Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW)

A distinctive pottery with a highly
1’1Strous surface, usually black but sometimes steel-grey, silvery or golden.
It is wheel-made, normally thin-sectioned and well-fired, giving a metallic
ring. The more common shapes are bowls and dishes, though lids, etc., also
occur.
Distribution: Main concentration in northern India but found as far away as
Afghanistan, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
Date: About 600-200 BC.
Ochre Colour Ware Orange to deep-red pottery, found so far mostly in a
worn-out condition—to the extent that the surface rubs off by mere handling,
leavir:tg an ochre colour on the fingers. Hence the name.
Distribution: Upper Ganga Valley.
Date: Prior to 1200 BC.
Painted Grey Ware Pottery of the grey colour painted with linear and dotted
patterns in black. It is wheel-made, thin-sectioned and well-fired, the more
common shapes being bowls and dishes.
Distribution: Mainly Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and northern Rajasthan.
Date: About 1100-600 BC.
PGW Culture Named, for convenience, after the ware. Distinctive cultural
traits and the Painted Grey Ware; copper in early stages, but soon
supplemented by iron; wattle-and-daub houses; rice and horses.
Distribution: Mainly Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and northern Rajasthan.
Date: About 1100-600 BC.
Pleistocene Geological period immediately preceding the present (Holocene).
It was in the earlier part of this period that man appeared. This period is also
marked by the appearance of the true ox, true elephant and true horse.
Polished Stone Tool Stone tool having a sharp, usually convex, cutting edge
and pointed butt. Made by chipping, pecking and grinding, the last-named
process giving the tool a smooth (polished) surface. Characteristic tool of the
Neolithic times.
Post-cremation Burial Burial of charred human bones after cremation.
Protohistoric Period Literally, the first or earliest period of history. In India
the term is vaguely but usually applied to the period falling between the end
of the Late Stone Age (which itself is not a well-defined point but might be
around 4000 BC) and the beginning of regular history with the Mahajanapadas
in the sixth century BC. Thus, it included not only the Indus civilisation, in
which the art of writing (leading to documentation) was known, but also
other cultures, though materially less advanced, which preceded the historical
period.
Punch-marked Coins Squarish or oblong coins of silver or copper
characterised by a series of punched symbols.
Date: 600-200 BC.
Rock-shelters Places sheltered by overhanging rocks, including natural
large-sized cavities in rock-faces, used as dwelling by pre-historic man.
Rouletted Ware Pottery characterised by concentric dotted bands produced
with the help of a roulette (a toothed wheel). The characteristic shape is a
dish with an incurved rim, the rouletted pattern occurring on the interior of
the base. This ware is wheelmade, fine-grained, and grey to black in colour. It
is well-fired, often giving a metallic ring. The rouletted design was probably
copied from its counterpart on contemporary Mediterranean wares.
Distribution: Mainly south lndia, but examples found along the coast up to
West Bengal.
Date: From about the beginning of the Christian era to AD 200.
Russetcoated Painted Ware Pottery having rectilinear or curvilinear designs
in lime over which a coating of russet-coloured ochre was applied. The main
shapes are bowls and dishes.
Distribution: Mainly south India.
Date: About 50-200 AD.
Scraper Implement of stone, bone or metal having a specially prepared
scraping-edge. Used for scraping hides, smoothening wood, etc.
Slip Liquid clay of the creamy consistency applied as a coating on pottery
before firing. Hence, the term slipped pottery.
Teri-sites Sites associated with dunes of reddened sand, located in the coastal
district of Tinnevelly, Tamil Nadu. On the dunes microliths of the Late Stone
Age were found.
Terracotta The term connotes statuettes and figurines made of baked clay.

this urban civilisation took its particular shape. As per the acknowledged
ideas of history and anthropology, urbanism is not possible without a state
level political organisation. We do not know how a Harappan ruling class
came to power, by what methods it mobilised surplus, or how it managed
inter-regional relations. We are not even sure whether there was one state or
several autonomous but interacting states. Characteristic features of the urban
period are present in a formative form in the ‘Early Harappan’
. This
precursor phase, with great similarities among the Amri, Kot Diji and Sothi
cultures, must have seen intensified interactions between societies, and also
increasing political control. But there are changes in the spread of sites over
the map, in the scale of monumental architecture, and in craft production.
Continuities in domestic artefacts and rural technologies between prestate and
state periods are to be expected. Continuities in artefactual traditions aside,
what we need to know is in what way the intrusion of Mature Harappan traits
at a site founded in an earlier period, represents the imposition of state
institutions over a community. The nature of the transition will also become
clearer if particular aspects of change