Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Prof. David Ben-Shlomo, Institute of Archaeology, Ariel University, Israel, davben187@yahoo.com
Dr Prabodh Shirvalkar, Dept of Archaeology, Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra, India, prabodh.s@gmail.com
The region of Asia is one of the most crucial areas when it comes to cultural developments, domestication of plants and animals, the first civilisations, and urban societies. The region has provided the basis for successive human developments in terms of arts, crafts, architecture, etc. over thousands of years. Considering the importance of this region, the session will focus on the problems and importance of the cultures, which are intermediary between the establishment of the early agricultural communities and the urban cities. This session aims to combine several studies from various parts of Asia, which will include the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, dealing with settlements during this period. These include early and pre-Harappan culture sites, pre-Uruk stage sites, or pre-urban sites in the Southern Levant. In addition to that, there are many local Bronze Age/Chalcolithic cultures that fall within this time bracket but never reached the status of urban character. It is also important to understand these cultures in order to understand the cultural interactions and cultural processes. The session will try to explore whether there is a consistent path leading to full-blown cities through the comparison between the different regions in Asia. This progression may be marked by more complex, organised, and formalised structures and dwellings, advancements in technology, the rise of social hierarchy, increased trade, the construction of monumental structures, the development of symbolic representations, and the establishment of formal religious practices in various cultures.
Papers:
Urbanisation in South Asia: Insights from Archaeological Excavations in the Gomal Plain, Northwest Pakistan
Zakirullah Jan, University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The Gomal region in northwest Pakistan, comprising the lowland piedmont and alluvial floodplain, holds significant historical importance as one of South Asia’s early urban centres. Human occupation in the Gomal Plain is believed to have begun in the 5th or 6th millennium BCE, as revealed by archaeological findings at Gumla I. The earliest evidence of settled life includes mud structures, community ovens, and indications of animal husbandry and agriculture. Over the following centuries, the cultural landscape expanded, with the introduction of ceramics and the growth of settlements, suggesting a widespread Late Neolithic culture across the region.
Subsequent cultural development in the Toch-Gomal Phase is marked by the production of sophisticated, polychrome wheel-thrown pottery, and an increase in the number of settlements, their size and population. Fortifications, such as those discovered at Rehman Dheri, signal the emergence of more complex social structures. Rehman Dheri, dating from 2800 to 1900 BCE, represents a critical phase in the region’s shift towards urbanism, known as the Kot Dijian phase. This large, fortified town featured a proto-literate elite involved in extensive trade networks with the wider world.
The fifth cultural phase corresponds with the Mature Indus Valley Civilisation. This period saw the development of well-organised towns with paved streets, buildings with sophisticated drainage systems, and the use of burnt bricks for water-related structures like wells and washrooms. A highly developed trade system, featuring seals engraved with pictographic script and animals, suggests a complex commercial economy controlled by organised authorities.
The gradual development of urban society in the Gomal Plain is of great historical significance, predating other cultures in South Asia. This region appears to have been the cradle of early urbanisation, from which the concept of cities spread to the broader Indus Valley, culminating in the famous cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
Maru-II – An Indus Valley Civilization Site in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan
Gul Rahim Khan, Dept of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Dera Ismail Khan, in the southern district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is well known for many archaeological sites and its ancient heritage. A new cluster of sites discovered in 1998 comprises late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age and Mature Harappan sites. This group of sites includes four archaeological mounds of considerable size in one vicinity, located about 50km west of the Dera Ismail Khan city. This paper deals with the excavations of Maru-II, a well-preserved site, conducted in March-May, 1999. This site is the best example of a single occupation from the Mature Indus Valley Civilisation period located in this region. Excavations exposed a series of vertical mud-brick walls, a covered drain with a paved platform of burnt bricks, grain silos, storage jars, hearths etc. Special finds included pictographic seals, geometric seals, amulets, stone, terracotta and bronze beads, human and animal figurines, stone blades, grinding stones, pestles, toy cart frames, gamesmen, shell and terracotta bangles. These indicate the site had been occupied contemporaneously with the major urban centres of the Indus Valley civilisation, such as Mohen-Jo-Daro, Ganviriwala and Harappa in Pakistan, and Kalibangan, Dholavira and Lothal in India. The site of Maru-II in Gomal Valley shows the growth of Indus civilisation in the region, cultural dissemination and trade routes with contemporary civilisations. This site is certainly a new addition for understanding the settlement pattern of urban phase in the Gomal plain and its commercial links and social structures with other urban centres of the Indus Valley civilisation.
