AtlasERA
1400 BCE
South Asia (Deccan) · Chalcolithic Culture

Jorwe Culture

c. 1400–700 BCE

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Overview

Late Chalcolithic in Maharashtra; distinctive black-on-red ware and agriculture.

Jorwe Culture

Late Chalcolithic tradition of the Deccan Plateau (Maharashtra). Distinctive black-on-red painted pottery, settled farming villages along the Godavari-Pravara-Bhima river systems, copper tools, and two-tier settlement hierarchy. Succeeds Malwa influence in the region.

Territory Phases

  1. Jorwe Culture1400 BCE – 950 BCE

    Early Jorwe phase — prosperous Chalcolithic farming villages along the Godavari-Pravara and Bhima river systems. Known for distinctive black-on-red painted pottery with geometric motifs, rectangular mud-brick houses, agriculture (wheat, barley, jowar, rice), and copper tools. Over 200 sites, with Daimabad and Inamgaon as major centers.

  2. Jorwe Culture (Late)1000 BCE – 700 BCE

    Late Jorwe phase — contracted and declining. Many sites abandoned, possibly due to climatic shifts. Settlement shifts toward circular huts and semi-nomadic pastoral elements. Culture contracts to the Pravara-Godavari nucleus around Daimabad.

Sources

  1. Hand-drawn polygon
  2. Dhavalikar, M.K. (1988) The First Farmers of the Deccan
  3. Sankalia, H.D. et al. (1960) Excavations at Nevasa
  4. Shinde, V. (1998) Early Farming Communities of the Deccan