Black & Red Ware Culture in West Bengal

The Black and Red ware or the so called Chalcolithic culture in West Bengal was initially identified by late P.C. Dasgupta and subsequently it was recognised through his excavation at Pandurajardhibi in the early sixties, since then, at least, seventy eight Black and Red ware sites have been discovered with its core centre in the Ajay-Damodar divide. Archae-ological research on Black and Red ware culture for the last three decades has brought about many changes in our approaches to the concept, structure and many other related issues connected with these early agricultural communities of West Bengal. But unfortunately despite this work, no comprehensive account on Black and Red ware culture in West Bengal is available. The present volume is expected to fulfil this long demand. The presentworkisdivided into thirteen chapters, of which chapter I deals with the prehistoric background of Black and Red ware culture. Besides, this chapter also introduces the major problems connected with Black and Red ware Culture. An overview of Black and Red ware culture in eastern India has been given in chapter II while chapter III deals with the geology and geomorphology of West Bengal. Chapter IV deals with the distribution of Black and Red ware sites. Excavated Black and Red ware sites have been discussed in chapter V. Chapter VI deals with the classification of potteries while chapter VII deals with painting designs on sherds. Chapter VIII deals with various aspects of iron technology. Chapter IX discusses the nature of transition while ecological background of Black and Red ware culture has been discussed in chapter X. ChapterXI deals with minorantiquities. ChapterXIl dealswith the burial customs and finally chapter XIII contains the Epilogue.