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@jayarava
Speaking of Iron Age, I read a history of India a few months ago (not the whole book, just from the beginning up to about 100CE or so) that mentioned the most common style of ceramic during what was probably the Buddha's time-- something called Northern Black Polished. I doubt that's news to you, but wanted to pass along this piece I found when looking for examples:
@jayarava
Ain't that wonderful?
I sometimes like to imagine what a culture looked like at the street level, and knowing about a common type of pottery goes a long way in helping to do that. In addition to the archeological article I'll find here and there, things like Malalasekera's "Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names" have enough fun little details to help me get a better picture.
I don't know if the original begging bowls would have been that black ware, but for now I'll let myself envision them that way.