History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c11.s2: Chalcolithic Cultures

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c11.s2

Language: English

v1.c11.s2.t1 The Banas Culture — 6 parts
v1.c11.s2.t2 The Malwa Culture — 5 parts
v1.c11.s2.t3 The Jorwe Culture — 5 parts
v1.c11.s2.t4 Chalcolithic Metal Technology — 5 parts

Chalcolithic Cultures

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The so-called Chalcolithic cultures are characterized by the use of stone and copper artifacts, but metal is rare, and the cultures are non-urban. Traditionally, the non-Harappan cultures of the second millennium B.C. are included in this category.

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We discuss here the main cultures belonging to this group, starting from south-eastern Rajasthan and covering Central India and Maharashtra. The Ocher-Colored Pottery cultures and the Copper Hoard culture of the Gangetic valley are discussed in the last section. During the second millennium B.C. the rest of the subcontinent was occupied either by Neolithic cultures, or by the Indus or Indus-related cultures.

The Banas Culture

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More than fifty sites of the Banas culture are known from the valleys of the Rivers Banas and Berach in southeastern Rajasthan, but the only excavated sites are Ahar and Gilund in Rajasthan and Kayatha in Madhya Pradesh. The available 14C dates (Fig.1) suggest a bracket of about 3950-3350 B.P. for this culture (Agrawal and Kusumgar, 1974).

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In contrast to the arid and flat western region where the only relief is provided by extensive sand dunes, Rajasthan is greener and more hilly in its eastern part and the Banas and the Chambal are almost perennial rivers in this area. Udaipur and its environs form a large basin, enclosed by hills, with a single broad opening on the northwestern side. Ahar, the type site of the Banas culture, is located in this basin, with good soil, fair rainfall, and plentiful game even today.

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There are schist and quartz outcrops, which the Aharians used in house building, and copper ores for their tools. It is curious that at Ahar only copper was used and no stone blades, while the Banas culture had a developed blade industry at Gilund, a mere 80km away, and also at Kayatha in Madhya Pradesh. Even copper, however, is not abundant, as only five axes, one knife blade, one sheet, a bangle, and two rings have been reported from Ahar.

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Fig. 6. Copper objects from Khurdi (in fact, Kurada), Rajasthan. These are generally included under the Copper Hoards but are typologically different from the main Copper Hoard group

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The Kayatha culture, discovered by Wakankar at Kayatha on the River Kalisindh, a tributary of the Chambal, is the earliest Chalcolithic culture in Central India and is radiocarbon dated between 3950 and 3750 B.P. (Fig. 1). This culture is mainly confined to the Chambal Valley, but, out of approximately 40 known sites, only Kayatha has been excavated (Ansari and Dhavalikar, 1975).

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The Kayathans seem to have been rich in copper; 28 copper bangles were recovered from a single pot. The two copper axes with sharp cutting edge and a lenticular section are the finest examples in the Bronze Age of India; they were cast in a mould, unlike the later Chalcolithic artifacts, which were merely hammered out of sheets. A chisel is also reported from Kayatha.

The Malwa Culture

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The Malwa Culture is characterized by Malwa ware (a buff-or orange-slipped pottery painted in black), by copper or stone artifacts, and by small settlements of wattle-and-daub huts. It was spread over the Malwa region (as were also the Kayatha culture and to some extent even the Banas culture), and also extends into Maharashtra.

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The excavated sites of Eran, Nagda, and Navdatoli are in Madhya Pradesh, and Inamgaon is in Maharashtra. The Malwa culture has a radiocarbon range of around 3650-3350 B.P. (Fig. 1). Navdatoli is not only the site par excellence of this culture but is also well published (Sankalia et al, 1958, 1971). In the local dialect, Navdatoli means "village of the boatmen", and the site is situated on the southern bank of the River Narmada; the site of Maheshwar, also with extensive traces of settlement, is situated on the opposite bank. The site presents beautiful panorama of the tall Vindhyas in the north, the low Satpura hills in the south, and the wide expanse of the Narmada in between with considerable alluvial deposits on either side of the river. The selection of the site clearly shows that the Chalcolithic technology was adequate only for fresh alluvium and was not capable of dealing with the black cotton soil. Each household made its own stone tools of a milky chalcedony, using the crested-ridge technique.

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The use of copper is evidenced by flat celts with convex cutting edges, arrowheads, spearheads, chisels, and a mid-ribbed sword, which was cast; all other artifacts were probably hammered to shape. Copper beads, bangles and rings are also found.

