Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t3.3
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t3.3
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v1.c20.s3.t3.3
At the West Bengal site of Bahiri (Chakrabarti and Hasan, 1982) there is iron slag right on the natural soil C-14 dated 950 ± 150 BC. Hatikira village in Birbhum district has shown 1000 BC Iron Age culture. At Mahisadal in West Bengal, Iron Age starts right in the chalcolithic column dated around 800 BC. Iron slags, ingots and tools like arrowhead, point, spearhead have been obtained from the lowest chalcolithic strata Period I (1100 BC) of Mangalkot (in the Katwa sub-division of Burdwan district), 30 km south-east of Pāṇḍu Rājār Dhibi. (Ray, 1990) This shows that West Bengal acquired the knowledge of iron technology independently, and almost simultaneously as the PGW people of Atrañjikhera.