Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c16.s3: Jorwe Culture

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c16.s3

Language: English

Jorwe Culture

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The Jorwe Culture flourished in the semi-arid zone of the Deccan plateau. The cradle of this culture was Pravara-Godāvari Valley from where they spread towards the north in the Tapti Valley and towards the south in the Bhima Valley. Thus, their inhabitations are found on the bank of a major river or its tributary. The distributional pattern of the Jorwe settlements indicate that there were three main groups of concentration in the Tapti, Godāvari and the Bhima Valley, and each of these regions had at least one representative large site. Thus we have Prakash in the Tapti Valley, Daimabad in the Godāvarī Valley and Inamgaon in the Bhima Valley. Apart from this, a large number of Jorwe sites have been brought to light through excavation, i.e., Nevasa, Bahal, Nasik, Chandoli, Songaon and Ināmgāon which are all located in Maharashtra. The Jorwe painted pottery found at Navdatoli in Central India and as far down south as T. Nasirpur near Mysore in Karnataka indicates the cultural contact between the Jorwe people with the Malwa people in the north and the neolithic farmers in the south. (Agarwal and Chakrabarti, 1979: 251-52)

Jorwe

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The site Jorwe is a small village on the north or the left bank of the Pravara river. It is about 5 miles due east of Sangamner which is a Taluk place of some importance in Ahmadnagar district.

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The affinity of Jorwe painted pottery with Nasik and Nevasa ware suggests that the Jorwe Culture may be at least contemporary with these two sites. Its microlith industry exhibits features which are again identical with those at Navdatoli. Here too the industry belongs definitely to a proto-historic period and is associated with a richer painted pottery complex and a little copper or bronze. It would therefore not be unjustified if the Jorwe Culture is assigned provisionally to a copper or Early Bronze period. (Sankalia and Deo, 1955: 150)

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Six flat celts of low grade bronze have been discovered in a painted pot at Jorwe. All the axes were covered with a fine, thin, green patina. Microscopic examination and chemical analysis of this piece showed that the axe was cast from molten metal. It has 1.78 per cent of tin and 98.04 per cent of copper. Therefore it is concluded that the axe is low grade alloy of bronze. Though the outside surface is slightly oxidized and has a thin greenish patina, the freshly cut surface is reddish yellow. The Jorwe axes have thickness comparable to that of the Indus Valley samples. The copper bangle found is made of pure copper and ring-like in shape. It is of single type nearly round with overlapping ends, made out of a solid cylindrical rod 12 mm in diameter and 32.2 mm long. (Sankalia and Deo, 1955: 157-60)

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Only one bead was found. It is of smoky chalcedony of long tubular shape with the outer surface well-polished, length 21 mm, diameter 5 mm.

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The main bulk of the pottery collection from Jorwe consists of sherds — mostly shoulder pieces — too fragmentary to indicate the shape that were employed in the various classes of the Jorwe ware. Barring a few very large storage jars, very small pots and lamps and dishes which are hand-made, the pottery is wheel-made. An examination of the core colours revealed that at least three different kinds of clay were used — red brown, grey and black which — under conditions of thorough oxidization burnt red. These clays appear to be alluvial and have a natural admixture of fine sand and therefore require no tempering material. Nearly all the pottery of Jorwe is made of local clay, its three kinds being available in abundance in the vicinity of Jorwe and in the middle and western parts of the northern half of the Ahmadnagar District. This tract of land lies in the valley of the Pravara. The soil along the banks of these rivers, particularly those of the Pravara, is extremely rich and clayey and resolves itself in three varieties: *kāli* or black, *tambat* or red and *barad* or grey, all noted for their more or less ferruginous character. In such favourable condition Jorwe appears to have developed as a centre of potters' craft in remote times. (Sankalia and Deo, 1955: 160-62)

