History of Chalcolithic Culture

In this article we will discuss about the history of Chalcolithic culture.

One of the earliest evidence of copper extraction is seen in the Zagros Mountains in Iraq around 6000 B.C. These scattered settlements of metal users come down to the Euphrates and Tigris delta by 5000 B.C. The area between these two rivers occupying nearly 400,000 square kilometers is the cradle of the rise of the Sumerian civilization. Beginning at 4000 B.C. this area seems to have been continuously occupied until about 1000 B.C. when the Assyrian empire is established.

At a slightly later date the Nile valley in Africa and the Indus Valley in the Indo-Pakistan region show a similar development of the rise of an urban civilization. The highest form of socio-cultural development in these three Polar Regions led Gorden Childe to hypothise the concept of ‘Urban Revolution’.

A closer look can, however, show distinct variation in the character of these three centers of culture. Metallurgy, writing and unifying religious force was taken as the pre-requisites of the definition of a civilization. The Nile center does have a script and also a centralise religion but it hardly develops an urban center like one can see in Indus Valley.

Again the Sumerian center develops script and religion but not many citizens’ dwellings instead the centre of power gets fortified with heavy emphasis on military culture. Consequently, it will appear that no universal definition of urban culture should be attempted.

When the first farmers moved to the delta region of the two rivers, ditches had to be dug and clogged channels had to be cleared for more effective adaptation of agriculture within this otherwise climatically harsh environment. With the onset of Chalcolithic even irrigation channels had to be dug out.

With the increase of food surplus as specialized agriculture became successful, trade network was an established activity. The village of Ubaid developed within this socio­economic back drop. Huts made of mud brick and reeds were clustered together during the Ubaid period. The economy basically depended on cereal crops which were harvested with clay sickles fitted with microliths.

Goats, sheep and some cattle were herded on the flood plain. Abundant fish and water fowl were caught and fruits of date palm collected to support the agriculture. The pottery consists of brilliantly painted bowls, dishes and flasks. The Eridu temple, which was also constructed entirely by mud brick occurring around 4750 B.C., is an evidence of a much organized and regulated society.

The settlement of Uruk and Ur nearly 120 Km apart, show the rise of an entirely theocratic state with temples shaped in the manner of Ziggurat housing the surplus and organizing the redistribution. Highly hierarchical in structure these city structures were fortified and had separate quarters for the craftsmen. From 3000 to 2000 B.C. the Sumerians ruled over a large number of satellite villages and their agricultural products.

The break of the central control and trade caused fissions in the larger Sumerian city state in the latter half of the second millennium B.C. The Elamites appears around 1600 B.C. and finally even they are eliminated when the Assyrian empire is established.

Chalcolithic Culture in Europe:

Unlike the earlier held views when the origin of both agriculture and metallurgy was sought from the middle-east, archaeologists now are willing to accept that copper work was developed independently in south-eastern Europe.

Between 4680 to 4200 B.C. occurs the Varna cemetery, in Bulgarian Black Sea coasts. This site has yielded 130 richly decorated graves with numerous fine gold and copper tools. The burials offer striking evidence for differential wealth. In the Eastern Europe settled farming societies had lived on the edge of the huge Russian steppe land for hundreds of years and in all probability had contacts with both the Bulgarian and South Russian groups.

This group in south Russia is called the Kurgan culture. These represent a wide spread copper using agriculturalists who lived in rectangular thatched huts, cultivated many crops and also domesticated animals which probably included the horse. They even used wheeled vehicles and made copper as well as stone battle axes.

These widely dispersed south Russian Chalcolithic folks reached as far in the west as Holland around 3000 B.C. Their peculiarity in the west is designated by ceramics with cord impression on them. These globular bowls are, as such, called corded ware.

In central and northern Europe, they are described as Battle Axe, or Corded Ware Culture. These replaced the Danubians of the Neolithic period. At many Megalithic sites one can see the corded group co-existing for a while and then totally replacing the former. Many linguists believe that the corded ware culture brought Indo-European language in Europe.

Between 2700 to 2000 B.C. a much widely distributed culture with characteristic bell shaped beakers as their pottery spread all over the southern and coastal regions of Europe. Thus, like corded in the north the Bell beaker culture brings metals to the southern regions.

Around 2500 B.C. tin is seen as being used to form an alloy with copper to form bronze. It is first recorded in Czechoslovakia and then it does not take much time to spread over the entire Western Europe. Once this technology takes root numerous weapons and ornaments made in cast metal start appearing.

Amber trade, introduction of plough for more intensive production and extensive stock breeding forms the most vibrant Bronze Age culture of central and Western Europe. Between 1200 – 800 B.C. the east Hungarian Urnfield culture takes over. This new group is named so because they started cremating their deads and burying the ashes in urns. Urnfield people began to make full use of horse drawn vehicles and lived in fortified villages. Sheet metal helmets, shields and slashing swords distinctly indicate the warfare culture that was adopted by them.

Arrival of iron and then the scythians completely changed the political enclaves of Europe and probably marked the beginning of numerous principalities which the Romans encountered in later centuries.

Chalcolithic Culture in Africa:

Metal age in Africa is almost entirely dominated by the Egyptian civilization. Although metal reaches most of the other regions of Africa by 1000 B.C. but this does not bring about substantial change in their highly organized pastoral or hunting -gathering economy.

Beginning of Christian era sees the appearance of the Bantus involved in iron working. Copper and bronze does not appear to have any impact on the pre-existing populace in the entire continent, although feudal states of kinship based kind may have started forming in Western Africa by the beginning of the first millennium B.C.

