Origins of iron-working in India

[Guest guest]

The referenced website is:

 

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/Possehl_Gullampalli.htm

This reproduces, Possehl, Gregory L., and Gullapalli, Praveena, 1999,

The early iron age in South Asia. In Vincent Pigott, editor, The

Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World. University Museum Monograph

89, MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, Volume 16.

Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, pp.

153-175.

 

I have cited another reference, that which was accepted on 30 April

2003 by Antiquity. Click on files in Indiancivilization .

Click on tewari.pdf File name: Origins of iron-working in India:

Rakesh Tewari (2003).

 

The report is at: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/tewari/tewari.pdf

paged 536-545. This report is significant because recent excavations

have produced clear evidence of iron-working at Malhar, Dist.

Chandali -- Lat. 24deg.-59'-16"N; Long. 83deg.-15'-46" where a

damaged circular clay furnace, comprising iron slag and tuyeres and

other waste materials stuck with its body in a stratigraphically

dated location. (See Figure 6, page 542). "As discussed elsewhere

(Tewari et al. 2000) the sites at Malhar, the Baba Wali Pahari, and

the Valley are archaeologically linked to the area of Geruwarwa Pahar

which appears to have been a major source of iron ore. The Geruwarwa

Pahar situated to the southeast of the Baba Wali Pahari, is full of

hematite. Villagers reported (as a tradition passed down from several

generations), that the agarias (a particular tribe known for their

iron smelting skills) from Robertsganj side, used to come in this

area to procure iron by smelting the hematite...The presence of

tuyeres, slags, finished iron artefacts, above-mentioned clay

structures with burnt internal surface and arms, revealed at Malhar,

suggest a large scale activity related to manufacture of iron tools."

(p. 542). Malhar is located on river Karamnasa which joins River

Ganga at Varanasi. Two radiocarbon dates recorded at this site range

around 1800 cal. BCE (Table 2, p. 540) -- precise dates are: 1882 and

2012 BCE.

 

Rakesh Tewari provides the following summary of the evidence from

Malhar and other Central Ganga Plain and Eastern Vindhya sites:

 

Discussion

These results indicate that iron using and iron working was prevalent

in the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas from the early

second millennium BC. The dates obtained so far group into three:

three dates between c. 1200-900 cal BC, three between c. 1400-1200

cal BC, and five between c. 1800-1500 cal BC. The types and shapes of

the associated pottery are comparable to those to be generally

considered as the characteristics of the Chalcolithic Period and

placed in early to late second millennium BC. Taking all this

evidence together it may be concluded that knowledge of iron smelting

and manufacturing of iron artefacts was well known in the Eastern

Vindhyas and iron had been in use in the Central Ganga Plain, at

least from the early second millennium BC. The quantity and types of

iron artefacts, and the level of technical advancement indicate that

the introduction of iron working took place even earlier. The

beginning of the use of iron has been traditionally associated with

the eastward migration of the later Vedic people, who are also

considered as an agency which revolutionised material culture

particularly in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Sharma 1983:

117-131). The new finds and their dates suggest that a fresh review

is needed. Further, the evidence corroborates the early use of iron

in other areas of the country, and attests that India was indeed an

independent centre for the development of the working of iron.

[unquote](pp. 543-544).

 

Thus, both the Gufkral evidence evaluated by Possehl and Gullapalli

and the evidence from Malhar and other Central Ganga Plain and

Eastern Vindhya sites discussed by Rakesh Tewari point to an

indigenous evolution of iron-working in India dated to early 2nd

millennium BCE.

 

The evidence leads to a reasonable hypothesis that the metal-workers

of the chalcolithic periods of Sarasvati Civilization moved into the

Ganga and Eastern Vindhya iron-age sites to continue the tradition of

metal-working, exemplified by the asur-s of Mundarica tradition. No

wonder, the Sarasvati hieroglyphs have a significant number of

homonyms from the Mundarica tradition to represent metal-working

artefacts such as furnaces and minerals used to produce metal

products.

 

The cultural continuity and the indigenous origins of metal-working

are areas for further research as excavations proceed on over 2000

Sarasvati River basin sites.

 

Kalyanaraman