Nevasa

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Jorwe and Nevasa would seem to be essentially one culture site. Both are situated on the Pravara, as were Daimabad and several others known from surface finds only. The sites of Nevasa and Jorwe still remain the type sites. The evidences about the pottery repertoire, lamps and terracottas as amplified in Chandoli, Songaon and Ināmgāon tell us about the settlement pattern as well as food habits of the people. At Nevasa the principal occupation was probably on the southern bank, overlooking the river. Excavation in 1959-60 have confirmed the existence of five phases. Evidence of big structure, huge storage jars have also been found. As at present we do not have the actual excavation report of Nevasa, so it is not possible for us to say much about the minerals and metals that have been revealed from there. But as Jorwe and Nevasa were twin sites of Jorwe Culture so, on the basis of Jorwe report we can fairly guess something about the cultures and minerals/metals of this site. Agarwal, on the basis of radio-carbon dates, thinks that the flourishing period of this culture seems to be 1300-1000 BC.

Nasik

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It is an ancient town, situated on both the banks of Godavari. This Nasik town is also the headquarters of the district of the same name in Maharashtra.

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Excavation here has mainly revealed four periods of occupation, among which Period I is Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age, II is Early Historic Period, III is Roman Contact and IV is Early Muslim-Mughal-Maratha period. Now among these four phases, Period I is our point of interest which is dated 1500- Varieties of beads were found but the yield of beads at Nasik was not much. In all 160 beads were found in various phases of excavation. Out of these 53.1 per cent are made of terracotta. Next to it came crystal and then jasper. Other material and their numbers are agate-1, amethyst-1, blood stone-2, bone-8, carnelian-6, crystal-15, glass-7, gold 1, jasper-9, lapis lazuli-2, opal-3, quartz-8, shell-5, soapstone 1 and terracotta-85. The absence of unfinished beads or core lumps of different materials shows that Nasik was not a bead industry site at any time.

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The remarkable feature of the terracotta beads is the range of variety in the basically areca-nut shape. These beads are found over a wide stretch of time at various sites from proto-historic times at Mohenjo-Daro to the Marāṭhā period at Nasik. Probably nowhere else except at Kosam in U.P. such a minute differentiation in the areca-nut shape is found as at Nasik.

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Though carnelian and agate are found in the Deccan, the principal source is a village called Limodra near Ratanpura in the Rajpipla state of Gujarat from where the stones are sent for cutting and polishing to the lapidaries of Cambay. Cambay and Broach are well-known centres of bead industry since early historic times. So it is quite possibly that beads of carnelian, agate, jasper and blood-stone came to Nasik from Gujarat. This is further corroborated by the absence of unfinished beads or large cores of these stones at Nasik. The shapes of the carnelian beads of Nasik are common and the etched bead is exactly similar to one found at Taxila. In this context this is to be remembered that layers of Period II yielded 69.3 per cent of the total number of beads. (Sankalia and Deo, 1955: 86-93)

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Bangles found at Nasik were either of shell or of glass. Out of the fiftysix specimens, thirtyseven were of conch-shell and rest of glass. These bangles are of both varieties — plain and decorated. Out of the nineteen fragmentary glass bangle pieces, sixteen came from stratified layers. All these were recovered from the two top layers in all the trenches, and hence can be ascribed to Period IV. Though bangles were known in Period II, not a single piece of glass bangle was found in this period. A single fragment of a black glass ring was found, but it could be ascribed to Period III. Besides bangles of glass, thirtythree other objects of glass consisting of discs, pieces of highly disintegrated glass and fragments were found. Among these, nearly half of the glass objects belong to Period II and nearly half out of these to sub-period A of the same. One of the weathered glass object has been carefully examined; the sample assays about 80.99 per cent silica, the soda lime silicates having been more or less completely altered as a result of weathering. Part of the silica is now present as chalcedony and opal.

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Seven glass discs have also been recovered.

