RAS question
The Chalcolithic period is characterized by the use of:
Correct answer: (D) Copper and stone tools together.
The Chalcolithic period is characterised by the combined use of copper and stone tools.
Explanation
The Chalcolithic Age literally points to a Copper-Stone stage. Britannica describes the beginning of the Bronze Age as sometimes being called the Chalcolithic, marked by the initial use of pure copper along with the older tool-making material, stone. That is why the defining feature is not copper alone, but copper and stone used together. The distinction from the Bronze Age is also important: bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and this tin-mixing technique had not yet developed for the people in this phase. So option D captures the period's material culture most precisely.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Only bronze tools points to the Bronze Age, whereas the Chalcolithic stage is defined by copper used alongside stone, before bronze-making became the key marker.
- (B) Iron belongs to the later Iron Age sequence; it is not the metal that defines the Copper-Stone stage.
- (C) Only copper tools leaves out the older stone tool-making material that continued alongside copper in the Chalcolithic period.
Concept
This tests the prehistoric chronology concept of identifying periods through their dominant material culture. It recurs in RAS because Ancient Indian History questions often hinge on precise age labels such as Stone Age, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age.