The Infant Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization is now known to have existed during the Neolithic period, which, counter to our traditional categorizations of history, is based on the advancements of civilizations rather than discrete chunks of time. The Neolithic is characterized by the advent of sedentary societies based upon agriculture and/or animal husbandry, so it is defined in the Indus from 7,000 BCE to 3,300 BCE. Additional hallmarks of the Neolithic include smoothened stone tools, and, around 5,000 BCE, the first pottery.
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro — active from about 3,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE — were the first sites of the IVC to be discovered. However, they are far too urbanized to represent the earliest stages of the Indus Valley Civilization. The level of cultural and structural complexity they represented could not have spontaneously sprung from the roaming hybrids of hunter-gatherers and agriculturists of the Mesolithic, or even the small agricultural settlements of the Neolithic. For years, then, the question has remained — where were the elusive first Indus sites?
A half-century gap in the discovery of any prominent Indus sites created wide speculation around its founding. The idea that the IVC was simply a colony established by other cultures, like the Sumerians or Egyptians, began to gain traction. Much of the evidence purported to support this theory, however, likely originated from trade with these civilizations.
In the 1970s, the site of Mehrgarh, consisting of many settlements over thousands of years, was first excavated in eastern Pakistan, by Jean-François and Catherine Jarrige. These excavations disrupted any previously held notions of the origin of Indo-Iranian agricultural civilization, pushing the visible roots of Indus civilization back by over 3,000 years, to the preceramic Neolithic.
Mehrgarh is located in the modern-day province of Balochistan, on the banks of the Bolan River on the Kachi Plain, which is part of the fertile drainage basin of the Indus River. A flood in the early 20th century caused the Bolan River to move to the west, uncovering multiple stacked settlements that stretch almost 10 meters deep. These settlements extend back to the 8th millennium BCE in the early Neolithic, and they are linked to the IVC by the early Indus site of Nausharo, six miles to the south.
Many discoveries at Mehrgarh have caused archeologists to reassess the advent of cultural and technological advances in the IVC. A late Neolithic settlement has mud-brick buildings with multiple rooms, including houses and storage facilities; firepits, and open burial areas. These features are organized almost like a modern city, with alleyways and high symmetry. The early residents of Mehrgarh thus had far more infrastructure than was previously thought.
The Neolithic settlements of Mehrgarh also display evidence of extensive cereal farming, with imprints in the mud of many types of barley and wheat. Even in the first settlements of Mehrgarh, there are imprints of einkorn and emmer wheat. Furthermore, animal bones at Mehrgarh demonstrate a shift from wild animals, such as gazelles and deer, to domesticated goats, sheep, and cattle. Thus, the people of Mehrgarh developed agriculture and animal husbandry on their own, just as early as other civilizations did.
Mehrgarh also seems to have had a vast tool industry. Excavations of burial sites have revealed numerous stone axes and flint blades. They have also unearthed human and animal figurines, the earliest found in South Asia. Bead jewelry of imported lapiz lazuli and turquoise adorns many skeletons, supporting the existence of a trade network with contemporary civilizations like the people of Afghanistan.
The inhabitants of Mehrgarh led lives, which, though organized and complex, differ greatly from our own. However, some aspects of modern lifestyles in Balochistan can be traced directly to those of Mehrgarh. The surrounding area is occupied by semi-nomadic tribes who practice pottery and bake bread in much the same way as the inhabitants of Mehrgarh, nearly ten millenia previously.
As excavation has dried up at Mehrgarh, however, the site has fallen into disarray and is at risk of being completely destroyed. Though it is nominally under the protection of the Pakistani government, tribal chiefs hold sway over the area around the site. Mehrgarh, as well as the Jarriges’ excavation camp, was razed during a tribal feud in January 2002. Since then, most of the site has been reduced to rubble. Continuing tribal conflicts, exposure to the elements, and the looting of artifacts to sell to dealers are working to demolish what little is left of the site. However, efforts to declare Mehrgarh as a UNESCO World Heritage Site have failed, largely due to the ineptitude and inaction of local authorities. Without immediate preservation, Mehrgarh will surely be lost, depriving us of knowledge about one of the earliest and longest-lasting civilizations in human history.
Sources
Jarrige, J.-F., & Meadow, R. H. (1980). The Antecedents of Civilization in the Indus Valley. Scientific American, 243(2), 122–137. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24966394
Jarrige, J.-F. (2006, January 18–20). Mehrgarh Neolithic [Paper presentation]. International Seminar on the ‘First Farmers in Global Perspective,’ Lucknow, India. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221610/http://archaeology.up.nic.in/doc/mn_jfj.pdf
Ansari, M. (2003). The Guns of Mehrgarh. Archaeology, 56(2), 62–66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41779151
Baloch, S.M. (2019, January 29). Pakistan’s Crumbling Cultural Heritage. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/pakistans-crumbling-cultural-heritage/
Notezai, M.A. (2017, March 10). The lost civilisation of Mehrgarh: A treasure in ruins. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/1316715
