Ancient History not Appreciated by Pakistanis?

[Neo]

Gentlemen, first of all my compliments for your knowlege and contribution to this thread...I've been following it from the day it started but dare not to post as my knowledge seems like a drop of rain in the ocean compared to Sir Road Runner, UnitedPak and Sir Niaz.

We've been talking about Indus Valley with Mohinjodaro as the oldest civilisation in the sub continent but the fact is that there was another advanced civilisation in the Kachi Plains of Balochistan called Mehergarh which dates back as early as 7000 BC making it older much than the Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilisation!

Allow me to post some facts with links here.

 

[Neo]

Mehrgarh

 

[Neo]

Mehrgarh



Early farming village in Mehrgarh, c. 7000 BCE, with houses built with mud bricks. (Musée Guimet, Paris).Mehrgarh, one of the most important Neolithic (7000 BCE to 3200 BCE) sites in archaeology, lies on the "Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia."[1]

Located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River valley and between the present-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi, Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh — in the northeast corner of the 495-acre site — was a small farming village dated between 7000 BCE–5500 BCE.

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[Neo]

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. The site was occupied continuously until about 2600 BCE.[2]

In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence in human history for the drilling of teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh.[3]

Google Image resultaat voor http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/1/19/290px-Mehrgarh_pakistan_rel96.JPG

 

[Neo]

Archaeological significance



A relief map of Pakistan showing MehrgarhMehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. "Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization," according to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus of archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, "There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life."[4] According to Catherine Jarrige of the Centre for Archaeological Research Indus Balochistan, Musée Guimet, Paris

"... the Kachi plain and in the Bolan basin (are) situated at the Bolan peak pass, one of the main routes connecting southern Afghanistan, eastern Iran, the Balochistan hills and the Indus valley. This area of rolling hills is thus located on the western edge of the Indus valley, where, around 2500 BCE, a large urban civilization emerged at the same time as those of Mesopotamia and the ancient Egyptian empire. For the first time in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, a continuous sequence of dwelling-sites has been established from 7000 BCE to 500 BCE, (as a result of the) explorations in Pirak from 1968 to 1974; in Mehrgarh from 1975 to 1985; and of Nausharo from 1985 to 1996."[5]


A figurine from Mehrgarh, c. 3000 BCE. (Musée Guimet, Paris)The chalcolithic people of Mehrgarh also had contacts with contemporaneous cultures in northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran and southern central Asia.[6]

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[Neo]

Mehrgarh Period I



Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into several periods. Mehrgarh Period I 7000 BCE–5500 BCE, was Neolithic and aceramic (i.e., 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 with 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, sandstone and polished copper have been found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Sea shells from far sea shore and lapis lazuli found far in 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 the South Asia.

In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh made the discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, 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."[7]

Google Image resultaat voor http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/1/19/290px-Mehrgarh_pakistan_rel96.JPG

 

[Neo]

Mehrgarh Period II and Period III

Mehrgarh Period II 5500 BCE–4800 BCE and Merhgarh Period III 4800 BCE–3500 BCE were ceramic Neolithic (i.e., pottery was now in use) and later chalcolithic. 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 covering of red ochre 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 — originally from Badakshan.

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[Neo]

Mehrgarh Period VII

Somewhere between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE, the city seems to have been largely abandoned, which is when the Indus Valley Civilisation was in its middle stages of development. It has been surmised that the inhabitants of Mehrgarh migrated to the fertile Indus valley as the Balochistan became more arid due to climatic changes.


Common variant spellings
Mehrgarh is also spelled as Mehrgahr, Merhgarh or Merhgahr.
Kachi plain is also spelled as Kacchi plain, Katchi plain.

Notes
^ Hirst, K. Kris. 2005. "Mehrgarh". Guide to Archaeology
^ Possehl, Gregory L. 1996. "Mehrgarh." Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by Brian Fagan. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
^ 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.
^ Chandler, Graham. 1999. "Traders of the Plain." Saudi Aramco World.
^
^ Kenoyer, J. Mark, and Kimberly Heuston. 2005. The Ancient South Asian World. Oxford University Press. 176 pages. ISBN 0195174224.
^ 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.

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[Neo]

Chronological Chart


Stone Age 70,000–3300 BC
· Mehrgarh Culture · 7000–3300 BC
Indus Valley Civilization 3300–1700 BC
Late Harappan Culture 1700–1300 BC
Vedic Period 1500–500 BC
· Iron Age · 1200–500 BC
· Vedic Kingdoms · 1200–700 BC
Maha Janapadas 700–300 BC
Magadha Empire 684 BC– 320 BC
· Maurya Empire · 321–184 BC
Middle Kingdoms 230 BC–AD 1279
· Satavahana Empire · 230 BC–AD 199
· Kushan Empire · 60–240
· Gupta Empire · 240–550
· Pala Empire · 750–1174
· Chola Empire · 250 BCE –1279
Islamic Sultanates 1206–1596
· Delhi Sultanate · 1206–1526
· Deccan Sultanates · 1490–1596
Hoysala Empire 1040–1346
Kakatiya Empire 1083–1323
Vijayanagara Empire 1336–1565
Mughal Empire 1526–1707
Maratha Empire 1674–1818
Sikh Empire 1799–1849
Colonial Era 1757–1947
Modern States 1947 onwards

South Asian Stone Age: Information and Much More from Answers.com

 

[EagleEyes]

Gentlemen, first of all my compliments for your knowlege and contribution to this thread...I've been following it from the day it started but dare not to post as my knowledge seems like a drop of rain in the ocean compared to Sir Road Runner, UnitedPak and Sir Niaz.

