The Chronology of Northern Black Polished Ware : Recent Perspectives (original) (raw)
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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology
As NBPW was discovered for the first time from the northern part of India; and due to its black color and polished/glazed appearance it was named as Northern Black Polished Ware. Although the surface color of 90% of NBPW borders around jet black and brownish black, the remaining 10% range between gold, gold-blue, silver, pink, brown black, steel blue, bronze, orange, purple, deep red, violet, etc. Excavations at Kausambi and Rajghat in Uttar Pradesh, Rajgir, Sonepur, Chirand, and Oriup in Bihar, Chandraketugarh, and Mangalkot in Bengal and several other sites yielded such varied NBPW sherds. Similarly the finds of NBPW is neither limited to north India nor the polish and glaze has been consistent throughout. Agrawal (2009) rightly said, NBPW is an enigmatic ceramic and its very name is a bit anachronistic because it is neither northern, nor polished, nor even black! In spite of this fact the frequency of black shade and color is significantly higher than other shades and color, regarding, the term "polished" used in its nomenclature it may be said that irrespective of shades and color its quality is more or less constant wherever it is found.
Northern Black Polished Ware: A Gazetteer
Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 8.1: 208-289, 2020
Archaeology deals with both tangible and intangible elements of culture. The intangible elements such as societal formations and trading relations are reflected and interpreted through tangible elements (cultural assemblage: ceramics, antiquities, and structures). Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) denotes a sudden change in ceramic technology and also the societal formation. The changes in societal formation is reflected by the formation of the Solasa Mahajanapadas (16 great Kingdoms) after the Matsyanyaya (big fishes devouring the smaller fishes) and due to fewer and bigger oligarchic polities, standardisation was becoming the norm. The disappearance of NBPW coincides with the disintegration of Mauryan Empire and eventually went out of production in Sunga-Kushana period. The distribution pattern of this 'fossil ware' establishes the fact that it originated in Ganga Yamuna doab and spread to rest of India due to its cultural contacts rather than being produced at various regions. This paper lists and maps all the NBPW finding sites till present in Indian archaeology in an effort to examine the spatiotemporal distribution of the same.
The Northern Black Polished Ware Culture Of Middle Ganga Plain: Recent Perspective
Manaviki , 2014
The Middle Ganga Plain stretches for about 300 km. from the Himalayan foothills in the north and Vindhyan ranges in the south. It attained its present form during the post-Tertiary period when this deep trough was filled up by fine alluvium brought down from the Himalayas in the north with an average thickness of 1300-1400 meters (Singh, 1971). The general conception of the rise of culture in Middle Ganga Plain is Hunting Gatherer (Mesolithic or Food Collectors) then the Early Food Producing or settling permanently in the region (Neolithic). The Iron Age or Late Farming Communities in India denotes the period between the first general appearance of Iron as smelted metal and beginning of Early Historic Period. The chronology of the iron is different in different geographical zones. In context of Middle Ganga Plain, it has a time bracket between early part of second millennium BCE and late part of first millennium BCE. In middle of this time bracket NBPW emerges which was earlier considered as the diagnostic pottery type when it was dated around 600 BCE. Still many of the scholar believes on the above facts as numbers of the sites having NBPW has the same dates but with new researches done in last decade of the 20 th century new facts has come out. With excavation of Ayodhya in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh first time earliest dates appeared as 1000 BCE as it was a controversial site many questions arises but after the appearance of other dates the NBPW of Ayodhya got well support. Northern Black Polished Ware was discovered at Sarnath in excavation in 1904-05, followed by excavation at Bhita and was described-1) and assigned a date of 8 th century BCE on the basis of the excavated remains. It was criticized by Codrington on the ground that unscientific method of digging was employed at the site and such an early date is not possible for NBPW (1929, 101) while in the lower levels of Bhir mound Taxila, Marshall reported it as Greek Black Ware and dated to 4 th century BCE which was supposed to be imported or local, but it was Krishna Deva and Mortimer Wheeler who coined t Northern Black Painted Wares can be called as best creation of Pottery of ancient India. This pottery is made onfast turned wheel. This is very thin, made of well fine lavigated clay, well fired and possessing metallic sound and is very lustrous. The color of this pottery is generally black (jet-black, bluish black and black) some other shades in deep blue, golden, silvery, brown,chocolate, violet, deep red and sun bright colored potteries are also found. NBP sherds are not painted generally but some painted sherds are also found. Paintings on them are done by some colored dark pigment. Painted motifs are generally geometric in pattern but some birds and floral designs are also reported. Some exclusive potsherds are having stamped decoration. The important shapes are Bowls, Dishes, Vases and Jars. This pottery can be divided into Monochrome and Bi-chrome. There are numbers of works available for study but still the technical part of this ware is unsolved and this fact made this pottery unique. Actually this pottery gains so much notable fact about the NBPW is its availability or quantity on a site. It only contributes
Devender Singh
This paper introduces the culture assemblage through the ceramic tradition with the special reference of Haryana and this study examines cultural sources of variation in ceramic compositional patterning. The state of Haryana holds a glorious place in the cultural history of India. The Haryana region, which know the special landmark of Harappan civilization and after the decline of this civilization, this region was succeeding by various cultures such as PGW, NBPW, Sunga-Kushana and Gupta"s in early historic period. The main objective of this paper will be an overview of advancement and transformation in the perspective of culture through pottery and observe the relationship with other cultures in early historic period in Haryana. Ceramics are playing main role to know any civilization characteristic. Introduction The land of Haryana has a tradition of rich cultural and archaeological heritage from earliest times. The high fertility land of this region gave impetus to the origin and development of culture from Hakra to Late Harappan civilization continuously and more than that.
