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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

In the absence of a written script Chalcolithic pottery gives us a fascinating insight into the culture and life styles of the people of those times. Comment critically.

  • UPSC 2013
  • Pre-history and Proto-history

The Chalcolithic — literally the "copper-stone" age, when copper first supplemented rather than replaced stone tools — left behind no script of any kind. In its absence, pottery becomes the single richest and most abundant category of surviving evidence: it is durable, present at nearly every excavated site in large quantities, and — unlike a…

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What the full answer covers

  • Ceramic Technology as a Marker of Craft Advance
  • Regional Traditions and Cultural Diversity
  • Economic Life Read Through Form
  • Exchange, Contact and Long-Distance Trade
  • Art, Ritual and Emerging Social Distinctions
  • Critical Limits of Pottery as a Historical Source

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