June 2023 ©DrMahipalRathore

ABOUT ME

Dr. MAHIPAL SINGH RATHORE

I teach History, Polity and

Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

7 Years of teaching Experience.

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Dr. Mahipal Rathore Sir

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 Sources of History

• Material Remains
• Coins
• Inscriptions
• Literary Sources
• Foreign Accounts
• Village Study
• Natural Sciences

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains

• The methods of archaeology help us to recover the material remains of

the past, relating to ancient, medieval, and modern periods of our
history.

• In India and many other countries, archaeology is used to study

prehistory and ancient history.

• Prehistory is concerned with the period for which there are no

written sources, and history is basically based on written material.

• Principally they are of fossils of humans, plants, and animals.

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains
• Found on the hill slopes of plateaus and mountains, and on the banks of
nearby rivers with terraces, and comprise sundry fauna and flora.

• Numerous stone tools from the Stone Age have been found at these sites.

• The remains of tools, plants, animals, and humans from the pre-ice age
indicate the climatic conditions that prevailed at the time.

• Although writing was known in India by the middle of the third millennium
BC in the Indus culture, it has not so far been deciphered.

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains
• Though the Harappans knew how to write, their culture is placed in the
proto-historic phase.

• The same is the case with the Chalcolithic or copper–Stone Age cultures
which had no writing.

• Decipherable writing was known in India only in the third century BC with
the Ashokan inscriptions providing solid evidence for historical
reconstruction from that time.

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains

• The stone temples in south India and the brick monasteries in eastern
India still stand to remind us of the great building activities of the past.

• However, the major part of these remains lies buried in mounds

scattered all over India.

• A mound is an elevated portion of land covering the remains of old

habitations.

• It may be of different types: single-culture, major-culture, and multi-

culture.

©DrMahipalRathore
Mohenjo-daro or Mound of the Dead Men
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Material Remains

• Single-culture mounds represent only one culture throughout.

• Some mounds represent only the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture, others
Satavahana culture, and yet others that of the Kushans.

• In major-culture mounds, one culture is dominant and the others are of

secondary importance.

• Multi-culture mounds represent several important cultures in succession which

occasionally overlap with one another.

• As is the case with the Ramayana and Mahabharata, an excavated mound can be
used to understand successive layers of the material and other aspects of a
culture. ©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains

• A mound can be excavated vertically or horizontally.

• Vertical excavation means lengthwise digging to uncover the period-wise

sequence of cultures; it is generally confined to a part of the site.

• Horizontal excavation entails digging the mound as a whole or a major part of it.

• The method may enable the excavator to obtain a complete idea of the site
culture in a particular period.

• As most sites have been dug vertically, they provide a good chronological
sequence of material culture.

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains

In the dry arid climate of western UP, Rajasthan, and north-western India,
antiquities are found in a better state of preservation.

In the moist and humid climate of the mid-Gangetic plains and in the deltaic
regions even iron implements suffered corrosion and mud structures become
difficult to detect. Only the burnt brick structures or stone structures of the
Gangetic plains are well preserved.

Excavations have brought to light the villages that people established around
6000 BC in Baluchistan

©DrMahipalRathore
Material Remains

Excavations have shown:

• Layout of the settlements in which people lived

• Types of pottery they used
• Form of house in which they dwelt
• Kind of cereals they ate
• Type of tools and implements they used.
• Some people in south India buried in graves, along with the dead, their
tools, weapons, pottery, and other belongings, and these were encircled by
large pieces of stone.
• By digging them we learn of the life people lived in the Deccan from the
Iron Age onwards.
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Material Remains

Taken together with archaeological remains, geological and biological studies

act as important sources for the study of over 98 per cent of the total time
scale of history starting with the origin of the earth.

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Coins

©DrMahipalRathore
Coins

• Although a large number of coins and inscriptions have been found on

the surface, many of them have been unearthed by digging.

• The study of coins is called numismatics.

• Ancient coins were made of metal— copper, silver, gold, and lead.

• Coin moulds made of burnt clay discovered- Most of them relate to the
Kushan period, that is, the first three Christian centuries.

• The use of such moulds in the post-Gupta period virtually disappeared.