The rich Painted Grey Ware culture is credited with having initiative of extensive agriculture in Upper and Middle Ganga Valley, thereby laying the foundation of historic territorial states. Painted Grey Ware (1200-800B.C.) has demonstrated that significantly large populations continued to occupy Ganga daob region. As the name illustrates PGW were fine wheel well fired grey pottery on which patterns in lines and dots were painted with black pigments before firing. It was made out of well worked high quality clay. The PGW was succeeded by new and striking pottery known as Northern Black Polished Ware (600-100B.C.). This black lustrous pottery was a hallmark of uniform culture extending from Punjab to lower Ganga Valley in east and Vindhyas in south. This culture provided the milieu for early cities of classical India, for establishment of dynasties like Saisunagas, Nandas and Mauryas, for the development of characteristic Indian script Brahmilipi and of Indian coinage. Thus, NBPW was the originator of rich heritage-second Urbanisation in India (6 th century B.C.) that has given a new dimension to Indian History.
Exploring Ceramic Variability in Iron Age South India: Social and Political Implications
Along with the emergence of iron technologies and new forms of mortuary treatment, the South Indian Iron Age is also marked by the appearance of new and widespread ceramic wares, technologies, and vessel forms. Elegant and finely made black and red wares, polished black wares and polished red wares largely replace the simple plain wares of the South Indian Neolithic; and at least some portion of vessels are now produced using wheel-forming technologies. In addition, the localized stylistic traditions of the Neolithic are supplanted by region-wide forms, particularly in finely made serving bowls, which are recovered in both settlement and ritual contexts. In this paper, I report on ongoing analyses of ceramics from excavations at the Iron Age settlement and mortuary site of Kadebakele, located in northern Karnataka (co-directed by the Karnataka Department of Archaeology and Museum, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M. Sinopoli). I review the nature and distributions of ceramic forms recovered in 9th-3rd century BCE levels at Kadebakele, and draw inferences to large patterns in ceramics forms and their role in diverse ritual and consumption activities across peninsular India during a period of dramatic sociopolitical change.
A Study on the Painted Grey Ware
Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, 2018
This paper examines the morphological and technological features of the Painted Grey Ware (hereafter PGW) that characterises the Iron Age in North India in order to better understand its historical significance. While this diagnostic type of ceramics has been widely regarded as having a great potentiality for understanding the Iron Age society in North India, very few examinations on the ceramic evidence itself have been made in recent years, while there were vigorous discussions on PGW and relevant issues back in the 1960s and 1970s (Gaur ed. 1994; Dikshit 1969, 1973). Unless the origin, developments and decline of PGW are well examined based on the increasing data set, the historical significance of PGW cannot be elucidated. This paper attempts to present a starting point for further studies and researches.
Geochemical studies of the ancient Indian glazed ware
The ancient Indian glazed pottery, which is often terme d as northe rn black polishe d ware (NBPW), has a high lustrous finishing and it is closely related to the second urbanization in the Indian subcontine nt. In this communication, an atte mpt has been made to review previous research relate d to manufacturing technology, especially the surface gloss and firing process, using SEM and EDS technique s. The objective of this communication is to address some of the proble ms relating to technological competence thus achieved at that point of time. NBPW was a specialized craft in ancie nt India, the competence of which gradually evolve d.
2020
This research is part of a wider scientific Italian-Indo project aiming to shed lights on pottery fabrication and trade circulation in the South India (Tamil Nadu region) during Early Historical Period. The recent archaeological excavations carried out in Alagankulam, a famous harbour trading with the eastern and western world, and Keeladi, the most ancient civilization centre attested in Tamil Nadu region, provided numerous fragments of archaeological ceramics, including fine ware and coarse ware potteries. Up to the typological studies, different classes of potteries were recognised, suggesting the presence of local productions and possible imports and imitations. Studied materials include common Indian products, i.e. black-and-red table wares and water jugs, along with red slipped wares, rouletted ware, northern black polished ware, which provenance identification is still debated in the current literature. In fact, for long time, the misattribution of several ceramic classes has...