Chalcolithic cultures of India/ full description of the things related to it. Pottery artifacts tools all are included in it.Major informations are added in it. Chalcolithic period basic and important points.Easy for everyone to know about the culture and its importance so read it and gain knowledge.

1. Chalcolithic Cultures of india
I. Chalcolithic cultures of Western India
II. Chacolithic cultures of Central India
III. Chalcolithic cultures of Deccan
IV. Chalcolithic cultures of Middle Ganga Plain

2. Chalcolithic Cultures
• Chalcolithic Period is also known as Eneolithic
period which saw the uses of the metals, of
which the Copper was first.
• The term “Chalcolithic” means Chalco
(Copper) +Lithic (Stone) i.e., the Chalcolithic
Period was the period in which the people
were using copper implements along with the
stone tools.

3. Chalcolithic Cultures of India
• Chalcolithic Cultures of Western India: Ahar Culture
• Chalcolithic Cultures of Central India:
I. Kayatha Culture
II. Malwa Culture
• Chalcolithic Cultures of Deccan:
I. Savalda Culture and
II. Jorwe Culture
• Chalcolithic Cultures of Middle Ganga Plain

4. Chalcolithic Cultures of Western India
(Ahar Culture)
• The Ahar culture, also known as the Banas
culture is a Chalcolithic culture on the banks
of Ahar River of southeastern Rajasthan state
in India, contemporary and adjacent to
the Indus Valley Civilization.
• Situated along the Banas and Berach Rivers, as
well as the Ahar River, the Ahar-Banas people
were exploiting the copper ores of the Aravalli
Range to make axes and other artefacts.

5. Major Sites- Ahar Culture
• Major Sites-
I. Ahar,
II. Balathal,
III. Gilund,
IV. Ojiyana etc.

7. Geographical extent
• More than 90 sites of the Ahar culture have been identified.
• The main distribution seems to be concentrated in the river
valleys of Banas and its tributaries.
• A number of sites with Ahar culture level are also found
from Jawad, Mandsaur, Kayatha and Dangwada in Madhya
Pradesh state.
• In Rajasthan, most of the sites are located
in Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Banswara, Ajmer
and Bhilwara districts, which includes, Ahar, Gilund, Bansen,
Keli, Balathal, Alod, Palod, Khor, Amoda, Nangauli,
Champakheri, Tarawat, Fachar, Phinodra, Joera, Darauli,
Gadriwas, Purani Marmi, Aguncha and Ojiyana.

8. Site-Ahar
• This Culture came to be known as the Ahar Culture because
this Chalcolithic culture firstly came to known from the
excavation of the site in 1952-53 and later in 1953-54 by R. C
Agrawal
• The site of Ahar lies in the Udaipur district of Rajasthan and
on the bank of river Ahar.
• This site was later on again excavated in 1961-62 under the
joint collaboration of Deccan College, Pune, Archaeology and
Museum Department, Rajasthan as well as Melbourne
University, Australia.
• Local people call Ahar as “Dhulkot”.
• As per tradition, it is also known as “Tamravati”.

9. Site – Gilund & Balathal
• The site of Gilund lies on the bank of river Banas in the
Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan.
• This site was excavated by B B Lal of Archaeological
Survey of India in 1959-60.
• The site of Balathal lies in Ballabhgarh tehsil of Udaipur
district in Rajasthan, nearly 40 km north-east of Udaipur
city.
• Balathal was discovered in 1993 by V N Mishra and was
excavated in 1994 and 1995 under the directorship of V N
Mishra, under a joint collaboration of Deccan College,
Pune and Rajasthan Studies, Udaipur.

10. Ceramics- Ahar Culture
• The people of Ahar Culture were using various types
of potteries and are divided into seven class.
• But Typical Ahar pottery is a Black-and-Red ware
(BRW) with linear and dotted designs painted on it in
white pigment.
• Other potteries includes Black-and-Red, Burnished
Grey ware, Red Ware, ochre colour etc.
• It has a limited range of shapes, which include bowls,
Carinated bowls, Dish-on-stands, Dishes, elongated
vases and globular vases.

11. Ahar Ceramic Corpus
• The pottery assemblage of Ahar-Banas Complex has been studied by
various scholars and has been classified differentially
• The latest classification reveals four broad groups i.e. Red Ware,
Grey/Black Ware, Black and Red Ware (BRW) and Buff ware based on
technique of production still prevalent among the traditional potters in
southeast Rajasthan.
• This technique of production involves the manufacturing process starting
from the preparation of clay till the pots leave for markets.
• Each group is classified further based on the surface treatment, so Coarse
Red ware, Thick Red Slipped Ware, Thin Red Slipped Ware, white painted
Black and Red ware etc.
• Each of the subgroups is then divided based on fabric into fine medium or
coarse variety.

12. Potteries - Ahar

13. Grey Ware

14. Ahar
• At Ahar, the proto-historical copper-using Ahar
Period I has provided radiocarbon or 'C14' dates
of between c.2580 B.C. to 1500 B.C., while the
early historical Ahar Period II has been dated
from about post 1000 B.C. onwards.
• This contains objects made of iron, Northern
Black Polished Ware (NBPW), and Kushan and
other historical period artefacts, among other
things.

