Ochre Coloured Pottery culture

The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP) was a Bronze Age culture that lived in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It existed from about 2000 to 1500 BCE and stretched from eastern Punjab to parts of Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.

Artifacts from this culture share traits with both the Late Harappan culture and later Vedic culture. Some experts think the OCP shows a link between the earlier Harappan Bara style and later groups. The discovery of items like carts suggests possible connections with people moving into the Indian subcontinent from areas near Iran. The OCP was an important part of the North Indian Bronze Age and was later followed by the Painted Grey Ware culture and the Northern Black polished ware culture.

Geography and dating

The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture lived between 2000 and 1500 BCE. Early pieces of their special pottery were found near Jodhpura in Rajasthan, which is close to Jaipur but not the city of Jodhpur. Many places where this culture existed are along rivers like the Sahibi River, Krishnavati river, and Soti river. These rivers start in the Aravalli range and flow towards Yamuna before ending in Mahendragarh district of Haryana.

This culture later spread to the Gangetic plain. Recently, researchers found copper tools and pottery pieces in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

Pottery

The pottery from the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture had a red slip but showed an ochre color when touched by archaeologists, which is how it got its name. Sometimes, the pottery was decorated with black painted bands and patterns cut into the surface. It is often found together with copper hoards, which are groups of copper weapons and other special items like small human-shaped figures.

Agriculture

The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture was based on farming and raising animals. People grew rice, barley, and legumes, and kept cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and dogs. Most villages were small but close together, with houses made from sticks and mud, called wattle-and-daub. They also made small statues of animals and people, as well as decorations from copper and baked clay, known as terracotta.

Copper hoards

Main article: Copper Hoard culture

Copper hoards are collections of copper tools and objects found in northern areas of the Indian subcontinent from around the second millennium BC. These hoards come from places like southern Haryana, northern Rajasthan, the Ganges-Yamuna plain, Chota Nagpur, and Madhya Pradesh, each with its own special kinds of objects. In southern Haryana and northern Rajasthan, common items include flat axes, harpoons, double axes, and swords with antenna-shaped handles. The raw copper used for these items likely came from mines in Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.

Harappan Civilization and Indo-Iranians

Artefacts from the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture share similarities with both the Late Harappan culture and the Vedic culture. Some researchers think this culture may have been influenced by an Indo-Iranian migration into the Indian subcontinent, where it came into contact with the Late Harappans.

Different ideas exist about where the OCP came from. Some link it closely to the Late Harappan phase, while others see it as its own unique style. Archaeologist Akinori Uesugi dates the OCP to around 1900–1300 BCE, viewing it as an expansion of the Late Harappan and a continuation of the earlier Bara style. This Bara style was a regional culture of the Ghaggar valley, rooted in the Indus Civilization.

Researchers have noticed similarities between the carts found in burials at Sinauli and Indo-Iranian culture. Some believe these were ox-pulled carts, suggesting early Indo-Iranian settlers interacting with the Late Harappan culture. According to Kumar, although the eastern OCP did not use the Indus script, the whole OCP shared nearly the same material culture and likely spoke the same language. The OCP culture lived near the Harappan civilization.