________________
SAMBODHI
Harappa culture sites like Mehrgarh but the old workings have not been studied in detail and therefore we do not have dates going back to 3000 B C or so PG Ware sites, NBP Ware and early iron sites
DP AGRAWAL
74
Now about 21 radiocarbon dates are available for PG sites and it is clear that their time spread is between 800-400 B C The solitary early date from Atranjikhera site is aberrant The NBP Ware sites are covered between 600-300 BC though, some of the dates seem to go back a little bit earlier The dates from Pirak suggest the advent of iron in the beginning of first millennium B C The Sohgora Chalcolithic period dates go back c. 1400 B C but otherwise the black and red ware is confined between 800-300 B C Probably, it does not have a very diagnostic cultural value It is found with different types of assemblages
Hanikara presents some early first millennium dates for beginning of Iron
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is grateful to his colleagues Dr Sheela Kusumgar and M G. Yadava for multiple help
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Agrawal, D P and M G Yadava, 1995 Dating the Human Past, Pune ISPQUS
2 Baskaran, M G Rajagopalan and B 1 K. Somayajulu 1989. 230Th/234U and e dating of the Quarternary carbonate deposits of Saurashtra, India, Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section) 79 65-82
3 Kusumgar S, N Bhandan and D P Agrawal 1985 Fission track ages of the Romishi Lower Karewas. In Climate and Geology of Kashmir the Last Four Million Years (eds) D P Agrawal, S Kusumgar and R. V Krishnamurthy New Delhi Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers pp 245-247
4 Lal, B B 1997 The Earliest Civilisation of South Asia, New Delhi Arya Book International
5 Possehl, GL 1994 Radiometric Dates for South Asian Archaeology Publisher not given
6 Semaw S, P. Renne, J W K. Harris, C S Feibel, R L Berner, N Fesseha and K. Mowbray 1997 25 million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia Nature, vol 385, pp 333-336