IV

The Growth of Villages: from Baluchistan to Haryana and Gujarat

At this point there is a marked shift in the geographical focus of Indian archaeology. One now leaves the trail of the early mesolithic hunter-gatherers in a stage where they have domesticated cattle, sheep and goat and acquired the knowledge to process plant food, including wild seeds. At this point, however, the interest no longer lies with these hunter-gatherers; it shifts to the growth of distinctly agricultural communities in the vast stretch of land between Baluchistan and Bannu on the one hand and the area near Delhi and Gujarat on the other. This too marks a long span of about 4000 years from c. 7000 BC to c. 3000 BC. It is during this time that some major transformations take place to the west of the Deihi–Aravalli–Cambay axis of Indian geography, and it is in the course of this development that the roots of the subsequent Indus civilization, also limited. to this segment of Indian geography, lie. In this chapter and in the next we shall follow the course of this development, witness its transformation into the Indus civilization, study this civilization up to its end, and eventually trace the process of its merger in the archaeological story of the rest of the subcontinent.

THE MOUNTAINOUS RIM IN THE NORTH-WEST: BALUCHISTAN

The Northern Part of the Kachhi Plain: Mehrgarh¹

The earliest evidence of agricultural life based on wheat, barley, cattle, sheep and goat in the subcontinent comes from the site of Mehrgarh on the bank of the Bolan river in the Kachhi plain of Baluchistan. Its convenient chronological point is c. 7000 BC. For the next two to three millennia the evidence of this type of agriculture seems to be limited to Baluchistan, although by the end of this period it is found spread all over its major areas, such as the Zhob valley in the north-east, the Quetta valley and the Kalat plateau in the central section, the Las Bela plain on the coast and the valleys in the hills which come down to it from the Kalat side, and the Kej valley to the north of the coastal ranges of Makran. The north-eastern section traversed by the Zhob and the Gomal lies between the Toba Kakar range on the Afghanistan side and the Suleiman range on the side of the Indus valley. The Quetta valley is associated with the Bolan pass, and from the south of the Kalat plateau veer away the major ranges of south and south-west Baluchistan. The eastern face of the province in this direction is blocked from the Indus valley by the Kirthar range. The coastline or the Makran coast is narrow and does not permit easy movement from the coast to the interior except along the mouths of a handful of rivers (cf. the Dasht and Shadi Kaur). Beyond this hill-girt coastline is the Kej valley, providing easy communication with Iran. The area between the Kej valley in the south and the Chagai hills in the north, which demarcate this part of Baluchistan from the Seistan area of Afghanistan, is marked by an extensive desert depression. Rainfall varies from about 10 inches annually in the hills to about 5 inches or less in the plains, and thus the archaeological discovery of early agriculture in Baluchistan has also raised the issue of its prehistoric climate. Nothing indicates a basic climatic change; in fact, the evidence of the use of modern Gabarbands, or walls to deflect rainwater coming down the hills and thus retain some of the associated silt, in the third millennium BC would argue against it. Moreover, the analysis of charcoal from the excavated sites of the Kachhi plain has led to the inference that ‘vegetation has not changed in this area for ten millennia’.

Map 3 Some Major Pre-Indus Sites, 1. Padri, 2. Dholavira, 3. Amri, 4. Nal, 5. Cholistan sites, 6. Ganeshwar, 7. Kalat sites, 8. Quetta sites, 9. Mehrgarh, 10. Kalibangan, 11. Kunal, 12. Banawali, 18. Gumla, 19. Sheri Khan Tarakai, 20. Saraikhola

