Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s3.t1: Pre-Harappan Culture in Rajasthan
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s3.t1
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Pre-Harappan Culture in Rajasthan
v1.c10.s3.t1.1
V.N. Misra has initiated research on the palaeolithic culture of Rajasthan. (1961, 1963) Most of the sites are located on the eastern side of the Aravallis. The western sites are located on the Luni Valley and these sites must have been deserted on account of low rain-fall and the onset of the desert climate.
v1.c10.s3.t1.2
Middle and Upper Palaeolithic working and living floors have been found at a number of sites throughout the dry zone and notably in the Pushkar locality, near Ajmer in Rajasthan. The nature of the buried soil shows that it must have carried a substantial vegetation cover throughout the year, and therefore have been formed under conditions of greater humidity and rainfall than the present. The vegetation, the games and fresh water lakes made the growth of palaeolithic and neolithic sites, till adverse rainfall condition pushed the inhabitants east of Aravalli. Around Budha Pushkar there had been a concentration of sites with microlith industries. Discovery of a copper fish-hook in this stratum suggests an overlap between the microlithic and certain semi-urban chalcolithic cultures. (Allchins 1983: 65-69)
v1.c10.s3.t1.3
In the eastern Rajasthan, most of the sites are located on stony elevations where the raw material for microlithic tools were made out of chert, quartzite, quartz and chalcedony. Bagor, situated on the left bank of the Kothari river and 25 km west of the town of Bhilwara reveals an uninterrupted occupation of the site over a period of five millennia before Christ. During Phase I (5000-2800 BC), Bagor produced the most fabulous microlith industry in pre-historic India and several hundred thousand of worked pieces. There was mass production of micro-blades and their conversion into various microlithic forms mostly 15-20 mm and some 5-10 mm in size. These were very carefully fabricated and retouched. (Sankalia, 1974; 260-64) More than forty types could be distinguished: blades, trapezes, crescents, points etc. The superb microlithic industry was essentially geared to a hunting economy.
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Around 2800 BC, Bagor entered into the chalcolithic phase evidently based upon the indigenous copper ore. Apart from bits of copper/bronze, five well-defined objects were found among offerings with two burials of phase II: one spearhead, one thin rod and three arrowheads each provided with two parallel holes near the base. The holes were evidently intended to secure the arrowheads to the shaft with the help of a string, metal wire or rivets.