An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s15.3

v1.c9.s15.3

Whether the PGW culture was exclusively an Iron Age culture or had a pre-iron stage as well has been somewhat uncertain. However it now appears that there may well have been a time when the PGW people were without iron. This is suggested by the evidence from BHAGWANPURA², Dt Kurukshetra, where the culture overlapped with another pre-iron culture derivable from an amalgam of a pre-Harappa [4.8] and the Harappa [4.9]. Likewise no iron is reported from the PGW levels at ROPAR, nor from CHAK 86 and SARDARGARH, both in Dt Ganganagar. At the same time the PGW sites in w. Uttar Pradesh, e.g. HASTINĀPURA and ATRANJIKHERA and in e. Rajasthan, e.g. NOH and JODHPURA, have yielded iron alongside copper. While the tools in the latter metal are the more delicate ones (for example at HASTINĀPURA were found a nail-parer, an antimony rod, a borer and a small arrowhead), those in iron include nails, sickles, arrowheads, spearheads, daggers and the like (evidence from ATRANJIKHERA, etc.)