Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c8.102

c8.102

Nāsik is a mound about 800 by 400 feet with a height of 100 feet of which only the uppermost twenty feet are man-made. Its Phase I produced lunates, trapezes and two-edged blades, and it was observed that 60 per cent of the microliths were 'usable'; in other words, no factory site was included and, to that extent, the limited exploration suggests a measure of specialization or professionalization. With the microliths was ochre-washed and orange-coloured pottery, both wheel-made and handmade and occasionally painted with red or black bands. A distinctive type is that of a spouted vessel, sometimes painted after baking. This type, already noted at Bahal (p.145), is found also at Jorwe and at Nevāsā north-east of Ahmadnagar, and is probably related to a spouted vessel from the levels marked by stone axes and microliths at Brahmagiri in northern Mysore. A similar affinity may be recognized in the large round-bottomed vessels with high rims found at all three sites.