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A variety of terracotta objects was obtained from excavation at Nasik. These include skin-rubbers, toys, figures, stoppers, wheels, crucible, stūpas and tiles. Most of these belonged to Period II. Among all these things our point of interest is terracotta crucible. Four terracotta crucibles with a blackish glossy enamel over both the inner and the outer surface were found. Out of the four, two are smaller and intact, and the other two bigger but broken. One belongs to Period IIA, one to IIB and the other two to Periods II-IV.

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Besides a few coins, other objects of copper were Kohl sticks, a copper dish, a bangle, a ring and an unidentifiable object, probably a handle. The inhabitants of Nasik were not much accustomed with the use of copper during the advent of the iron age.

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Comparatively a large number of iron objects were recovered. The objects that have been recovered from here are of domestic and non-domestic use. The objects are arrowheads, caltrops, choppers, tang fragments, axe blade, drill, chisel, cup, rings, nails and indeterminate. Nearly ninety per cent of these came from the two phases of Period II and quite a large number were heavily encrusted. According to the excavator, objects like caltrops, arrowheads, choppers, spearheads, axe drill should normally indicate that the occupants were persons who were concerned either with the preparation of tools and weapons (as ironsmiths) or with fighting (as soldiers).

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Besides various types of shells, six objects made out of shell were recovered. About the bone objects, only a few were found and most of them were antimony rods. Only a single object of ivory was found and that is a dice. Steatite objects were also found; out of six, two are fragmentary.

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Very few coins were found. Out of eight from the excavation, three are blurred and of little value. Of the rest, three belongs to the early historic period and the rest to the late historic. In most of the cases the material used was copper, only in one exception it was lead.

Chandoli

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The village of Chandoli lies on the right bank of the river Ghod in the Poona district of the State of Maharashtra.

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In assigning Chandoli its due place in the sequence of the Chalcolithic, the ceramic evidences from Navdatoli in Central India and Nevasa and Dāimābād in the Deccan have to be considered. So far as the relative chronology is concerned, Chandoli may be taken to be later than the earlier phases of Navdatoli and possibly a little earlier than Nevasa. Thus on the basis of C-14 determination of Jorwe fabric and cream slipped ware of Navdatoli, the date of Chandoli might range between 1400 and 1600 BC or later. This was corroborated by the carbon fourteen date of Chandoli which falls near about 1300 BC. (Deo and Ansari, 1965: 24-25)

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The seventynine beads from Chandoli were made of ten materials, i.e., agate 12, carnelian 6, jasper 13, slatestone 2, steatite 1, shell 26, copper 9, glass 3 and terracotta 6. So it is to be noticed that faience, the most common material in vogue in the proto-historic horizons is conspicuous by its absence at Chandoli whereas steatite is represented by a single specimen. This may however appear strange as Chandoli is a part and parcel of the Deccan and Central Indian Chalcolithic, and in both these regions these are the most common bead materials.

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On the other hand, shell accounts for the maximum number of beads. The waste pieces of shells and shell beads in different stages of manufacture suggest that though shells were imported, beads were made locally. From the size and thickness of the beads it has been concluded that Chandoli managed to import sea shells from coastal regions and then process locally. So far as the semi-precious stones are concerned, the order of preference was banded agate, red jasper and carnelian. This dearth of ornaments was relieved by the find of the remains of a necklace of copper beads, nine in number, small barrel in shape and woven in a thread, the remains of which were visibly jutting out from a group of three beads of this necklace. The rest of the collection of the beads shows stereotype typology. Long barrels, tubes, small cylinders, short truncated barrels, globular, biconical and discs are the shapes represented. Star beads, collard barrels and discs are absent here. There was also the absence of spacers and pendants in the proto-historic level of Chandoli. As no glass or glaze was associated with proto-historic levels, it may be said that the Chandoli folks of this period were not aware of the technique of glazing. (Deo and Ansari, 1965: 107-10)

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Copper objects found at Chandoli are not many but display a fair variety. The twenty-four objects include tools, weapons and ornaments. These are chisels, celt, dagger with antennae and bangle ring, beads, rod and anklet. Among all these things, the most remarkable find in copper is the dagger or spear blade with an antennae hilt, because earlier this type of dagger was found from the Indo-Gangetic level in an unstratified context, whereas at Chandoli the sample has been obtained from a stratified level (~ 1330 BC).