Archaeologically, Baluchistan is a part of the interaction zone between the southern part of central Asia and the Indus valley. The cultural development in this overall area is bound to be reflected in the cultural development of Baluchistan too. In fact, after the discovery of extensive remains of painted pottery-using prehistoric cultures in the 1920s and earlier in Baluchistan, much of the archaeological literature concerned was devoted to finding analogues of these painted designs in the prehistoric pottery of Iran and central Asia. Although the archaeology of Baluchistan is at present based more on excavations than surface collections of painted pottery, and there is a valid case for studying the early agricultural development of Baluchistan on its own terms rather than in relation to Iran and central Asia, one has still to be aware of the range of interactions which were possible between the different components of the Oxus–Indus interaction zone. Considering the significance of the site of Mehrgarh and the general continuity of occupation here into the Indus civilization period, it is important that we try to understand, however briefly, the geographical character and significance of its location. Mehrgarh and the Indus civilization site of Nausharo lie a little to the south-west of Dadar in the Kachhi plain. Sibi lies about 24 km to the north-east of Dadar. This area and the Kachhi plain as a whole extending in the south up to Jacobabad experience extreme heat, reputedly the highest in the subcontinent, in summer. However, from the irrigational point of view the area cannot be bad, because a publication of 1877 by A.W. Hughes clearly states that there is ‘a good deal of cultivation around Dadar, and large quantities of wheat are grown in the valley, as also cotton, cucumbers and melons.’ The same publication also refers to the ‘large number of villages in Kachhi’. Numerous non-perennial water-courses—and this non-perenniality applies to the Bolan river as well—dot the Kachhi plain, and after the rains dams were put across their courses to make them overflow and make agriculture possible. Another important point is that this area is close to the entrance of the Bolan pass from the Indian side; Dadar is said to be only 8 km east of this entrance.

Excavations at Mehrgarh began in 1974 under the leadership of J-F. Jarrige and continued into the 1980s and later. The archaeological remains of different periods are spread over about 200 hectares of land on the banks of the river Bolan, and different parts of the site bearing evidence of occupation in different periods have been given separate numbers, such as MR 1, MR 2, MR 3, etc.

The archaeological story of this part of the Kachhi plain does not end here. Another major segment is taken up by Nausharo, a site belonging to the Indus civilization, and Pirak which covers the transition to the Iron Age here. However, the present chapter is primarily concerned with the Mehrgarh Period I and partly with the nature of the evidence up to Period VI. The archaeological sequence listed above highlights the continuity of occupation in this region. Chronology of the different components of this sequence is not particularly clear-cut, but for the early periods (up to Period III) a scheme based on occasionally inconsistent radiocarbon dates has been offered by J-F. Jarrige: Period I—c. 7000/c. 6500 to c. 6000 BC and later; Period IIA—central point c. 5500 BC; Period IIB—central point c. 5000 BC; Period III—central point c. 4500 BC. For the later periods, there are some types of pottery which have also been found elsewhere and thus, it is possible to have an idea of the chronology of these periods through cross-dating. Mehrgarh is the only site in Baluchistan to have revealed such a long and continuous archaeological sequence. Its significance in the archaeology of the subcontinent as a whole lies in the discovery of the evidence of wheat–barley and cattle–sheep–goat domestication, the only combined evidence of its kind in the subcontinent. Although doubts have been expressed about it being an independent centre of wheat domestication, there is no doubt about this status vis-à-vis barley and cattle, sheep and goat.

The evidence of crop remains comes from their impressions in mud bricks and the charred remains of the plants themselves inside the impressions. Barley and wheat are the major crop types. The different varieties of barley are the naked and hulled barleys and the two-row and six-row barleys. In the case of the hulled type, the ‘hull’ or ‘glume’ holding the grain in the spikelet is difficult to separate even after the grain is ripe; the difference between the two-row and six-row types depends on the number of fertile florets on each spikelet. The important barley type in Period I at Mehrgarh is the naked six-row barley (H. vulgare, subspecies vulgare variant nudum). It is important in the sense that more than 90 per cent of the identified specimens belong to this type. These naked barley grains apparently supplied the straw necessary for the mud bricks of Period I. They had ‘a short compact spike with shortened internodes and small rounded seeds’ and these characteristics have been interpreted in the context of Period I as those of ‘cultivated but perhaps not completely domesticated plants’. These features are also said to be very marked among the barley grains of Periods II and III. Hulled six-row barley (H. vulgare, subspecies vulgare) occurs in a much lesser proportion, as do both wild (H. vulgare, subspecies spontaneum) and domestic (H. vulgare, subspecies distichum) hulled two-row barley. The fact that both wild and cultivated barley occur together in Period I marks out the site and this area as a part of the nuclear area of barley cultivation. This substantiates an earlier idea of R. Raikes who argued, on the basis of the rainfall distribution suitable for wild barley, that the distribution zone of wild barley could extend up to the Suleiman mountains in Baluchistan.

