An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s18.t3.34

v1.c9.s18.t3.34

*4.18.9 Upper Deccan.* Most of the Chalcolithic sites in the upper Deccan [4.14.6] were deserted by the beginning of the first millennium B.C. but for those in the Bhima valley where the Jorwe culture continued to survive, albeit in a poorer form, till 700 B.C. The deserted sites remained unoccupied for centuries and were reinhabited only during the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C., when this region came under the control of the Mauryas. Some sites in the Tapti and the Godavari valleys, however, are believed to have been in occupation even earlier in the sixth century B.C. The evidence from such excavated sites as PRAKASH and BAHAL in the Tapti and PAITHAN and NASIK in the Godavari valley shows that they were occupied by a people who had mastered the technology of iron. The stone blade-flake industry of the preceding Chalcolithic period was now replaced by iron tools such as knives, sickles, nails, arrowheads, spearheads, ferrules, axes, etc. The principal ceramic industry was the black-and-red ware represented by the bowl and dish and a non-descript red ware. Contact with n. India is indicated by the occurrence at some sites of the welldefined NBPW [11.16], which can be attributed to the expansion of the Mauryan empire s. of the Vindhyas in the 3rd century B.C. The structures of this period were mud-walled houses as at NASIK, and there is also evidence of the arrangement for the drainage of rain-water through ring-wells [14.15] and soakage jars. Punchmarked coins [3.1], hoards of which have been reported from sites like BAHAL, also belong to this period. These are essentially the elements of an organized civic life which mark the ushering in of urban development in this part of the country.