The cultures who bordered the (Arabian/Persian) Gulf had a long history of intercommunity contacts, mainly by sea, going back to the fifth millennium when pottery in the style of Mesopotamian Ubaid wares was distributed as far south as Oman. Coastal fishing communities were probably regularly in contact with those in adjacent areas and across the mouth of the Gulf, and those of the Arabian Sea coast of Oman may also have been in contact with others along Arabia's southern coasts.
The mid-third millennium saw a radical change in the patterns of trade in the great area from West Asia to the Indus. Although trade with neighbors and between the cultures of the Iranian plateau continued, Mesopotamian and
Harappan participation in the trading networks right across the Iranian plateau, which depended on the use of pack animals, virtually ceased, and was replaced by trade using water transport. Though not without its risks, such as storms and perhaps pirates, this was generally an easier and more efficient means of transporting goods, particularly bulky or heavy materials. Direct seaborne communications through the Gulf were now established between the Indus civilization and Mesopotamia, the main Near Eastern consumer of imported raw materials. This link enabled the Harappans to conduct direct commercial relations with Mesopotamia, giving them direct control over the management of their trade rather than depending on intermediaries (as the land traffic had) and thereby improving both their returns on their exports and their ability to control the supply of imports. Sea trade also gave the Harappans access to the resources and markets of the cultures in the Gulf. The establishment of new Harappan settlements along the Makran coast reflected the development of this maritime trade.
Harappans in the Makran
The Makran is arid, inhospitable terrain, where fishing is the main livelihood. Land travel along the coast is difficult, and communications are easier by sea. The dissected Makran coast offers many sheltered inlets suitable for boats to anchor, some giving access to seasonal rivers that are navigable routes into the interior after the rains; at other times of the year, the dry beds of these watercourses provide paths for foot traffic. Communities must have been exploiting the resources of the Makran coast by the seventh millennium BCE, when seashells were traded to the inland settlement of Mehrgarh, and a number of settlements are known there in the Early Harappan period.
The Harappans established several towns in the Makran, their existence explicable only in relation to overseas trade. Sutkagen-dor was a small town with substantial stone walls and gateways. Sotka Koh, 100 miles to its east, seems also to have had a walled sector. It is likely the towns were fortified as strongholds to protect goods, reflecting their location in territory directly exposed to the presence of outsiders. Both were situated at the mouth of seasonal rivers providing routes into the interior (Sutkagen-dor on the Dasht, Sotka Koh on the Shadi Kaur), while farther east an unexcavated site at Pir Shah Jurio lies 3 miles inland from the mouth of the Hab. Sutkagen-dor, now 35 miles inland, is located near Gwadar bay, a major anchorage since historical times, while Sotka Koh is currently 9 miles inland from a modern fishing village at Pasni, also important as a port. However, in Harappan times when the sea level was higher, they were probably on or near the sea. There is a local tradition of a harbor at Sutkagen-dor. The settlement had strong stone walls up to 24 feet thick at their base, with bastions or towers on the west and east sides and a narrow gate in the southwestern corner, enclosing a citadel containing mud brick houses; an unwalled lower town lay to the north and east, and it has been suggested that there was a wharf along one edge of the settlement. The unexcavated town of Sotka Koh was similar in size to Sutkagen-dor: Part of a wall remains there, associated with an unwalled settlement. Another such
Site at Khairia Kot, on the west side of Las Bela in west Sonmiani bay, now 25 miles from the coast, might also have been a port. In contrast, Balakot, farther to the east on east Sonmiani bay, was a fishing settlement, apparently not involved in trade (only one import was found there, a pot similar to those at Umm-an-Nar in Oman). Allahdino on the Malir River, probably near the coast in Harappan times, was also not a port, but may have been a commerical center where goods were stored for distribution or forwarding.
It seems likely that shiploads of goods from Oman and from trade through the Gulf were brought to Sutkagen-dor and Sotka Koh in the Makran, with no restriction on the time of year when sailing could take place in the sheltered waters of the Gulf. In these settlements, the goods may have gone through customs' control and were probably divided into smaller packages for onward distribution overland, carried by human porters or pack animals (cattle or sheep).
The establishment of Harappan trading towns on the Makran coast probably altered the local patterns of communications. This is illustrated by the settlement of Miri Qalat, which had earlier (periods 11-111) been linked to the Iranian plateau and northern Baluchistan. Finds there in period III included proto-Elamite pottery. However, Harappan material there in period IV, along with large quantities of fish from the coast (three days' journey to the south), suggests that in the Mature Harappan period Miri Qalat was drawn into the Harappan sphere of influence.
World History