The number of chromosomes determines the species of wheat: ‘diploid’ with two sets of seven chromosomes, ‘tetraploid’ with four sets of seven chromosomes and ‘hexaploid’ with six sets of seven chromosomes. In Period I wheat does not seem to be a significant crop, although domesticated einkorn and emmer wheat (both ‘hulled’; Triticum monococcum and Triticum dicoccum, respectively), and free-threshing or ‘naked’ Triticum durum are present in small proportions. Constantini notes that in the Mehrgarh archaeological column the tendency is towards the popularity of hexaploid wheat, Triticum sphaerococcum, in the later periods. The status of Mehrgarh Period I as being within the nuclear area of wheat cultivation is uncertain, there being no particular evidence of wild wheat type here, unless Triticum durum is considered a wild type. Indian ber (Zizyphus jujube) and dates (Phoenix dactylifera) are the only other identified plant products of Period I.

The process of domestication is more obvious in the case of animal remains. Wild sheep, goat, ass, deer (gazelle, blackbuck, ‘sambar’ and ‘chital’), pig, water buffalo, cattle and possibly elephant dominate the assemblage in the earliest levels. There does not seem to be any doubt about the domestic status of at least some of the goats which are the most common animal type after gazelle in this level. Moreover, young goats were found placed in some of the burials of this period. Regarding sheep and cattle, their increasing occurrence and decreasing body size throughout the successive levels of Period I strongly support the hypothesis of their local domestication. The change in the size of sheep continued through Period II as well. Considering that the wild form of sheep (Ovis orientalis), from which modern domestic forms are said to be descended, occurs in the earliest levels of Mehrgarh and that diminution of sheep size continues through Periods I and II, there should not be any doubt about this area being a centre of sheep domestication.

The pre-ceramic occupational level of Mehrgarh, during this period as a whole was at two successive mounds, the later one overlying the southern slope of the earlier one which has been partly cut through by the Bolan, exposing a cliff section. Out of more than 32,000 microlithic, mostly blade-based artefacts (with the exception of a handful of ground ‘neolithic’ celts) from the site, about 20,000 or more belong to Period I, and their number decreases throughout the later periods. Microlithic tools and blades set into the groove of the sickle as a series of pointed teeth and glued with a thick layer of bitumen seem to be a distinctive feature of the site. The raw materials for the lithic industry came as chunks from the Bolan bed. The upper levels of Period I reveal an increasing number of multi-roomed units separated by open spaces meant both for domestic activities and burials. In the deepest levels one particular room measured 2 m by 1.8 m, with impressions of reed on the floor and a grinding stone. The walls were made of mud bricks of regular size (33 or 28 cm by 14.5 cm by 7 cm), which also carried finger impressions. Hearths were a common feature. There was a limited bone-tool industry comprising mostly awls. Stone vessels are rare, as are other stone objects, including perforated discs and spatulae with incised criss-cross designs.

Human burials occur throughout. In the deepest levels there are simple pit burials where bodies were put in a flexed position with five three-to-five-month old goats at their feet in at least two cases. Basket imprints in bitumen in the graves suggest both the use of such baskets and the arrangement of food for the dead in them. The bodies often bore personal ornaments: necklaces made of shell and calcite beads and dentalium shells, mother-of-pearl and shell pendants, belts made of steatite beads with bivalve shells, anklets made of calcite beads, bone rings, and more rarely, turquoise and lapis lazuli beads. Turquoise and lapis lazuli suggest that trade or exchange network extended presumably up to north-east Iran and Badakhshan in Afghanistan, whereas dentalium shells would suggest contacts with the coast, about 500 km away. In the upper levels designated as Period IB there is a regular graveyard of more than 220 sq m with 150 burials. These burials, mostly primary individual burials, are in each case associated with a low (only three courses in many cases) wall made of ‘cigar-shape’ mud bricks (length 15 to 50 cm, width and thickness 7 to 10 cm) which were handmade without moulds and bore a double row of finger tips on top. The examples of ‘compacted corpses’ meant the pushing of an already interred body or its remains to the other extremity of the grave to make room for a later second corpse. There are secondary burials too, where bones—sometimes of two or three individuals—were collected after an initial exposure of the body.

