Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh

مہرگڑھ مهرګړ
Shown within Balochistan, Pakistan Show map of Balochistan, Pakistan Shown within Balochistan, Pakistan Show map of Pakistan
Alternate name	Mehrgahr, Merhgarh, Merhgahr
Location	Dhadar, Balochistan, Pakistan
Coordinates	29°23′N 67°37′E / 29.383°N 67.617°E / 29.383; 67.617Coordinates: 29°23′N 67°37′E / 29.383°N 67.617°E / 29.383; 67.617
History
Founded	Approximately 7000 BCE
Abandoned	Approximately 2600 BCE
Periods	Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	1974–1986, 1997–2000
Archaeologists	Jean-François Jarrige, Catherine Jarrige

Map of Pakistan showing Mehrgarh in relation to the cities of Quetta, Kalat, and Sibi and the Kachi Plain of Balochistan.

Mehrgarh (Balochi: Mehrgaŕh; Pashto: مهرګړ‎; Urdu: مہرگڑھ‎;), sometimes anglicized as Mehergarh or Mehrgar, is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500/2000 BCE) site located near the Bolan Pass on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, to the west of the Indus River valley.^[1]

The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km²) site, was a small farming village which was inhabited from circa 6500 BCE.^[2] It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia.^[3][4] The site was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team led by French archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986, and again from 1997 to 2000. Archaeological material has been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected.^[2]

Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization, displaying the whole sequence from earliest settlement and the start of agriculture, to the mature Harappan Civilisation.

History

Jean-Francois Jarrige argues for an independent origin of Mehrgarh. Jarrige notes "the assumption that farming economy was introduced full-fledged from Near-East to South Asia,"^{[5][note 1]} and the similarities between Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those sites. But given the originality of Mehrgarh, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has an earlier local background," and is not a "'backwater' of the Neolithic culture of the Near East."^[5]

According to Lukacs and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and chalcolithic (Copper Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the chalcolithic population did not descend from the neolithic population of Mehrgarh,^[22] which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow."^[22] They wrote that "the direct lineal descendents of the Neolithic inhabitants of Mehrgarh are to be found to the south and the east of Mehrgarh, in northwestern India and the western edge of the Deccan plateau," with neolithic Mehrgarh showing greater affinity with chalocolithic Inamgaon, south of Mehrgarh, than with chalcolithic Mehrgarh.^{[22][note 2]}

Gallego Romero et al. (2011) state that their research on lactose tolerance in India suggests that "the west Eurasian genetic contribution identified by Reich et al. (2009) principally reflects gene flow from Iran and the Middle East."^[25] Gallego Romero notes that Indians who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is "characteristic of the common European mutation."^[26] According to Romero, this suggests that "the most common lactose tolerance mutation made a two-way migration out of the Middle East less than 10,000 years ago. While the mutation spread across Europe, another explorer must have brought the mutation eastward to India – likely traveling along the coast of the Persian Gulf where other pockets of the same mutation have been found."^[26] They further note that "[t]he earliest evidence of cattle herding in south Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP."^{[25][note 3]}

