the upper Gangetic doab which is the heartland of the culture, 80 OCP sites
being reported from district Saharanpur alone.
b) Prabhas and Rangpur are Sub-Indus Cultures in Gujarat.
c) An unusual feature of the burials at Jorwe is that all adult bodies had feet chopped
off before burial.
62
d) The Daimabad bronze hoard consists of a bull chariot, an elephant, a rhinoceros

and a bison, made of arsenic bronze with low tin content.
e) DNA testing of a 4000 year old skeleton from Balathal has given the earliest
evidence of leprosy.
Glossary
Aceramic: also known as pre-pottery, devoid of any potsherds

Animal domestication: the process of selective breeding of animals, which involves
removing them from their natural habitat and rearing them under artificial conditions under
human control for purposes of human gain
Celts: ground and polished handaxes; typical neolithic tools
Chalcolithic: a culture marked by the use of copper/bronze and stone
Faunal analysis: the analysis of animal remains
Ground tools: after being chipped to desired shape, tools that were ground and polished
for strength and durability, such as stone axes and adzes, characteristic of farming
communities
Mya: million years ago
Neolithic: New (neo) + stone (lithic) age – food producing Stone Age cultures, marked by
ground and polished stone tools
Nuclear zones: areas of early plant domestication, which lay within the natural habitat
zones of those specific plant types
Sedentism: becoming sedentary/settling down in one place for a long time
Glossary
anthropomorph/anthropomorphic figure: an object/figure having or suggesting human

form and appearance
archaeobotanical: ancient floral/plant remains
archaeozoological: ancient faunal/animal remains
cairn: a type of megalithic burial marked by a heap of large piled up stones
cist: an underground megalithic chamber tomb made of vertical and horizontal stone slabs
copper hoards: certain specific types of copper objects found in protohistoric contexts in
the Ganga-Yamuna doab and other parts of the country
ethnoarchaeology: a branch of archaeology that studies the behaviour and practices of
living communities in order to interpret the archaeological evidence related to past
communities
63
megaliths: large stone slabs used in various prehistoric, protohistoric and early historic
architectural forms or monumental styles
megalithic cultures: cultures constituted from material remains found in megaliths and
sites associated with them
protohistoric: pertaining to the transitional phase between prehistory and history
wattle-and-daub: wattle plastered with clay or mud, formerly used as a building material,
wattle being poles intertwined with twigs, reeds or branches for use in construction of
walls/fences
Further readings
Allchin, B. & R. Allchin. 1982. The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge: The
University Press.
------------------------. 1997. Origins of a Civilization: The Prehistory and Early Archaeology

of South Asia. New Delhi: Viking, Penguin Books.
Chakrabarti, D. K. 1999, India: An Archaeological History. New Delhi: Oxford University

Press.
---------------------. 2006. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Sharma, R. S. 2006. India’s Ancient Past. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Singh, U. 2009. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. New Delhi: Pearson
Education.
Thapar, B. K. 1985. Recent Archaeological Discoveries in India. Paris: UNESCO.
Further readings
Allchin, B. & R. Allchin. 1982. The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge: The
University Press.
------------------------. 1997. Origins of a Civilization: The Prehistory and Early Archaeology

of South Asia. New Delhi: Viking, Penguin Books.
Chakrabarti, D. K. 1989. Pandu Rajar Dhibi, in An Encyclopaedia Of Indian Archaeology, ed.

A. Ghosh, 330-331. New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research & Munshiram
Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
64
----------------------. 1999. India: An Archaeological History. New Delhi: Oxford University

Press.
---------------------. 2006. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Dhavalikar, M. K. 1997. Indian Protohistory. New Delhi: Books & Books.
Ghosh, A. ed. 1989. An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology. 2 Vols. New Delhi: Indian
Council of Historical Research & Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
Misra, V. N. 2001. Prehistoric Human Colonization of India. Journal of Bio Sciences, 26(4):
491-531.
Singh, P. 1994. Excavations at Narhan (1984-89). Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University &
Delhi: B.R.Publishing Corporation.
Singh, P., A. K. Singh, I. Singh. 1991-92. On the Trails of Narhan Culture. Pragdhara, 2: 33-
44.
Singh, U. 2009. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the
12th Century. New Delhi: Pearson Education.
Thapar, B. K. 1985. Recent Archaeological Discoveries in India. Paris: UNESCO.
65

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The advent of food production

Lesson: The advent of food production

Course Developer : Deeksha Bhardwaj

Assistant Professor, Gargi College, University of Delhi

Language Editors: Bharati Jagannathan and Naina Dayal

Production Editor: Ashutosh Kumar

Chapter 3: The advent of food production

3.1: Neolithic – Chalcolithic cultures - I

Significance of food production in world context - characteristic

Figure 3.1.1: Neolithic stone tools

Value addition: did you know?

Sources & analysis

Value addition: what the sources say

Delhi: Pearson Education, 98-99.

Review of onset of agriculture in India

Value addition: did you know?

The Neolithic in India was not a homogeneous phenomenon. There is no single-centre

Figure 3.1.2: Distribution of Neolithic sites in the subcontinent

Regional distribution of neolithic cultures

Value addition: did you know?

Figure 3.1.3: Site of Mehrgarh

Period II is characterized by an intensification and diversification of the economic base.

Value addition: new discoveries

Kili Gul Muhammad

Hakra ware sites

Figure 3.1.4: Pit dwelling, Burzahom

Figure 3.1.5: Pot depicting horned deity, Burzahom

Central India & mid-Gangetic basin

Figure 3.1.7: Bone tools from the site of Chirand

Figure 3.1.8: Stone tools from the site of Chirand

Figure 3.1.9: Rice spikelets from Lahuradeva

Pandu Rajar Dhibi

North Eastern India

Figure 3.1.10: Ash mound at Utnur

Figure 3.1.11: Ash mound at Kupgal

3.2: Neolithic - Chalcolithic cultures - II

Figure 3.2.1: Major chalcolithic sites in India

Significance of the chalcolithic and its characteristic traits

Value addition: did you know?

The non-urban character of the chalcolithic notwithstanding, some improvement in

Sources and analysis

Value addition: did you know?

The chalcolithic picture in India

The chalcolithic being a largely post-independence entrant in the field of archaeological

Regional distribution of chalcolithic cultures

Located in northeast Rajasthan, the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura complex was an early centre of

Value addition: did you know?

Figure 3.2.2: Ahar culture sites

Figure 3.2.3: Artists’s reconstruction of Ahar

Figure 3.2.4: Copper artefacts from Balathal

Value addition: new leads

Value addition: what the sources say

Figure 3.2.5: Marine Archaeology

Value addition: interesting details

Figure 3.2.6: Chalcolithic Malwa

Figure 3.2.7: Time line- Central India

Value addition: did you know?

Value addition: did you know?

Figure 3.2.8: Ceramic goblet from Navdatoli

a) ___ and _ have yielded Neolithic bone tools.

c) On account of the use of and _, the north eastern

d) The Daimabad bronze hoard consists of ___, _, ______ and