THE OCHRE COLOURED POTTERY: RECONSIDERING ISSUES and PROBLEMS Author(S): Deepak K
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THE OCHRE COLOURED POTTERY: RECONSIDERING ISSUES AND PROBLEMS Author(s): Deepak K. Nair Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 73 (2012), pp. 1161-1171 Published by: Indian History Congress Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156317 Accessed: 31-10-2018 16:44 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Indian History Congress is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Indian History Congress This content downloaded from 128.148.231.34 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:44:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE OCHRE COLOURED POTTERY: RECONSIDERING ISSUES AND PROBLEMS Deepak K. Nair Introduction The problem of the Ochre Coloured Pottery emerged with the findings of the 'copper hoards' over a passage of time. B.B. Lai is credited to have put these implements into archaeological context when he conducted excavations at Bisauli and Rajpur Parsu and found an ill- fired, thick, ochre washed rolled ware. The same pottery was unearthed by him in the lowest levels at Hastinapur excavations. This led him to christen this pottery as 'Ochre Coloured Potter' which is characterized by a peeling off of the ochre powder while handling. Since then a large number of sites have been reported in the upper Gangetic valley, the Sutlej-Yamuna divide which consists of the modern states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. From north-eastern Rajasthan also the so-called OCP sites have been reported in large number. Some of the sites have also been excavated such as Ahichchhatra, Ambkheri, Bargaon, Daulatpur, Hastinapur, Lai Qila, Noh, Saipai, Ganeshwar, Jodhpura and Madarpur.1 The OCP sites are generally very small in terms of area.2 The occupational deposit is also very less which ranges from 40 cm to 1.5 m. Most of the OCP sites have scanty material remains except the pottery which is found in relatively substantial quantity. Earlier the OCP was considered only as an ill-fired, fragile, and rolled pottery but later a good number of well slipped and painted pottery was also unearthed from some sites such as Lai Qila. A reconsideration the issues and problems of the Ochre Coloured Pottery For a long time the OCP sites have been understood in terms of a uniform archaeological entity called 'culture'. From such an understanding of the OCP sites itself, emanates a host of problems which leads to complicated and contradictory situations which involves various issues pertinent to the explanatory theorizing of archaeologists. In this paper, an attempt is made to bring forth the issues related to the OCP through the study of the history of archaeological research conducted so far and especially in recent times. Before getting into detailed discussion, some of the problems to be enumerated are the This content downloaded from 128.148.231.34 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:44:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 162 IHC: Proceedings, 73rd Session , 2012 identification of the OCP, association with the copper hoards, problem of its origin and association with other archaeological 'cultures', chronology, and the concept of an 'archaeological culture' which clubs together various so called OCP sites. Figure 1 : The extent of major excavated and explored OCP sites The Category of OCP It seems that one of the basic problems related to OCP is its very identification. As OCP sherds leave an ochre colour while handling, there is a general tendency to ascribe sherds to OCP when they are ill- fired and show signs of weathering especially in case of a state of bad preservation. It is the failure of some archaeologists to distinguish adequately between the aspects of a ceramic type which are related to its manufacture, function and stylistic variation and those which are related to its state of preservation.3 Due to this, in some cases pot sherds of Bara have been identified as OCP4 and sometimes some Harappan sherds of unrecognizable shapes have been called OCP. Even, H.D. Sankalia mistook the red pottery at Nasik, Jorwe, Newasa, and Navda Toli as the Gangetic red pottery in association with some copper implements.5 In fact, there is a very small percentage which looks like OCP in correct terms i.e. showing fading characteristics. At Lai Qila, the ochre coloured sherds account for only 10 percent of the total pottery. Therefore, in the absence of clear identification characteristics This content downloaded from 128.148.231.34 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:44:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Archaeology ļ 163 such as the fabric and typology, there are