An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s12: 4.12 Ochre-coloured Ware (OCW)
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s12
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4.12 Ochre-coloured Ware (OCW)
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This ware, giving name to the culture typified by it, was first stratigraphically discovered in 1951 in the lowest level of HASTINĀPURA. As its name implies, its main distinguishing feature is its ochrous colour, which gives it the appearance of being badly fired. Its other characteristics are a porous texture and a wearing out of the edges of sherds. Since then many more OCW sites have been located over a wider area, but most of them are situated in the Ganga-Yamuna doab, the chief of them being BAHADRABAD, Dt Hardwar AMBKHERI, Dt Saharanpur, ATRANJIKHERA, Dt Etah, LAL QILA, Dt Bulandshahr, and SAIPAI, Dt Etawah. The entire pottery complex may be broadly classified into seven types: (1) storage jars; (2) vases, (3) basins, (4) bowls, (5) lids, (6) dishes-on-stand, and (7) miniature pots.
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The excavation at SAIPAI provides evidence that the OCW was associated with the Copper Hoards [4.11]. Here a hooked spearhead and a harpoon, typical of the copper hoard equipment, were found in an OCW-bearing deposit. Even earlier there had been discoveries suggesting a link between the hoards and the ware. For example a copper ring or bangle, familiar from PONDI and BAHADRABAD, was reported from the excavation at BARGAON; a piece of copper and broken pieces of terracotta crucibles containing copper granules were found at ATRANJIKHERA; and an arrowhead, a pendant, a bead and broken pieces of a celt, all of copper, and a few pieces of terracotta crucibles were found at LAL QILA. It would appear strange that the users of such sophisticated copper objects produced such dull pottery. However the picture has been changed by the excavation at LAL QILA (Gaur, 1973a, b; 1974), which for the first time produced a well-preserved red pottery with all the characteristics of a developed industry. The pottery shows a degree of sophistication; it is not only wheel-turned and well-baked but is decorated with incised designs, graffiti [20.1] and paintings in black pigment over a smooth red surface. Among the painted designs mention may be made of an elongated bull, segregated leafy designs, floral motifs, hatched triangles, circles, etc. Lal Qila is the first undisturbed site to retain all the relevant features of the habitational pattern, including well-preserved floors with post-holes, plaster fragments suggesting a sort of wattle-and-daub construction of both baked and unbaked brick. The other finds comprise terracotta objects including typical human figurines, bangles and beads and stone and bone
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Agrawal, D.P., 1971, *Copper Bronze Age in India*, New Delhi.
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objects including a few ornaments. Signs of habitation have also been subsequently found at JODHPURA in Dt Jaipur. A number of animal bones including those of *Bos indicus* have also been unearthed. The discovery of cultivated rice and barley in the OCW levels of ATRANJIKHERA and LAL QILA has considerably pushed back the antiquity of these cereals in this region (Chowdhury *et al.*, 1972).
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At the other OCW sites, particularly in the doab extending over an approximate area of 300 × 200 km, the pottery has been found in a sort of secondary disturbed deposit devoid of habitational remains. It has been suggested that the region had been sheet-flooded by rivers and remained water-logged for a considerable period, causing the pottery to deteriorate and leaving it with its present look (Lal, 1968). This hypothetical deluge is supposed to have been responsible for the destruction of this culture, only a few sites like LAL QILA remaining either immune or scantily affected.
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The entire red ware belonging to the OCW period can be divided into three groups: (1) genuine OCW as found at ATRANJIKHERA, SAIPAI, LAL QILA, NOH, etc.; (2) OCW with Harappa [11.3] influence as found at BAHADRABAD, AMBKHERI, etc.; and (3) late Harappa [11.4] ware with OCW influence as found at ALAMGIRPUR, BARGAON, etc. The latter two suggest that the late Harappa and OCW people had come into contact somewhere near the w. border of Uttar Pradesh and there were mutual borrowings.
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A dozen sherds from four sites, ATRANJIKHERA, LAL QILA, JHINJHANA and NASIRPUR, were examined in the Arch. Research Laboratory, Oxford, and were dated to between 2600 and 1200 B.C. by thermoluminescence method [5.7] (Huxtable, *et al.*, 1972). The occurrence of a fragmentary anthropomorphic figure in Phase IV of Lothal, with a ¹⁴C date of 1900 B.C., suggests that the Copper Hoard tradition was in existence in late Harappa times.
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The authorship of OCW, like that of the Copper Hoard culture, with which it now seems inseparable, is uncertain, in spite of many theories in the field for either or both—Aryan origin, late Harappa origin, refugee Harappa origin, indigenous origin, pre-Harappa (Saraikhola-Kot Diji) origin [see 4.11].
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Gaur, R.C., 1972, in *Antiquity*, 46, p. 181. Lal, B.B., 1968, in *American Anthropologist*, 170, pp. 857-63. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—R.C. GAUR