Archaeological Sources – Material Remains and Coins

At a Glance

• Method Vertical and horizontal excavation
• Dating Radiocarbon (C14), pollen analysis
• Coins Copper, silver, gold and lead
• Most gold coins Guptas
• Coin study Numismatics
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Sources, Geography and Historiography

Where Does It Fit?

This is the third topic of the Ancient History subject. The previous topic covered modern historians, and this one begins the sources. The next topic covers inscriptions. Previous topic: Modern Historians of Ancient India (Colonialist, Nationalist and Marxist Approaches).

What Are Material Remains?

In short: archaeology digs up the physical remains of past life, which is the only source for periods before writing.

Prehistory covers the period without written sources, while history rests on written material. Prehistoric sites are not prominent habitation remains but fossils of humans, plants and animals, usually on hill slopes and river terraces, along with Stone Age tools. Writing was known in the Indus culture by the middle of the third millennium BC but is undeciphered, so the Harappans are placed in the proto-historic phase, as are the Chalcolithic cultures. Decipherable writing appears only with the Ashokan inscriptions of the third century BC. Stone temples in the south and brick monasteries in the east survive, but most remains lie buried in mounds. Excavated sites give successive layers of culture, like the Ramayana and Mahabharata layers. Megaliths in the Deccan show the burial practices of the Iron Age.

Vertical excavation digs lengthwise on a part of the site to get the sequence of cultures. Horizontal excavation digs the whole mound or most of it to give a full picture of a period, but it is very expensive and rare, so we lack a full picture of material life in many phases. Remains survive better in dry areas of western UP, Rajasthan and the north-west; in the humid mid-Gangetic plains and deltas even iron corrodes and mud structures are hard to detect, and only burnt brick and stone remain.

How Are Remains Dated and Read?

Radiocarbon dating is the most important method. Carbon-14 is present in all living things and decays at a uniform rate once the organism dies and stops absorbing it, so measuring the loss gives the age. The half-life is given as 5568 years, and objects older than about 70,000 years cannot be dated this way. Pollen analysis shows the history of climate and vegetation and suggests agriculture in Rajasthan and Kashmir about 7000 to 6000 BC. Chemical analysis of metal artefacts locates the mines and traces the development of metal technology, and animal bones show whether animals were domesticated and how they were used. Geological and biological studies explain soils, plants and animals, which are needed to understand prehistory to about 3000 BC. Excavations reveal villages in Baluchistan around 6000 BC and the material culture of the Gangetic plains in the second millennium BC, with settlement layouts, pottery, houses, cereals and tools.

What Can Coins Tell Us?

The study of coins is numismatics. Ancient coins were of copper, silver, gold and lead; clay moulds for coins have been found in large numbers, mostly of the Kushan period (the first three centuries AD), and disappear in the post-Gupta period. Without banks, people stored money in earthenware and brass vessels as hoards, many including Roman coins, now in museums at Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and Chennai. The earliest coins carry a few symbols, while later ones show kings and divinities and give names and dates. Find-spots show where coins circulated. Coins have allowed reconstruction of dynasties such as the Indo-Greeks, who ruled in the second and first centuries BC. Some coins were issued by guilds of merchants and goldsmiths with the ruler’s permission, showing the importance of crafts and commerce. The largest number of coins date to the post-Maurya period, in lead, potin, copper, bronze, silver and gold, and the Guptas issued the most gold coins, signs of flourishing trade up to a good part of the Gupta period. Few post-Gupta coins suggest a decline of trade. Cowries were also used as low-value coins, appearing in large numbers in post-Gupta times. As an analytical point, archaeology tests literary claims, and this is why Inscriptions as a Source of Ancient Indian History and Literary Sources of Ancient Indian History must be read with it.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Method Archaeological terms are asked often
• Coinage Economic inferences from coins
• Proto-history Why the Harappans are proto-historic

What Came Next?

The next topic describes inscriptions as a source of ancient Indian history. Next topic: Inscriptions as a Source of Ancient Indian History.

Key People and Terms

• Prehistory Period without written sources
• Proto-history Period with undeciphered writing
• Numismatics Study of coins
• Carbon-14 Isotope used for dating
• Megalith Large stone burial structure
• Potin Alloy used for coins

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on this topic ask what archaeology and coins can and cannot show. These points add depth.

• Methods Excavation and dating
• Coins Dynasty, trade, religion
• Limits Preservation and unpublished finds