Periods of occupation

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Timeline
Ancient Palaeolithic Riwatian Culture, c. 1,900,000 BCE Soanian Culture, c. 500,000 – 250,000 BCE Neolithic Mehrgarh, c. 7000 – c. 3000 BCE Indus Valley Civilisation, c. 3300 – c. 1700 BCE Early Harappan Period, c. 3300 – c. 2600 BCE Mature Harappan Period, c. 2600 – c. 1900 BCE Late Harappan Period, c. 1900 – c. 1500 BCE Vedic Civilization, c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE Bahlika Kingdom Kamboja Kingdom Kasmira Kingdom Madra Kingdom Sindhu Kingdom Swat culture Sudra Kingdom Achaemenid Empire, c. 550 – c. 330 BCE Gedrosia, c. 542 – c. 330 BCE Gandhara, c. 518 – c. 330 BCE Arachosia, c. 518 – c. 330 BCE Hindush, c. 517 – c. 330 BCE Sattagydia, c. 516 – c. 330 BCE Ror Dynasty, c. 489 – c. 450 BCE Macedonian Empire, c. 329 – c. 323 BCE Arachosia, c. 323 – c. 312 BCE Gedrosia, c. 323 – c. 312 BCE Paropamisadae, c. 323 – c. 312 BCE Porus, c. 323 – c. 312 BCE Taxiles, c. 323 – c. 312 BCE Mauryan Empire, c. 322 – c. 200 BCE Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, c. 190 – c. 140 BCE Indo-Greek Kingdom, c. 170 – c. 50 BCE Indo-Scythian Kingdom, c. 110 BCE – c. 95 CE Apracharajas, c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE Paratarajas, c. 120 – c. 300 CE
Classical Parthian Empire, c. 90 BCE – c. 25 CE Indo-Parthian Kingdom, c. 25 – c. 80 CE Kushan Empire, c. 60 – 345 CE Sasanian Empire, c. 250 – 655 CE Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom, c. 240 – 410 CE Kushanshahr Makuran Paradan Turgistan Gupta Empire, c. 345 – c. 455 CE Rai Dynasty, c. 415 – 644 CE Hephthalite Empire, c. 450 – 560 CE Brahman Dynasty, c. 641 – 725 CE Caliphate, c. 643 – 860 CE Rashidun Caliphate, c. 643 – 661 CE Umayyad Caliphate, c. 670 – 860 CE Habbari Dynasty, c. 841 – 1024 CE Kabul Shahi, c. 870 – 1010 CE Samanid Empire, c. 905 – 999 CE
Medieval Ghaznavids, c. 999 – 1186 CE Soomra Dynasty, c. 1024 – 1351 CE Ghurid Dynasty, c. 1170 – 1215 CE Delhi Sultanate, c. 1206 – c. 1526 CE Mamluk Dynasty, c. 1206 – c. 1290 CE Khilji Dynasty, c. 1290 – c. 1320 CE Tugluq Dynasty, c. 1320 – c. 1413 CE Sayyid Dynasty, c. 1414 – c. 1451 CE Lodhi Dynasty, c. 1451 – c. 1526 CE Mongol Empire, c. 1221 – c. 1327 CE Chagatai Khanate, c. 1225 – c. 1485 CE Ilkhanate, c. 1256 – c. 1353 CE Chitral State, c. 1320 – 1947 CE Raees Dynasty, c. 1320 – 1620 CE Katoor Dynasty, c. 1570 – c. 1947 CE Samma Dynasty, c. 1351 – 1524 CE Arghun Dynasty, c. 1520 – 1554 CE Mughal Empire, c. 1526 – c. 1707 CE Kabul Subah, c. 1574 – c. 1707 CE Lahore Subah, c. 1574 – c. 1707 CE Multan Subah, c. 1574 – c. 1707 CE Kashmir Subah, c. 1627 – c. 1707 CE Thatta Subah, c. 1627 – c. 1707 CE Suri Dynasty, c. 1540 – c. 1556 CE Tarkhan Dynasty, c. 1554 – 1591 CE Dir State, c. 1626 – c. 1947
Modern Kalhora Dynasty, c. 1701 – c. 1783 CE Durrani Empire, c. 1747 – c. 1826 CE Talpur Dynasty, c. 1783 – c. 1843 CE Khanate of Kalat, c. 1794 – c. 1947 CE Kharan, c. 1801 – c. 1947 CE Las Bela, c. 1802 – c. 1947 CE Misl, c. 1716 – c. 1799 CE Sikh Empire, c. 1799 – c. 1849 CE State of Bahawalpur, c. 1802 – c. 1849 CE Yusufzai State of Swat, c. 1802 – c. 1947 CE Phulra, c. 1828 – c. 1947 CE Makran, c. 1828 – c. 1947 CE British Raj, c. 1858 – c. 1947 CE Independence Movement Pakistan, c. 1947 CE – present Dominion of Pakistan, c. 1947 – 1956 CE Islamic Republic, c. 1956 CE – present
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Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into eight periods.

Mehrgarh Period I (7000 BCE-5500 BCE)

The Mehrgarh Period I (7000 BCE-5500 BCE) was Neolithic and aceramic, without the use of pottery. The earliest farming in the area was developed by semi-nomadic people using plants such as wheat and barley and animals such as sheep, goats and cattle. The settlement was established with simple mud buildings and most of them had four internal subdivisions. Numerous burials have been found, many with elaborate goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, beads, bangles, pendants and occasionally animal sacrifices, with more goods left with burials of males. Ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli and sandstone have been found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Sea shells from far sea shore and lapis lazuli found as far away as present-day Badakshan, Afghanistan shows good contact with those areas. A single ground stone axe was discovered in a burial, and several more were obtained from the surface. These ground stone axes are the earliest to come from a stratified context in South Asia. Periods I, II and III are contemporaneous with another site called Kili Gul Mohammed.

