The Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) culture
- The OCP or the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture is named after a ceramic type which is extremely rolled and fragile.
- It has a wash of red ochre which is easily washed off and hence its name.
- OCP sites have been found in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
- Copper hoards in northern and eastern India have been linked to OCP. However, opinions vary on whether OCP and Copper Hoards are distinct phenomena or tied to different cultures.
- The evolution of OCP is separated into phases, with the third stage characterized by a significant shift in climate and migration to the upper Ganga basin and middle Ganga valley.
Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture
- Painted Grey Ware (PGW) is a very fine, smooth, and even-coloured grey pottery, with a thin fabric. It was made out of well-worked, very high quality clay.
- The main concentration of the sites is in the Indo-Gangetic divide, Sutlej basin, and upper Ganga plains.
- Structural remains at PGW levels consist mainly of wattle-and-daub and mud huts. Unbaked bricks and one baked brick were found at Hastinapura.
- Jakhera represents a fairly-evolved proto-urban stage of this culture.
- The PGW sites indicate a subsistence base that included cultivation of rice, wheat and barley. Double cropping was possibly practiced.
- There is no actual evidence of irrigation facilities, but a few deep circular pits outside the habitation area at Atranjikhera are indicative of kachcha wells.
- Animal husbandry was also practiced.
- Iron artifacts unearthed at PGW sites include weapons such as arrowheads, spearheads, blades, and daggers, as well as carpentry-related objects.
- Iron tools such as sickles, ploughshares, and hoes have been found in mature PGW stages, indicating agricultural activity.
