[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989) › v1.c9.s1.16 # An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s1.16 An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s1.16 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c9.s1.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1.16) The next section \[4.15\] deals with the PGW culture. To name any culture after a ceramic industry is theoretically questionable but is a well-established archaeological practice, particularly as along with the diagnostic pottery there are some recurring industries. It is with the PGW 'that one treads on a culturally secure ground in the upper Ganges valley . . . . The basic importance of this level is that it provided the immediate background to the early historic period.' (Chakrabarti, 1972, pp. 216-17.) Not only that, the pottery has, in addition to its distinctive colour, fabric and paintings, its own background in the black-and-red ware \[4.13\] and black-slipped ware \[11.13\] of the upper Ganga valley which precede and are invariably found mixed up with it at all excavated sites (cf. Tripathi, 1976, pp. 69-92). It is essentially an Iron Age culture, though recent discoveries at such sites as Bhagwanpura, where it co-occurs with the late Harappa pottery \[11.4\], may suggest its pre-Iron Age antecedents, the only justification for the section on Iron Age \[4.16\] following it in this work. - [Previous: v1.c9.s1.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1.15) - [Next: v1.c9.s1.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1.17) - [Up: v1.c9.s1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c9.s1.16) · Pramāṇa