Mehrgarh is an ancient archaeological site located on the Kacchi Plain in Balochistan, Pakistan. It is near the Bolan Pass, west of the Indus River, and between the modern cities of Quetta, Kalat, and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by the French Archaeological Mission in the Indus Basin, led by archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige. Excavations at Mehrgarh took place from 1974 to 1986 and again from 1997 to 2000. Artifacts have been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 items have been collected from the site. The oldest settlement at Mehrgarh, located in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km²) area, was a small farming village dated to 7000 BCE or 5250 BCE.
History
Mehrgarh is one of the oldest known places in the Indian subcontinent where evidence of farming and herding has been found. It was influenced by the Neolithic culture of the Near East, with similarities in domesticated wheat plants, early farming practices, pottery, other archaeological items, some domesticated plants, and herd animals. According to Asko Parpola, this culture moved into the Indus Valley and became the Indus Valley Civilization of the Bronze Age.
Jean-Francois Jarrige believes Mehrgarh developed independently. He points out the idea that farming was fully introduced from the Near East to South Asia, and the similarities between Neolithic sites in eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus Valley show a continuous cultural connection between those areas. However, Jarrige argues that Mehrgarh has a local origin earlier than the Neolithic culture of the Near East and is not simply a less developed part of that culture.
Lukacs and Hemphill suggest that Mehrgarh began with local development, with cultural continuity but changes in population. They note that while there is a strong connection between the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows the Chalcolithic population did not come from the Neolithic population of Mehrgarh, which suggests some level of genetic exchange. They wrote that the direct descendants of the Neolithic people of Mehrgarh are found to the south and east of Mehrgarh, in northwestern India and the western edge of the Deccan Plateau. Neolithic Mehrgarh shows closer ties to the Chalcolithic site of Inamgaon, located south of Mehrgarh, than to the Chalcolithic site of Mehrgarh itself.
Gallego Romero et al. (2011) state that their research on lactose tolerance in India suggests the genetic contribution from west Eurasia, as identified by Reich et al. (2009), mainly reflects gene flow from Iran and the Middle East. Gallego Romero notes that lactose-tolerant Indians show a genetic pattern related to a common European mutation. This suggests the most common lactose tolerance mutation moved in two directions from the Middle East less than 10,000 years ago. While the mutation spread across Europe, another group likely carried it eastward to India, possibly traveling along the coast of the Persian Gulf, where similar mutations have been found. They also note that the earliest evidence of cattle herding in South Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh, dated to 7,000 years before the present.
Periods of occupation
Archaeologists have divided the time people lived at the site into eight different periods.
Recent radiocarbon dating of teeth by Mutin and Zazzo shows that Mehrgarh Period I dates to between 5250 and 4650 BCE. This is different from Jarrige’s earlier dating of 7000–5500 BCE. During this time, the culture was Neolithic and aceramic, meaning no pottery was used. The earliest farming in the area was done by semi-nomadic people who grew wheat and barley and raised sheep, goats, and cattle. The settlement used unbaked mud-brick buildings, many of which had four internal rooms. Many burials were found, often with items like baskets, stone and bone tools, beads, bangles, pendants, and sometimes animal sacrifices. More goods were placed with male burials. Ornaments made of seashells, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and sandstone were found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Seashells from distant coasts and lapis lazuli from present-day Badakshan show trade connections. A ground stone axe was found in a burial, and others were found on the surface. These axes are the earliest examples found in a layered context in South Asia.
Periods I, II, and III are believed to have occurred at the same time as another site called Kili Gul Mohammad. The aceramic Neolithic phase in the region was originally named the Kili Gul Mohammad phase.
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of nine men from Mehrgarh discovered evidence of proto-dentistry. In April 2006, a study published in the journal Nature reported that the oldest known evidence of drilling human teeth while the person was alive was found at Mehrgarh. The researchers said this shows a tradition of early dental care in farming communities. They described eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults found in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan, dating from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago. These findings support the idea of a long tradition of proto-dentistry in early farming cultures.
