The Early Indus period saw the spread of occupation over the eastern portion of the Saraswati system, extending as far as the Ganges-Yamuna doab in the southeast. The main concentration of sites was in the valley of the Drishadvati River: These included the type-sites Sothi and Siswal after which the tradition is named (known variously as Sothi, Siswal, or Sothi-Siswal). A small settlement was established at Rakhigarhi, also on the Drishadvati, where houses were oriented in the cardinal directions and a baked brick public drain was constructed. The settlement of Kalibangan was situated in the triangle of land at the confluence of the Drishadvati and Saraswati Rivers. It was about 4.5 hectares in extent: A substantial mud brick wall several meters wide, with a defensible gate in the north side, enclosed a roughly rectangular mound, of which a small part has been excavated, revealing mud brick houses apparently built along streets orientated in the cardinal directions. Courtyards formed the center of the houses, which were furnished with ovens; one also had a baked brick drain. A wall also surrounded Banawali, situated on the Saraswati River. This was probably designed for flood defense because there is evidence that it eventually collapsed due to water damage, after an attempt to reinforce it with a subsidiary wall alongside.
Sothi-Siswal pottery included a fine red ware and some coarser wares, often similar to those from Kot Diji Cholistan; some Kot Diji wares were also present. Floral and animal motifs were common. Sothi-Siswal pottery is found in Early Indus sites in this region, but it also continued in use alongside Indus pottery in the Mature Harappan period and is found in sites of the Posturban period. The chronology of the Sothi-Siswal tradition is not well established: Only Kalibangan has been dated by radiocarbon, and its dates are not internally consistent.
Neighbors and Trade
There is plentiful evidence of internal trade within and between the regions of the Early Indus period, particularly evident in the presence of marine shells in sites far inland such as Harappa, Kalibangan, and Banawali. At Harappa, different types of chert from sources in Baluchistan and Sindh were brought to the site for making tools and ornaments. The resources present at this and other sites reflect trade links in many directions, carrying gemstones, marine shells, copper ore, stone, and other utilitarian and luxury commodities. The trade networks that had linked Baluchistan with the Iranian plateau and Turkmenia extended to encompass the Indus region too. Pastoralists engaged in seasonal movements between highland and lowland pastures provided regular contacts between hill and plain and links with the new patterns of movement emerging in the plains themselves.
Neighbors to the South. A number of Sothi-Siswal settlements, such as Kunal and Kalibangan, obtained copper from the Aravalli Hills to the south. Here communities of the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture, who exploited wild resources, also mined copper, which they cast in flat molds into axes, fishhooks, arrowheads, and other small objects. They made various types of red pottery, some of which was made on the slow-wheel and showed affinities with Early Harappan pottery.
Farther southwest, on the Banas and Berach Rivers in southern Rajasthan, the people of the Ahar-Banas culture, established in the region before 3000 BCE, were also exploiting the copper ores of the Aravallis by the early third millennium, making axes and other artifacts of copper. Though only copper artifacts have been found at Ahar, there were stone tools at other sites such as Gilund. These people raised a variety of crops, including wheat and barley.
The presence of these cereals implies some contact with communities farther north but, unlike the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture, the Ahar-Banas people seem not to have traded with the Early Harappans.
Neighbors to the West. Farming settlements had been established in western Iran and Turkmenia for millennia, and contacts across the region had supplied Mehrgarh and other sites with small quantities of turquoise and lapis lazuli. While much of the Iranian plateau and Turkmenia was mountain or desert, making agriculture possible only in limited areas, the region was rich in timber, metal ores, attractive varieties of stone such as chlorite, and other minerals.
During the fourth millennium, Elam, in southwest Iran, was closely linked to developments in Mesopotamia, sharing the cultural advances that took place there, including the emergence of accounting and writing systems by 2900 BCE. The growing demand for Iranian minerals promoted trade, which in turn encouraged the eastward spread of Near Eastern goods and ideas. In the late fourth millennium, Elam shifted its focus of attention eastward, away from Mesopotamia and toward the towns that had developed in key locations on the Iranian plateau, where there was not only land suitable for cultivation but also access to local minerals or an important situation with respect to the trade routes. It seems that Elam at this time no longer merely participated in the trading networks but also established trading outposts in many of the towns to give more direct control over the movement of goods. The presence of Elamites is attested by the discovery of a number of seals and sealings bearing Proto-Elamite writing and numbers, concerned with such administrative matters as the supplying of agricultural produce, at settlements such as Tepe Sialk, Tepe Yahya, and Tal-i Malyan (Anshan). The abandonment of writing and the return to the use of the traditional uninscribed stamp seals reflects the withdrawal of the Elamite presence from these towns around 2800 BCE.
