Delivering a lecture on ‘Metal Implementations of Northern Black Polished Ware’ on the concluding day of the three-day national seminar on ‘Studies on the Ganges Civilization: Shifting Paradigms’ in Banaras Hindu University here on Sunday, Dr. JP Upadhyay of Ewing Christian College (Allahabad) said ”The Ganga Valley has been the historical epicentre of ancient India, which passed through numerous socio-economic, religious, political and other cultural vicissitudes”.
The Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology Department of BHU had organised the seminar.
“The Gangetic plains are more or less moist which has caused heavy corrosion and rusting of iron implements. Various kinds of metal implements, preferably of iron have been discovered from the archaeological excavations in the Ganga Valley and elsewhere from different cultural periods but their high intensity is found in the early historical culture with its epicentre in the middle Ganga plain’, he said.
Faculty member at Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology Department in ECC (Allahabad), Dr. Upadhyay said that iron played a vital role in activities like agriculture, warfare, craftsmanship and households etc. and boosted trade and commerce in the Ganga Valley. Dr. Ajay Pratap of the History Department in the BHU delivered his lecture on ‘The Archaeology of Shifting Cultivation: The Case of the Rajmahal Hills, Santhal Parganas and Jharkhand’.
He said that the archaeology of shifting cultivation was a very vexing issue. “The world over we have evidence of beginnings of agriculture and in many places this is termed as ‘incipient agriculture’, an agriculture preceding settled plough cultivation”, he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said that the archaeology of shifting cultivation was a very vexing issue. “The world over we have evidence of beginnings of agriculture and in many places this is termed as ‘incipient agriculture’, an agriculture preceding settled plough cultivation”, he said.
{{/usCountry}}Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology Department in BHU dwelt upon ’Rise of Cultures in The Middle Ganga Plain’. He said that the middle Ganga plain had a distinct cultural identity of its own. “It has been important in understanding the formative period of Indian culture”, he said. Dr. Singh said that the recently excavated site of Agiabir in Mirzapur District yielded interesting data regarding Chalcolithic culture of the middle Ganga plain.