The Nile valley polarised the microlith using Badarian farmers till about 3600 B.C. The Amratian of Upper Egypt represents a farther polarization of scattered farmers under a more organised society. Elegant stone vessels in alabaster and basalt start appearing along with the usual ceramic types. Magnificent flint knives and daggers also start appearing. These were taken to indicate the gradual rise of eliticism in the culture. No wonder, this phase is also referred to as Pre-Dynastic phase in Egyptian Chalcolithic.

Between 3100 to 2181 B.C. the Old Kingdom grew and is best exemplified at Giza. Some of the pyramids built during this period are as high as 480 ft and spread over nearly 13 acres area. The rise of a pictorial language system helped the Egyptian dynasties to develop scribes and train them to maintain administrative law, trade and other details.

This period maintained an entirely despotic relation with the primary producers. During 2000 B.C. a less despotic dynasty began at Thebes in Upper Egypt, and this continued till 1786 B.C. This period is referred to as Middle Kingdom. Finally the New Kingdom appeared and flourished between 1567 to 1085 B.C. when the rule of the Pharoes could expand as far east as Nubia and Palestine.

Civilization in Egypt all these two thousand years does not lead to any urban settlement. It is true that during the later periods some clustered quarters of workers have been found but these defy the characters known from other urban centers. Material culture and primary production base are also little known because of the fact that most of our knowledge of Egyptian Chalcolithic is based on royal tombs and tombs of other important members of the ruling clan.

It would appear from these grave goods that heavy trading of exotic stones, gold bronze and finished objects were maintained on the basis of a surplus which was collected directly from the producers scattered all along the Nile. Warfare objects are far less conspicuous when one compares these with the Sumerians.

Chalcolithic Culture in India:

Chalcolithic India produces two distinctly different features. While the west shows a spread of 1 million square kilometer area of a very distinct urban growth from around 2700 – 1600 B.C.; the rest of India shows variegated village structures along with copper, bronze and even iron during 2300 B.C. to 1100 B.C. There is no uniformity in these village cultures and only for convenience they are grouped into the eastern zone, the central and western zone and the southern zone.

The west shows large settlement sites from Mehrgarh near Quetta valley from as early as 5600 B.C. There is no doubt that Mehrgarh because of its strategic position and also because of its knowledge of cotton could easily enter into extensive trade with centers of higher culture further west.

There must have been numerous similar scattered sites in the hills towards Afghanistan along suitable water holes all along 4000 B.C. Such settlements soon had to move to areas of more adequate water supply and sites like Kot Diji show the evidence of such attempts.

The Indus and its tributaries get finally occupied under a consolidated group which had to organise a great deal of labour. The evidence of Jodhpura and Ganeshwar in Raj as than with copper tools at 2880 B.C. having fair indication of Pre-Harappan features known from Kalibangan (Rajasthan) would tend to indicate that colonization of the Indus was contributed by communities lying east of Indus as well.

Forests had to be cut and enormous amount of fire wood had to be logged to fire tons of bricks of same size to create sprawling city centers. The character of these laid out cities are so uniform that many believe that the various Indus city centers were linked by a federal system.

The individual metropolitan centers were probably headed by clan heads of the same ruling lineage. Huge granaries and baths adjoining to them were taken as indicating ‘Priest-Kings’ organising the collection and redistribution of produce. Objects of art, game, measures and deluxe pottery from this granary complex — usually referred to as the Citadel; more or less prove them to be the quarters of the ruler.

The lower city shows rows of dwelling structures almost in the plan of the modern blocks of any planned city. Wells and toilets in some houses and absence of them or even the occurrence of smaller number of rooms in others have led many to interpret a stratified society among the Harappans.

While the identical structures were not found in Haryana and Saurashtra but the expansion of the Harappans over these regions can be simply proved by the occurrence of the Indus Valley material cultural objects all over these regions.

South-east Rajasthan shows another kind of a village culture developing their distinct pottery with inverted firing and decoration with streaks of white colour. These are usually referred to as Black-and-Red ware pottery. Terra Cotta spindles, bangles and toys are other distinctive features of this cluster. These sites are known from the Banas valley at Ahar, Ballathal and Gilund. (2600 – 2150 B.C.).

Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal has another group of copper age village sites where tiny celts, microliths and wheel made Black-and-Red ware pottery is found with copper. Chirand in Chhapra district and Pandu Rajar Dhipi are two important sites of this zone (1755 B.C.) Kayatha, Eran Nagda and Navdatoli are the heavily occupied villages from the central Indian zone which is believed to have had their flourishing around 1600 B.C.

These occurrences are grouped together as Malwa culture. Some authors believe that the area had already received metal around 2000 B.C. from a group who had links with the Harappans. This is identified as the Savalda culture. Around 1300 B.C. the Malwa occupations decline and southward movement towards the various tributaries of Godavari in Maharashtra is discernable.

Inamgaon represents one such migrated group. The pottery of these people is distinct in shape, fabric and decoration and is usually referred to as the Jorwe culture on the basis of this pottery type. Cultivation of millet appears to take up the dominant subsistence base.

Further south along the tributaries of Krishna, and also along the adjoining mountains occur the Deccan Chalcolithic sites. These were essentially hill dwellers who had peripheral cultivation of Ragi and Hulgi – the two common millets of this zone. They buried their dead under the floor of their dwelling places and created huge urns to bury their dead in some cases.

Sometimes they have executed art on the rocks outside their dwellings. These are in the form of punched dots and depict human figures as well as horse driven carts. Pottery basically remains black in colour with very little decoration. But all these evidences show no trace of urbanization.

A second urbanization is visible only during Iron Age in the Gangetic region. Even these urban centers remain fairly limited in distribution and can hardly be compared with the Harappan expansion.