A narrow oblong pit (about 1–1.5 × 0.6–0.7 m) was first dug about 1 metre deep (for an adult). This provided access to a small Funerary chamber dug as a lateral cavity at the bottom of the pit in strict conformity to the size of the flexed corpse (indeed, even narrower than a flexed corpse). After digging the grave, the corpse (or already dislocated human remains in the case of a secondary burial) was laid in the subterranean chamber which was not refilled but simply sealed by the construction of a special mud-brick wall (sometimes laid partly upon the corpse) high enough to close the lateral opening. During or after the building of the wall, the pit was filled with sediment. If the grave was reopened after some time (for instance, to add another corpse), the access-pit was dug again and the wall dismantled so as to gain access to the still unfilled funerary chamber. After these mortuary acts (second deposit, corpse reduction, etc.), the funerary chamber was closed again by a new mud-brick wall and the pit filled up again.²

This, no doubt, is a radical change from the simple pit-burials of Period IA. What this means in terms of the society is difficult to infer unless the study of the site is fully published. Nothing has yet been said about the distribution and character of grave goods in the burials with mud-brick walls. Finally, a significant item of Period I as a whole is a human figurine of unbaked clay with a rounded base and a conical body with a belt applied on it. Another feature is the occurrence of lumps of red ochre, occasionally even in graves. A bead, presumably made of copper, is said to occur in a child’s burial in the upper levels, although this does not denote the beginning of copper-smelting and thus of true metallurgy. According to Jarrige, the end of Period I is unlikely to be much later than c. 6000 BC, and by and large Period II as a whole, inclusive of its phases A, B and C, is spread throughout the sixth and the first half of the fifth millennia BC. Pottery appears in IIA but is handmade and very limited. Compartmented buildings on hard clay foundations suggest systematic storage of grains, the seeds of barley (Hordeum sphaerococcum) having been found in some of the cells. Interestingly, this species of barley is said to grow only in irrigated fields, and thus the idea of a grain storage system in the excavated compartmented buildings of this period is acceptable. Some of these building spaces were also associated with the working areas for steatite objects and bone tools. A cylinder-shaped terracotta bead found outside one of these buildings, if rolled on clay, makes a cylinder-like vegetal design. A ring, a bead of copper and a small copper ingot appear in an early level of Period IIB, but otherwise the lithic and bone-tool kit of the earlier period continue to be in use. Two complete sickles with inset microlithic tools, an ivory tusk, lumps of red ochre and grinding stones have been found. Graves have been mentioned but the details seem to be missing. Cotton (Gossypium sp.) occurs in this period. Wheelmade pottery begins to appear along with handmade ones in Period IIC. The second half of the fifth millennium BC is a rational enough date for Period III, and that takes off with tell-tale evidence of increasing craft-specialization and perhaps increasing social organizational complexity: fine micro-drills in stone indicating the use of bow-drills and the ability to engrave on shell; a few terracotta crucibles with traces of copper, which suggest for the first time local copper-smelting; large-scale production of wheelmade painted pottery showing inter-regional styles; and finally, ‘an impressive complex of storage units’ maintained in five compartmented buildings over three building phases. This is also the period when terracotta humped bulls first appear, although only as isolated examples. Perhaps more importantly, one now reads of ‘specialized craftsmanship areas connected with the work of semi-precious stones or sea shells and with metallurgy, and a very extended pottery kiln area.’

A large and apparently densely occupied burial area in Period III, from where the remains of about 99 individuals have already been studied, clearly shows a change in the burial practices from those of Period IB. The walls made of ‘cigar-shaped’ mud-bricks in Period IB graves are completely missing now. In fact, it is not sure if the flexed bodies of this period were laid in the ground with any kind of mud-brick architecture. Interestingly, in case of about 25 per cent of the complete skeletons, the skulls are found resting on one mud-brick, called ‘pillow-brick’ by the excavators. With only one exception, the orientation of the body is east–west but occasionally it is turned towards the left, when the skull faces the south. An important additional feature is the discovery of a collective burial where some individuals have been put together. Only two pots, both wheelmade and painted, have been found placed in a grave (female no. 91), but pots do not figure among the grave-goods elsewhere in this period. Similarly, a circular compartmented stamp-seal of copper/bronze placed near the skull of female no. 33 is an isolated example. Personal ornaments—mostly steatite micro-beads fashioned into bracelets, necklaces and head-ornaments—are frequent among the grave-goods. In some cases there are pendants—worn either alone or with steatite micro-bead necklaces—of lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise, chrysoprase, agate, terracotta and perforated sea shells.

