Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T09:45:08.112Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Mehrgarh, Pakistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
Get access

Summary

Mehrgarh is the best-known early village site in South Asia, and presents the earliest evidence for sedentary occupation, agriculture and pastoralism thus far discovered. Sedentary occupation was displaced episodically, such that the use of individual areas appears to have been largely sequential. Mehrgarh period I appears to have been at least partly contemporaneous with the earliest aceramic levels at the site of Kili Gul Muhammad, at the other end of the Bolan Pass. Mehrgarh is located well outside the distribution of the wild progenitors of both domesticated einkorn and emmer wheat, which are limited to the Near Eastern arc or the Fertile Crescent. New aceramic sites have, however, now been found in southwest and southeast Iran, which have added significantly to our understanding of the distribution of aceramic Neolithic settlements. Excavations in the uppermost levels at MR 4 and MR 2 revealed evidence for increasing sophistication of the ceramic decoration repertoire during Mehrgarh period III.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further reading

Costantini, L.The beginning of agriculture in the Kachi plain: the evidence of Mehrgarh.’ In Allchin, B. (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1981. Cambridge University Press, 1984. 2933.Google Scholar
Fairservis, W.A. Excavations in the Quetta Valley, West Pakistan. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1956.Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q.Agricultural origins and frontiers in South Asia: a working synthesis.Journal of World Prehistory, 20 (2006), 186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, D.Q.Harappan seeds and agriculture: some considerations.Antiquity, 75 (2001), 410–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, D.Q.Indus and non-Indus agricultural traditions: local developments and crop adoptions on the Indian peninsula.’ In Weber, S.A. and Belcher, W.R. (eds.), Indus Ethnobiology: New Perspectives from the Field. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2003. 343–96.Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q.Neolithic cultures.’ In Pearsall, D.M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 2008. 756–68.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia: An Environmental-Archaeological Study. Pittsburgh: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2010.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R.The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia: an overview.’ In Harris, D.R. (ed.), The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. London: UCL Press, 1996. 552–73.Google Scholar
Jarrige, C.Human figurines from the Neolithic levels at Mehrgarh (Balochistan, Pakistan).’ In Franke-Vogt, U. and Weisshaar, H.-J. (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 2003. Aachen: Linden Soft, 2005. 2737.Google Scholar
Jarrige, C., Jarrige, J.-F., Meadow, R.H., and Quivron, G. (eds.). Mehrgarh: Field Reports 1974–1985 from Neolithic Times to the Indus Civilization. Karachi: Department of Culture and Tourism, Government of Sindh, Pakistan, in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1995.Google Scholar
Jarrige, J.-F.Mehrgarh Neolithic.Pragdhara, 18 (2008), 135–54.Google Scholar
Jarrige, J.-F., Jarrige, C., and Quivron, G.. ‘Mehrgarh Neolithic: the updated sequence.’ In Jarrige, C. and Lefèvre, V. (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 2001. 2 vols. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2005. vol. i, 129–41.Google Scholar
Jarrige, J.-F., Jarrige, C., Quivron, G., and Wengler, L.. Mehrgarh: Neolithic Period – Seasons 1997–2000. Paris: Éditions de Boccard, 2013.Google Scholar
Meadow, R.H.The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in northwest South Asia.’ In Harris, D.R. (ed.), The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. London: UCL Press, 1996. 390412.Google Scholar
Mutin, B.Cultural dynamics in southern Middle-Asia in the fifth and fourth millennia bc: a reconstruction based on ceramic traditions.Paléorient, 38 (2012), 159–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrie, C.A., Knox, J.R., Khan, F., Thomas, K.D., and Morris, J.C.. ‘The investigation of early villages in the hills and on the plains of western South Asia.’ In Petrie, C.A. (ed.), Sheri Khan Tarakai and Early Village Life in the Borderlands of North-West Pakistan: Bannu Archaeological Project Surveys and Excavations 1985–2001. Bannu Archaeological Project Monographs 1. Oxford: Oxbow, 2010. 728.Google Scholar
Petrie, C.A. and Thomas, K.D.. ‘The topographic and environmental context of the earliest village sites in western South Asia.Antiquity, 86 (2012), 1055–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Possehl, G.L. Indus Age: The Beginnings. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Shaffer, J.G.The Indus valley, Baluchistan, and Helmand traditions: Neolithic through Bronze Age.’ In Ehrich, R.W. (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology. University of Chicago Press, 1992. vol. i, 441–64, vol. ii, 425–46.Google Scholar
Tengberg, M.Crop husbandry at Miri Qalat Makran, SW Pakistan (4000–2000 bc).Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 8 (1999), 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandiver, P.B. ‘The production technology of early pottery from Mehrgarh.’ In Jarrige, et al. (eds.), Mehrgarh: Field Reports 1974–1985. 648–61.Google Scholar
Wright, R.P.Fine ware traditions at Mehrgarh.’ In Jarrige, et al. (eds.), Mehrgarh: Field Reports 1974–1985. 662–71.Google Scholar
Zohary, D. and Hopf, M.. Domestication of Plants in the Old World. 3rd edn. Oxford University Press, 2000.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×