COPPER PHASE

More than 40 copper hoards consisting of rings, celts, hatchets, swords, harpoons, spearheads and human-like figures have been found in a wide area ranging from Bengal and Orissa in the east to Gujarat and Haryana in the north­west, and from Andhra Pradesh in the south to Uttar Pradesh in the north. The largest hoard comes from Gungeria in Madhya Pradesh. But nearly half of the hoards are concentrated in the Ganga-Yamuna doab. They presuppose good technological knowledge on the part of the copper~ smith, and cannot be the handiwork of nomadic people or primitive artisans. At places these objects have been dis­covered in association with ochre-coloured pots and some mud structures. Stone tools have also been found in excavations. This suggests that the people of this culture led a settled life, and were one of the earliest Chalcolithic agriculturists and artisans to settle in a good portion of the doab.
CHALCOLITHIC POTTERY The Chalcolithic period was marked by the use of two types of potteries - OCP and BRW.

Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) In 1950, a new pot type was discovered during excavations at Bisauli (Bade and Rajpur Pursu (Bijnor) in Uttar Pradesh, both of tl being copper hoard sites. The pottery was called 0 Coloured Pottery (OCP) because it had a wash of oc Made up of medium grained clay, the pottery's col ranges from orange to red. The Chalcolithic sites associe with this type of ware are ascribed to OCP culture. At 100 such sites have so far been discovered in Uttar Pradt The period covered by OCP culture may roughly be pIa between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. The OCP culture is succeel by Black and Red Ware.

Black and Red Ware (BRW) Excavations at Atranjikl1 in Uttar Pradesh in the early 1960s revealed a disti pottery. Similar pottery system was later excavated at ot
places. This pottery is called Black and Red Ware (BR and is sandwiched between OCP and Painted Grey W (PGW). The characteristic features of BRW are the b1 colour inside and near the rim on the outside, and : c910ur over the rest of the body. This colour combinat has been produced by inverted firing. Though majority the potteries are wheel turned, there are some handme potteries also. Made of fine clay, BRW has a fine fabric w thin walls. BRW pottery with paintings has also been fou in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

BRW pottery has a wide regional distribution. It a covers a vast time span from 2400 BC to the early centur of the Christian era.