Mehrgarh Period II was the ceramic Neolithic, using pottery, while Period III was the Chalcolithic. Period II is located at site MR4, and Period III is at MR2. Evidence of manufacturing, such as glazed faience beads and detailed terracotta figurines, was found. Female figurines were painted and had varied hairstyles and ornaments. Two burials with bodies curled in a specific way were found in Period II, covered with red ochre. Over time, burial goods became simpler, with more items placed with female burials. The first button seals, made of terracotta and bone with geometric designs, appeared. Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns, and copper melting crucibles. Evidence of long-distance trade includes lapis lazuli beads from Badakshan. Mehrgarh Periods II and III are also linked to the growth of settled populations in the western edge of South Asia, such as Rana Ghundai, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Sarai Kala, Jalilpur, and Ghaligai.
Period III was not fully explored, but it included the Togau phase (around 4000–3500 BCE), covering about 100 hectares in areas MR2, MR4, MR5, and MR6. This area had ruins, burial grounds, and dumping sites. Jean-François Jarrige concluded that the large area was not due to simultaneous occupation but because different villages or settlements were built over several centuries.
At the start of Mehrgarh III, Togau ceramics appeared. Togau ware was first described 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 pottery type is found in Balochistan and eastern Afghanistan at sites like Mundigak, Sheri Khan Tarakai, and Periano Ghundai. According to Possehl, Togau ceramics have been found at 84 sites. Anjira is a nearby ancient site.
Togau ceramics are decorated with geometric patterns and were made using a potter’s wheel.
The time of Mehrgarh Period III and later saw major changes. Between 4000 and 3500 BCE, more settlements appeared in the Quetta Valley, Surab Region, Kachhi Plain, and other areas. Kili Ghul Mohammad (II–III) pottery is similar to Togau Ware.
Period IV was 3500–3250 BCE, Period V was 3250–3000 BCE, and Period VI was around 3000 BCE. The site containing Periods IV to VII is labeled MR1.
Between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE, the city was largely abandoned in favor of the larger fortified town Nausharo, five miles away, during the middle stages of the Indus Valley Civilization. Historian Michael Wood suggests this happened around 2500 BCE.
Archaeologist Massimo Vidale notes that semi-columns found in a structure at Mehrgarh, dated to around 2500 BCE by the French mission, are similar to those found in Period IV at Shahr-e Sukhteh.
The final period is found at the Sibri cemetery, about 8 kilometers from Mehrgarh.
Lifestyle and technology
Early Mehrgarh residents lived in homes made of mud bricks, stored grain in special storage buildings, made tools using copper found nearby, and coated large baskets with bitumen to keep them watertight. They grew crops such as six-row barley, einkorn, emmer wheat, jujubes, and dates, and raised sheep, goats, and cattle. People who lived there later, between 5500 BCE and 2600 BCE, worked hard to create crafts like shaping flint, processing animal hides, making beads, and working with metal. Mehrgarh is likely the first known place in South Asia where agriculture began.
The oldest example of the lost-wax technique was discovered in a 6,000-year-old copper amulet shaped like a wheel, found at Mehrgarh. The amulet was made from pure copper, a unique method that was not used again later.
Artefacts
The oldest ceramic figurines in South Asia were discovered at Mehrgarh. These figurines were present in all stages of the settlement and existed even before pottery was made. The earliest figurines are simple and lack detailed features. Over time, they became more complex, and by 4000 BCE, they showed distinct hairstyles and prominent breasts. All figurines up to this time were female. Male figurines appeared only in Period VII and became more common later. Many female figurines are shown holding babies, which some researchers believe represents a mother goddess. However, because it is difficult to confirm these figurines as a mother goddess, some scholars use the term "female figurines with likely religious importance."
Evidence of pottery first appears in Period II. In Period III, pottery became more common after the introduction of the potter's wheel, and designs became more detailed, including animal images. Characteristic female figurines began appearing in Period IV, and pottery showed more complex designs. Pipal leaf patterns were used for decoration starting in Period VI. Advanced firing methods were used in Periods VI and VII, and a special area for pottery production was found at mound MR1. However, by Period VIII, the quality and detail of pottery designs declined due to mass production, and interest shifted to bronze and copper vessels.
There are two types of burials at the Mehrgarh site. Individual burials involved placing one person inside narrow mud walls, while collective burials contained the skeletons of six people within thin mud-brick walls. In collective burials, bodies were positioned with bent knees and aligned east to west. Child bones were found in large jars or urns between 4000 and 3300 BCE.
Metal items, such as copper objects, have been dated to as early as Period IIB.