Cemetery H culture

The Cemetery H culture was a Bronze Age culture in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, from about 1900 BCE until about 1300 BCE. It is regarded as a regional form of the late phase of the Harappan (Indus Valley) civilisation (alongside the Jhukar culture of Sindh and Rangpur culture of Gujarat), but also as the manifestation of a first wave of Indo-Aryan migrations[citation needed], predating the migrations of the proto-Rig Vedic people. Quotes The intrusive culture, as represented by its pottery, has in origin nothing to do with the Harappa culture; its ceramic differs from that of the latter both in finish and in decoration, and its dwellings . . . arc notably more roughly constructed than those of Harappa proper. Its analogues have not yet been identified, and it appears in fact as abruptly as did its Harappan predecessor. The suggestion has been made [by Childe] very hesitatingly, that the Cemetery H intruders "may belong to the Aryan invaders. Wheeler (1947) in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. Cemetery H "may reflect only a change in the focus of settlement organization from that which was the pattern of the earlier Harappan phase and not cultural discontinuity, urban decay, invading aliens, or site abandonment, all of which have been suggested in the past" (56). Kenoyer (1991b) in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. Even the supposedly alien cultures like those labelled as Jhukar and Cemetery H are regional transformations... from the Harappan civilization itself. Lal, B. B. (1997). The earliest civilization of South Asia : rise, maturity, and decline. Aryan Books International., 283 The exact relationship of Cemetery H with the Mature Harappa Culture, however, has long been a matter of debate. ... Wheeler, following Gordon Childe, was inclined to think that the Cemetery H people may represent the Aryan invaders who destroyed the Harappan Civilization. However, fresh excavations at Harappa by Dales, Meadow and Kenoyer seem to suggest a different story... Lal, B. B. (1997). The earliest civilization of South Asia : rise, maturity, and decline. Aryan Books International., 262 The final occupation of the protohistoric period is characterized by Cemetery H or Late Harappan ceramics. ... Period 5 may reflect only a change in the focus of settlement organization from that which was the pattern of the earlier Harappan phase and not cultural discontinuity, urban decay, invading aliens, or site abandonment, all of which have been suggested in the past. JM Kenyoer, 1991, quoted in Lal, B. B. (1997). The earliest civilization of South Asia : rise, maturity, and decline. Aryan Books International., 262 External links Category:Archaeological sites in India