15. Balathal
• The recent few seasons of excavation at the
site of Balathal have also yielded a twofold
cultural sequence of Chalcolithic and Iron Age
(Misra et al. 1995).
• The Chalcolithic Ahar Culture period at
Balathal has so-far provided radiocarbon dates
between c.2350-1600 B.C., and the excavators
suggest that the antiquity of the site may go
back to c.2600.

16. Excavations at Ahar
• Excavations at Ahar have yielded three phases in the
Chalcolithic Period I, namely Ahar Period Ia, Ib and Ic .
• There is evidence for rice (Oryza sativa) from the site
of Ahar, domesticated cattle, and in much smaller
quantity domesticated sheep, goat, buffalo, pig and dog,
besides bones of wild animals that were hunted.
• Millet (Pennisetum typhoideum or bajra) was also
found, but due to the disturbed nature of the levels
between Period Ic and Period II, it is not certain if it
was known in the Chalcolithic period, or comes from
levels datable to the historical iron-using Period II.

17. Excavations at Ahar-1
• Copper artefacts, including flat axes or 'celts', rings, bangles,
and thin sheets of copper as well as copper wire and tube and
slag are an important feature at Ahar.
• In addition, at Ahar a circular pit, measuring 1.5m in diameter
and 0.6 in depth, and containing copper slag and ashes was
excavated, and is believed to be linked with copper-smelting.
• Other remains from Ahar include stone saddle-querns,
terracotta objects like beads, bangles, ear-studs and animal
figurines, beads of semi-precious stones - including one of
Lapis lazuli, and stone, shell and bone objects.

18. Copper Tools
• The people of Ahar were acquainted with the art of making tools of
copper.
• Tools include choppers, knives, razors, chisels, and barbed and
tanged arrowheads.
• According to the excavators, these objects were manufactured from
copper sheets beaten into the desired shapes.
• They further believe that some of the fire-places found within the
structure complex excavated were furnaces for smelting and
working copper.
• The Ahar people might get the copper from the Khetri Copper mines
of Rajasthan.
• R C Agrawal has found the evidence of copper melting from
Matoon and Umra, situated 12 km from Ahar.

19. Other Findings
• Other remains from Ahar include stone saddle-querns,
terracotta objects like beads, bangles, ear-studs and animal
figurines, beads of semi-precious stones - including one of
Lapis lazuli, and stone, shell and bone objects.
• The discovery of the Lapis lazuli bead from Ahar Period I,
mentioned above, is noteworthy, as it seems to indicate long-
distance interaction. Lapis lazuli has also been found during
excavations at the site of Balathal (pers. comm. V.N. Misra).
All this certainly has implications for understanding trade and
contact between Ahar and contemporary cultures.
• Beads of terracotta, carnelian agate, steatite, etc. also occur, as
do many small terracotta bull figurines - which may have ritual
significance.

20. Houses
• At the site of Ahar, excavations yielded fifteen structural phases
during the Chalcolithic Period I, with remains of rectangular stone
and mud structures, built on foundations of locally available
undressed blocks of schist.
• The walls were reinforced by either a bamboo screen or by the
addition of quartz pieces in clay - a practice still current in the
region.
• The floors were, variously, either of hard burnt clay, or black clay
mixed with yellow silt, and were sometimes also paved with a
bedding of blocks of cemented gravel from the nearby river.
• The structures measured 9.15m x 4.60m on an average, although
longer walls running to a length of 13.70m, and divided into rooms
by mud or mud-brick walls, indicated larger buildings.
• The houses generally had north-south as their longer, and east-west
as their shorter axis.

21. Houses-1
• Roofs were sloping and, at Ahar were, thatched
with bamboo, grass and leaves.
• Most buildings contained large-sized hearths
(or chulhas) with two and more cooking-positions
or 'mouths'.
• The data indicates that the Aharians lived in
settlements with rectangular houses, with the
structural remains pointing to the existence of
sizeable buildings.
•

22. Animals
• As far as the economy is concerned, agriculture, animal-husbandry
and occasional hunting-fishing-fowling is indicated.
• As at Ahar, at Balathal too there is clear evidence for domesticated
cattle, with a small number of sheep, goat and buffalo. (A
preliminary study of the faunal remains from Balathal by P.K.
Thomas & P.P. Joglekar, showed that nearly 73% of the bones of
domesticated animals were of cattle, 19% of sheep/goat, and 3.10%
of buffalo.
• A small number of bones of domesticated pig were also found.
• Wild animal include bones of the Gaur buffalo (Bos gaurus),
varieties of deer and nilgai.
• Fishbones were also found.

23. Agriculture
• Unlike Ahar, however, where though rice was found
there was no evidence of wheat,
• Balathal has yielded evidence for the cultivation of
wheat and barley, besides a variety of pulses and lentils,
the common pea, 'bor' (Zizyphus jujuba) and oilseeds.
• According to Misra, cereals and lentils appear to have
been produced in considerable quantities and were
stored in storage bins, of which several examples have
been found.
• These cereals and lentils were ground into flour on
stone-querns which have been found in large numbers.
• Food was cooked on U-shaped hearths ('chulhas').