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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has
been found indicating that Pakistan
might have been inhabited since atleast
the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise
date of these remains is unclear,
and archaeologists put it anywhere
between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The
fossils are the earliest human remains
found in South Asia. Modern humans
arrived from Africa after their evolution
about 70,000 to 31,000 years ago and
settled in South Asia.
The evidence from the excavations at
Mehrgarh, Balochistan, has demonstrated
that the north-western part of the
Pakistan had reached a neolithic,
i.e. settled agricultural stage, by
the 9,000 BCE. Here it may also be
emphasized that the Mehrgarh neolithic
complex stands in marked contrast
to that of western Asia. For example,
whereas in the West Asian neolithic
there is the domination of sheep and
goat amongst the domesticated animals
and of wheat amongst the cultivated
cereals, in the Mehrgarh context the
cattle dominated over other animals
and barley over other cereals. Thus,
the Mehrgarh neolithic has its own
identity, having no generic relationship
with its West Asian counterpart. In
other words, the Mehrgarh people were
the “the sons of the soil”.
The Mehrgarh declined about the same
time as the Indus
Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers
south east was developing. It has
been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents
migrated to the fertile Indus River
valley as Balochistan became arid
over time. The Elamo-Dravidians invaded
from the Iranian plateau and settled
in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE.
The main site of the Indus Valley
Civilization in Punjab was the city
of Harappa
and Moen and Moenjo
Daro in Sindh.
Page last updated:
Sunday, January 29, 2006 18:16:34
-0500
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