An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s6.29

v1.c9.s6.29

(6) Chronology: Looking to the period of occupation of these Neolithic sites in the various regions, it is seen that in India there was no single nuclear zone from which the ideas and techniques of the food-producing economy diffused to the other regions. Yet, on the basis of the ¹⁴C dates (Agrawal, 1974, 1975) it appears that the food-producing economy began somewhere in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium B.C especially in the n. and s. regions, where it showed a maximum time bracket respectively of 2350-1400 and 2450-1200 B C , with the exception of a solitary date from KODEKAL (2460 ± 105). For the Pakistan region (Fairservis, 1956; Stacul, 1967; Halim, 1971) it seems to have begun about a millennium earlier (with a maximum time-bracket of 3775-2250 B.C.) but there is no evidence of its diffusion to any of the five other regions mentioned above. For the e. region we have no datable evidence, but on a comparative study based on the present state of our knowledge it is not likely to be earlier that the first quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C. For the Chota Nagpur region, which is a cultural backwater, the available evidence indicates that it began around the last quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C. and lasted for three to four centuries. In the mid-e. region again, the beginning of the food-producing economy can be placed towards the first quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C. with a time spread up to *c.* 1400 B.C., discounting some incompatible dates.