Archaeological Ages

Stone Age					Most primitive stone tools (end of Pleistocene)
Old Stone Age		Paleolithic Age 2.6 million years - 10000BC			Climate: Glacial People used stone tools More than one human species existed Hunting and Gathering
Middle Stone Age		Mesolithic Age 20000BC – 9500BC			End of final glaciation People used polished stone tools Villages of Huts, walled cities Domestication of Plants and animals
New Stone Age		Neolithic Age 10200BC – 4500BC			Use of pottery Only one human species : Homo Sapiens Pioneered use of Cereals Evolution of true farming
Copper Age
		Chalcolithic Age 5000BC Ahar Banas Culture (Rajasthan)			Copper Ores of: Aravalli; Khetri, Rajasthan Kanyagurukul, Narela, Haryana Jorve, Maharashtra Malanjkhand, Madhya Pradesh Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal
Bronze Age
		Copper Hoard Culture 3000BC -1200BC			Development of first writing
		Ochre Colored Pottery Culture 2000BC			Indo-Aryans movement 2nd millennium Bronze Age culture of Indo-Gangetic: Ganges-Yamuna Plain
		Cemetery H Culture 1900BC -1300BC			Named after cemetery near Harappa (area H) Cremation in India first attested Bones stored in painted pottery burial urns Rice became main crop
				Indus Valley	Mature Harappa	Late Harappa
			3300BC	2800BC	2300BC	1800BC	1300BC
		Indus Valley Civilization			Bodies were buried in wooden coffins New techniques in Metallurgy: Copper, Lead, Tin and Bronze
Iron Age					Marked by prevalent use of Iron and/ steel Introduction of Alphabetic characters Written language Avesthan Gathas, Indian Vedas, Hebrew Bible Sanskrit and Chinese literature flourished OCP together with Cemetery H and Gandharva Culture was a factor in formation of Vedic Civilization
		Black and Red Ware Culture 1300BC – 1000BC Rig Vedic Civilization			Typical Ahar pottery Sanskrit Epic: Veda Various schools of thought compiled and memorized
		Painted Grey Ware Culture 1200BC – 700BC			Prehistoric /Proto-historic Iron Age Scholarships to organize knowledge into Sutras by 500BC Indo-Greeks arrive
		Northern Black Polished Ware 700BC – 200BC			Historic Iron age: Mahajanapadas Mauryan Period Satavahana Period Anuradhapura Kingdom (Srilanka)

The Stone-Bronze-Iron: three age system created by Christian Thomson (1788-1865) is used here for classifying Ancient Society.

The ages (specifically Iron Age) did not begin simultaneously across the entire world and sequence of ages is not true for every part of earth’s surface.  The below is mainly confined to South Asia and India.
Worldwide Bronze Age followed Neolithic Age and in some places Copper Age served as transition. When we say Bronze Age we name it such because of its prevalent use. Adding tin to copper gives the alloy bronze. Copper-tin ores are rare.

Indian Bronze Age was followed by Iron Age Vedic period. Overlapping occurs during transition of ages, for e.g. Harappa Culture overlapped the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age. Earliest Neolithic Site in South Asia: Mehrgarh, 7500BC (present day Baluchistan).

Other left out organization of Indian society is as follows:

Middle Kingdoms (21BC – 1279AD) ends with rise of Delhi Sultanate and end of Chalukya Cholas with the death of Rajendra Chola in 1279AD. It was classical period of India – Largest economy of world – a third to a fourth of world’s wealth.
Late Medieval  (1206AD – 1596AD) Mughal Rule
Colonial (1510-1960) British Rule
Modern (20^th Century and forward) starts from 1848 when Lord Dalhousie became Governor general of East India Company or 1885 when Indian National Congress was found.