.
Government Museum, Mathura and Rajghat (
Uttar Pradesh), about 500-400 BC.
British Museum. The diagnostic artifact and namesake of this culture is the Northern Black Polished Ware, a luxury style of
burnished pottery used by elites. This period is associated with the emergence of
Indian subcontinent's first large cities since the decline of the
Indus Valley civilization; this re-urbanization was accompanied by massive embankments and fortifications, significant population growth, increased social stratification, wide-ranging trade networks, specialized craft industries (e.g., carving of ivory, conch shells, and semi-precious stones), a system of weights,
punch-marked coins, and writing (in the form of
Brahmi and
Kharosthi scripts, including inscribed
stamp seals). Scholars have noted similarities between NBP and the much earlier
Harappan cultures, among them the
ivory dice and combs and a similar system of weights. Other similarities include the utilization of
mud, baked
bricks and
stone in architecture, the construction of large units of public architecture, the systematic development of
hydraulic features and a similar
craft industry. There are also, however, important differences between these two cultures; for example,
rice,
millet and
sorghum became more important in the NBP culture. However, the same cities continued to be inhabited, and the period from was still "marked by urban prosperity all over the subcontinent," corresponding to the
Shunga and
Satavahana Dynasties, and the
Kushan Empire. NBPW have also been reported from various sites in Southern Thailand which were engaged in maritime trade activity with India in 1st millennium BCE. However, archaeologist Phaedra Bouvet regards these shards as KSK-Black Polished Wares, not linked technically to NBPW, except from their shape and style, produced between fourth and second centuries BCE, but indeed in contact with real NBPW producing populations. ==Proto-Northern Black Polished Ware==