Gandhara Grave Culture3
The first major geographical segment to be considered in this context is the area between Peshawar and Chitral which leads through its valleys to Badakhshan in north-east Afghanistan and the Pamirs through Gilgit and Hunza. Through Gilgit the area is also linked with the Kashmir valley. Its principal stratigraphic profile comes from the Galighai cave (length 7.5 m, width 8 m, height 1.8 m), set in the limestone rocks overlooking the Swat valley which at this point is 2 km wide.
Grave sites and associated settlements have been investigated at a large number of sites including Loebanr, Aligrama, Birkot Ghundai, Kherari, Lalbatai, Timargarha, Balambat, Kalako-Deray and Zarif Karuna located in the valleys of Chitral, Swat, Dir, Ghorband, Buner, etc. The typology of graves, as worked out at Timargarha, included, in chronological order, the following types: (1) complete burial of single individual in a flexed position, (2) burial of cremated bones or ashes in urns or outside the urns (both single and multiple), and (3) burials of fractional bones or multiple burials. Wheat and barley occur in Loebanr III and Aligrama and rice has been found in Loebanr III. Pit-dwellings, some with thatched roofs on wooden superstructures above ground, have been found at Loebanr III and Kalako-Deray.
Map 7 General Distribution of Neoiithic-Chalcolilhic Sites
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TABLE VI.1 |
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Phase I (strata 24–21) |
handmade brownish pottery, most with traces of slip and some with burnished interior—bone points and stone pebble tools and flaked pebbles |
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Phase II (strata 19–18) |
very few flaked pebbles, but wheel made fine pottery, the most common type being jar with high collar and everted rim decorated with simple black bands on a buff/red background |
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Phase III (strata 17–16) |
exclusively handmade grey pottery and a large number of small flakes (raw material limestone), grinding-rubbing stone pieces, fragments of ‘mace-head’ or weights for digging sticks and bone implements |
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Phase IV (stratum 15) |
a limited amount of black, grey and red handmade pottery including pedestalled and carinated shapes and some burnished variety—polished stone implements, bone implements—a jadeite pendant—elongated, leaf-shaped copper spearhead and fish-hook—shell bangle |
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Phase V (upper part of Stratum 15) |
Gandhara Grave Culture material—graves located on the hillsides—cist graves—with sides and floors made of stone slabs in some cases—cremation prevailing over inhumation—the associated settlements too on the hills and made of rectangular stone constructions—copper and bone implements—wide range of wheelmade pottery |
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Phase VI (middle phase of the Gandhara Grave Culture) |
more inhumations than cremations—a very fine wheelmade pottery with great variety of shapes including chalices and cups-on-pedestals—only copper objects |
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Phase VII (late phase of the culture) |
wheelmade red pottery—anthropomorphic terracottas—historical—iron |
Apart from the various excavation reports, there is no comprehensive study of the material from this area. Its distribution area possibly includes the Peshawar plain and extends as far east as Taxila. The Ghaligai sequence acts as a marker, and it is important to note that the small limestone flakes of Ghaligai phase III have been reported from Jammu and Kangra. Their analogues also occur in the Hissar neolithic culture of Kazakhstan of central Asia. We have not yet understood the wider ramifications of this cultural development which seems to have taken place on both the slopes of the Hindukush system in this section. There are clear central Asiatic parallels of some pottery types, especially from Phase V onwards, but considering that this is likely to be a development on either side of the Hindukush, this is not surprising and does not suggest any significant population movement from one region to another. Further, it is this archaeological column which merges in the historical stream of the Northwestern Frontier region. The Ghaligai sequence possibly goes back to c. 3000 BC (calibrated) and the beginning of the Gandhara Grave Culture may be closer to 2000 BC than 1500 BC.
Kashmir Neolithic, Ladakh and Almorah (UP)4
Phases III and IV of the Ghaligai sequence compare well with the neolithic sequence of Kashmir, as typified by excavations at Gufkral (1981–82) and Burzahom (1960–69, 1971–74). Kashmir, however, is a distinctly separate geographical identity—a small valley set in between the Pirpanjals on the west and south and the northern ranges on the north and east. The route to the Pamirs and central Asia through Gilgit and Hunza is clear and there are also other gaps in the Karakoram to the east as far as Ladakh. On the other hand, there are gaps in the Pirpanjals to link the valley with the plains of Jammu, Pakistani Punjab and the Potwar plateau. Neolithic sites are widely distributed in the valley between Baramula and Anantnag, the sequence as a whole being best represented at Gufkral, c. 41 km south-east of Srinagar.
