One of the more recent archeological ideas is that the Vedic culture is evidenced by Painted Grey Ware pottery in north India, which appears to date around 1000 BC and was found in the same region between the Ganges and Yamuna as later Vedic culture is related to. It is thought to be an inferior grade of pottery and to be associated with the use of iron that the Vedas are thought to mention. However, it is associated with a pig and rice culture, not the cow and barley culture of the Vedas. Moreover it is now found to be an organic development of indigenous pottery, not an introduction of invaders.

Painted Grey Ware culture represents an indigenous cultural development and does not reflect any cultural intrusion from the West, that is, an Indo-Aryan invasion. Therefore, there is no archeological evidence corroborating the fact of an Indo-Aryan invasion.(*41)

Painted Grey Ware is associated with sites that occur after the drying up of the Sarasvati river, which further indicates its post-Vedic nature.