Old NCERT Gist (RS Sharma): The Stone Copper Phase | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

Chalcolithic Settlements (Copper-stone Age)

Copper was the first metal to be used.
Some earlier escavations were from Arhar(Banas culture) and Gulund from Rajasthan and also include other adjoining areas like Maharashtra (Jorwe, Nivasa, Chandoli, Daimabad) and Madhya Pradesh (malwa, Kayatha, Eran), U.P. (Allahabad), Bengal (Chirand).

Calcolithic Cultures

• People used small tools and weapons (Stone Bladed)
• Pottery used- Black and Red ware
• They domesticated animals and cultivated food grains. (Wheat and Rice,
• Bajra, Maisoor near Navdatoli ( on the banks of Narmada)
• Remains of camel have been found.
• It is not clear whether they were acquainted with horse.
• They mostly lived on fish and rice.
• They were generally not acquainted with Burnt Bricks
• Their houses were made up of burnt bricks.
• Circular pit houses were found at Inamgaon (Maharashtra)
• Houses were five rooms were found. It means families were large.
• This phase is called Jorwe culture surrounding near Jorwe Village.
• Calcolithic culture was based on a village economy. (No urban settlements)
• They produced microliths and manufactured clothes.
• There are regional differences in production of cereals.
• In Maharashtra, people buried their dead in urns under the floor of their house in North-south direction.Pots and some copper objects would be deposited along with them. They believed that the dead would use them in their next birth.
• Terracotts figure shows that they believed in mother goddess.
• Bull served as a religious cult.

Importance of Chalcolithic Phase

• They were the first to use painted pottery.
• In Rajasthan and Maharashtra, people seems to have been colonizers.
• These communities founded the first villages in India.
• Indications of postholes around the houses.

Limitations of Chalcolithic culutures

• Burial of large number of children in Maharashtra.
• Their society and culture did not promote longevity.
• Supply of copper was limited rural.
• People did not know the art of mixing tin and copper and hence could not produce bronze.
• They did not know the art of writing.

Copper Age in India

• Half of them consisted along the Ganga Yamuna Doab.
• They were one of the first artisans.
• They were contemporaries of Harappans.