Grey Area
An Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture of the western Gangetic plain and Ghaggar-Hakra valley, conventionally dated c.1200 to 600–500 BCE.
via Wikipedia: Painted Grey Ware culture · see source
The Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley, conventionally dated c.1200 to 600–500 BCE, or from 1300 to 500–300 BCE. It is a successor of the Cemetery H culture and black and red ware culture (BRW) within this region, and contemporary with the continuation of the BRW culture in the eastern Gangetic plain and Central India. Characterized by fine, grey pottery painted with geometric patterns in black, the PGW culture is associated with village and town settlements, domesticated horses, ivory-working, and the advent of iron metallurgy. As of 2018, 1,576 PGW sites have been discovered.
- Type
- Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture
- Affiliation
- Western Gangetic plain and Ghaggar-Hakra valley
- Primary Role
- Village and town settlements with iron metallurgy
- Mental State
- Proto-urban or semi-urban stage
- Status
- Succeeded by Northern Black Polished Ware c. 700–500 BCE
Lore & Background
The PGW culture probably corresponds to the middle and late Vedic period, i.e., the Kuru-Panchala kingdom, the first large state in the Indian subcontinent after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The later vedic literature provides a mass of information on the life and culture of the times. It is succeeded by Northern Black Polished Ware c. 700–500 BCE, associated with the rise of the great Mahajanapada states and of the Magadha Empire. Akinori Uesugi regards PGW as having three periods within North Indian Iron Age: Period I (c. 1300–1000 BCE) when it makes its appearance in the Ghaggar valley and the upper Ganga region; Period II (c. 1000–600 BCE) when it spreads into the western part of the Ganga valley; and Period III (c. 600–300 BCE) with interactions to the east.
In Their Own Story
The PGW culture cultivated rice, wheat, millet and barley, and domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. Houses were built of wattle-and-daub, mud, or bricks, ranging in size from small huts to large houses with many rooms. Some sites, including Jakhera in Uttar Pradesh, demonstrate a 'fairly evolved, proto-urban or semi-urban stage' of this culture, with evidence of social organization and trade, including ornaments of gold, copper, ivory, and semi-precious stones, storage bins for surplus grain, stone weights, paved streets, water channels and embankments. At Bhagwanpura in the Kurukshetra district of Haryana, excavations have revealed an overlap between the late Harappan and Painted Grey Ware cultures, large houses that may have been elite residences, and fired bricks that may have been used in Vedic altars. Fresh surveys by archaeologist Vinay Kumar Gupta suggest Mathura was the largest PGW site around 375 hectares in area.
Reader's Guide
The PGW pottery shows a remarkable degree of standardization. It is dominated by bowls of two shapes, a shallow tray and a deeper bowl, often with a sharp angle between the walls and base. The range of decoration is limited – vertical, oblique or criss-cross lines, rows of dots, spiral chains and concentric circles being common. Although most PGW sites were small farming villages, 'several dozen' PGW sites emerged as relatively large settlements that can be characterized as towns; the largest of these were fortified by ditches or moats and embankments made of piled earth with wooden palisades, albeit smaller and simpler than the elaborate fortifications which emerged in large cities after 600 BCE. Arts and crafts of the PGW people are represented by ornaments (made from terracotta, stone, faience, and glass), human and animal figurines (made from terracotta) as well as 'incised terracotta discs with decorated edges and geometric motifs' which probably had 'ritual meaning', perhaps representing symbols of deities. There are a few stamp seals with geometric designs but no inscription, contrasting with both the prior Harappan seals and the subsequent Brahmi-inscribed seals of the Northern Black Polished Ware culture.
Did You Know?
- As of 2018, 1,576 PGW sites have been discovered.
- Fresh surveys by archaeologist Vinay Kumar Gupta suggest Mathura was the largest PGW site around 375 hectares in area.
- At Bhagwanpura in the Kurukshetra district of Haryana, excavations have revealed an overlap between the late Harappan and Painted Grey Ware cultures.
- The PGW culture probably corresponds to the middle and late Vedic period, i.e., the Kuru-Panchala kingdom, the first large state in the Indian subcontinent after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
- A sample of beans and grains from a transition layer at Alamgirpur offered a radiocarbon dating of 3659 ± 31 years BP (1647 BCE).