The Harappan urban culture belonged to:

The correct answer is Option (3) → Bronze age

An age is named after the most advanced material its people used for tools and other objects; each option is checked against what the Harappans used.

Option (1) Stone age — Incorrect. The periods when people used only stone tools, the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, come long before the Harappan civilisation, whose people worked metals.

Option (2) Copper age — Incorrect. The Chalcolithic, the time of the first use of copper, comes before the Harappan civilisation. The Harappans used copper too, but they also made bronze articles, a further step.

Option (3) Bronze age — Correct. Harappan sites have yielded copper and bronze articles, tools and vessels; bronze was the most advanced metal the Harappans used, and they had no iron.

Option (4) Iron age — Incorrect. Early iron appears only around 1000 BCE, long after the Harappan civilisation of 2600 BCE.

Note: The terms ‘Stone Age’, ‘Copper Age’, ‘Bronze Age’ and ‘Iron Age’ are not used in NCERT (2026-27), which names the periods Palaeolithic to Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Harappan civilisation and early iron. Historians name an age after the most advanced material used for tools: bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and since the Harappans worked copper and bronze but not iron, their urban culture belongs to the Bronze Age. This is explained here for the benefit of the students.