We've been talking about Indus Valley with Mohinjodaro as the oldest civilisation in the sub continent but the fact is that there was another advanced civilisation in the Kachi Plains of Balochistan called Mehergarh which dates back as early as 7000 BC making it older much than the Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilisation!

Allow me to post some facts with links here.

WOW Neo. Thanks!

 

[UnitedPak]

wow, thank you for stickying this post. Greatly appreciated. It would help spread awareness.

 

[Neo]

wow, thank you for stickying this post. Greatly appreciated. It would help spread awareness.

Agreed!
You're welcome!

 

[niaz]

Gentlemen, first of all my compliments for your knowlege and contribution to this thread...I've been following it from the day it started but dare not to post as my knowledge seems like a drop of rain in the ocean compared to Sir Road Runner, UnitedPak and Sir Niaz.

We've been talking about Indus Valley with Mohinjodaro as the oldest civilisation in the sub continent but the fact is that there was another advanced civilisation in the Kachi Plains of Balochistan called Mehergarh which dates back as early as 7000 BC making it older much than the Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilisation!

Allow me to post some facts with links here.

Many thanks for the compliments Neo. My interest is really the history of the Islamic people, specially of non Arab Mulsims. This means the era from approx 600 AD onwards. I have only cursory knowlegde of the Ancient History mostly acquired while helping a numismatist friend in cataloging his coins. My compliments to you on a very informative post about Mehrgarh.

My current interest is in the Hephthalites ( also known as white Huns) who ruled in the area what is now Pakistan around 500 AD ( just before the muslim invasion), the rule was centered around Sialkot. Naturally, I surfed the internet and it is very intriguing to learn that a lot modern races currently living in Punjab such as Jats and Gujjars etc could be descendents of these Huns. If any member comes across a good book about these people, kindly post the reference in this thread. Would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Flintlock]

From the encyclopedia britannica:



Indus Valley civilization or Harappan civilization the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent, first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-daro, near the Indus River in the Sindh, now both in Pakistan. Subsequently, vestiges of the civilization were found as far apart as Sutkagen Dor, near the shore of the Arabian Sea 300 miles (480 km) west of Karachi, and Ropar at the foot of the Simla Hills, 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the northeast. Later exploration established its existence southward down the west coast as far as the Gulf of Cambay, 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Karachi and as far east as the Yamuna Basin, 30 miles (50 km) north of Delhi. It is thus decidedly the most extensive of the world's three earliest civilizations; the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which began somewhat before it. (See also India.)


The Indus civilization is known to have comprised two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The two cities were each perhaps originally about a mile square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternative capitals, a practice having analogies in Indian history. Or it may be that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods. The southern region of the civilization in Kathiawar and beyond appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites. The civilization was literate, and its script, with some 250 to 500 characters, has been partly and tentatively deciphered; the language has been tentatively identified as Dravidian. The nuclear dates of the civilization appear to be c. 2500–1700 BC, though southern sites may have lasted later in the 2nd millennium BC.

The Indus civilization apparently evolved from the villages of neighbours or predecessors, using the Mesopotamian model of irrigated agriculture with sufficient skill to reap the advantages of the spacious and fertile Indus River valley while controlling the formidable annual flood that simultaneously fertilizes and destroys. Having once obtained a secure foothold on the plain and mastered its more immediate problems, the new civilization, doubtless with a well-nourished and increasing population, would find expansion along the flanks of the great waterways an inevitable sequel. The civilization subsisted primarily by farming supplemented by an appreciable but often elusive commerce. Wheat and six-rowed barley were grown; field peas, mustard, sesame, and a few date stones have also been found, as well as some of the earliest traces of cotton known. Domesticated animals included dogs and cats, humped cattle, shorthorns, domestic fowl, and possibly pigs, camels, and buffalo. The elephant probably also was domesticated, and its ivory tusks were freely used. Minerals, unavailable from the alluvial plain, were brought in sometimes from far afield. Gold was imported from southern India or Afghanistan, silver and copper from Afghanistan or northwestern India (Rajasthan), lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, turquoise from Iran (Persia), and a jadelike fuchsite from southern India.

Perhaps the best-known artifacts of the Indus civilization are a number of small seals, generally made of steatite, which are distinctive in kind and unique in quality, depicting a wide variety of animals, both real—such as elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, and antelopes—and fantastic, often composite, creatures. Sometimes human forms are included. A few examples of Indus stone sculpture have also been found, usually small and representing humans or gods. There are great numbers of small terra-cotta figures of animals and humans.