Community and Regional Population Mobility: Strategies for Resilience in Bronze Age Arabia
Sangeeta Mahajan, Dept of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, US
Cameron Petrie, Dept of Archaeology, Cambridge University, UK
Kimberly D. Williams, Dept of Anthropology, Temple University, USA
Nasser S. Al-Jahwari, Dept of Archaeology, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
Khaled A. Douglas, Dept of Archaeology, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman; Dept of Sustainable Tourism, Hashemite University, Jordan
Emma Lightfoot, Dept of Archaeology, Cambridge University, UK
Gwen Robbins Schug, Dept of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, US
The third millennium BC was marked by long-distance exchange of raw materials and finished goods, and movement of people between different parts of West and South Asia. The Umm an-Nar (UAN) Period (2700–2000BCE) in the northern Arabian Peninsula was a period of sociocultural change. The period is less well understood compared to nearby Bronze Age civilisations, but excavations at UAN settlements suggest pastoral people began exchanging copper across the Middle Asian Interaction Sphere, practicing small scale oasis agriculture, and developing complex mortuary architecture and rituals. At Dahwa, a near-coast Omani settlement, copper slag and furnace linings suggesting the site was heavily involved in copper extraction. Significant quantities of Indus black-slipped vessels, ivory combs, Indus iconography and scripts from the site suggest exchange with Indus specifically that intensified at the end of the third millennium BCE. This research addresses the question of whether Indus people accompanied exchange at Dahwa using Sr and O isotopes from human dental enamel (n=67). The nature of Oman-Indus interactions in this period are not well known but have potential to further elucidate dynamics of how sociocultural and historical trajectories influenced strategies for resilience and potential for collapse across this dynamic Interaction sphere.
Pre-Urban Sites – on the Path to Urbanism – in the Jordan Valley
David Ben Shlomo, Institute of Archaeology, Ariel University, Israel
The Jordan Valley as part of the African-Asian Rift Valley have been an important path of expansion of the human species and cultural changes throughout ages. During the early Neolithic period, some 12,000 ago, sites in this region yielded the earliest evidence for cereals cultivation and thus the beginning of the agricultural revolutions, as well as monumental architecture. The paper will discuss several late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic sites in this region (dated to 6th-5th millennia BCE), in the subsequent period, in particular, the sites of Sha’ar Hagolan and Tel Tsaf. These proto-historic site have early manifestation of town planning, large courtyard houses, large-scale storage in silos, and communal feasting, as well other cultural elements, known usually from urban sites, appearing about two millennia later. Interestingly, some of these elements appear here, even earlier that in the regions of Nile in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The archaeological evidence will be presented and the path to urbanism during the proto-historic periods, on the background of the intensification of agriculture in the Near East, will be discussed.
Mehrgarh and the Early Neolithic Transition in South Asia: A Comparative Archaeological Perspective
Prof. Dr Kaleem Ullah Barech, Dept of History University of Balochistan, Quetta
Imran Shabir, Dept of History University of Balochistan, Quetta
Mehrgarh, located on the Kachi Plain near the Bolan Pass in Balochistan, Pakistan, is a Neolithic site dating back to 7000 BCE. It provides the earliest evidence of the region’s sedentary occupation, agriculture, and pastoralism, marking a transformative phase in human prehistory. Excavations at Mehrgarh reveal an aceramic Neolithic phase (Period I), characterised by sequential settlement patterns and episodic displacements. These patterns reflect dynamic strategies of resource management and environmental adaptation, fundamental to the development of early farming communities.
Mehrgarh lies beyond the natural distribution zones of wild progenitors of domesticated einkorn and emmer wheat, highlighting its role in long-distance cultural and technological exchanges with the Fertile Crescent and Southwest Asia. Comparisons with contemporaneous aceramic sites, such as Kili Gul Muhammad in Quetta and Neolithic sites in southwest and southeast Iran, deepen our understanding of the regional diversity of early agricultural practices.
