Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c8.96

c8.96

Bahal began with what may now be called the 'regulation' microlithic industry of central India: mostly parallel-sided blades of chalcedony, agate or jasper, sometimes serrated, with occasional lunates and trapezes. This microlithic occupation falls into two sub-phases. Phase IA is marked by thick grey hand-made bowls with flared rim, of a kind which occurs also farther south at Brahmagiri in northern Mysore, and a few sherds of thinner grey ware painted on the rim in red ochre. Phase IB produced fine red wheel-turned ware, painted in black with a rich variety of designs—horizontal bands with hatched diamonds, triangles, ladders, concentric circles, criss-cross and wavy lines, foliage, and rarely animals (antelope or horse?). A few sherds of lustrous red-slipped ware are reminiscent of post-Indus Rangpur (p. 138). In the upper levels are spouted vessels of the Nāsik-Jorwe type (below), and sherds of a burnished Black-and-grey Ware with oblique lines painted in white, akin to the 'megalithic' Black-and-red Ware. A shapeless lump of copper justifies the appellation 'Chalcolithic', but it is at least certain that the quantity of metal used in this Phase was negligible. The two sub-phases are thought to have been separated by a break in the occupation, and the ceramic changes are consistent with a shifting population.