Bronze Age India

Bronze Age
↑ Neolithic

Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC)

Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Egypt, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan
Bronze Age collapse

South Asia (c. 3000–1200 BC)

Ochre Coloured Pottery
Cemetery H

Europe (c. 3200–600 BC)

Aegean, Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Srubna culture, Beaker culture, Unetice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture, Hallstatt culture, Apennine culture
Atlantic Bronze Age, Bronze Age Britain, Nordic Bronze Age

China (c. 2000–700 BC)

Erlitou, Erligang

arsenical bronze
writing, literature
sword, chariot

↓Iron age

The Bronze Age in South Asia begins around 3000 BC, and in the end gives rise to the Indus Valley Civilization, which had its (mature) period between 2600 BC and 1900 BC. It continues into the Rigvedic period, the early part of the Vedic period. It is succeeded by the Iron Age in India, beginning in around 1000 BC.

South India, by contrast, remains in the Mesolithic stage until about 2500 BC. In the 2nd millennium BC, there may have been cultural contact between North and South India, even though South India skips a Bronze Age proper and enters the Iron Age from the Chalcolithic stage directly. In February 2006, a school teacher in the village of Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu discovered a stone celt with an inscription estimated to be up to 3,500 years old.[1] [2] Indian epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan postulated that the writing was in Indus script and called the find "the greatest archaeological discovery of a century in Tamil Nadu".[1] Based on this evidence he goes on to suggest that the language used in the Indus Valley was of Dravidian origin. However, the absence of a Bronze Age in South India, contrasted with the knowledge of bronze making techniques in the Indus Valley cultures, questions the validity of this hypothesis.

Date range Phase Era
3300-2600 Early Harappan (Early Bronze Age)
3300-2800 Harappan 1 (Ravi Phase)
2800-2600 Harappan 2 (Kot Diji Phase, Nausharo I, Mehrgarh and vinya 
VII)
2600-1900 Mature Harappan (Indus Valley Civilization) Integration Era
2600-2450 Harappan 3A (Nausharo II)
2450-2200 Harappan 3B
2200-1900 Harappan 3C
1900-1300 Late Harappan (Cemetery H); Ochre Coloured Pottery Localisation Era
1900-1700 Harappan 4
1700-1300 Harappan 5

World timeline


Roman Greece Hellenistic period Classical Greece Archaic Greece Mycenaean Greece Minoan civilization Assyrian Babylon Uruk Akkadian Empire Uruk Sumer Maya civilization Maya civilization Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors History of India Cemetery H culture Indus Valley Civilization Cultural periods of Peru Cultural periods of Peru Cultural periods of Peru Norte Chico civilization Greek Middle Kingdom of Egypt

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Subramaniam, T. S. (May 1, 2006). ""Discovery of a century" in Tamil Nadu". The Hindu. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  2. ↑ Subramaniam, T. S. (May 1, 2006). "Significance of Mayiladuthurai find". The Hindu. Retrieved 2008-05-23.