In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh made the discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization had knowledge of proto-dentistry from the early Harappan periods. In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of that region. "Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture."^[28]

Mehrgarh Period II (5500 BCE–4800 BCE) and Period III (4800 BCE–3500 BCE)

The Mehrgarh Period II (5500 BCE–4800 BCE) and Merhgarh Period III (4800 BCE–3500 BCE) were ceramic Neolithic, using pottery, and later chalcolithic. Period II is at site MR4 and Period III is at MR2.^[2] Much evidence of manufacturing activity has been found and more advanced techniques were used. Glazed faience beads were produced and terracotta figurines became more detailed. Figurines of females were decorated with paint and had diverse hairstyles and ornaments. Two flexed burials were found in Period II with a red ochre cover on the body. The amount of burial goods decreased over time, becoming limited to ornaments and with more goods left with burials of females. The first button seals were produced from terracotta and bone and had geometric designs. Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. There is further evidence of long-distance trade in Period II: important as an indication of this is the discovery of several beads of lapis lazuli, once again from Badakshan. Mehrgarh Periods II and III are also contemporaneous with an expansion of the settled populations of the borderlands at the western edge of South Asia, including the establishment of settlements like Rana Ghundai, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Sarai Kala, Jalilpur and Ghaligai.^[2]

Mehrgarh Periods IV, V and VI (3500 BCE-3000 BCE)

A figurine from Mehrgarh, similar to the Venus figurines

Period IV was 3500 to 3250 BCE. Period V from 3250 to 3000 BCE and period VI was around 3000 BCE.^[29] The site containing Periods IV to VII is designated as MR1.^[2]

Mehrgarh Period VII (2600 BCE-2000 BCE)

Somewhere between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE, the city seems to have been largely abandoned in favor of the larger and fortified town Nausharo five miles away when the Indus Valley Civilization was in its middle stages of development. Historian Michael Wood suggests this took place around 2500 BCE.^[30]

Mehrgarh Period VIII

The last period is found at the Sibri cemetery, about 8 kilometers from Mehrgarh.^[2]

Lifestyle and technology

Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle. Residents of the later period (5500 BCE to 2600 BCE) put much effort into crafts, including flint knapping, tanning, bead production, and metal working.^[31] Mehrgarh is probably the earliest known center of agriculture in South Asia.^[32]

The oldest known example of the lost-wax technique comes from a 6,000-year-old wheel-shaped copper amulet found at Mehrgarh. The amulet was made from unalloyed copper, an unusual innovation that was later abandoned.^[33]

Artifacts

Human figurines

The oldest ceramic figurines in South Asia were found at Mehrgarh. They occur in all phases of the settlement and were prevalent even before pottery appears. The earliest figurines are quite simple and do not show intricate features. However, they grow in sophistication with time and by 4000 BC begin to show their characteristic hairstyles and typical prominent breasts. All the figurines up to this period were female. Male figurines appear only from period VII and gradually become more numerous. Many of the female figurines are holding babies, and were interpreted as depictions of the "mother goddess". However, due to some difficulties in conclusively identifying these figurines with the "mother goddess", some scholars prefer using the term "female figurines with likely cultic significance".^[34][35][36]

Pottery

Evidence of pottery begins from Period II. In period III, the finds become much more abundant as the potter's wheel is introduced, and they show more intricate designs and also animal motifs.^[2] The characteristic female figurines appear beginning in Period IV and the finds show more intricate designs and sophistication. Pipal leaf designs are used in decoration from Period VI.^[37] Some sophisticated firing techniques were used from Period VI and VII and an area reserved for the pottery industry has been found at mound MR1. However, by Period VIII, the quality and intricacy of designs seem to have suffered due to mass production, and due to a growing interest in bronze and copper vessels.^[29]

Burials

There are two types of burials in the Mehrgarh site. There were individual burials where a single individual was enclosed in narrow mud walls and collective burials with thin mud brick walls within which skeletons of six different individuals were discovered. The bodies in the collective burials were kept in a flexed position and were laid east to west. Child bones were found in large jars or urn burials (4000~3300 BCE).^[38]

Metallurgy

Metal finds have dated as early as Period IIB, with a few copper items.^[2][37]

Archaeological significance

Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. According to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus of archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, "discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization [...] There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life."

