Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh

Ruins of houses at Mehrgarh, Balochistan
Mehrgahr Location within the Pakistani province of Balochistan Mehrgahr Location within Pakistan Mehrgahr Mehrgahr (South Asia)
Alternative name	Mehrgahr, Merhgarh, Merhgahr
Location	Balochistan, Pakistan
Region	South Asia
Coordinates	29°23′N 67°37′E
History
Founded	c. 7000 BCE
Abandoned	c. 2600 BCE
Periods	Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	1974–1986, 1997–2000
Archaeologists	Jean-François Jarrige, Catherine Jarrige (archaeologist)
Followed by: Early Harappan period

Mehrgarh is a Neolithic archaeological site (dated c. 7000 BCE – c. 2500/2000 BCE) situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in modern-day Pakistan. It is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River and between the modern-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by the French Archaeological Mission led by the French archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige. Mehrgarh 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 from the site. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, located in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km²) site, was a small farming village dated between 7000 BCE and 5500 BCE.

History

See also: Neolithic Revolution, Fertile Crescent, Demic diffusion, and Dravidian peoples § Origins

Mehrgarh is one of the earliest known sites in South Asia showing evidence of farming and herding. It was influenced by the Neolithic culture of the Near East, with similarities between "domesticated wheat varieties, early phases of farming, pottery, other archaeological artefacts, some domesticated plants and herd animals." According to Asko Parpola, the culture migrated into the Indus Valley and became the Indus Valley Civilisation of the Bronze Age.

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," and the similarities between Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus Valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those sites. However, 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."

Site location of Mehrgarh

Lukacs and Hemphill suggest an initial local development of Mehrgarh, with continuity in cultural development but a population change. According to Lukacs and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the Chalcolithic population did not descend from the Neolithic population of Mehrgarh, which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow." They wrote that "the direct lineal descendants of the Neolithic inhabitants of Mehrgarh are to be found to the south and the east of Mehrgarh, Pakistan in northwestern India and the western edge of the Deccan Plateau," with Neolithic Mehrgarh showing greater affinity with Chalcolithic Inamgaon, south of Mehrgarh, than with Chalcolithic Mehrgarh.

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 Pakistan, Iran and the Middle East." Gallego Romero notes that Indians who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is "characteristic of the common European mutation." 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." 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."

Periods of occupation

Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into eight periods.

Mehrgarh Period I (pre-7000–5500 BCE)

The Mehrgarh Period I (pre-7000–5500 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 unbaked mud-brick 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. Seashells from far seashores, and lapis lazuli from as far away as present-day Badakshan, show good contact with those areas. One 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 considered contemporaneous with another site called Kili Gul Mohammad. The aceramic Neolithic phase in the region had originally been called the Kili Gul Muhammad phase. While the Kili Gul Muhammad site itself probably started c. 5500 BCE, subsequent discoveries allowed the date range of 7000–5000 BCE to be defined for this aceramic Neolithic phase.

In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of nine men from Mehrgarh discovered that the people of this civilization knew proto-dentistry. 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 early farming culture."

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

Period III was not much explored, but it was found that Togau phase (c. 4000–3500 BCE) was part of this level, covering around 100 hectares in the areas MR.2, MR.4, MR.5 and MR.6, encompassing ruins, burial and dumping grounds, but archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige concluded that "such wide extension was not due to contemporaneous occupation, but rather due to the shift and partial superimposition in time of several villages or settlement clusters across a span of several centuries."

Togau phase

At the beginning of Mehrgarh III, Togau ceramics appeared at the site. Togau ware was first defined by Beatrice de Cardi in 1948. Togau is a large mound in the Chhappar Valley of Sarawan, 12 kilometers northwest of Kalat in Balochistan. This type of pottery is found widely in Balochistan and eastern Afghanistan, at sites such as Mundigak, Sheri Khan Tarakai, and Periano Ghundai. According to Possehl it is attested at 84 sites up to date. Anjira is a contemporary ancient site near Togau.

Togau ceramics are decorated with geometric designs and were already being made with a potter's wheel.

