RAS question
The Ahar-Banas culture in Rajasthan belongs to which period?
Correct answer: (B) Chalcolithic period.
The Ahar-Banas culture of Rajasthan belongs to the Chalcolithic, or Copper-Stone Age, period.
Explanation
Ahar-Banas is identified as a Chalcolithic culture because it belongs to the Copper-Stone Age phase of early settled life in south-eastern Rajasthan, dated to roughly 3000-1500 BCE. Ancient Asia describes Pachamta as an Ahar Chalcolithic site and refers to substantial remains of the Ahar Chalcolithic culture. It also links the Ahar-Banas sequence with sites such as Gilund. Therefore, the period marker is not Mesolithic or Paleolithic stone-tool prehistory, nor the later Iron Age, but the Chalcolithic horizon represented by Ahar, Gilund, Ojiyana, Balathal and related sites.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Mesolithic period predates the Ahar-Banas culture, while the question's culture is identified as Chalcolithic.
- (C) The Paleolithic period is much older than the Ahar-Banas phase and does not match a Copper-Stone Age culture dated around 3000-1500 BCE.
- (D) The Iron Age comes after the Chalcolithic phase in this regional sequence, so it is later than the Ahar-Banas culture.
Concept
This tests the Rajasthan history syllabus theme of prehistoric and protohistoric cultures, especially the ability to place named regional cultures in the correct archaeological period. It recurs in RAS because sites such as Ahar, Gilund, Ojiyana and Balathal are standard markers for Rajasthan's Chalcolithic cultural sequence.