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Among the copper objects found at Chandoli, only two — a spearhead and an axe — have been chemically analysed. These two objects assay respectively 96.39 and 95.11 per cent Cu; 1.23 and 1.81 Fe; 1.55 and 1.68 Pb; 0.41 and 0.62 Zn; and 0.31 and 0.26 per cent Ni. The materials were probably not deliberately alloyed but made out of multi-metallic Cu-Pb-Zn complex ore. Metallographic studies showed globular inclusions of cuprous oxide and lead metal.

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The metal is porous due to unsound casting technique. The absence of coring and the presence of equiaxial grains indicate that the metal is homogeneous and was very slowly cooled after casting. The twinning that is observed near the porosity holes is probably due to the pressure applied by the gases, trapped within the porosity holes. The technique of venting the mould to allow for the free escape of the evolved gases was evidently not employed in the production of this axe. Anyhow, the celts, the anklets, the bangles and the rings mostly show preparation by hammering. (K.T.M. Hegde In Chalcolithic Chandoli by Deo and Ansari, 1965: 185-86)

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The beads seem to have been fashioned out of thin copper sheet by turning it around a rod, while the dagger is one whole piece. On the other hand the antennae shows distinct traces of its being cut out from the tang. The chisel however seems to have been hammered to a rectangular body out of a circular rod as the overlapping side edges indicate. (Deo and Ansari, 1965: 113-16, 141 and 185-86)

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The terracotta objects of Chandoli comprises of lamps, sharpeners, discs, wheels, cakes, stopper, toy animal, stands and theriomorphic figure, whereas everything have some definite purpose, except the theriomorphic figure. It is made of a very fine clay which is well fired. This material is suggestive of some alien influence.

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The stone objects found at Chandoli are mostly made from basalt which is locally available. The stone objects found from here are saddle querns, flat querns, rubber stones, pounders, pounders-cum-rubber stone, anvils, stone balls, and sharpening stone. These objects like saddle querns and rubber stones give us a glimpse of the organized life of the Chalcolithic people of Chandoli.

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The ceramic collection of Chandoli comprised mainly of red wares, black wares and grey wares. Among the group of red wares were Jorwe, Malwa, Lustrous red, Ochre washed ware, etc. The Jorwe ware formed nearly 37 per cent of the entire collection of pottery and thus may be taken to be one of the dominant industries. The clay used was free from any degraissant save in some cases very fine sand and mica. It possibly contained lot of iron which is one of the most important constituents of the soil available in Deccan. The clay was very well levigated and the firing was uniform.

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At Chandoli, one interesting thing that has been found was the use of flux and silk, which is evidenced at Nevasa also. Only at Mohenjo-Daro scraps of textile as presented on a silver vase and a copper razor as also the find of some pieces of string, all show the use of cotton.

Ināmgāon

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Ināmgāon, a site on the north bank of the Ghod river is situated about 50 miles east of Poona. The main mound is roughly about 500 m east-west and 50 m north-south, with its western and eastern arms pointing towards the river in the south.

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Five seasons of work at Ināmgāon more than confirmed the sketchy data from Nevasa, Chandoli and Songaon about the character of the Jorwe Culture. The excavations in this site have given a vivid picture about the life of the Jorwe people.