©DrMahipalRathore
Coins
• People stored money in earthenware and in brass vessels.

• Many of these hoards, contained not only Indian coins but also those
minted abroad, such as in the Roman empire, etc.

• Our earliest coins contain a few symbols, but the later coins depict the
figures of kings, and divinities, and also mention their names and dates.

• The areas where they are found indicate the region of their circulation.
This has enabled us to reconstruct the history of several ruling dynasties,
especially of the Indo-Greeks who came to India from north Afghanistan
and ruled here in the second and first centuries BC.
©DrMahipalRathore
Coins
The largest number of Indian coins date to the post-Maurya period.
These were made of lead, potin, copper, bronze, silver, and gold.

The Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins.

All this indicates that trade and commerce flourished, especially in

post-Maurya and a good part of the Gupta period.

©DrMahipalRathore
Coins
• Coins also portray kings and gods,
and contain religious symbols and
legends, all of which throw light
on the art and religion of the time.

• Cowries were also used as coins,

though their purchasing power
was low.

• They appear in substantial

numbers in post-Gupta times, but
may have been used earlier.
©DrMahipalRathore
Inscriptions

• The study of Inscriptions is called epigraphy.

• The study of the old writing used in inscriptions and other old
records is called palaeography.

• Inscriptions were carved on seals, stone pillars, rocks, copperplates,

temple walls, wooden tablets, and bricks or images.

• In the early centuries of the Christian era, copperplate began to be

used for this purpose.

©DrMahipalRathore
Inscriptions

• The earliest inscriptions were written in Prakrit in the third century BC.

• Sanskrit was adopted as an epigraphic medium in the second century AD

and its use became widespread in the fourth and fifth centuries.

• Inscriptions began to be composed in regional languages in the ninth

and tenth centuries.

• Most inscriptions bearing on the history of the Maurya, post-Maurya,

and Gupta periods have been published in a series of collections called
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum.
©DrMahipalRathore
Inscriptions
• The Harappan inscriptions, which await decipherment, seem to have been
written in a pictographic script in which ideas and objects were expressed in
the form of pictures.

• Most Ashokan inscriptions were engraved in the Brahmi script, which was
written from left to right, but some were also incised in the Kharoshthi
script which was written from right to left.

• Greek and Aramaic scripts were employed in writing Ashokan inscriptions in

Pakistan and Afghanistan, but Brahmi continues to be the main script till the
end of Gupta times.

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 Ashoka Inscriptions

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Inscriptions
• Inscriptions found on the seals of Harappa belonging to about 2500 BC are
considered symbolic by some scholars

• In India the earliest deciphered are Ashokan inscriptions. They are

generally written in Brahmi script and Prakrit language in the third century
BC.

• In the fourteenth century AD two Ashokan pillar inscriptions were found

by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, one in Meerut and another at a place called Topra in
Haryana.

©DrMahipalRathore
Inscriptions
• We have various types of inscriptions.

• Some convey royal orders and decisions regarding social, religious, and
administrative matters to officials and the people in general. Ashokan
inscriptions belong to this category.

• Others are votive records of the followers of Buddhism, Jainism,

Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and the like

• Inscriptions recording land grants, made mainly by chiefs and princes, are
very important for the study of the land system and administration in
ancient India.
©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• Although the ancient Indians knew how to write as early as 2500 BC, our
most ancient manuscripts are not older than the AD fourth century and
are found in Central Asia.

• In India, they were written on birch bark and palm leaves.

• In Central Asia manuscripts were also written on sheep leather and

wooden tablets.

• Although old Sanskrit manuscripts are found all over India, they mostly
relate to south India, Kashmir, and Nepal.

©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• Most ancient books contain religious themes. Hindu religious literature
includes the Vedas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas,
and the like.

• They throw considerable light on the social and cultural conditions of

ancient times, but it is difficult to use them in the context of time and
place.

• The Rig Veda may be assigned to c. 1500–1000 BC.

• Collections such as the Atharva Veda, Yajur Veda, the Brahmanas,

Aranyakas, and the Upanishads date roughly to 1000–500 BC.
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©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• Upanishads contain philosophical speculations.

• In order to understand the Vedic texts it was necessary to study the

Vedangas or the limbs of the Veda.

