Early ceramic production at villages in South Asia

Mehrgarh period iia saw the appearance of the earliest known fired ceramic vessels in South Asia, the first substantial mud-brick buildings, clear indica­tions of specific craft activities, and a marked development of the agricultural subsistence economy of the settlement's inhabitants.^[609] The period iia deposits at mr 3 were superimposed above those of period ι, so the nature of the transition between the two periods is unclear.

The origins and development of ceramic production

at Mehrgarh

Fragments of small numbers of handmade bowls and jars made using chaff- tempered clay and formed through the use of a sequential slab construction technique and baskets were found in period iia at Mehrgarh.^[610] Similar pottery was seen at Kili Gul Muhammad (Burj Basket-Marked ware).^[611] The fact that evidence for the formative stages of this technology is present suggests that the technology of producing pottery may have developed locally at Mehrgarh in response to the need for containers more efficient than asphalt-covered baskets. This technology is, however, closely related to the widely dispersed soft-ware tradition that is evidenced all over the Iranian plateau during the sixth millennium bce.^[612] Later-period iia levels were also exposed in mr 4, and are characterized by the appearance of a small number of red-ware sherds with relatively fine walls that were produced using the same ceramic production technology seen at mr 3, although the use of an iron-rich slip is occasionally evident.^[613]

It is not yet clear how the early use of ceramics at Mehrgarh fits into the pattern of dispersal of ceramic use across the southern and northern parts of the Iranian plateau, which has been interpreted as a clear instance of migra­tion and colonization from west to east.^[614] From later phases and millennia, there is clear evidence that pottery production at Mehrgarh became more standardized and more refined at an earlier stage than it did in areas fUrther west, and there is also evidence that ceramic technological developments in Baluchistan impacted on the production technologies of eastern Iran.^[615] If various aspects of ceramic production technology developed indigenously in Baluchistan, then the overall similarities in the approach to production make it likely that the earliest potters at Mehrgarh were interacting with potters living on the Iranian plateau.

In addition to the appearance of pottery vessels, Mehrgarh period iia saw an increase in the size of the settled area, and there is evidence for the construction of storage structures for grain, although the buildings are still relatively small and compartmented. The burials of period iia were all associated with a mud-brick wall or platform, and grave goods included stone tools, ceramic vessels, red ochre, and strings of beads made from marine shell, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and other non-local stones.^[616]

There were notable changes in the types of ceramics being used by the inhabitants of Mehrgarh during period iib. A fine ware with little chaff temper and a fine paste that has been fired to a higher temperature were introduced and these appear together with coarse-ware vessels. By the end of period iib, the ceramic vessels began to be decorated with simple motifs that developed into more complex motifs executed on a red slip in period ιιι.^[617]5 White-fired steatite beads and a small number of copper objects also appear.^[618]

A developing subsistence economy

There are notable changes evident in the subsistence economy in Mehrgarh period iia, including the almost complete replacement of the wild animal component of the diet with domesticates, the majority of which were cattle (over 50 per cent), and lesser numbers of sheep and goats. Meadow has argued that this progressive increase in numbers of cattle and the synchro­nous decrease in their size provide robust support for a local domestication at Mehrgarh.^[619]

Dating the Burj Basket-Marked phase (Mehrgarh iia -iib)

It has been suggested that Mehrgarh periods iia and iib cover the whole of the sixth millennium bce, but radiocarbon determinations securely date period iia to c.

Although there is evidence for increases in the number of settlements, the size of settlements, and the area settled after the appearance of ceramics, it is entirely possible that there were still some non-sedentary populations sub­sisting wholly, or principally, by hunting and gathering in the borderlands and other parts of western South Asia. Petrie and Thomas have pointed out that many of the newly sedentary settlements are situated on alluvial fans, which goes some way to reinforcing a model where specific ecological niches were being preferentially selected by farming groups moving into new areas, rather than one where populations expanded in existing locales.^[622] Fans are beneficial ecological niches, but they are also restricted in their size and carrying capacity, thereby limiting the size of populations that could be supported in each location.