Mehrgarh, (7000-5500 BCE), on the Kachi plain of Balochistan,
is an important Neolithic site discovered in 1974, with early evidence of
farming and herding,[12] and dentistry. Early residents lived in mud brick
houses, stored grain in granaries, fashioned tools with copper ore,
cultivated barley, wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and
cattle, while later residents (5500-2600 BCE) engaged in crafts, including
flint knapping, tanning, bead production, and metalworking. The site was
occupied continuously until about 2600 BCE,[13] but climatic changes between
2600 and 2000 BCE caused the area to become more arid. Mehrgarh was
abandoned in favour of the Indus valley,where a new civilization was in the
early stages of development.
The Indus Valley civilization developed between 3300-1700 BCE on the banks
of the Indus River and at its peak had as many as five million inhabitants
in hundreds of settlements extending as far as the Arabian Sea, southern and
eastern Afghanistan, southeastern Iran and the Himalayas.[16] The major
urban centers were at Dholavira, Harappa, Lothal, Mohenjo-daro, and
Rakhigarhi, as well as an offshoot called the Kulli culture (2500-2000 BCE)
in southern Balochistan, which had similar settlements, pottery and other
artifacts. The Indus Valley civilisation has been tentatively identified as
proto-Dravidian, but this cannot be confirmed until the Indus script is
fully deciphered.The civilization collapsed abruptly around 1700 BCE,
possible due to a cataclysmic earthquake or the drying up of the
Ghaggar-Hakra river or due to the invasion of Aryans.
In the early part of the second millennium BCE, Indo-European tribes from
Central Asia or the southern Russian steppes migrated into the region,and
settled in the Sapta Sindhu area between the Kabul River and the Upper
Ganges-Yamuna rivers.[19] The resulting Vedic culture lasted until the
middle of the first millennium BCE when there were marked linguistic,
cultural and political changes.[20] During the Vedic culture, the hymns of
the Rigveda were composed and the foundations of Hinduism were laid. The
city of Taxila, in northern Pakistan, became important in Hinduism (and
later in Buddhism); according to Hindu tradition, the Mahābhārata epic was
first recited at Taxila at the snake sacrifice Yagna of King Janamejaya, one
of the heroes of the story. |
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