• These supplements of the Veda comprised phonetics (shiksha), ritual

(kalpa), grammar (vyakarana), etymology (nirukta), metrics (chhanda),
and astronomy (jyotisha), and much literature grew around each of these
subjects.

©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• In the post-Vedic period we have a large corpus of ritual literature.

• Grand public sacrifices to be made by princes and men of substance

belonging to the three higher varnas are set out in the Shrautasutras,
which provide for several ostentatious royal coronation ceremonies.

• Similarly, domestic rituals connected with birth, naming, sacred thread

investiture, marriage, funerals, etc. are prescribed in the Grihyasutras.

• Both the Shrautasutras and the Grihyasutras relate to c. 600–300 BC.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources

• In Sulvasutras - various kinds of measurements for the construction of

sacrificial altars.

• They mark the beginnings of the study of geometry and mathematics.

• The religious books of the Jainas and the Buddhists refer to historical
persons and incidents.

• The Dharmasutras were compiled in 500–200 BC and the principal Smritis

were codified in the first six centuries of the Christian era. They prescribe
the duties to be performed by the different varnas as well as by kings and
their officials.
©DrMahipalRathore
Sulvasutras

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Literary Sources
• An important law-book is the Arthashastra of Kautilya.

• This text was put in its final form in the beginning of the Christian era,
but its earliest portions reflect the state of society and economy in the
age of the Mauryas.

• It provides rich material for the study of ancient Indian polity and
economy.

• Of the non-religious texts, the grammatical works are very important for
historical construction. They begin with the Astadhyayi of Panini.

©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• Patanjali’s commentary on Panini, dated 150 BC, supplies valuable
information about post-Maurya times.

• In addition to Sanskrit sources, we have some of the earliest Tamil texts in

the corpus of Sangam literature.

• The Sangam literature comprises about 30,000 lines of poetry arranged in

eight anthologies called Ettuttokai.

• Sangam texts refer to many settlements, including Kaveripattanam whose

flourishing existence has now been archaeologically corroborated.

©DrMahipalRathore
Literary Sources
• They also speak of the Yavanas coming in their own vessels, purchasing
pepper with gold, and supplying wine and women slaves to the natives.

• The Sangam literature is a major source of our information for the social,
economic, and political life of the people living in deltaic Tamil Nadu in the
early Christian centuries.

©DrMahipalRathore
Foreign Accounts
• Greek, Roman, and Chinese visited India either as travellers or religious
converts.

• They left behind accounts of the things that they saw.

• It is remarkable that Alexander’s invasion finds no mention in Indian

sources, and it is entirely on the basis of the Greek sources that we have
to reconstruct the history of his Indian exploits.

©DrMahipalRathore
Foreign Accounts
• The Indika of Megasthenes, who came to the court of Chandragupta
Maurya, has been preserved only in fragments quoted by subsequent
classical writers.

• These fragments, when read together, furnish valuable information not

only about the system of Maurya administration but also about social
classes and economic activities in the Maurya period.

• Greek and Roman accounts of the first and second centuries mention
many Indian ports and enumerate items of trade between India and the
Roman empire.
©DrMahipalRathore
Foreign Accounts
• The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea and Ptolemy’s Geography, both
written in Greek, provide valuable data for the study of ancient
geography and commerce.

• The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which was written by an

anonymous author, describes the Roman trade in the Red Sea, Persian
Gulf, and the Indian Ocean.

• Of the Chinese travellers, mention may be made of Fa-hsien and

Hsuan Tsang. Both of them were Buddhists, and came to this country
to visit the Buddhist shrines and to study Buddhism.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
Foreign Accounts

Fahsien describes the social, religious, and economic conditions

in India in the age of the Guptas.

Hsuan Tsang presents a similar account of India in the age of

Harsha.

©DrMahipalRathore
Village Study
• Relics of communal sharing in feasts, festivals, and pujas throw light on
the egalitarian character of ancient tribal society.

• Loyalty to the clan and caste persists to this day.

• Survivals of rituals give us an idea of ancient sects and also of the

institutions of marriage and family.

• High caste people do not milk the cow and never take to the plough.

©DrMahipalRathore
Village Study
• Their contempt for manual labour promotes untouchability.

