An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s1.14

v1.c9.s1.14

After the Neolithic [4.6], marking the termination of the Stone Ages, one would naturally expect the Chalcolithic cultures, characterized by the simultaneous use of both stone and copper artefacts. Instead, however, in this work the Neolithic is followed by the Copper/Bronze Age cultures [4.7-13]. The reason is the consideration of chronology. The Harappa culture [4.9], the Bronze Age culture *par excellence* in the subcontinent, is earlier than any Indian Chalcolithic culture though the earliest ones of the latter may at best be a late contemporary of the Harappa; the later ones come down even to the 1st millennium B.C. This is a sufficient justification for according the Harappa culture and all those Copper/Bronze Age cultures that follow a priority of treatment over the Chalcolithic cultures. (The previous practice of regarding the Harappa culture itself as Chalcolithic, mainly on account of the occurrence therein of long parallel-sided chert blades, has now been rightly given up.)