A detailed study of the skeletal biology of the large number of skeletons excavated at Mehrgarh has not been published yet, but J.R. Lukacs and his associates have published some analyses of their dental remains. There is low incidence of dental caries in the early levels of Mehrgarh, which may be due to the high fluoride content of the drinking water available in the area. This has been described as the discovery of dental fluorosis in the early skeletal series from Mehrgarh which, however, shows high incidence of gross enamel hypoplasia and dental calculus. The tooth crown size in this series is megadont, i.e. large, which seems to indicate that ‘the aceramic Neolithic occupants of Mehrgarh consumed a coarse diet that was suited for large dental structures.’ There is also evidence of interproximal grooves in the dentition of the neolithic people of Mehrgarh, which may be due primarily to ‘habitual tooth probing’ to alleviate dental pain or may have something to do with the production of sinew and fibre. The dental health deteriorates in Period III when there is a general increase in the prevalence of dental disease such as increased dental caries, antemortem tooth loss and dental abscesses. This has been ascribed to a possible sophistication in the food preparation methods during this period.

Architecture seems to have become fairly substantial in Period IV. One reads of rooms interconnected by doors with wooden lintels and backed by wide (2.60 m wide) mud-brick walls. In one case the door was only 1.10 m high; people apparently had to bend before passing through it. The room they entered was ‘covered up with grinding stones, pestles, one storage jar, one huge crushed basin with ridges and snake decorations inside, fine complete goblets, beautifully painted vessels, flakes, blades and many bones’. Pottery with inter-regional affinities continued to be made, some in polychrome style. A tubular female terracotta figurine with a pinched nose and joined legs defines a newly emerged form. Some changes in pottery styles and designs are noticed in Period V, but by and large things do not change, until Period VI. Interestingly, in the first half of Period VI, almost 50 per cent of the painted pottery is a red ware decorated with pipal leaves. Well-fired grey ware makes its appearance, and there is evidence of inter-regional pottery styles. A large kiln provides evidence of ceramic production for market. Terracotta female figurines with ornate hair styles, round and heavy breasts, and joined legs form a very distinct component of this period.

Periods VII and VIII of Mehrgarh do not concern us here. Period VII, despite the excavator’s opinion to the contrary, may be contemporary with the Indus civilization in the plains. Jarrige suggests that Period VII of Mehrgarh antedates the foundation of an Indus civilization settlement at Nausharo close by. There is no reason why the foundation of an Indus civilization settlement at the entrance of the Bolan pass cannot be considerably later than the beginning of the civilization in the Indus plains.

The Quetta Valley: Kile Gul Mohammad and Damb Sadaat³

From Mehrgarh the Quetta valley is easily accessed through the Bolan pass. The valley is in fact only on the other side of the pass and gives access to three other areas of Baluchistan: to Nushki and Chagai in the south-west (and thus to Iranian and Afghan Seistan) through Shararud and Pishin Lora; to the Kalat area in the south-south-west through a series of valleys; and to the Zhob valley in the east. The valley has a north-south axis of about 65 km and is seldom more than 10 km wide. To its north is the Pishin area, about 55 km across and leading to the Chaman and Kandahar plains of south Afghanistan through the Khojak pass. Rainfall is less than 25 cm annually, but the valley is well populated because water for irrigation can be tapped by wells and an extensive Karez system which involves digging a horizontal underground passage into the water sources in the talus deposits at the sides of the valley and drawing this water out, as it comes along the passage, by a series of vertical shafts from above.

Archaeological excavations and surveys were conducted in the Quetta valley in 1949–51. The sequence has been built up on the basis of work at two sites, Kile Gul Mohammad (KGM) and Damb Sadaat (DS), Period IV or the uppermost occupation at Kile Gul Mohammad being contemporary with the earliest period or Period I of Damb Sadaat.

