Write a short note on Chalcolithic Cultures.
Chalcolithic period both metal and stone were utilized for the manufacture of the equipment in day-to-day life. Since this is the first metal age, copper and its alloy bronze which melt at low temperature were use for the manufacture of various objects during this period. By far the most important sites of this period are the Indus valley sites.
The Indus valley civilization is basically urban civilization with all advanced amenities. On the other hand, the Chalcolithic culture of Central, Eastern and Southern regions of India show somewhat entirely different features than those of the Indus valley sites, and deserve to be dealt in a different footing.
The Chalcolithic cultures of the above regions basically represent the farming communities that existed during 2000,700 B.C. Depending on the features exhibited, four important cultural trends have been identified.They are
- Kayatha (Dt. Ujjain, MP)
- Ahar or Banas (Rajasthan
- Malwa (Nagda, Navdatoli. Maheswar, Eran, Mandsor in MP and Diamabad and Inamgaon in Maharashtra)
- Jorwe (Jorwe, Nasik).
A comprehensive view of the Chalcolithic culture as revealed by the different sites can be discussed as under : Though the Chalcolithic people of Harappa made extensive use of bricks, the Chalcolithic people in the rest of India did not use any such material. The walls were constructed out of mud or mud and wattle. The houses were either circular or rectangular on plan. The houses usually had only one room, but multi roomed houses were also existing as evident at lnamgaon.
The houses used to be plastered with cow dung and lime. They had some light roof supported on wooden posts as post-holes were encountered in large number in all the Chalcolithic sites. lnamgaon also has yielded evidence of a pit house which is circular on plan with post holes on the periphery.