This study situates Mehrgarh within the broader framework of Neolithic developments in Asia, exploring its contributions to sedentary lifeways and its significance as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilisation. By analysing its material culture, subsistence economy, and settlement strategies, this paper underscores Mehrgarh’s pivotal role in shaping the pathways to social complexity and urbanism in South Asia.
From Kushan to Post-Gupta: Tracing Pottery Traditions of the Middle Ganga Plain
Guniya Yadav, Center of Advanced Study, Dept of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
The importance of pottery cannot be overstated in the study of ancient cultures and the chronology of archaeological sites. The Middle Gangetic region is regarded as the cradle of Indian civilisation, where the tradition of pottery emerged during the Neolithic period. Initially, crude, coarse, and corded wares from this Neolithic stage progressively evolved into finer varieties, including black-and-red, black slipped, painted grey, northern black polished, red slip, and others. Excavations at various sites in the Middle Ganga plain revealed that from the 8th century BCE to the Mauryan period, the NBPW tradition represented the most advanced form of pottery. During the Shunga periods, red ware became the prominent type associated with grey and black wares. However, the most significant changes in pottery traditions occurred during the Kushan to Gupta period, when red ware emerged as the dominant ceramic industry. The post-Gupta period witnessed a continued evolution, with new forms and techniques arising to reflect the changing political landscape, economic conditions, and cultural interactions. It is likely that technical advancements, socio-economic changes, political stability, and population growth influenced the usage and preferences for pottery. This paper focuses on a comparative study of pottery traditions from the Kushan to the post-Gupta period.
Subsistence and Mobility in Pre-Urban Iron Age Vidarbha: A Trajectory Towards Urbanisation
Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty, Dept of History, Ashoka University, India; Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Germany
Milan Kumar Chaula, Archaeological Survey of India, Nagpur
Prabobh Shirvalkar, Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune, India
Amit Ranjan, Dept of History, Ashoka University, India
Thomas Larsen, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Germany
Patrick Roberts, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Germany
South Asia is vast and diverse, and the development of urbanisation across the region followed varied trajectories. Northwestern India experienced urbanisation earlier than other parts of the subcontinent, emerging around the 3rd millennium BCE, while central and southern India developed urban centres much later, around the 6th century BCE. Moreover, the processes leading to urbanisation differed across regions. In northwestern India, a pre-urban Chalcolithic phase preceded urban development, whereas in southern India, a pre-urban Iron Age preceded the Early Historic Iron Age urban period.
While significant research has been conducted on northwestern India’s urbanisation, our understanding of the pre-urban Iron Age in southern India—and the factors that led to Early Historic urbanisation in this region—remains limited. This paper examines the origins of the pre-urban Iron Age in the Vidarbha region of southern India using newly obtained AMS dates, alongside an analysis of animal subsistence strategies and mobility patterns based on molecular and isotopic data. Our findings indicate that the pre-urban Iron Age in Vidarbha lasted from the 9th century BCE to the 4th century BCE. Ruminant animals, particularly goats, along with monogastric animals and dairy products from cattle, played a significant role in their subsistence strategies.
Fluidity and Continuity of Hakra Ware Cultural Assemblages: Its Problems and Prospects
Jyotshna Rani Khundrakpam, Tripura University, India
This paper aims to understand Hakra Ware Culture by exploring two main areas of inquiry. The first area focuses on the dynamic context surrounding the Hakra Ware cultural assemblage, while the second examines Hakra Ware culture as part of the broader Regional Early Harappan culture. As the earliest Chalcolithic culture in the Cholistan region, the Hakra Ware culture is notably spread across northern Rajasthan, eastern Punjab, and Haryana. Despite some regional variations in the cultural sequence and absolute dating, there is a strong consensus that this culture flourished during the 4th millennium BC. Within Possehl’s ‘Eastern Domain’, the Hakra Ware culture transitions into the Early Harappan Sothi culture. However, in the Bahawalpur region, it eventually evolved into the Kot Diji culture. At the site of Farmana in Haryana, we observe a seamless transition from the Hakra Ware culture to the Mature Harappan phase. Additionally, discussions about the distinguishing features between the Early Harappan Sothi and the Hakra Ware cultures remain somewhat unclear. This ambiguity highlights the necessity for a robust framework to better conceptualise the connections between these cultural assemblages. Therefore, this paper will incorporate explanations that account for potential coexistence, continuity, and cultural assimilation among these interrelated cultures.