How and when the civilization came to an end remains uncertain. In fact, no uniform ending need be postulated for a culture so widely distributed. But the end of Mohenjo-daro is known and was dramatic and sudden. It was attacked toward the middle of the 2nd millennium BC by raiders who swept over the city and then passed on, leaving the dead lying where they fell. Who the attackers were is matter for conjecture. The episode would appear to be consistent in time and place with the earlier Aryan onslaught upon the Indus region as reflected in the older books of the Rigveda, in which the newcomers are represented as attacking the “walled cities” or “citadels” of the aboriginal peoples and the Aryan war-god Indra as rending “forts as age consumes a garment.” However, one thing is clear: the city was already in an advanced stage of economic and social decline before it received the coup de grace. Deep floods had more than once submerged large tracts of it. Houses had become increasingly shoddy in construction and showed signs of overcrowding. The final blow seems to have been sudden, but the city was already dying. As the evidence stands, the civilization was succeeded in the Indus valley by poverty-stricken cultures, deriving a little from a sub-Indus heritage but also drawing elements from the direction of Iran and the Caucasus—from the general direction, in fact, of the Aryan invasions. For many centuries urban civilization was dead in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.

In the south, however, in Kathiawar and beyond, the situation appears to have been very different. Here it would seem that there was a real cultural continuity between the late Indus phase and the Copper Age cultures that characterized central and western India between 1700 and the 1st millennium BC. These cultures form a material bridge between the end of the Indus civilization proper and the developed Iron Age civilization that arose in India about 1000 BC.

 

[Flintlock]

Rakhigarhi, Haryana: The newest and one of the largest additions to the IVC:


Rakhigarhi is about to rewrite the 5000 year old history of our civilization. Recent excavations at Rakhigarhi in Hissar district of Haryana may push the history of the civilization back by over a thousand years. It could change the commonly held view about the Indus Valley civilization, as Rakhigarhi is situated on the bank of the now dry, Saraswati river. Archaeologists and historians are excited about the findings from Rakhigarhi, the largest Indus Valley site after Mohenjodaro. Archaeologists consider this to be no ordinary Harappan site and say it is the most important of all the archaeological sites of India. The unearthed clues may yield answers to many unanswered questions. Rakhigarhi findings have already started showing new civilization contours. The area and dimensions of the site are far wider than assessed by archaeologist Raymond and Bridget Allchin and J M Kenyer. It is 224 hectares, the largest in the country.

In size, dimensions strategic location and unique significance of the settlement, Rakhi Garhi matches Harappa and Mohenjodaro at every level.

Three layers of Early, Mature and Late phases of Indus Valley civilization have been found at Rakhi Garhi. What has so far been found indicates that Rakhi Garhi settlement witnessed all the three phases.

The site has trick deposits of ‘Hakra Ware’ (typical of settlements dating back before the early phases of Indus Valley). ‘Early and ‘Mature’ Harappan artifacts. The solid presence of the Hakra Ware culture raises the important question: "Did the Indus civilization come later than it is recorded?" The Hakra and the Early phases are separated by more than 500-600 years and the Hakra people are considered to be the earliest Indus inhabitants. Although the carbon-14 dating results are awaited, based on the thick layers of Hakra Ware at Rakhi Garhi, it is said that the site may date back to about 2500 BC to 3000 BC. This pushes the Indus Valley civilization history by a thousand years or more. While this site came to light in 1963 excavations at Rakhigarhi started only in 1997.

Had excavations started 70 years earlier, when Harappa and Mohenjodaro were uncovered, the story would have been different. Fossils indicate that the Harappan man reared cattle. The findings are startling. Rakhi Garhi was settled on the banks of a river Dhrishdwati, which was a tributary of the river Saraswati. Copper fishing hooks and woven nets found at the site affirms the river’s existence nearby. It is thought that the people living in this city traded with other people using this river for navigation.

The site’s antiquities, drainage system and signs of small-scale industry are in continuity with other Indus sites. All this adds one more dimension to the whole debate on Indus civilization. Many feel that since this site is situated on the Saraswati river, it is more likely connected to the Vedic civilization. All this only add to the enigma called Indus civilization, rich in facts, richer still in speculation. What stands out from the churning debate is the fact that much more perhaps still remains shrouded in the folds of the past centuries. The real and very important part played by Haryana in India's history is yet to be fully understood.

Digging so far reveals a well planned city with 1.92 m wide roads. Pits surrounded by walls have been found, which are thought to be sacrificial pits or for some religious ceremonies. Which shows fire was used extensively in their religious ceremonies. There are brick lined drains to handle sullage from the houses. Among other things that have been found are, terracotta statues, weights, bronze artifacts, combs, needles and terracotta seals. A bronze vessel has been found which is decorated with gold and silver. A gold foundry with about 3000 unpolished semi-precious stones has been found. Many tools used for polishing these stones and a furnace were found there. A burial site has been found with 11 skeletons with their heads in the north direction. Near the heads of these skeletons, utensils for everyday use are kept. The three female skeletons have shell bangles on their left wrists. Near one female skeleton, a gold armlet has been fond. In addition semi precious stones have been found lying near the head, showing that they were part of some sort of necklace.

Rakhi Garhi - Rakhigarhi - Haryana - Archaeological Site - History - India