• Strong traces of inequality are not confined to castes alone but also
colour the relationship between man and woman.

• Till the 1930s even the sati system prevailed in rural parts of Bihar.

• Rural rituals and caste prejudices illustrate many of the Dharmashastra

rules governing our ancient polity and society.

©DrMahipalRathore
Natural Sciences
• The use of the findings of social sciences started about thirty years
ago for the historical construction of ancient India.

• Recently the use of natural sciences has begun.

• Evidence from chemistry, geology, and biology has become relevant

to the study of ancient India.

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Human Evolution : The Old Stone Age

©DrMahipalRathore
 Stone Age

Generally, the period before the invention of script is broadly divided into
Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

The earliest age in history is called Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic.

The period after the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) is called the Mesolithic
Age.

The period that followed the Mesolithic is called the Neolithic Age

©DrMahipalRathore
 Stone Age

The Palaeolithic period is divided into:

• Lower Palaeolithic culture (600,000 and 150,000 BC)

• Middle Palaeolithic culture (150,000 and 35,000 BC)
• Upper Palaeolithic culture (35,000 and 10,000 BC)

However, between 35,000 and 1500 BC, tools relating to both Middle and
Upper Palaeolithic ages have been found in the Deccan Plateau.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
 Stone Age
Lower Palaeolithic culture (600,000 and 150,000 BC)

The Lower Palaeolithic or the Early Old Stone Age covers the greater part of
the ice age.

The Early Old Stone Age may have begun in Africa around two million years
ago, but in India it is not older than 600,000 years.

This date is given to Bori in Maharashtra, and this site is considered to be

the earliest Lower Palaeolithic site.

©DrMahipalRathore
Lower Palaeolithic culture (600,000 and 150,000 BC)

Lithic Tools:

Human ancestors made large stone blocks and pebbles and chipped tools
out of them, using another strong stone.

Hand axes, cleavers, choppers and the like were designed in this way by
flaking off the chips.

They used the tools for hunting, butchering and skinning the animals,
breaking the bones for bone marrow and to recover tubers and plant
foods, and for processing food.

©DrMahipalRathore
cleavers
©DrMahipalRathore
Hand axes

©DrMahipalRathore
Lower Palaeolithic culture (600,000 and 150,000 BC)
Industries:

The industries of Palaeolithic cultures are divided into the Early, Middle
and Late Acheulian Industries.

The early Acheulian tools include polyhedrons, spheroids, hand axes,

cleavers and flake tools.

The Acheulian tradition is absent in the Western Ghats, coastal areas and
north-eastern India. Heavy rainfall is attributed to its absence.

©DrMahipalRathore
Acheulian Stone tools

©DrMahipalRathore
Acheulian and Sohanian

Based on research, two independent cultural traditions of hand axe

(Acheulian) and pebble-flake (Sohanian) industries were confirmed in
India. Acheulian industry mainly had hand axes and cleavers.

The Sohan industry is considered to have used only chopper and

chopping tools. The Sohan industry gets its name from the Sohan
river valley of Pakistan.

These two cultural traditions are not considered distinct any longer.
Recent studies argue that there was no independent Sohan tradition
as Acheulian tools are found in the Sohan industry as well.
©DrMahipalRathore
Lower Palaeolithic culture (600,000 and 150,000 BC)
Distribution of Sites

Lower Palaeolithic tools are found in most parts of India, except

in a few regions of the Ganges valley, southern Tamil Nadu

• Athirampakkam, Pallavaram and Gudiyam near Chennai

• Hunsgi valley and Isampur in Karnataka
• Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are some important
Palaeolithic sites where the Acheulian tools are found.

©DrMahipalRathore
Fossils

During the Lower Palaeolithic cultural phase, human ancestor species of

Homo erectus is believed to have lived in India.

The first Palaeolithic tools were identified at the site of Pallavaram near
Chennai by Robert Bruce Foote in 1863.

Unlike Africa, evidence of hominin [immediate ancestor of Homo Sapiens]

fossil is rare in India.

There is a report of a fossil fragment discovered by Robert Bruce Foote

from Athirampakkam. Its whereabouts are not known now.

©DrMahipalRathore
 Attirampakkam
or
Athirampakkam

©DrMahipalRathore
Fossils

The only well-known hominin fossil of India was found at

Hathnora near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh.

