Northern Black Polished Ware culture

Northern Black Polished Ware culture appears on the timeline as a people or culture of Gangetic plain and Nepal (South Asia) from c. 700 to 200 BCE, a span of 500 years. Its people spoke Indo-Aryan languages (Vedic, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Sinhala).

The second urbanization of the Ganges plain, named for a glossy black luxury pottery. Walled cities such as Kaushambi, Rajgir and Pataliputra, punch-marked coins and the Brahmi script all appear in this period.

See Northern Black Polished Ware culture on the interactive timeline

Facts

Dates

c. 700 to 200 BCE

Duration

500 years

Type

People or culture

Region

Gangetic plain and Nepal, South Asia

Language family

Indo-Aryan

Events in South Asia during its time

• 483 BCE Death of the Buddha
• 326 BCE Alexander at the Hydaspes
• 261 BCE Ashoka's Kalinga war
• 247 BCE Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka

Neighbours in South Asia

• Maurya Empire 322 to 185 BCE
• Anuradhapura Kingdom 377 BCE to 1017 CE
• Kuru Kingdom c. 1200 to 500 BCE
• Indo-Greek Kingdom c. 200 BCE to 10 CE
• Achaemenid eastern satrapies c. 535 to 330 BCE
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom c. 256 to 120 BCE
• Magadha (Haryanka dynasty) c. 544 to 413 BCE
• Nanda Empire c. 345 to 322 BCE
• Panchala c. 1100 to 350 BCE
• Early Cholas c. 300 BCE to 300 CE

Elsewhere in the world at the same time

• Carthage c. 814 to 146 BCE, North and West Africa
• Roman Republic 509 to 27 BCE, Europe
• Parthian Empire 247 BCE to 224 CE, Middle East
• Greek city-states c. 800 to 338 BCE, Europe
• Neo-Assyrian Empire 911 to 609 BCE, Middle East
• Xiongnu Empire c. 209 BCE to 93 CE, Central and North Asia
• Ptolemaic Kingdom 305 to 30 BCE, North and West Africa
• Achaemenid Empire 550 to 330 BCE, Middle East
• Western Han 202 BCE to 9 CE, East Asia
• Athens 508 to 322 BCE, Europe

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