In subsequent centuries the Iranian towns continued to flourish and grow and to take part in a trading network linking Mesopotamia, Elam, other Zagros cultures, Turkmenia, Baluchistan, and the Indus region. Among the most distinctive manufactured goods in circulation at the time were carved stone vessels in the so-called Intercultural Style, which were made at Tepe Yahya and possibly at other sites in the Kerman region, including Jiroft (Konar Sandal).
One of the few regions favorable to settlement in the eastern part of the Iranian plateau was Seistan, adjacent to Baluchistan. Here the Helmand and Arghandab Rivers flowed into a marshy inland delta debouching into the Hamun-i Helmand, a vast lake. The Helmand Basin was inhabited by farmers who used irrigation to grow wheat and barley, grapes, melons, and other crops, including flax. They also raised cattle, camels, sheep, and goats; hunted local game; and caught fish and waterfowl. Strong similarities in artifacts such as pottery and figures between the Helmand Basin and Chalcolithic sites in southeast Turkmenia may indicate the arrival during the later fourth millennium BCE of some settlers from the latter region, where irrigation agriculture was well developed and where in the Hari Rud delta there was substantial depopulation at this time. By 3200 BCE, a small town had developed at Shahr-i Sokhta (period I) on a terrace of the alluvial plain, south of Hamun-i Helmand. This settlement of around 15 hectares had an Elamite presence, indicated by the discovery of a tablet inscribed in the Proto-Elamite script and a number of sealings.
After the Elamite withdrawal around 2800 BCE, Shahr-i Sokhta (period II) continued to grow, becoming increasingly important as the center of a thriving agricultural region with many small villages. Its prosperity also depended in part on its role as a break-of-bulk center for lapis lazuli, which was brought here as raw nodules from which Shahr-i Sokhta artisans removed extraneous material, exporting only pieces of pure lapis. A huge cemetery outside the town contained a considerable variety of burials, including some in brick-built chambers, well furnished with fine jewelry, pottery, stone vessels, and metalwork. Routes linked the region to southern Turkmenia, Baluchistan, and Kerman, respectively to the north, east and southwest of Shahr-i Sokhta.
The Northern Neolithic. In Kashmir, the earliest settlements with evidence of agriculture and animal husbandry appeared around 3000 BCE, mainly concentrated on the Pleistocene alluvial terraces (karewas). Villages such as Gufkral and Burzahom were made up of partially underground huts: These were pits with plastered walls that were accessed by means of steps or ladders and that probably had conical superstructures supported by central posts. The inhabitants of these villages hunted a range of wild animals but they also kept domestic dogs, sheep, and goats, and cultivated wheat, barley, and various pulses. Although the animals may have been local domesticates, the crops were probably acquired from their western neighbors. These settlements show a shift from a largely hunter-gatherer economy to one dominated by farming by the middle of the Neolithic period. The people of the Northern Neolithic culture made rather coarse gray pottery with mat impressions on the base and tools of bone and polished stone. These included rings of jadeite and distinctive rectangular and half-moon-shaped knives that resemble the harvesting knives used by the Neolithic people of northern China, who also lived in semisubterranean houses. Burials of dogs at Burzahom were also reminiscent of Chinese and Manchurian practices. Physically, however, the people of Kashmir were related to those of South Asia rather than China or Central Asia, though they may have spoken a Sino-Tibetan language.
Similar pit houses were the norm in other northern areas, in settlements such as Kalako-deray and Loebanr in Swat, and Sarai Khola, Leiah, and possibly Uchali in the northern Punjab. The Swat people used bone tools that are also reminiscent of tools used in northern China. Although each area had somewhat different local traditions, which can be seen in such things as the style of pottery they made, there were also general similarities, suggesting contacts between them. The existence of long-distance contacts is underlined by the discovery of jade beads at Loebanr, since jade came from Central or East Asia. Two Kot Diji pots found at Burzahom, one containing carnelian and agate beads, show that the people of the north were also in contact with Early Indus people, probably when the latter sought raw materials in the mountains.
World History
