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Mehrgarh is a Neolithic archaeological site situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in 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 in the Indus Basin led by the French people 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 , and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected from the site. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, located in the northeast corner of the site, was a small farming village dated from 7000 BCE or 5250 BCE (see below).
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,"Jean-Francois Jarrige Mehrgarh Neolithic , Paper presented in the International Seminar on the "First Farmers in Global Perspective," Lucknow, India, 18–20 January 2006 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."
Lukacs and Hemphill suggest an initial local development of Mehrgarh, with continuity in cultural development but a population change.Brian E. Hemphill, John R. Lukacs, K.A.R. Kennedy, Biological Adaptations and Affinities of Bronze Age Harappans. Chapter 11 of Harappa Excavation Reports 1986-1990 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, in North 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 Iran and the Middle East." Gallego Romero notes that Indian people who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is "characteristic of the common 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 "the earliest evidence of cattle herding in south Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP."
/ref> differently from Jarrige's earlier dating pre-7000–5500 BCE. It 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, 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 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." A single charcoal sample from Kili Ghul Mohammad Period I was radiocarbon dated, giving a calibrated date between the mid-5th and mid-4th millennia BCE (Kulp Sample 1: 5300 +/- 200 BP; 4536-3655 cal. BCE)" (Mutin, B. et al. 2025, supplementary information, p.2)
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."Coppa, A. et al. 2006. "Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry: Flint tips were surprisingly effective for drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population." Nature. Volume 440. 6 April 2006.
===Mehrgarh Period II (4650"Mehrgarh Period IIA pottery vessels, which appeared subsequent to Period I, represent the
earliest known pottery products from Pakistan. Although Jarrige paralleled them with material from Iran and
Mesopotamia dating to the second half of the 7th millennium BCE (see Supplementary Information 3), the new
dates suggest that they are no earlier than ca. 4650 BCE, which is relatively consistent with parallels observed in
southeastern Iran as well as with the available radiocarbon dates from Period IIA"
Period III was not much explored, but it was found that Togau phase (–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."Vidale, Massimo, et al., (2017). "Early Evidence of Bead-Making at Mehrgarh, Pakistan: A Tribute to the Scientific Curiosity of Catherine and Jean-François Jarrige" , in Alok Kumar Kanungo (ed.), Stone Beads of South and Southeast Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, p. 234.
Togau ceramics are decorated with geometric designs and were already being made with a potter's wheel.
The time of Mehrgarh Period III and beyond is characterized by important new developments. During the second half of the 4th millennium BCE 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.Ute Franke (2015), Central Baluchistan in the 4th Millennium BCE. ancient-herat.de
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.Vidale, Massimo, (15 March 2021). "A Warehouse in 3rd Millennium B.C. Sistan and Its Accounting Technology" , in Seminar "Early Urbanization in Iran".
The oldest known example of the Lost-wax casting 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.
/ref>–4000 BCE) and Period III (4000–3500"in the mid-4th millennium BCE in late Mehrgarh III levels." Ute Franke (2015), Central Baluchistan in the 4th Millennium BCE. ancient-herat.de BCE)===
The Mehrgarh Period II was ceramic Neolithic, using pottery and Merhgarh Period III was 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 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 , 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.
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.Mukhtar Ahmed, Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History. Volume II: A Prelude to Civilization. 2014 p392
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.
Mehrgarh Period VIII
The last period is found at the Sibri cemetery, about 8 kilometers from Mehrgarh. (1999). 9788120814073, Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120814073
Lifestyle and technology
Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with chalcolithic, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated six-row barley, Einkorn wheat and emmer wheat, 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.Gregory Possehl 1996. "Mehrgarh". Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by Brian Fagan. Oxford University Press Mehrgarh is probably the earliest known center of agriculture in South Asia.
Artifacts
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". (1999). 9788120814073 ISBN 9788120814073
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. The characteristic female figurines appear beginning in Period IV and the finds show more intricate designs and sophistication. Sacred fig 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
Notes
Sources
Further reading
Mehrgarh
(2000). 9788125018711, Orient Blackswan. ISBN 9788125018711
Indus Valley Civilization
(1999). 9780924171345, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. ISBN 9780924171345
South Asia
South Asia paleoanthropology
Central Asia
Global history
India
Indo-Aryans
External links
Categories: Populated Places Established In The 7th Millennium Bc, Populated Places Disestablished In The 3rd Millennium Bc, 1974 Archaeological Discoveries, Archaeological Discoveries In Pakistan, History Of South Asia, Indus Valley Civilisation Sites, History Of Balochistan, Neolithic Settlements, Pre-indus Valley Civilisation Sites, Former Populated Places In Pakistan, Quetta District, Archaeological Sites In Balochistan, Pakistan
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