Amri-Nal sites are known over southern Baluchistan, including the Makran region, southwest Sindh, and Gujarat, but few have been excavated to any great extent, and only Amri and Balakot have yielded a significant amount of information. The Kechi Beg period had seen separate traditions in different parts of southern Baluchistan and on the fringes of the southern Indus plain; after the initial settlement of these regions, however, the distinctions between these small groups began to break down, perhaps in response to the new environment where few geographical barriers separated one area from another. By 2900 BCE, for example, the material at Balakot resembled that from Amri. Amri pottery was a fine red or buff ware decorated with bands of geometric patterns and its forms included tall jars and open bowls; Nal pottery was characterized particularly by a range of fine straight-sided bowls and canisters, decorated with distinctive patterns combining precisely arranged geometric elements and realistic animals. While Amri pottery was more common in Kohistan and Nal pottery in Baluchistan, both were found at sites throughout the region.
The settlement at Amri had houses of mud brick with external fireplaces but also several compartmented buildings that may have been granaries. In
Colorful geometric patterns and animal designs cover the entire surface of Nal pottery, dating from the Early Harappan period in southern Baluchistan. These potsherds are from the large settlement of Niai Buthi. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Baluchistan, house foundations were generally of stone, with mud brick walls above. The burned remains of rafters from a sloping roof were found at Nal (although it is not clear whether this came from an Early Indus or a later house). A number of settlements may have been surrounded by stone walls, though again it is not certain whether these belong to the Amri-Nal or a succeeding period.
A concentration of chert flakes and cores, debris from stone working, may represent an artisan's quarter of the settlement at Amri. Nal has evidence of metalworking of uncertain date.
A number of new settlements appeared during this period in Gujarat. These may include Dholavira, later to be a major Indus city, where the earliest levels of occupation contain pottery that may belong to the Amri-Nal tradition, though it was said by the excavator to resemble the pottery from Padri. Burials probably of this period are known at Surkotada and Nagwada, the latter associated with pottery of Amri-Nal type. At other settlements of this period, such as Somnath (Prabhas Patan), Loteshwar, and Padri, different pottery, including Anarta ware, suggests the continuation of indigenous traditions distinct from that of Amri-Nal, known from the earlier occupations at Padri and Loteshwar. At Somnath remains were found of structures built probably of wattle and daub. Copper artifacts were present in a number of these settlements.
A number of these sites were located on or near the seacoast. This period saw a general increase in coastal settlements, including a number in Makran. Some of the latter did not have Amri-Nal materials but an assemblage known as Dasht.
Kot Diji
Kot Diji sites are known over a wide area, with concentrations in central and northern Baluchistan and Cholistan, and more scattered sites in Punjab, as far north as Swat, and in Sindh, including Kot Diji itself, which lies east of where the Indus flowed at that time, and Jhukar further west. A few Kot Diji sites are known in Kohistan, among the concentration of Amri-Nal sites, and some settlements have pottery of both traditions. In parts of Cholistan, the sites related to this period found during field surveys seem to decrease in number and increase in size, suggesting greater permanence of settlement as farming villages replaced pastoral camps. None of the Cholistan sites has been excavated, so the information available from them is limited.
The site of Kohtras Buthi in the Kirthar Range has the remains of two stone walls, below the settlement, which was built on a ridge: the walls were possibly defensive, since they effectively protected the vulnerable flank of the settlement. A number of Kot Diji sites were of substantial size, including Rehman Dheri in the Gomal Valley, which had a wall built of clay slabs, possibly entirely surrounding the 19-hectare settlement although it has been traced only in one part. The houses there were also built of clay slabs, which were locally available as a building material, being cut from dry riverbeds. Some houses were circular, others rectangular. In the early phase of settlement, houses contained silos for storing grain, while in later phases storage jars were used.
Kot Diji was smaller, around 2 hectares. It also had the remains of a wall, perhaps originally surrounding the whole site, built some time after the first occupation of the site but early in the settlement's history. At a later stage in the Kot Diji period, the wall was abandoned and the settlement expanded, with houses built over the remains of the wall. Houses in the upper levels had stone foundations and mud brick walls. Kot Diji was located adjacent to the Rohri Hills, a key source of high-quality flint that had been exploited since Palaeolithic times.
In Punjab there was continuity of settlement from the Hakra period at Jalilpur and Ravi phase at Harappa. At the latter site, the Kot Diji phase is dated around 2800-2600 BCE and remains of this period have been unearthed covering the AB ("citadel") mound and the adjacent E mound and extending on to mound ET, indicating a considerable expansion of the settlement, which grew to around 25 hectares by the end of the period, when the two mounds were each surrounded by a substantial mud brick wall. Within the walls the settlement, which was beginning to develop into an urban center, was laid out in cardinally orientated streets with houses and craft debris.
Kot Diji pottery—fine red or buff ware with black painted decoration—bore some similarities to that of Amri. However, many of the vessel shapes were different, and the decoration on Kot Diji pottery included a number of distinctive elements, such as floral motifs, a fish scale pattern, and a "horned deity" (a head with enormous buffalo horns, thought to relate to the "proto-Shiva" of Indus iconography). The range of Kot Diji vessels included large porous water containers with grooved surfaces (Bhoot ware). Another class of pottery, Wet ware, common to both Kot Diji and areas of Baluchistan, was also probably used to store water: The characteristic appearance of these was achieved by applying a thick slip that was then partially removed with a damp cloth, leaving a rough, cloth-patterned surface. The pottery uncovered in the early deposits at Harappa show a clear line of development from the Ravi to Kot Diji styles.
Damb Sadaat
Material from the Kot Diji sites in Waziristan (northern Baluchistan) differs somewhat from that in other Kot Diji regions. In the adjacent area of central Baluchistan, particularly the Quetta Valley, the material is thought to be different enough to be treated as a separate tradition, known as Damb Sadaat. The sites of the Kachi plain, Mehrgarh (periods VI-VII) and Nausharo (period I), lay within the general area of Kot Diji sites but were not typical, more closely resembling the Damb Sadaat tradition in their material.
Pottery from Damb Sadaat sites, such as Mundigak, Damb Sadaat, and Faiz Mohammad, had a number of similarities with Kot Diji pottery, including the presence of Wet wares, but it also included very different features, such as its distinctive repertoire of geometric, animal, and plant motifs. Faiz Mohammad Grey ware was manufactured in two stages, being fired first in oxidizing conditions and then refired in reducing conditions in high-temperature kilns to produce its gray color. Technologically it resembles Emir Grey ware, a type of
A fine steatite button seal from the Kot Diji period at Harappa. The geometric design has widespread parallels stretching as far as Central Asia. Traces of blue-green material show that the surface was originally glazed. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Pottery that was found in east Iranian sites, though the two wares were differently decorated. Faiz Mohammad Grey ware shares motifs with local Quetta ware, which was decorated with plants and animals and geometric motifs such as zigzags and stepped-square patterns. The latter are paralleled in regions to the northwest, including Bactria and Turkmenia, where compart-mented seals and figurines similar to those of Damb Sadaat are also known.
World History