Calibrated chronology of Damb Sadaat II seems to show a broad range with c. 3000 BC as the central point. It is also important to note that, according to Fairservis, the Indus civilization could be contemporary with the upper levels of DS II and DS III. On the basis of the evidence (fragments of thumb-nail incised pottery, perforated pottery, pipal leaf decoration on a grey sherd and bird figurines) he provides, it is clear that the Indus civilization in the plains is contemporary with at least the DS III level in the Quetla valley. He also notes that settlements in the Quetta valley seem to be very extensive in the DS II–DS HI times: ‘sites occur almost everywhere in the valley where fertile soil and water exist today, indicating that climatic conditions and the ecology of the modem Quetta valley are comparable to those of prehistoric times.’

The Zhob–Loralai Area: the Rana Ghundai Sequence⁴

The Gomal river flows across the northernmost segment of north-east Baluchistan where it is joined by the Zhob river. The other drainage lines include the Anambar and the Thai rivers. Although explorations have not been extensive, sites seem to be fairly evenly distributed in these river plains, beginning with Periano Ghundai in the Fort Sandeman area near the junction of the Zhob with the Gomal. A preliminary study here by Fairservis revealed the so-called ‘Zhob-cult phase’, marked by the occurrence of a particular type of goggle-eyed and hooded terracotta mother-goddess figurines known as Zhob mother-goddesses which are also found in Damb Sadaat III and Mehrgarh VI levels. According to Fairservis, this phase contained objects (perforated pottery, nail-incised bowls, etc.) typical of the Indus civilization. In the Anambar valley in the vicinity of Loralai there are three well known sites: Sur Jangal, Dabar Kot and Rana Ghundai. The first phase of Sur Jangal has been equated to Kile Gul Mohammad IV and its later phase to Damb Sadaat II–III. Small mud houses, model houses in terracotta and Zhob mother-goddess figurines and the overwhelming preponderance of cattle remains in the faunal assemblage form part of the general cultural scene. Painted pottery shows both humped and humpless cattle in great numbers. The suggestion is that in the Sur Jangal area situated in a typical Baluchi upland valley dominated by scrubby desert vegetation, cattle-herding and seasonal movements conditioned by the location of pastures could be the mainstay of the, economy. Dabar Kot and Rana Ghundai lie in a lesser elevation, ‘ecologically transitional’ between the Baluchi uplands and the Indus plains, and at Dabar Kot where the natural soil was not reached, the artefacts of the Indus civilization were noticed along with Zhob mother-goddess figurines in a trench high on the site. It is at Rana Ghundai that a representative occupational sequence of the area was traced by an enthusiastic army officer who was in charge of the troops in the Loralai and Zhob districts.

An important point made by Brigadier Ross is that irrigation must have been known from very early times: ‘it seems very unlikely that this area could have supported the settled population indicated by the size and numbers of these sites unless irrigation was practised to an extent at least comparable to that of the present day’. The calibrated range of Rana Ghundai, period I is c. 4500–4300 BC, whereas the same for the first level of Period III is c. 3500–3100 BC.

The Kalat Plateau: Anjira and Sia Damb in the Sohrab Area⁵

The Sohrab area lies south–south-west of Kalat, a principal point on the communication lines between north and south Baluchistan. The winter here is harsh enough to send people down to warmer areas. On the basis of her work at two sites, Anjira and Siah Damb, Beatrice de Cardi built up a composite sequence of occupation for the area.

The beginning of the sequence seems to go back to KGM II of the Quetta valley.