See also

• Indus Valley Civilization and the list of Indus Valley Civilization sites
• List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilization
• Hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization
• Bhirrana
• Mundigak — archaeological site in Kandahar Province
• Hadda — archaeological site in Nangarhar Province
• Surkh Kotal — archaeological site in Baghlan Province
• Mes Aynak — archaeological site in Logar Province
• Sheri Khan Tarakai — archaeological site in Bannu
• Mohenjo-daro — archaeological site in Sindh
• Harappa — archaeological site in Punjab
• Bolan Pass
• Nausharo
• Pirak
• Chanhudaro
• Quetta
• List of Stone Age art

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

Mehrgarh

• Jarrige, J. F. (1979). "Excavations at Mehrgarh-Pakistan". In Johanna Engelberta Lohuizen-De Leeuw. South Asian archaeology 1975: papers from the third International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in Paris. Brill. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-90-04-05996-2. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
• Jarrige, Jean-Franois, Mehrgarh Neolithic
• Jarrige, C, J. F. Jarrige, R. H. Meadow, G. Quivron, eds (1995/6), Mehrgarh Field Reports 1974-85: From Neolithic times to the Indus Civilization.
• Jarrige J. F., Lechevallier M., Les fouilles de Mehrgarh, Pakistan : problèmes chronologiques [Excavations at Mehrgarh, Pakistan: chronological problems] (French).
• Lechevallier M., L'Industrie lithique de Mehrgarh (Pakistan) [The Lithic industry of Mehrgarh (Pakistan)] (French)
• Niharranjan Ray; Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya (1 January 2000). "Pre-Harappan Neolithic-Chalcolothic Settlement at Mehrgarh, Baluchistan Pakistan". A sourcebook of Indian civilization. Orient Blackswan. pp. 560–. ISBN 978-81-250-1871-1. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Santoni, Marielle, Sibri and the South Cemetery of Mehrgarh: Third Millennium Connections between the Northern Kachi Plain (Pakistan) and Central Asia
• Lukacs, J. R., Dental Morphology and Odontometrics of Early Agriculturalists from Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan
• Barthelemy De Saizieu B., Le Cimetière néolithique de Mehrgarh (Balouchistan pakistanais) : apport de l'analyse factorielle [The Neolithic cemetery of Mehrgarh (Balochistan Pakistan): Contribution of a factor analysis] (French).

Indus Valley Civilization

• Gregory L. Possehl (2002). The Indus civilization: a contemporary perspective. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-0172-2. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Jane McIntosh (2008). The ancient Indus Valley: new perspectives. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-907-2. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Kenoyer, Jonathan M.; Miller, Heather M. L. (1999). "Metal Technologies of the Indus Valley Tradition in Pakistan and Western India". In Vincent C. Pigott. The archaeometallurgy of the Asian old world. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-924171-34-5. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 

South Asia

• Bridget Allchin; Frank Raymond Allchin (1982). The rise of civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-28550-6. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Kenoyer, J. Mark (2005). Kimberly Heuston, ed. The Ancient South Asian World. Oxford University Press. pp. 30–35. ISBN 0-19-517422-4. Retrieved 4 March 2015. 
• Sinopoli, Carla M. (February 2007). "Gender and Archaeology in South and Southwest Asia". In Sarah M. Nelson. Worlds of gender: the archaeology of women's lives around the globe. Rowman Altamira. pp. 75–. ISBN 978-0-7591-1084-7. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 
• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (2002). Peter N. Peregrine, Melvin Ember, ed. Encyclopedia of Prehistory: South and Southwest Asia. Springer. pp. 153–. ISBN 978-0-306-46262-7. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 

South Asia paleoanthropology

• Kenneth A. R. Kennedy (2000). God-apes and fossil men: paleoanthropology of South Asia. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11013-1. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Michael D. Petraglia; Bridget Allchin (2007). The evolution and history of human populations in South Asia: inter-disciplinary studies in archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics and genetics. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-5561-4. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 

Central Asia

• J. G. Shaffer; B. K. Thapar; et al. (2005). History of civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-102719-2. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 

Global history

• Steven Mithen (30 April 2006). After the ice: a global human history, 20,000-5000 BC. Harvard University Press. pp. 408–. ISBN 978-0-674-01999-7. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 

India

• Avari, Burjor, India: The Ancient Past: A history of the Indian sub-continent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200, Routledge.
• Singh, Upinder, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th century, Dorling Kindersley, 2008, ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0
• Lallanji Gopal, V. C. Srivastava, History of Agriculture in India, up to c. 1200 AD.
• Hermann Kulke; Dietmar Rothermund (2004). A history of India. Routledge. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-0-415-32919-4. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
• Burton Stein (4 March 2015). "Ancient Days: The Pre-Formation of Indian Civilization". In David Arnold. A History of India. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-1-4051-9509-6. 

Indo-Aryans

• Jim G. Shaffer; Diane A Lichtenstein (1995). George Erdösy, ed. The Indo-Aryans of ancient South Asia: Language, material culture and ethnicity. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-3-11-014447-5. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mehrgarh.

• Archaeological Site of Mehrgarh, UNESCO
• Mehrgarh Neolithic by Jean-François Jarrige