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The recent dates for samples from Ināmgāon excavation show that the Jorwe Culture can now be dated to c. 1500-1000 BC, because four dates from Inamgaon are before 1400 BC whereas a majority of them fall between 1400-1200 BC which appears to be the peak period of the culture. There is a late Jorwe phase at Inamgaon, whose beginning may be placed to 600 BC. (Agarwal and Chakrabarti, 1979: 250-60)

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The specialized blade-flake industry is one of the characteristic features of the Jorwe Culture at Ināmgāon etc. Polished stone axes and chisels of dolerite were used. Chalcedony and agate were also parts of the lithic assemblage at Ināmgāon. Sankalia opined that the making of chalcedony blades was a cottage industry as at Navdatoli, Nevasa and probably in most of the neolithic-chalcolithic sites.

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Among the stone objects, the important ones are blades, querns and ground stone tools. Boat-shaped querns were also manufactured locally and the axes were often made of fine grained dyke basalt.

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Personal ornaments were mostly composed of beads of chalcedony, agate, carnelian and varieties of jasper. Only well-to-do people could have afforded bangles and anklets and necklaces of copper beads. Gold beads and spiral ear ornaments with thickened terminals, though extremely rare, have also been reported: one from Daimabad and another from Inamgaon. Beads of ivory have turned up in good numbers at Inamgaon and what is more, a large piece of ivory was found in Malwa levels attesting to the manufacture of beads at the site.

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That most of the ornaments were made locally at Inamgaon, is documented by the find of a crucible and a pair of tongs. Apart from this, a number of houses of the Jorwe people have been laid bare in course of excavation at Ināmgāon. The most important feature of this pattern of settlement is the location of craftsmen’s quarter on the western periphery of the principal habitational area. These quarters were of potters, ivory-carvers, copper-smiths, gold-smiths and of lime-makers. There is evidence that lime was manufactured and preserved as lime balls at Inamgaon.

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At Ināmgāon, right from the beginning of the habitations, the craftsmen’s houses were situated on the western periphery of the main mound just on the left of the entrance to settlement and the same pattern continued in the subsequent periods. The same pattern still prevails in Maharashtra. (Agarwal and Chakrabarti, 1979: 254 and 258; Sankalia, 1974: 484 and 508)

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The pottery style at Ināmgāon is marked with individuality. It is distinctive in every way-form, fabric and design motifs. It has a red or bright orange mat surface on which was executed painted ornamentation, usually geometric in black pigment. The chracteristic shapes comprise of a concave-sided bowl with sharp carination, a spouted jar with flaring mouth and high-necked jars with globular profile.

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A remarkable and unique kiln to fire pottery, discovered at Inamgaon, is like a huge trough of clay about 1.7 m in diameter built on stone foundations. Oval clay cushions with a hole in the centre and grooves on the side were placed over the fire chamber at a depth of 60 cm to provide outlets for hot gases. Air ducts radiated from the centre of the kiln. Though the Harappan kilns were built on similar principles, yet their design and material were different.

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That copper was doubtless scarce and was sparingly used for making axes, chisels, knives and fish hooks and also for beads and bangles is clearly substantiated by the excavation. Dhavalikar thinks that the chances of metal being imported from the distant Khetri mines of Rajasthan are slim; native copper and chalcopyrites have been reported from the vicinity of Inamgaon. Lumps of native copper were obviously heated and beaten into desired shapes. For extracting copper from chalcopyrites special furnaces were built and one such is reported from Inamgaon also. It is a boat-shaped structure built of clay on stone foundation having a clay cushion similar to that in the kiln for keeping the ore. Tylecote opines, that stylistically the furnace bears a family resemblance with the bronze age furnace in Israel which are dated second millennium BC. Dhavalikar suggests that unlike copper, the only source of gold was Hatti mines in Karnataka which were worked from the Neolithic times and the metal must have been brought to the Northern Deccan by way of trade. (Agarwal and Chakrabarti, 1979: 258)

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A few clay figurines, mostly unbaked, have been reported from Ināmgāon.

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These figures were presumably of female deities on the back of cult animals.