The cranium is named Narmada human. It is considered to

represent the Archaic Homo sapiens.

It is the only existing fossil find of human ancestors in India.

©DrMahipalRathore
Narmada human
©DrMahipalRathore
Way of Life

The people of Lower Palaeolithic culture hunted animals and gathered

roots, nuts and fruits.

They fed on the flesh and bones of animals killed by predators.

They lived in open air, river valleys, caves and rock shelters, as seen from
evidence in Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh and Gudiyam near Chennai.

The pre-historic human ancestors, who belonged to the species of Homo

erectus, did not have a complex language culture like us, the Homo sapiens.

©DrMahipalRathore
Way of Life

They may have expressed a few sounds or words and used a sign
language.

They were intelligent enough to select stones as raw material and

used the hammer stones to carefully flake the rocks and design
tools

©DrMahipalRathore
 Stone Age
Middle Palaeolithic culture (150,000 and 35,000 BC)

The species of Homo erectus existed in this period.

Some of the Middle Palaeolithic tools are attributed to behavioural

modernity.

Anatomically modern humans are said to have emerged around 3,00,000

years ago.

In India, the Middle Palaeolithic phase was first identified by H.D. Sankalia
on the Pravara River at Nevasa.
©DrMahipalRathore
Middle Palaeolithic culture (150,000 and 35,000 BC)

Industries and Tool Types

The tool types of the Middle Palaeolithic period are hand axes, cleavers,
choppers, chopping tools, scrapers, borers and points, projectile points or
shouldered points, and knives on flakes.

Flake industry was predominant in the Middle Palaeolithic period and

tools such as scrapers, points and borers were made.

Scrapers were used for wood and skin working.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
Distribution

The artefacts of this age are found at several places on the:

• River Narmada,
• South of the Tungabhadra river
• The Belan valley (UP), which lies at the foothills of the Vindhyas,
is rich in stone tools and animal fossils including cattle and deer.

These remains relate to both the Lower and Middle Stone ages

©DrMahipalRathore
Ways of Life and Main Characteristics

The Middle Palaeolithic people occupied open-air, cave and rock

shelter sites.
They were hunter-gatherers.

The main features of the Indian Middle Palaeolithic period include the
following:

• The tools became smaller.

• The decrease in the use of hand axes in relation to other tools.
• Use of core preparation techniques in stone tool production.
• Use of chert, jasper, chalcedony and quartz as raw materials

©DrMahipalRathore
 Stone Age
Upper Palaeolithic culture (35,000 and 10,000 BC)

This period is marked by innovation in tool technology and increased

cognitive capability of humans.

The modern humans, who first evolved in sub-Saharan Africa, sometime

before 300,000 years ago, migrated to and occupied various parts of Asia
around 60,000 years ago.

They probably replaced the earlier populations

©DrMahipalRathore
Upper Palaeolithic culture (35,000 and 10,000 BC)

There is a possibility that these new groups were responsible for

the Upper Palaeolithic culture of India.

In the world context, it marks the appearance of new flint

industries and men of the modern type (Homo sapiens sapiens).

©DrMahipalRathore
Upper Palaeolithic culture (35,000 and 10,000 BC)

Lithic Tools and Industries

The lithic industry of the Upper Palaeolithic period is based on blade and
bone tool technologies.

Microliths (tiny stone tools) were introduced in the Upper Palaeolithic

Period and these tools were made using different varieties of silica-rich
raw materials.

Bone tools and faunal remains have been found in Kurnool caves in
Andhra Pradesh.
©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
Upper Palaeolithic culture (35,000 and 10,000 BC)
Distribution

The people of this period used caves as well as the open air space for living.

• Meralbhavi in Karnataka, Kurnool caves in Andhra Pradesh,

Godavarikhani in Telangana

• Baghor I and Baghor III of Son Valley in Madhya Pradesh

• Patne in Maharashtra are some of the Upper Palaeolithic sites of India.

• Sri Lanka has evidence of microliths and hominin fossils.

