CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD

 CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD

The beginning

• With the end of the Neolithic age, several cultures started using metal, mostly copper and low grade bronze.
• The culture based on the use of cupper and stone was termed as chalcolithic meaning stone- copper phase.
• In india, it spanned around 2000BC to 700BC
• This culture are mainly seen in pre Harappan phase, but at many places it extended to post Harappan phase too.
• The people were mostly rural and lived near hills and rivers.
• The chalcolithic culture corresponds to the farming communities, mainly kayatha,ahar or Banas, Malwa, jarwe.

Background

• The term chalcolithic is a combination of two word chalco+lithic was derived from the Greek wards khalkos+lithos which means copper and stone or copper age.
• It is also known as the Neolithic is an archaeological period that is usually considered to be part of the broader Neolithic. (Although it was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the bronze age).

Characteristics

1:: Agriculture and Animals

• People of chalcolithic age survived on hunting, fishing and farming.
• Animals such as sheep, buffaloes, goat, cattle, and pig were reared and killed for food
• Remains of camels are also found but no traces of eating pork.
• People of navdatoli grew ber and linseed.
• Cotton was produced in black soil.
• Traces of rice cultivation are also found. This show that their food included fish and rice. Eastern India produced rice and western India produced barley.
• The major crops cultivated were barley and wheat, lentil, bajra, jowar, ragi millets, green pea, green and black gram.

2:: Tools and Weapons

• Metals such as copper and its alloys were used to make knives, axes, fishing hooks, chisels,pins and rods.

3:: House

• Use of bricks was extensive during the chalcolithic people of Harappa but there are no traces of burnt bricks.
• The planning of the houses was simple which either rectangular or circular.
• The Wall of houses were made from mud and plastered with is dung and lime.
• The houses mostly had only one room, but sometimes multi roomed houses were also seen.
• For influential people,larged mud houses with 5 room, 4 rectangular and 1 circular in centre of the settlement are found.
• In Inamgaon ovens and circular pit houses are found.

4:: Pottery

• Different types of potteries were used by the people of the chalcolithic phase.
• The black and red Pottery among them was quite common.
• The ochre coloured pottery was also in use.

5:: Burials

• People buried the dead in the floors of there houses in the north-south direction along with pots and copper objects
• In Navas, children were buried with necklaces around their necks or with pottery of copper, these children were mainly from affluent families
• In kayatha region; bodies were found with 29 bangles and 2 unique axes.

6:: Arts and Craft

• The speciality of the chalcolithic culture was wheel made Pottery mostly of red and orange colour.
• Pottery was painted in linear designs mainly in black pigment and we decorated with different shapes.
• Designs of flowers,vegetation, animals and birds were used.
• The black and red Pottery came into existence for the first time.
• People from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar produced channel spouted pits, dish-on-stands, and bowis-on-stand
• The people of chalcolithic age were export copper Smith's, ivory carvers lime makers and terracotta artisans.
• Ornaments were made from semi-precious stone and beads such as agate Jasper, chalcedony, and cornelian were used.
• People had knowledge of spinning and weaving, flax,cotton and silk thread is found from sites in Maharashtra.

IMPORTANT OF CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD

• chalcolithic area expanded throughout the country except for alluvial region and thick forests.
• People were settled mostly near hills and rivers.
• People used microlithic tools of stone and copper.
• They knew the art of smelting
• They used painted pottery for the first time, mostly all used black and red, while turned pots. Thaese pots were used for cooking, storing, drinking and eating,use of plate and thali it seen.
• At some places where Neolithic phase transferred to chalcolithic, it was called Neolithic-chalcolithic.
• Chalcolithic people were colonizers
• In peninsular India there was large village and large amount of cereal cultivation is known/seen.
• They grew wheat, barley, lentils, and rice.
• Fish and rice were the important foods.
• People from kayatha, Inamgaon, and eran were well off while the people from chirand and pandi rajar dhibi were poor.
• In Maharashtra, the dead were buried in north south direction while in South India in the east west direction.

LIMITATIONS

• chalcolithic people couldn't make full use of domestic animals as they used them only for food and not for milk. ( They thought that milk is for animals young ones.)
• They didn't do much of cultivation. They lived in black cotton soil area which required iron tools for cultivation and there are no traces of plaugh or hoe.
• Chalcolithic phase didn't show longevity. There are traces of a large number of children buried which indicate lack of nutrition and outbreak of epidemics.
• People had no knowledge of mixing two metals so they couldn't use the stronger metal bronze nicely, copper had its own limitations and its supply was also less.
• People were not aware of the art of writing and they couldn't gain any benefit from the technical knowledge of the Indus people.

SITES IN INDIA

1. Indus region

Majenjodaro, Harappa, Ropar, suratgarh, hanumangarh, channudaro,jhukar,amri,khangar.

2. Ganges region

Kousambi,alamgirpur

3. Brahmaputraregion 

4. Mahanadi region

5. Chambal region

Nagda,paramar,kheri,tungini, metea,takraoda,bhilsuri, Maori,ghanta bilaad, Betwa, bilawati, Ashta.

6. Saurashtra region

Rangpur,ahar,prashad patan, lakhabawal, lothal,pithadia,Rojdi, adkot.

7. Narmada region

Navdatoli,maheshwar,Bhagatrav,telod,mehgan, hasanpur.

8. Tapi region

Prakash, bahal

9. Godavari-pravara region

Jwara, Nasik,kopergaon,nivasa,daimabad.

10. Bhima region

Karegaon, chandoli,umbraj,chanegaon,Anacji,hingni,nagarhalli

11. Karnataka region

Brahmgiri, piklihal, maski.