An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s15.8

v1.c16.s15.8

The chronology of the Chalcolithic-Megalithic phase of the Vindhyas can be worked out by a comparative study of the finds with those of the other sites in the Ganga valley and c. India. The pottery compares well with its counterparts of the Chalcolithic phase of CHIRAND, PRAHLADPUR and ATRANJIKHERA in the n. and PANDU RAJAR DHIBI in the e. Similar bone arrowheads, both of socketed and tanged varieties and microliths have been found at all these sites. It may be pointed out that Chalcolithic-Megalithic sites of the Vindhyas like the Chalcolithic sites of c. India [4.14.5] and the Deccan [4.14.6-8] have also yielded short blades along with crested-ridge cores and flakes in large numbers. This lithic assemblage is considered to be an essential component of the Chalcolithic culture of c. India and the Deccan. In the light of these points the beginning of the Chalcolithic-Megalithic phase of the Vindhyan may be pushed back to the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. A ¹⁴C date from the lowest Chalcolithic horizon of KOLDIHWA confirms this, the date being 1440 ± 120 B.C. As no site of this phase has yielded any sherd of the NBPW and iron, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that it ended before the advent of the NBPW in this area. For fixing the tentative chronology of the Iron Age Megalithic pottery of the Vindhyas the following points deserve mention: (1) this pottery is associated with iron objects; (2) some pottery types from KOTIA and other allied sites in a slightly modified form appear to have survived at the early historical sites of the Ganga valley and in the Megalithic levels of s. India; (3) only a few shapes of the Chalcolithic-Megalithic pottery assemblage survive in this assemblage; and (4) a carbon sample from one of the excavated megaliths of KOTIA has yielded a date of 270 ± 105 B.C. The cumulative evidence thus suggests that the Iron Age Megalithic culture of the region was later than its counterpart of the Chalcolithic phase but nearer in time to the Megalithic culture of s. India and early historical culture of the Ganga valley. As such, a tentative date bracket of the 7th century of the 3rd century B.C. would not be unreasonable.