Consider the following statements pertaining to the Ahar Civilization – (A) The natives of Ahar knew copper smelting. (B) Rice was unknown to them. (C) Metal work was one of the means of economy of the Ahar. (D) Black – Red coloured pottery have been found here, on which generally white coloured geometrical designs have been carved. Choose the correct option -

Correct — option (1), A, C and D are correct.

Statements A and C fit the excavated evidence from Ahar, and RPSC's key also counts D as correct; statement B does not fit, because rice was grown there. So the code is A, C and D are correct.

(A) is correct. Bridget and Raymond Allchin's The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan (1982) reports heaps of copper slag found with copper tools at Ahar, and concludes: "Clearly Ahar was a copper-smelting centre".

(B) is wrong. The Allchins write of Ahar's first period that "Among cultivated grains rice was common".

(C) is correct. They note that Ahar had no stone tools at all, while copper axes and other copper objects were numerous, so metal work was part of its economy.

(D) is treated as correct by RPSC's key. The ware is right: the Allchins call black-and-red ware with white-painted decoration one of the dominant wares at Ahar. But they, and Wikipedia's Ahar–Banas culture article, describe the white designs as painted, not carved.

The code does not depend on that word. Option (1) is the only code that includes A and C and leaves out B.

Ahar: copper smelting and rice, with white-decorated black-and-red ware.

Why the others are wrong

• (2)
  A and B are correct — This code keeps A, which is correct, but accepts B, which is wrong. The Allchins report that rice was common among Ahar's cultivated grains, so the people of Ahar knew rice.

  It also leaves out C, which is correct, and D, which RPSC's key counts as correct.

• (3)
  A, B and C are correct — This code gets A and C right but includes B, the one false statement: rice was cultivated at Ahar.

  It also drops D, which RPSC's key counts as correct. Black-and-red ware with white designs is one of the dominant wares found there, though the sources call the designs painted, not carved.

• (4)
  C and D are correct — This code keeps C and D but drops A. The copper slag and copper tools found together at Ahar show that its people knew copper smelting, so A is correct.

  A code that leaves out a true statement cannot be the answer.

Ahar, near modern Udaipur, is the type-site of a Chalcolithic (copper-stone age) culture of the Banas valley, called the Ahar or Banas culture.

The Allchins divide the early occupation into phases IA, IB and IC. Radiocarbon dates, they write, place IA at 2580–2170 B.C. and IC down to 1500 B.C. or later, overlapping with and outlasting the Indus civilization.

Ahar had no stone tools. Copper objects, copper slag, cattle bones, rice and later sorghum mark a farming and copper-working community.

Key facts

• Ahar, near Udaipur, was a copper-smelting centre: copper slag and copper tools were found together (Allchin and Allchin, 1982).
• No stone tools were found at Ahar; copper axes and objects were numerous.
• Rice was common among the cultivated grains of Ahar's period I; sorghum appears in its final stage.
• One of the dominant wares at Ahar is black-and-red ware with white-painted decoration.
• The Allchins give radiocarbon dates of 2580–2170 B.C. for phase IA and down to 1500 B.C. or later for phase IC.

Common traps

• Statement B is phrased as a negative: "Rice was unknown to them" is false because rice was grown at Ahar.
• Statement D says the white designs were carved; the excavated pottery carries white-painted designs. The pottery type, black-and-red ware with white designs, is what the statement gets right, and RPSC's key counts D as correct.
• Statement C rests on two kinds of evidence: no stone tools were found at Ahar, while copper axes, other copper objects and copper slag were.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is one of the dominant wares at the Chalcolithic site of Ahar ?

  • (a)Black-and-red ware with white-painted decoration
  • (b)Painted Grey Ware
  • (c)Northern Black Polished Ware
  • (d)Ochre Coloured Pottery
  Answer(1) — The Allchins describe black-and-red ware with white-painted decoration as one of the dominant wares at Ahar throughout its early phases. Option (2), option (3) and option (4) are names of other pottery traditions, not the ware they record as dominant at Ahar.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was not found at Ahar in its Chalcolithic levels ?

  • (a)Copper slag
  • (b)Stone tools
  • (c)Rice
  • (d)Copper axes
  Answer(2) — The Allchins note the complete absence of stone tools, whether axes or blades, at Ahar. Option (1), copper slag, and option (4), copper axes, were found there; option (3), rice, was common among its cultivated grains.