Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s1: Cultural Sequence
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s1
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Cultural Sequence
v1.c15.s1.1
The Banas Valley culture at Ahar was nurtured by food-producing, copper-using people. The C-14 dates range from 2145-1270 BC (Agarwal, 1984: 275-76), but Sankalia et al. (1969: 5-6) believed that the settlement started around 1940 BC and the Period Ia ranged between 1940-1765 BC, Period Ib: 1725-1600 BC and Ic: 1550-1270 BC Period II at Ahar is marked by the introduction of iron. It seems that the occupants of Period IIa came to settle ‘directly on the debris of Period Ic, disturbing the latter’s horizons’. This has led to a controversy whether introduction of iron at Ahar was around 1270 BC or later. This chapter deals primarily with the Chalcolithic Periods Ia to Ic.
v1.c15.s1.2
Rajasthan abounds in various types of rocks which were used even in proto-historic periods, as for instance, schist, sandstone, quartzite, quartz and grit. Different varieties of schist are to be found. These rocks locally occur in the Archaean formations around Udaipur. The main stone objects are stone balls, hammer-stones, rubber-stones, mullers, mace-heads and saddle querns. The saddle querns at Ahar were generally made on irregular flat pieces of locally available rocks like quartzite, sandstone, and schist. Even the softer varieties like mica, schist have been utilized at times. These querns were used not only for crushing the grains but for preparing curry paste also.
v1.c15.s1.3
Although the houses of Ahar were made of stone, only six flueted cores of chert, chalcedony and quartz and a large number of quartz nodules were found. Considering the fact that Ahar was a copper-manufacturing site, located in the heart of the copper belt, it is probable that most of the cutting and other tools were of copper. This explains the dearth or absence of stone tools. However the Banas culture had a developed blade industry at Gilund just 80 km away and also at Kayatha.