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An important feature of the Jorwe Culture is the mode of the disposal of the dead. Usually the adults were buried in an extended position, whereas the children were accommodated in two coarse, hand-made red grey ware urns placed horizontally mouth-to-mouth in a pit. The pit for both men and children was dug in the courtyard of the house. In case of adults the portion below the ankle was deliberately chopped off because the people probably did not want the dead to go away.

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We have already discussed the Jorwe Culture in the site of Prakash. Both Malwa and Jorwe people spread their cultures there.

Dāimābād

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Dāimābād is located on the left bank of the Pravara river, a tributary of Godāvarī 18 km south-east of Shrirampur. The occupation deposit varies from place to place. The site was discovered in 1958 by B.P. Bopardikar followed by excavation of M.N. Deshpande which revealed only three phases. In 1974 there was the chance discovery of a cache of four solid bronze figures at the site. This find necessitated further excavation at the site; so in 1974-75, S.R. Rao renewed the excavation of the site and got the same three periods of the earlier excavation. But the excavations by S.S. Sali for four seasons (1975-76 to 1978-79) have obtained evidence for a succession of five Chalcolithic Cultures. Each of these is characterized by a distinct class of painted pottery. The cultural sequence is:

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| Phase | |
| I | Savalda Culture |
| II | Late-Harappan Culture |
| III | Buff and Cream Ware Culture |
| IV | Malwa Culture |
| V | Jorwe Culture |

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Dhavalikar (1982: 361-66) concludes that the hoard of four Dāimābād bronzes: an exquisite chariot pulled by a pair of bull-horse ‘unicorn’s, an elephant, a rhinoceros and a buffalo — corresponded to the Late-Harappan period (2000-1800 BC). These exquisitely cast pieces were probably imported from some Late-Harappan site in Sind or Gujarat to the colony of Daimabad.

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D.P. Agrawal and his co-workers (1978) have analysed the elemental composition of the bronzes and found that the materials are low arsenic alloys.

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While they suggested that the items might belong to historical period, it may be recalled that arsenic alloying was common in the Harappan artefacts. The physiognomy of the man driving the chariot, the unicorns partly resembling bulls and partly horses, the rhinoceros are all clearly Harappan features not earlier encountered in the Deccan. Sali’s discovery (Possehl, 1982: 175-84) of the button-shaped seal and potsherds with Indus scripts conclusively prove the Post-Harappan nature of the settlement.

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The bronzes were provided with wheels. The animals must have played an important role in the religious life of the Harappans probably serving as vāhanas of deities. The figure driving the chariot has been compared with Paśupati. This tradition was followed right throguh Malwa and Jorwe Culture in Daimabad and other sites.

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During Phase V or the Jorwe Culture era, Dāimābād became the largest Chalcolithic site (30 hectares) in Maharashtra. The Jorwe Ware of Phase V at Dāimābād comes with all its characteristic types and painted designs. The Jorwe types from the earliest Phase V levels are deep red in colour and have a shiny surface, linked by some to Lustrous Red Ware. In addition there is Burnished Grey Ware and the hand-made thick coarse ware. Structural levels were exposed in this phase. Among the important finds from the Jorwe phase is a unique terracotta covered by a coat of red ochre with the figure of a deified sage and three consorts united with him. There is also a terracotta cylinder seal with a scene of a procession moving through the jungle. There is a horse drawing a cart followed by a deer, looking majestically to the rear. In front is an animal, perhaps a camel with a long neck. The previous excavation by Deshpande revealed few more things from this phase. These are microlithics, stone mace-heads, pottery, spindle whorls, beads of semi-precious stones, a gold coil; two terracotta human figures and a terracotta dog were also found. The date of c. 1400 BC for the end of the Malwa and the beginning of the Jorwe appears to be consistent with the C-14 determination of 1400 BC obtained from Inamgaon for the beginning of the Jorwe Culture there. (Possehl, 1982: 175-80)