Painted Grey Ware culture

Painted Grey Ware culture
	Map of some Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites
Geographical range	North India ; Eastern Pakistan
Period	Iron Age
Dates	c. 1200–600 BCE
Major sites	Hastinapur; Mathura; Ahichchhatra; Panipat; Jognakhera; Rupnagar; Bhagwanpura; Kosambi
Characteristics	Extensive Iron metallurgy; Fortified settlement;
Preceded by	Cemetery H culture; Black and red ware; Ochre Coloured Pottery culture
Followed by	Mahajanapadas

The Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in the Indian subcontinent, conventionally dated c.1200 to 600–500 BCE,^[1]^[2] or from 1300 to 500–300 BCE.^[3]^[4]^[5] 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.^[6]

Characterized by a style of fine, grey pottery painted with geometric patterns in black,^[7] the PGW culture is associated with village and town settlements, domesticated horses, ivory-working, and the advent of iron metallurgy.^[8] As of 2018^[update], 1,576 PGW sites have been discovered.^[9] 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.^[10]

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.^[11]^[12] 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 from c.700–500 BCE, associated with the rise of the great Mahajanapada states and of the Magadha Empire.

^ Douglas Q. Adams (January 1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 310–. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
^ Kailash Chand Jain (1972). Malwa Through the Ages, from the Earliest Times to 1305 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 96–. ISBN 978-81-208-0824-9.
^ Possehl, G. L., (2002). The Indus civilization: A contemporary perspective, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA; Oxford, p. 29.
^ Bates, J., (2020). "Kitchen gardens, wild forage and tree fruits: A hypothesis on the role of the Zaid season in the indus civilisation (c.3200-1300 BCE)", in Archaeological Research in Asia 21 (2020), Table 1, p.2.
^ Uesugi, Akinori, (2018). "An Overview on the Iron Age in South Asia", in (ed.) Akinori Uesugi, Iron Age in South Asia, Kansai University, Fig. 6, pp. 9–12.
^ Southworth, Franklin, (2005). Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, p. 177.
^ De Laet, Sigfried J.; Herrmann, Joachim (January 1996). History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. To the seventh century A.D. ISBN 9789231028120.
^ Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. ISBN 9781884964985.
^ Uesugi, Akinori (2018). "A Study on the Painted Grey Ware", in Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6 (2018), p. 2.
^ James Heitzman, The City in South Asia (Routledge, 2008), pp. 12–13.
^ Geoffrey Samuel, (2010) The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–51.
^ Michael Witzel (1989), Tracing the Vedic dialects in Dialectes dans les litteratures Indo-Aryennes ed. Caillat, Paris, 97–265.

[Adams1997-1] Douglas Q. Adams (January 1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 310–. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.

[Jain1972-2] Kailash Chand Jain (1972). Malwa Through the Ages, from the Earliest Times to 1305 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 96–. ISBN 978-81-208-0824-9.

[3] Possehl, G. L., (2002). The Indus civilization: A contemporary perspective, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA; Oxford, p. 29.

[4] Bates, J., (2020). "Kitchen gardens, wild forage and tree fruits: A hypothesis on the role of the Zaid season in the indus civilisation (c.3200-1300 BCE)", in Archaeological Research in Asia 21 (2020), Table 1, p.2.

[5] Uesugi, Akinori, (2018). "An Overview on the Iron Age in South Asia", in (ed.) Akinori Uesugi, Iron Age in South Asia, Kansai University, Fig. 6, pp. 9–12.

[6] Southworth, Franklin, (2005). Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, p. 177.

[7] De Laet, Sigfried J.; Herrmann, Joachim (January 1996). History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. To the seventh century A.D. ISBN 9789231028120.

[8] Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. ISBN 9781884964985.

[9] Uesugi, Akinori (2018). "A Study on the Painted Grey Ware", in Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6 (2018), p. 2.

[10] James Heitzman, The City in South Asia (Routledge, 2008), pp. 12–13.

[11] Geoffrey Samuel, (2010) The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–51.

[12] Michael Witzel (1989), Tracing the Vedic dialects in Dialectes dans les litteratures Indo-Aryennes ed. Caillat, Paris, 97–265.

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Map of some Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites
Geographical range	North India Eastern Pakistan
Period	Iron Age
Dates	c. 1200–600 BCE
Major sites	Hastinapur Mathura Ahichchhatra Panipat Jognakhera Rupnagar Bhagwanpura Kosambi
Characteristics	Extensive Iron metallurgy Fortified settlement
Preceded by	Cemetery H culture Black and red ware Ochre Coloured Pottery culture
Followed by	Mahajanapadas