Chalcolithic Age / Copper-Stone Age (c. 3000−500 BCE)

• Chalcolithic Age (Copper-Stone Age): 3000–500 BCE, marked by the use of copper and stone tools.
• Cultures: Pre-Harappan, Harappan contemporaries, and post-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures.
  • Important pre-Harappan Chalcolithic sites: Ganeshwar (near Khetri Mines, Rajasthan), Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Banawali (Haryana), Kot Diji (Sindh, Pakistan).

Key Features:

• Domesticated animals: Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, buffaloes, but not familiar with horses. Animals were slaughtered for food, not milked.
• Agriculture: Produced wheat, rice, bajra, lentils, and pulses; in eastern regions, fish and rice were staples. Practiced slash-burn cultivation (jhum).
• Pottery: Used black and red pottery, painted with white designs; potter’s wheel used only by men, not women.
• Housing: Lived in thatched houses made of mud bricks, small village-based economy.
• Burial practices: Differences in burial direction across regions; high infant mortality.
• Social inequality: Chiefs lived in rectangular houses, others in round huts.
• Religious practices: Venerated the Mother Goddess, possibly worshiped the bull (as seen from bull terracottas).
• Coppersmiths and artisans: Knew copper-smelting, stone working, and produced beads from semi-precious stones (carnelian, steatite, quartz).
• Chalcolithic regions: Distinct regional variations in cereal production, pottery, and burial practices (e.g., rice in eastern India, barley and wheat in western India).

Important Chalcolithic Sites:

• • Ahar and Gilund (Rajasthan): Known for smelting, metallurgy, and stone houses; occasional use of burnt bricks at Gilund.
  • Nevasa, Jorwe, Navdatoli (Maharashtra): Non-Harappan culture; Daimabad (largest Jorwe culture site, famous for bronze goods).
  • Inamgaon: Known for large mud houses and circular pit houses.
  • Chirand, Senuar, Sonpur (Bihar), Mahishdal (West Bengal).
  • Kayatha, Malwa, Eran (Madhya Pradesh): Rich Chalcolithic ceramics, non-Harappan cultures, mud-plastered floors at Kayatha.