Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:22:41.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Craft specialization and social organization in the Chalcolithic Deccan, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Vasant Shinde
Vasant Shinde*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, Pune 411006, India
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Deccan Chalcolithic and its sites

Systematic archaeological research began in the Deccan after 1950 when a Chalcolithic settlement was discovered at Jorwe near Sangamner in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra state. The Deccan, which includes the present states of Maharashtra, (except for the western coast and some parts of Vidarbha in the east) and northern Karnataka, falls in a semi-arid zone with a precipitation ranging between 400 and 900 mm. There are three major river valleys in the Deccan, the Tapi in the north, the Godavari in the centre and the Bhima in the south. Microecological variations in each valley have considerably affected the settlement patterns of the early farmers. Altogether 150 Chalcolithic settlements have so far been discovered in this part of India. The Tapi valley in the north, considered to be one of the most fertile tracts in the country and well watered by the Tapi and several of its perennial tributaries, was extensively occupied, for over 100 Chalcolithic settlements have so far been discovered there (Shinde in press). It was also observed that there was a general tendency to locate a settlement away from the main river because of the danger posed by the severe monsoon floodings. Most of the settlements were located along the banks of its tributaries, which are safe. In the Godavari and Bhima basins, on the other hand, because of the inadequate perennial water supply and limited availability of fertile soil, there were sporadic settlements (Shinde 1989) (FIGURE1 ). On the basis of environmental studies, surface finds, site location, the extent and thickness of habitation deposits, the Chalcolithic sites in the Deccan have been divided into different categories such as a regional centre, a farming village, a farmstead, a herding unit, and a camp to exploit localized resources (Shinde in press).

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 249 , December 1991 , pp. 796 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

In their classic 1977 paper, Peebles & Kus defined the characteristic archaeological correlates of ranked societies. Here, those correlates are identified and explored in sites of the Deccan Copper Age, to indicate just what manner of social structure prevailed in the dry yet fertile lands of central India in the 2nd millennium BC.

References

Binford, L.R. 1972. Mortuary practices: their study and potential, in Binford, L.R. (ed.), An archaeological perspective: 208–43. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M.K. 1979. Early farming cultures of the Deccan, in Agrawal, D.P. & Chakrabarti, D.K. (ed.), Essays in Indian protohistory: 247–65. New Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M.K. 1988. The first farmers of the Deccan. Pune: Ravish Publishers.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M.K., Sankaua, H.D. & Ansari, Z.D. (ed.). 1988. Excavations at Inamgaon I: parts i-ii. Pune: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M.K., Shinde, V. & Atre, S. 1990. Small site archaeology: excavations at Walki, Bulletin of Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute 50: 197–228.Google Scholar
Evans, R.K. 1978. Early craft specialization: an example from the Balkan Chalcolithic, in Redman, C.L. et al. (ed.), Social archaeology: beyond subsistence and dating: 113–29. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Krishnamurty, R.V., Agrawal, D.P., Mishra, V.N. & Rajaguru, S.N. 1981. Palaeoclimatic influences from the behaviour of radio-carbon dates of carbonates from sand dunes of Rajasthan, Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences (Earth Science) 90: 155–60.Google Scholar
Mujumdar, G.G. & Rajaguru, S.N. 1964. Comments on soils as environmental and chronological tool, in Mishra, V.N. & Mate, M.S. (ed.), Indian prehistory: 248–53. Pune: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute.Google Scholar
Pappu, R.S. 1988. Site catchment analysis, in Dhavalikar, et al. (ed.) part i: 107–20. Pune: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute.Google Scholar
Peebles, CS. & Kus, S. 1977. Some archaeological correlates of ranked societies, American Antiquity 42: 421–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1973. Monument, mobilization and social organization in neolithic Wessex, in Renfrew, C. (ed.), The explanation of culture change: models in prehistory: 539–58. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1974. Beyond a subsistence economy: the evolution of social organization in prehistoric Europe, in Moore, C. (ed.), Reconstruction of complex societies: 69–85. American School of Oriental Research Bulletin 20 (supplement).Google Scholar
Sali, S.A. 1986. Daimabad 1974–79. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.Google Scholar
Shinde, V. 1987. Farming in the Chalcolithic Deccan, India, Tools and Tillage 5(4): 214–27.Google Scholar
Shinde, V. 1988. A note on the copper punch, in Dhavalikar, et al. (ed.) part ii: 725–6.Google Scholar
Shinde, V. 1989. New light on the origin, settlement system and decline of the Jorwe culture of the Deccan, India, South Asian Studies 5: 59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shinde, V. In press. Early/arming communities in the Central Tapi Basin: study of settlement and subsistence patterns. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.Google Scholar
Shinde, V. & Pappu, R.S. 1990. Daimabad: The Chalcolithic regional centre in the Godavari basin, Bulletin of Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute 50: 307–16.Google Scholar
Tylecote, R.F. 1962. Metallurgy in archaeology. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. & Johnson, G. 1975. Population, exchange and early state formation in southwestern Iran, American Anthropologist 77: 267–89.Google Scholar