ABSTRACT
Mathurā lies within the range of the Ganges River valley area, which saw the rise of an urban civilization in the first millenium B.C. But the region around Mathurā had been inhabited long before by various seminomadic Neolithic cul tures. Around 1200 B.C., these Stone Age people gave way to a more settled culture that is known primarily by its charac teristic pottery, Painted Gray Ware, which continued to be produced until the fifth century B.C. Copper tools, including celts and harpoons, are associated with this culture from its beginning, and iron was introduced in the first millenium B.C. Historians speculate that a caste system based on kinship groups formed the basis of its social organization. The people were ruled by kings, whose position became more central over time.