The Khozdar Area: Nal⁶

Khozdar also is an important communication point between north and south Baluchistan and there is a good deal of cultivation in the area with wild duck, geese, partridges, deer, and wild sheep and ibex in the vicinity. More importantly, between Khozdar and Nal, forming the apex point of a triangle linking these three places, is Sekran where there are extensive traces of old lead and antimony mining. Pre-industrial lead-smelting is also reported from the area. As a site Nal covered about 5 hectares and was excavated in 1925. The excavated area was designated Area A, where two kinds of structures, one utilizing the boulders of a local river bed and the other using large quarried stones from the neighbouring hills, were noticed. Otherwise, the whole area—all of its occupational depth of 1.2 m—was found full of burials which comprised mostly fractional burials in pots but had a few complete graves in defined graves as well. For example, an infant’s grave was found in a small chamber made by setting mud-bricks on edge, and the grave goods included 16 beads (apparently a necklace) and a crystal pendant. A complete burial of an adult showed a grave where the body lay east-west, set on the left side, with the legs bent. There was no grave good here, just as there was no grave good in another infant burial. Complete burials without defined graves have also been recorded. The miscellaneous cultural material recovered from the deposit forms an impressive list: copper adze, saw, chisel, knife, seal with a holed lug on the reverse, silver foil, carbonate of lead, lead slag, a celt made of quartzite, limestone weights, balls, grinding stones, marble ring stone and disc, bone disc and worked fragments, cattle figurines, and a large number of beads made of crystal, agate, carnelian, paste and lapis lazuli. There was a piece of lollingite ore (ore of iron and arsenic: iron/Fe 49.3 per cent and arsenic/As 43.6 per cent) and a copper/Cu adze showed both lead/Pb and nickel/Ni alloying (Pb 2.14 per cent, Ni 4.90 per cent, Cu 93.5 per cent). The shape of Nal pottery is distinctive: narrow-mouthed, ovoid form with a disc-base; narrow-mouthed carinated form with a disc-base; almost straight-walled jars with a disc-base; disc-based open bowl; a carinated form with an inward-turning upper body; and a flat-bottomed canister with a round and straight-edged mouth. With the use of red, blue or yellow pigment, the painted surface is polychrome and shows repetition of motifs by multiplying their outlines in many cases. Naturalistic representations of fish and ibex occur as a motif.

There is no radiocarbon date from the site but Nal pottery has been bracketed in DS I and DS II in the Quetta valley and Period IV of the Anjira–Siah Damb sequence. According to Fairservis, the Nal settlements used an effective system of harnessing water. Two systems were employed, both separately and in conjunction with each other: soil was allowed to accumulate behind the steps of gabarbands laid across the slopes of the drainage, and a system of reservoir dams in which water was allowed to accumulate in a catch basin and slowly released to the fields, with dams being placed as weirs to divert water into canals leading to cultivated areas.

Fig. 13 Nal pottery (Hargreaves 1929)

The Kulli Culture of Kolwa and the Area Around Bela: Niai Buthi, Nindowari and Edith Shahr Complex⁷

Bela lies in the Welpat tract which is watered by the Porali river. It is an attractive area both for its rich agriculture and its position on the route from the coast and/or south Baluchistan to Kalat. The Kolwa tract lies to the north-west of Bela and was known for its large quantities of grain, which were exported to its neighbouring areas. The main site of Kolwa is Kulli which has given its name to a culture with a distinct pottery type associated with it. A second major site of this culture is Mehi which is in the Mushki valley to the north-west of Kolwa. Only the upper levels were exposed both at Kulli and Mehi. Kulli, a 12 ha site, showed multi-roomed stone structures, the blocks of their shale stone being brought from about 3 km away. There were two massive stone querns and their rubbing stones, beads of black stone, lapis lazuli, agate and carnelian, curved bone (?) bangles and small amounts of copper, gold and glass (?). Pottery is elaborately decorated and diverse in shapes and colour, but a characteristic feature is the presence of elongated animal forms with large and round eyes, shown in framed landscapes. Among other things, Mehi (10 ha) has yielded evidence of cremation and the subsequent burial of ashes, bones, etc. (in one case, in a pot, and in another, covered by earth). At Niai Buthi, there are two phases of the Kulli culture, the upper phase being dated by radiocarbon in the late third millennium BC. At Nindowari (45 ha), there is a central, stepped structural complex, its stone-blocks weighing up to one ton. Associated with this is an assemblage of typical Kulli pottery, terracotta mother-goddess figurines with applique decorations, painted bull figurines and two Indus civilization seals. The calibrated date is c. mid-third millennium BC. Edith Shahr (29 ha) shows a matrix of large river boulders set in mud and smaller stones. There is a series of stepped platforms and typical Kulli pottery and mother-goddess figurines. Edith Shahr has been associated with the upper phase of Niai Buthi. It may be noted that Las Bela has a known source of copper and it will not be surprising if the sites mentioned here are reflective of the wealth generated by mining and metallurgy.

