History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c15.s6.1

v1.c15.s6.1

The painted grey ware (PGW) is one of the most characteristic ceramic of the middle Ganga Valley (Tripathi). Technologically it has proved to be the most enigmatic pottery, and culturally too the PGW problem has been vexing the brains of scholars since its discovery in the forties. The pottery was first noticed in the excavations at Ahicchatra (present Ramnagar, Dist. Bareilly, U.P.) but the chronological position was later clearly established at Hastinapur (Dist. Meerut, U.P.) which was excavated by B.B. Lal (1954-55, pp.5-151) of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1948-49. Since then a number of PGW sites have been discovered. They suggest that the culture was spread in western U.P., Haryana, eastern Punjab and eastern Rajasthan. Recent exploration by Rafiq Mughal of Pakistan have brought to light a few PGW settlements in the erstwhile Bahawalpur state, on the fringe of Thar Parkar desert of Pakistan (Lal, B.B. *Ibid*). Similarly the misconception regarding the superficial identity between the PGW and the grey ware from Thessaly in Greece has to be removed. The author had occasion to visit the neolithic site in Thessaly viz., Sesklon and Dimini whence the grey ware has been reported. It should be remembered that in Greece the pottery occurs in Neolithic levels which are now dated in the fifth millennium B.C. and is entirely different in form and fabric.