History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c13.s2.t4.1

v1.c13.s2.t4.1

The discovery of iron and its technological development on the Indian subcontinent has raised many questions because of the lack of archaeological proof dating back to those existing at Lustrian in Iran and other centres of ancient civilization. There is a total absence of iron objects at the Harappa and Mohenjodaro sites but the recent excavations at Lothal,Ahar(1300 B.C),Gufkral (1300 B.C.),Atranjikhera (1025 B.C.),Tadkanhalli(1000 + 150 B.C.) Hallur (1000 to 900 B.C.) and Khairadih (1000 + 100 B.C.) have pushed back the beginning of the iron age to the same period as those outside India. *Fig. 9* shows the 14C dating of the iron objects found at some of the important excavation sites of India and its shows a definite trend of simultaneous development and appearance of this metal all over India. *Table 2* gives the chronology of development of iron tools and other objects during the early, middle and later stages of the development of iron age in the country. This table clearly shows a gradual widely spread development of the use of iron which is possible only under the conditions where the knowledge of the use of these artifacts is lacking. This indicates that in all probability the iron technology in India is independent of the copper technology and it might have been developed even before copper.