Mehrgarh Period III, during the second half of the 4th millennium BCE, is characterized by important new developments. There is a big increase in the number of settlements in the Quetta Valley, the Surab Region, the Kachhi Plain and elsewhere in the area. Kili Ghul Mohammad (II−III) pottery is similar to Togau Ware.

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

Period IV was 3500–3250 BCE, Period V from 3250–3000 BCE, and Period VI was around 3000 BCE. The site containing Periods IV to VII is designated as MR1.

Mehrgarh Period VII (2600–2000 BCE)

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

Archaeologist Massimo Vidale considers a series of semi-columns found in a structure at Mehrgarh, dated around 2500 BCE by the French mission there, to be very similar to semi-columns found in Period IV at Shahr-e Sukhteh.

Mehrgarh Period VIII

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

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. Mehrgarh is probably the earliest known center of agriculture in South Asia.

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.

Artifacts

Seated Mother Goddess, 3000–2500 BCE. Mehrgarh.

Human figurines

The oldest ceramic figurines in South Asia were also 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 BCE begins 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 a mother goddess. However, due to some difficulties in conclusively identifying these figurines with a mother goddess, some scholars prefer using the term "female figurines with likely cultic significance".

Pottery

Mehrgarh painted pottery, 3000–2500 BCE

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. 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. Some sophisticated firing techniques were used from Periods 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 a growing interest in bronze and copper vessels.

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).

Metallurgy

Metal findings have been dated as early as Period IIB, with a few copper items.

See also

• Indus Valley Civilisation and the list of Indus Valley Civilisation sites
• List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilisation
• Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation
• 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
• Chanhudaro
• Quetta
• List of Stone Age art

Sources

• Coningham, Robin; Young, Ruth (2015), The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE, Cambridge University Press
• Dikshit, K.N. (2013), "Origin of Early Harappan Cultures in the Sarasvati Valley: Recent Archaeological Evidence and Radiometric Dates" (PDF), Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology (9), archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2017
• Gallego Romero, Irene; et al. (2011). "Herders of Indian and European Cattle Share their Predominant Allele for Lactase Persistence". Mol. Biol. Evol. 29 (1): 249–260. doi:10.1093/molbev/msr190. PMID 21836184.
• Gangal, Kavita; Sarson, Graeme R.; Shukurov, Anvar (2014), "The Near-Eastern Roots of the Neolithic in South Asia", PLOS ONE, 9 (5): e95714, Bibcode:2014PLoSO...995714G, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095714, PMC 4012948, PMID 24806472
• Kivisild; et al. (1999), "Deep common ancestry of Indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages", Curr. Biol., 9 (22): 1331–1334, doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(00)80057-3, PMID 10574762, S2CID 2821966
• Mani, B.R. (2008), "Kashmir Neolithic and Early Harappan : A Linkage" (PDF), Pragdhara 18, 229–247 (2008), archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2017, retrieved 17 January 2017
• Parpola, Asko (15 July 2015). The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-022693-0.
• Singh, Sakshi (2016), "Dissecting the influence of Neolithic demic diffusion on Indian Y-chromosome pool through J2-M172 haplogroup", Sci. Rep., 6: 19157, Bibcode:2016NatSR...619157S, doi:10.1038/srep19157, PMC 4709632, PMID 26754573

Further reading

Mehrgarh

• Jarrige, J. F. (1979). "Excavations at Mehrgarh-Pakistan". In Johanna Engelberta Lohuizen-De Leeuw (ed.). 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 Archived 20 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• 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-Chalcolithic 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, Sabri 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)
• Jarrige J.F., Jarrige, C., Quivron, G., Wengler, L., Sarmiento-Castillo, D., Mehrgarh. The Neolithic Levels, Seasons 1997 - 2000

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 (ed.). 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 978-0-19-517422-9. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
• Sinopoli, Carla M. (February 2007). "Gender and Archaeology in South and Southwest Asia". In Sarah M. Nelson (ed.). 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 (ed.). 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

• Archaeological Site of Mehrgarh, UNESCO
• http://www.arscan.fr/archeologie-asie-centrale/mai/ Mission archéologique de l'Indus (M.A.I.) [fr]