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A hoard of massive copper animal figures of a rhinoceros (Fig. 7), an elephant (Fig. 8), a buffalo (Fig. 9), and a bull chariot driven by a man (Fig. 10), all mounted on wheeled platforms, was accidently discovered near Diamabad and has been ascribed by some scholars to the Chalcolithic phase.

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Each object, however, weighs several kilograms and to use such a quantity of metal for non-utilitarian artifacts seems unlikely for a Chalcolithic phase. They can only belong to historical period.

The Jorwe Culture

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Maharashtra, the home of the Jorwe culture, is composed mostly of the Deccan plateau, and only the river valleys have open plains with rich soil cover. Annual rainfall is in the range of 50-100cm, but it varies greatly from year to year and droughts are frequent. The vegetation is xerophytic (examples include acacia, tamarin, and *caparis*). The vast alluvial stretches in the Pravara-Godavari basins have more than 3m of fertile soil, and the main Jorwe culture sites are located on these alluvial flats. Smaller Jorwe sites seem to be concentrated around major centres. The former usually have only a few huts and an area of 2-3 ha whereas a major centre, such as Prakash in the Tapti Valley, Inamgaon in the Bhima Valley, and Diamabad in the Godavari Basin, may cover 20 ha. Excavated Jorwe sites include Inamgaon, Theur, Songaon, and Chandoli in Poona District, Bahal in Jalgaon District; Prakash in Dulia District; and Jorwe and Nevasa in Ahmednagar District (Dhavalikar 1979b).

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Fig. 7. Daimabad bronze rhino on wheels. For discussion see the text

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A variety of materials like agate, carnelian, jasper, chalcedony, gold, copper, and ivory were used for making ornamental beads; copper anklets and gold ear ornaments have also been reported.

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A pair of tongs and a crucible indicate local gold working, although the gold itself may have been imported from Kolar. Copper was also used to make axes, chisels, knives, fishhooks, beads and bangles. A smelting kiln has been identified at Inamgaon.

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Fig. 8. Daimabad bronze elephant. Height: 36.5cm. For discussion see the text

Chalcolithic Metal Technology

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The Chalcolithic cultures depended on stone artifacts, rather than on copper, to a greater extent than either the Harappans or the Copper Hoards people. On the whole, about 17% of Chalcolithic artifacts show tin alloying (see Fig. 5), but the range varies considerably: at Ahar, only pure copper was used; a Jorwe axe has only 1.7% tin; a Nevasa chisel has 2.7% tin; at Navdatoli, the range of tin alloying is 3-5%; the highest tin (12.8%) recorded was in an axe from Somnath. Unlike the Harappan and Copper Hoard cultures, Chalcolithic groups did not alloy with arsenic. For better fusibility, lead alloying was more common; 20% of the artifacts contain lead.

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A few artifacts have been examined metalographically (Agrawal et al, 1978b), Pathak and Medhekar 1955). An axe from Chandoli shows casting fins all over the surface. Although equiaxial grains and the absence of coring indicate a slow cooling of the cast, yet the holes on the surface show that the molten metal was not "green poled". An axe from Somnath shows evidence of cold work and annealing, and specimens from Navdatoli and Ahar indicate a knowledge of casting and annealing. The report of "glassy" slag at Ahar indicates local smelting.

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Hegde (1965) has spectroscopically examined several Chalco- lithic artifacts and compared their trace impurities with those of the Khetri copper ore. He finds a close similarity between the two, thus indicating the possibility of the Khetri ores having been used by the Chalcolithic cultures. The Khetri mines are quite close to Ahar.

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Fig. 9. The bronze buffalo from Daimabad. For comments see the text

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The most *beautiful* examples of the Chalcolithic craft are the cast axes from Kayatha. Most Chalcolithic metal artifacts, however, are of simple, non-diagnostic types. The main forms are beads, nails, rods, wires, fishhooks, rings, flat celts, and daggers. The Chandoli dagger has been compared with the antennae- hilted sword from Fatehgarh, but we consider that there are very important technological differences between the two. The total length-to-blade ratio in the Chandoli-dagger is only 1:6, compared to 1:5 in the Fatehgarh example, the tang was cut with a chisel and the incipient antennae so produced do not compare at all with the 10-15cm long, cast antennae of the Copper Hoards types.