History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c13.1

v1.c13.1

A large number of metallic objects made of Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Bronze and Brass etc. have been found at the Neolithic, Megalithic, Chalcolithic sites and others belonging to the latter period on the Indian Peninsula. Table 1 gives an overview of India’s cultural history and the chronology of the discovery and development of metals technology resulting into Copper Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures. The archaeological approach to this type of classification suffers from the failure of direct application of 14C or other method of dating of the metallic objects. The dating of the metallic objects based on the strata of the excavation sites does not consider the probability of their earlier discovery, utilization and preservation. Spratt (1986), in his discussions on the innovation theory, has considered in detail the steps through which any new discovery and its introduction in the day-to-day life has to pass. According to him these stages are as follows :