Indian Antiquary Vol 34

SR No.: 032526
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 548
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 251

OCTOBER, 1905.) THE COPPER AGE AND BRUNZE IMPLEMENTS IN INDIA. 231
in the fact alloged. Although the evidence, so far as it goes, is against a universal stage of onlture characterized by the sole use of copper, abundant proof is available that in several widely separated countries the metal first used for implements of peace and war was copper, as pare as ancient metallurgiste could procure it." In Babylonia the proof of the priority of copper to iron is particularly obvious, being "stratigraphical," as Mr. Read calls it, that is to say, the copper implements are found buried in strata below those containing iron objects. In some of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean also it is certain that copper preceded bronze, and the same proposition may be affirmed of Northern Italy, Hungary, and Ireland. The Copper Age of India is indeed best illustrated by comparison with that of Ireland; but, in the eastern country, copper was directly followed by iron, while, in the western, a prolonged Bronze Age intervened.
Copper implements have been found in considerable numbers in eighteen out of the thirtytwo Irish countries, to the north, south, east and west. About 150 specimens have been recorded, 84 of which are in the National Museum at Dublin, and 16 in the Day collection at Cork. These facts, which in themselves are sufficient to prove the existence of a copper age in Ireland, do not stand alone, being supported by much corroborative evidence. The copper celts frequently present forms obviously copied from stone models, and exbibit a gradual development of shapes better suited to the malleable and more costly metallic material; while these metallic shapes, in their turn, have reacted upon the later stone celts, which copy metallic patterns. No copper celt has any ornament, or is provided with a stop-ridge. The Irish copper objects are never found associated with articles of bronze or iron, or other things belonging to a later period. All these observations apply to India as well as to Ireland. The Indian examples of copper implemente, nearly 500 in number, of very primitive forms, are distributed over a wide area, are never associated with objects of apparently later date, and frequently resemble the Irish in type, while including peculiar forms unknown in Europe. The Irish and Indian implements also agree in chemioal composition, both being practically pure copper with small admixtures of tin, lead, or other impurities. One implement from Waterford (W. 10) contains the unusually large percentage of 2.74 lead ; but in twelve other Irish specimens analysed the alloy is much less in amount. Mr. Coffey's researches have proved that it is quite possible for a prehistoric copper implement to contain as much as 2 per cent. of tin, and yet to have been intended to be regarded as copper, not bronze; and it is by no means certain that the limit of 2 per cent. may not be exceeded. Primitive metallurgic processes were imperfect, and copper extracted from ore containing tin, lead, or other metal, was liable to idelade an appreciable amount of foreign metal.
I now proceed to describe and discuss the relios of the Indian Copper Age, including certain silver objects associated with copper in the Gungeria hoard and in Baluchistân.
Implements of practically pure copper have been found at twelve sites in India, besides two in Baltohistan, which may be regarded as archeologically a part of India. Eight of the sites are in the upper Gangetic valley (Map), two are in Bengal, one in Sind, and one in the Central Provinces.
Beginning from the north, the first locality recorded is the village of Rajpur, in the Chandpur police-circle, Bijnor District, United Provinces of Agra and Oude. Chandpur is situated in N. lat. 29° 8, E. long. 78° 13 50", some sixty miles from the foot of the outer Himalayan range. Here sixtoen objects were found, including nine 'flat celts,' one long bar-celt of the Gangeria type, and six barbed spear- or harpoon-heads of the Bithur type. (Plate I.).
Mr. George Coffey, Curator of the Department of Antiquities in the National Museum, Dublin, has discussed the Irish copper age with much elaboration in a valuable paper entitled 'Irish Copper Celts.' (J. Anthrop. Inst., Vol. XXXI., July-December, 1901, with 14 platou.) I examined the Dublin collection with Mr. Coffey's assistance in 1908, and have also sorutinised the specimens in the British Museum and the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford.
• I am indebted to the kindness of the Depaty Ourator of the Lucknow Provincial Museum, BAbd G. D. Gangali, for photographs of these objects, of which no notice has been pablished previously,
e a brief mention of the find in the Annual Report of the Museum for 1895-96. They were received at the Museum May, 1896