©DrMahipalRathore
Distribution

Incised ostrich eggshell, and shell and stone beads have been found at:

• Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh

• Patne in Maharashtra
• BatadombaLena and Fa Hien Cave in Sri Lanka

©DrMahipalRathore
Decorated ostrich shells from Upper Palaeolithic site in
Patne in Maharashtra

©DrMahipalRathore
An Upper Palaeolithic Shrine

An interesting find is of a possible shrine, indicated by a block

of sandstone surrounded by a rubble circle, similar to the
contemporary shrines.

Found at Baghor in Uttar Pradesh, it is the earliest known

evidence of a shrine in India.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
Mesolithic Culture

The Upper Palaeolithic age came to an end with the end of the ice age
around 10,000 BC.

In 9000 BC began an intermediate stage in Stone-Age culture, which is

called the Mesolithic age.

It intervened as a transitional phase between the Palaeolithic and the

Neolithic or New Stone ages.

The Mesolithic culture continued to be important roughly from 9000 to

4000 BC, and undoubtedly paved the way for the rise of the Neolithic
culture. ©DrMahipalRathore
Economy

The Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing, and food

gathering; at a later stage they also domesticated animals.

The first three occupations continued the Palaeolithic practice,

whereas the last developed in the Neolithic culture..

Characteristic tools of the Mesolithic age are microliths or tiny

tools.

They used spears, bow and arrow and traps.

©DrMahipalRathore
Sites

The rock paintings of Central India depict hunting, trapping, fishing and
plant food collection.

The paintings of Bhimbetka show that various animals were hunted

and for this men and women went together

The people used fire and perhaps roasted food.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
The Mesolithic people buried the dead, which suggests their beliefs and
humane relationships.

Mesolithic sites abound in Rajasthan, southern UP, central and eastern

India, and also south of the river Krishna.

Of them, Bagor in Rajasthan is very well excavated. It had a distinctive

microlithic industry, and its inhabitants subsisted on hunting and
pastoralism.

The site remained occupied for 5000 years from the fifth millennium BC
onwards.

©DrMahipalRathore
Neolithic period

The Neolithic period marked the beginning of agriculture and animal

domestication.

It is an important phase in Indian history. Early evidence of Neolithic

culture is found in the Fertile Crescent region of Egypt and Mesopotamia,
the Indus region, the Ganges valley of India and also in China.

Between 10,000 BCE to 5000 BCE, agriculture emerged in these regions,

which led to several cultural developments.

©DrMahipalRathore
Tools
The people of the Neolithic age used tools and implements of polished
stone.

They particularly used stone axes, which have been found in large numbers
in a substantial part of the hilly tracts of India.

Based on the types of axes used by Neolithic settlers, three important

areas of Neolithic settlements—north-western, north-eastern, and
southern.

©DrMahipalRathore
Tools
The north-western group of Neolithic tools is distinguished by
rectangular axes with a curved cutting edge;

The north-eastern group by polished stone axes with a

rectangular butt and occasional shouldered hoes;

The southern group by axes with oval sides and pointed butt.

©DrMahipalRathore
Neolithic Settlements in India

An important group of Neolithic people lived in south India, south of the

Godavari river.

They are found in A.P., Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

In the Ganges Valley, and in Central India Neolithic sites are found at
Lehuradeva, and Chopani Munda.

The Neolithic sites of Eastern India are found at many sites in Bihar and West
Bengal.

Neolithic culture in Kashmir region was contemporary to the Harappan

civilisation.
©DrMahipalRathore
Chalcolithic Cultures

The end of the Neolithic period saw the use of metals.

The metal first used was copper, and several cultures were based on the use
of copper and stone implements.
Such a culture is called Chalcolithic, which means the copper– stone phase.

Technologically, the Chalcolithic stage is applied to the pre-Harappan phase.

However, in various parts of India the Chalcolithic cultures followed the

Bronze Age Harappa culture.

©DrMahipalRathore
Such cultures as came in the later part of the mature Harappa culture or after
its end.

The Chalcolithic people mostly used stone and copper objects, but they also
occasionally used low grade bronze and even iron.

They were primarily rural communities spread over a wide area with hilly
land and rivers.

In India, settlements relating to the Chalcolithic phase are found in

southeastern Rajasthan, the western part of MP, western Maharashtra, and
in southern and eastern India.

©DrMahipalRathore
©DrMahipalRathore
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