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TABLE VI.2 |
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Period IA |
aceramic neolithic—two floor levels—large dwelling pits surrounded by storage pits and hearths (20–30 cm deep in the First level) and with post-holes around the mouths of the pits and hearths—no hearth within the dwelling pit itself—in the second level dwelling pits enlarged and circular, mud-plastered hearths in addition to the earlier rectangular types—in both levels: polished stone tools—a large quern with depression in the middle and red ochre paste sticking to it—bone/horn tools including small microlith-sized arrowheads with charred and polished tips—steatite beads—terracotta ball—wild sheep, goat and cattle, deer, ibex, wolf, bear—domesticated sheep and goat—barley, wheat, lentil |
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Period IB |
handmade, crude grey ware with mat-impressed bases—a 5–7 cm thick floor of compact clay mixed with lime all over the excavated area—also a 70 cm wide wall made of compact clay mixed with lime—disappearance of dwelling pits—bone and polished stone (?) tools—domesticated sheep, goat, cattle—domestic fowl—wild ibex, red deer and bear—in addition to earlier grains, Pisum arvense |
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Period IC |
a large number of refuse pits and dumps—wheelmade pottery including grey and burnished grey, red and black types—stone querns, pounders, double-holed ‘harvester’, etc.—only one neolithic celt—bone implements—stone and terracotta spindle-whorls with incised designs—terracotta bangles, terracottas with relief design, potsherds with graffiti, spiral (single)-headed copper pin—domesticated sheep, goat, cattle, dog and pig—fish, hare, hedgehog, rodents and beaver |
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Period II |
megalithic level characterized by menhirs at the site—continuation of earlier pottery types with emphasis on red pottery—copper—iron—rice and ragi millet |
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Period III |
historical |
The earliest date from Gufkral IB is calibrated range of 2468–2139 BC, suggesting the possibility of period IA being as early as 3000 BC or a little later. The intriguing part of the Gufkral dates is the date of its iron-bearing Period II. There are only three iron objects—two points/needles and an indeterminate fragment. The four calibrated date ranges obtained for this period are 2195–1900 BC, 2131–1779 BC, 1885–1677 BC and 1888–1674 BC. positively indicating a date early in the second millennium BC for the first iron at Gufkral. At Burzahom, there is no aceramic phase or at least it was not recognized as such during the excavations. Here Period I means roughly Gufkral IB, although the details here are fuller: circular or oval-shaped dwelling pits (the largest: 2.74 m diameter at the top, 4.57 m at the bottom and 3.96 m deep); square/rectangular pit chambers (one recorded size: 6.4 m × 7 m); bone harpoons, needles with or without eyes, awls, spear points, arrowheads, daggers and scrapers; stone axes, chisels, adzes, pounders, mace-heads, points and picks; and mostly crude and handmade grey, buff and red pottery. The sides of the dwelling pits were mud-plastered and both ladders and steps were used to get inside the large ones among them. Storage pits (60–91 cm in diameter) containing animal bones, stone and bone tools have been found close to the dwelling pits. In the excavated pit chambers stone or clay hearths have been usually found in their centre. Interestingly, the pit chambers occupy the centre of the settlement whereas the oval/circular pits lie around the periphery. In both cases, however, there are indications of roofs supported by wooden pillars. Timber huts came up in Period II which also yielded a stone slab (originally of Period I) on which a hunting scene was found engraved: an antlered deer being pierced from the back by a human figure, with another figure shooting an arrow from the front and an additional feature of two representations of the sun and a dog. Another stone slab of this kind, although incomplete in its representation, occurs in this level. Graves, both of humans and animals, constitute an important feature of Burzahom. Human burials in the form of oval pits are found in floors and the general compound and filled up by ash, pieces of stone and potsherds. Trepanning features in one skull and secondary burials comprise mostly skulls and long bones. Animals (antlered deer, wolf, ibex, pig, nilgai, domestic cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat, and snow leopard) were either buried with the human dead or their meat was placed inside the human graves as offering. In some cases they were also separately buried in pits in house floors and the habitation area. Pottery continues to be generally handmade. There is a single copper arrowhead, but otherwise the use of stone and bone implements continues and includes the ‘harvester’ type. Two finds of this period show contact with the Indus plains: a wheelmade red pot with 950 carnelian and agate beads and another pot of the same type, which bears the ‘horned deity’ motif of early Harappan Kot Diji and Kalibangan. Animal burials and stone ‘harvesters’ link the Kashmir neolithic to the general context of the central Asian neolithic. Period II of Burzahom is ‘megalithic’ (menhirs at the site) where a smaller number of bone and stone tools continue to occur, and Period III is early historical. Period I at the site is c. 2800 BC (calibrated) and later. Period II continues into the second millennium BC.
Fig. 28 Burzahom pottery and bone tools (Indian Arch.—A Rev.)
The data from both Ladakh and Almorah are uncertain, mainly because the dates are both limited in number and inconsistent. However, they cannot be ignored altogether and apparently suggest a movement on both sides of the Karakoram and the Himalayas in protohistory, rather similar to the links we have seen in the context of the North-western Frontier and Kashmir. The average altitude of the area investigated in Ladakh is c. 3900 m and it gets vegetation only during the summer months (June–October). Here the Indus flows through a narrow gorge and the general habitation is sparse, although augmented by the influx of cattle-grazing pastoralists in summer. The handmade red pottery excavated at Kiari has been compared with similar pottery of Burzahom neolithic period II. Four hearths occur in three successive phases and there are domestic cattle, sheep and goat. Stone objects comprise saddle-querns, burnishers and pestles. The date is 1000+ BC (calibrated) but Giak, a similar site at a distance of less than 10 km and located in the same geographical situation, yielded a single radiocarbon date which, when calibrated, goes back to the sixth millennium BC (4760 ± 130 BC uncalibrated). In the UP Himalayas near Almorah, megalithic burials (dolmenoids, cairns, menhirs and cist-burials) have been noticed and the upper filling of a cist exposed by a road cutting at Gagrigol yielded a date with calibrated range of 2666–2562 BC. The cist-burials of this area show ‘horse burials’ and red, grey and black pots with pedestalled bowls and spouted pots as common types. Analogies of this pottery have been sought, with doubtful validity, in Kashmir and the North-western Frontier. Uleri, an iron-smelting site near Almorah, shows a calibrated date-range of 1022–826 BC.