An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c10.s1.21

v1.c10.s1.21

The archaeological dating of the Harappa culture and the cultures preceding and following it has thus been mainly based either on interconnections or analogies with datable sites or objects outside India. However, from the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., which marks the beginning of the historical period, 'history and archaeology at last become fully effective partners in the matter of timing, without the intervention of physical science' (Wheeler, 1959, p. 24). The cultural sequence based on stratigraphy of large number of early historical sites (Sharma, 1953, pp. 116-69) has not only given a chrono-cultural framework but has also provided chronological aids for archaeological dating. As a sequel we now have a ceramic sequence based on stratigraphy and associated datable finds. Evidence of pottery and coin types of AHICCHATRĀ was studied in relation to the remains found in various strata which afforded 'a stratigraphical basis for dating objects found elsewhere in the city and particularly for studying the evolution of pottery types' (Ghosh in Ghosh and Panigrahi, 1946, p. 39). The distinctive NBPW [11.16] was dated between the 5th and 2nd centuries B.C. (Krishna Deva and Wheeler in *ibid.*, pp. 55-6) on the basis of its occurrence in stratified levels at Bhir Mound, Taxila, lower than two coin-hoards of *c.* 300 B.C. (Sharma, 1953, p. 119). The date of the NBPW and is stratigraphical position *vis-à-vis* other remains at sites has been helpful in dating a number of sites, as for instance HASTINĀPURA where the PGW [11.14] was dated between 1100 and 800 B.C. on the evidence of its stratified position below the NBPW and thickness of deposits.