chances of pottery being erroneously identified as OCP. The relationship with Copper Hoards The problem of the copper hoards runs parallel to the OCP; in fact it is the copper hoards which ushered in the OCP problem. Right from 1 822, 6 copper hoard objects have been regularly found all over India. Copper Hoards are generally comprised of flat, bar and shouldered celts, double edged axe, hatchet, rings and specialized objects such as antennae swords, hooked swords, hooked and unhooked spearheads, barbed harpoons and anthropomorphic figures. Among these, specialized objects are only found in the Gangetic valley of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The copper hoards have been generally found independently, not with any pottery. The problem arises here that they are found in the vast geographical area of Gangetic valley and are generally considered to be associated with the OCP. Due to this, if any pottery is found in the vicinity of the find spot of a Copper Hoard object, it is immediately labelled as OCP even if the find spot is located near the middle Ganga valley where there are no OCP sites.7 Lai and Gupta have suggested a possibility that the aboriginals of the Ganga valley were the authors of the copper hoard implements. The discovery of copper smelting activities and copper axes in a large number from the sites of Ganeshwar (Sikar, Rajasthan) and some other sites in north-eastern Rajasthan have given rise to the assumption that the source of the copper hoards is Ganeshwar including the Gangetic hoards as this is the region where copper smelting activities have continued from a time in distant past due to the readily available copper ore at Khetri. However, it has to be made clear that the copper hoard objects found at Ganeshwar are different from the specialized Gangetic objects. Ganeshwar copper objects such as thin blades, arrow heads, pins and fish hooks have not been reported from the copper hoards of western Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, specialized Gangetic copper hoard objects such as harpoon, antennae swords, anthropomorphic figures etc. are conspicuous by their absence at Ganeshwar and elsewhere in Rajasthan. The OCP authorship of the copper hoards is not beyond doubt. First at Mitathal, two copper rings and a celt were found in Period IIB which belongs to the late Harappan period. Two other copper rings and a barbed harpoon were also found without any stratigraphie context. Secondly, in recent excavations at Sanauli, a late Harappan burial site, two copper antennae swords and some copper rings have been found. This content downloaded from 128.148.231.34 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:44:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 164 IHC: Proceedings, 73rd Session, 2012 As far as the relationship of the Doab OCP vis-à-vis the Copper Hoard is concerned, it is still unaccounted for. Some sites such as Bisauli, Rajpur Parsu, Bahadarabad, Baharia, Nasirpur, and Madarpur have yielded copper hoard objects but their association to the OCP has been suggested on circumstantial grounds. In stratigraphie context, so far only Saipai has provided a definite evidence for copper hoard objects as being associated with the so called OCP. At thoroughly excavated sites such as Lai Qila and Atranjikhera no notable copper hoard objects have been found. Furthermore, the copper hoard objects are also not homogeneous. Types and sub-types can be found in all specialized copper hoard objects. For example, Madarpur has yielded strange anthropomorphic figures which are dwarfish and have no parallel in the Upper Doab sites. However, some copper anthropomorphic figures corresponding to the Madarpur specimens have been found in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. Therefore, it is not necessary that the so called 'OCP' sites are inevitably associated with the copper hoards, especially when the OCP itself is not a well defined entity. OCP and other Archaeological Cultures On the cultural affiliations and status as a separate culture of the OCP, different views have been expressed by different archaeologists. The OCP using people were considered as 'Degenerate Harappans' who in the late phase of the Harappan culture, due to the disturbances in the Indus-Saraswati divide, coinciding with the decline of the main urban centres migrated to the Ganga- Yamuna doab.8 On the contrary, some archaeologists held that OCP has its own status as a separate entity.9 Archaeologists such as Suraj Bhan, Dikshit, Gaur and Gupta categorise the OCP into two complexes.10 OCP of Upper Doab exhibits Harappan influence, whereas the OCP, found at the sites of Atranjikhera and Lai Qila located in the southern part of the Upper Doab, is almost free from the Harappan influence.