The Bronze Age in South Asia begins around 3000 BC, and in the end gives rise to the Indus Valley Civilization, which had its (mature) period between 2600 BC and 1900 BC, it continues till the aryans invade the indus valley civilization, only the ruins are left now. Later aryans drove the natives to south and then starts the vedic period, the early part of the Vedic period. It is succeeded by the Iron Age in India, beginning in around 1000 BC.
South India, by contrast, remains in the Mesolithic stage until about 2500 BC. In the 2nd millennium BC, there may have been cultural contact between North and South India, even though South India skips a Bronze Age proper and enters the Iron Age from the Chalcolithic stage directly. In February 2006, a school teacher in the village of Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu discovered a stone celt with an inscription estimated to be up to 3,500 years old. Indian epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan postulated that the writing was in Indus script and called the find "the greatest archaeological discovery of a century in Tamil Nadu". Based on this evidence he goes on to suggest that the language used in the Indus Valley was of Dravidian Origin. However, the absence of a Bronze Age in South India, contrasted with the knowledge of bronze making techniques in the Indus Valley cultures, questions the validity of this hypothesis.
World timeline
See also
- Periodization of the Indus Valley Civilization
- Iron Age India
- Indus Valley civilization
- Indus script
References