Fig. 14 Kulli pottery from Nindowari (Casal 1966)

The Coastal Plain of Sonmiani Bay: Bala Kot⁸

Bala Kot (2.8 ha) is in the Khurkera alluvial plain at the mouth of the Windar river falling into the Sonmiani Bay. Of the two periods of the site, the upper one belongs to the Indus civilization whereas the lower one or Period I constitutes a separate culture called Balakotian. In this earlier period we find mud-brick houses (mud-brick size 10 × 20 × 40 cm or the ratio of 1:2:4) whose orientation is different from that of the Period II houses. Wheelmade painted pottery, some related to Nal polychrome style, right from the beginning of occupation, has been found. Humped bull figurines, microlithic tools, beads of lapis lazuli, stone, shell and paste, a limited amount of copper and miscellaneous terracotta, shell and bone objects complete the other cultural details. Cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig, hare and deer of several varieties have been identified but not much use was made of the available marine sources of food. The grains include six-row barley, vetch, legume and ber (zyziphus). The calibrated date-bracket is between the late fifth millennium (c. 4200 BC) and early third millennium BC.

The Turbat Oasis in the Kej Valley: Miri Qalat and Shahi Tump⁹

The Turbat oasis, far to the west of the Las Bela plain and towards Irani Baluchistan, has been favourably commented on by Aurel Stein:

a narrow strip of fertile irrigated land, comprising a practically unbroken string of villages mostly small, stretches on both banks of the Kej river for a total distance of about seven miles.… This oasis appears to have since early times formed an important, if not the chief, centre of population in Makran. … The oasis … owes this importance not merely to its economic resources being greater than those of any other tract in Makran but perhaps equally also to its convenient central position on the great natural highway which the Kej valley provides through the country.

Irrigation is practised here through the karez system and canals from the river. Date palm is noted to be the principal crop of the area.

The site of Miri was noticed by Stein but has been reinvestigated in recent years by R. Besenval. Of its four periods, the fourth one from below is Harappan or belongs to the Indus civilization.

Shahi Tump is in the same area. The interesting features of this site are a distinct grey and richly painted (in black) pottery, associated with apparently extended burials. A common shape is an open flat-bottomed bowl. In addition to the pottery, the grave goods comprised a copper spearhead, a copper flat axe, a large number of stone beads, microlithic blades, etc. A large number of terracotta figurines of humped bull is another distinctive feature. According to Besenval, the elements of Shahi Tump burial assemblage appear in Period II of Miri and the assemblage as a whole may be equated to Miri IIIA and partly to Miri IIIB.

Early Village Cultures of Baluchistan

These prehistoric village sites of Baluchistan are concentrated only in those areas which are still agriculturally viable and lie on arterial routes of the region: the north of the Kachhi plain at the mouth of the Bolan pass, the Quetta valley on the other side of this pass (a major communication point of that part), the Khozdar area in the Kalat plateau (communication point between north and south Baluchistan, agriculturally viable and near a rich source of lead), the Kolwa area (agriculture), the Bela area (agriculture and copper source), the coastal plain of the Sonmiani Bay (alluvial agriculture, also a communication point), and the Turbat oasis (agriculture and communication point). Another prosperous area of Baluchistan—the Panjgur oasis to the north-east of the Turbat oasis—has been left out here for lack of stratified excavations. However, Stein reported traces of prehistoric villages there, and one of his sites, Sari Damb, seems to have been put in the very beginning of occupations in this area. Thus, it is unlikely that Baluchistan has had a major climatic change since the period of prehistoric village occupations. Second, the basic archaeological sequence in all these areas is virtually uninterrupted. Tracing the beginning of cattle, sheep, goat and at least barley (if not wheat) cultivation at Mehrgarh, we witness the steady and continuous development of village life at this site. Once agriculture begins in other areas, one witnesses the same process. Third, this continuity of sequence notwithstanding, there must have been a fair amount of contact between all the component areas of not merely Baluchistan but also of the wider Oxus-Indus interaction zone of which Baluchistan is a part. Detailed comparisons between artefacts, especially pottery, found in the archaeological columns of different component areas is out of place here, but the parallels in the pottery styles of the Quetta valley and southern Turkmenistan are well known, and so are the parallels between the Rana Ghundai II pottery and the pottery of Hissar and Sialk in Iran. The story of the growth of wheat-barley-cattle-sheep-goat agriculture in Baluchistan, although independent to a large extent, is in a sense part of the agricultural growth in the Indo-Iranian borderlands as a whole.