Object structure
Title:

Ongar: a Source of Chert in Lower Sindh (Pakistan) and Its Bronze Age Exploitation

Subtitle:

Between History and Archaeology : papers in honour of Jacek Lech

Creator:

Biagi, Paolo ; Starnini, Elisabetta

Publisher:

Archaeopress Archaeology

Place of publishing:

Oxford; England

Date issued/created:

2018

Description:

ill. ; 29 cm

Type of object:

Book/Chapter

Subject and Keywords:

Pakistan ; Sindh ; Indus Civilization ; raw material sources ; chert mines and workshops

Abstract:

This paper summarizes the results of twenty-six years of fieldwork carried out by the Italian Archaeological Expedition in Sindh in search for chert sources, and documenting their exploitation in prehistory at least since the Acheulian Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, Indus Civilization mining areas and workshops. The explorations focused on three main chert sources: the Rohri Hills, Ongar, Daphro and Bekhain Hills, and Jhimpir. They are not the only ones known to date in Sindh that were intensively exploited especially during the development of the Indus Civilization. The economic importance of chert exploitation in the Indus Civilization has often been underestimated by most archaeologists. This fact is evident when reading the published narratives about its handicraft, trade and production, although there is little doubt that this raw material played a fundamental role in the economy of the Indus cities, also as main alternative to metal for making well-defined tools for specific handicrafts. The importance of chert exploitation is testified indeed by the impressive archaeological evidence left behind. It consists of chert mines, chipping floors and blade/bladelet workshops, whose preservation is unfortunately challenged by present-day industrial works still underway. Regretfully, the evidence is under a serious risk of disappearing before it can be fully documented and understood by archaeologists

References:

Allchin, B. 1976. Palaeolithic sites in the Plains of Sindh and their geographical implications, The Geographical Journal 142 (3), 471–489
Allchin, B. 1979. Stone blade industries of early settlements in Sind as indicators of geographical and socio-economic change. In M. Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Seminario di Studi Asiatici, Series Minor VI, 173–212
Allchin, B. 1985. Some Observation on the Stone Industries of the Early Holocene in Pakistan and Western India. In V.N. Misra and P. Bellwood (eds), Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory, New Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta, 129-136
Allchin, B. 1999. Some Questions of Environment and Prehistory in the Indus Valley from Palaeolithic to Urban Indus Times. In A. Meadows and P. Meadows (eds), The Indus River Biodiversity Resources Humankind, Karachi, 284–299
Allchin, B., Goudie, A. and Hedge, K. 1978. The Prehistory and Palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert. London. Ashtana, A. 1993. Harappan Trade in Metals and Minerals: A Regional Approach. In G.L. Possehl (ed.), Harappan Civilization A Recent Perspective, New Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta, 271–285
Baloch, N.A. 1973. In Search of the Indus Culture Sites in Sind, Bulletin of the Institute of Sindhology 3 (2–3), 11–32
Barfield, L.H. 1999. Neolithic and Copper Age flint exploitation in Northern Italy. In P. Della Casa (ed.), Prehistoric alpine environment, society, and economy, Bonn, Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 55, 245–252
Bhan, K.K., Vidale, M. and Kenoyer, J.M. 2002. Some Important Aspects of the Harappan Technological Tradition. In S. Settar and R. Korisettar (eds), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect. Protohistory. Archaeology of the Harappan Civilization. Volume II, Delhi, 225–271
Biagi, P. 2005. Ongar Revisited, Sindhological Studies 21(1)–2, 1–21
Biagi, P. 2006. The archaeological sites of the Rohri Hills (Sindh, Pakistan): the way they are being destroyed, Web Journal of Cultural Patrimony 1 (2), 77–95
Biagi, P. and Franco, C. 2008. Ricerche Archeologiche in Balochistan e nel Sindh Meridionale (Pakistan). In S. Gelichi (ed.), Missioni Archeologiche e Progetti di Ricerca e Scavo dell’Università Ca’ Foscari – Venezia, Rome, VI Giornata di Studio, 9–18
Biagi, P. and Nisbet, R. 2011. The Palaeolithic sites at Ongar in Sindh, Pakistan: a precious archaeological resource in danger, Antiquity Project Gallery, Antiquity 85 (329), August 2011, 1–6, http://www.antiquity. ac.uk/projgall/biagi329/
Biagi, P. and Starnini, E. 2008. The Bronze Age Indus Quarries of the Rohri Hills and Ongar in Sindh (Pakistan). In. R.I. Kostov, I. Gaydarska and M. Gurova (eds), Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy, Sofia, 77–82
Blanford, W.T. 1867. Notes on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Lyngyan and Runneekote, North-West of Kotree in Sind – India, Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India 6, 1–15
Blanford, W.T. 1880. The Geology of Western Sind, Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India 17
Bressy, C., Poupeau, G. and Bintz, P. 2006. Geochemical characterisation in flint sourcing. Application to the Chartreuse and Vercors massifs (Western Alps, France). In G. Körlin and G. Weisgerber (eds), Stone Age–Mining Age, Bochum, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Der Anschnitt 19, 489 497
Dennell, R. 2014. Palaeoanthropology in Pakistan and China: an ICOMOS perspective. In A. Sanz (ed.), Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Asia, Ciudad de Mexico, UNESCO, 84–106
Ericson, J.E. 1984. Toward the analysis of lithic production systems. In J. E. Ericson and B. A. Purdy (eds), Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production, Cambridge, 1–9
Fairservis, W.A. Jr. 1975. The Roots of Ancient India, Chicago
Fairservis, W.A. Jr. 1993. Allahdino: An Excavation of a Small Harappan Site. In G.L. Possehl (ed.), Harappan Civilization A Recent Perspective, New Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta, 107–112
Flam, L. 1987. Recent Explorations in Sind: Paleogeography, Regional Ecology, and Prehistoric Settlement Patterns (ca. 4000–200 B.C.). In J. Jacobson (ed.), Studies in the Archaeology of India and Pakistan, Warmister, 65–90
Flam, L. 2006. Archaeological Research in Western Sindh: The Kirthar Mountains, Sindh Kohistan, and Excavations at Ghazi Shah. In F. Hussein (ed.), Sindh – Past, Present and Future, Karachi, 152–183
Giosan, L., Clift, P.D., Macklinc, M.G., Fuller, D.Q., Constantinescu, S., Durcanc, J.A., Stevens, T., Duller, G.A.T., Tabrez, A.R., Gangal, K., Adhikari, R., Alizai, A., Felip, F., Van Laningham, S. and Syvitski, J.P.M. 2012. Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan civilization, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United State of America E, 1688–1694
Gupta, S.P. 1996. The Indus-Saraswati Civilization. Origins, Problems and Issues, Delhi
Kenoyer, J.M. 1998. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, Karachi
Khan, A.R. 1979. Palaeolithic Sites Discovered in the Lower Sind and their Significance in the Prehistory of the Country. In H. Khuhro (ed.), Studies in Geomorphology and Prehistory of Sind, Grassroots 3 (2), 80–82
Khan, A. and Lemmen, C. 2014. Bricks and urbanism in the Indus Civilization, PlosOne. arXiv:1303.1426 [physics.hist-ph] 27 Feb 2013
Lahiri, N. 1992. The Archaeology of the Indian Trade Routes upto c. 200 BC. Resource Use, Resource Access and Lines of Communication, Delhi
Law, R.W. 2011. Inter-Regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley. A Geological Provenience Study of Harappa’s Rock and Mineral Assemblage, Current Studies on the Indus Civilization Volume VIII, Part 1: Text, Rihn-Manohar Indus Project Series, New Delhi
Law, R., Baqri, S.R.H., Mahmood, K. and Khan, M. 2002–2003. First results of a neutron activation study comparing Rohri Hills chert to other chert sources in Pakistan and archaeological samples from Harappa, Ancient Sindh 7, 7–25
Luedtke, B.E. 1984. Lithic material demand and quarry production. In J.E. Ericson and B.A. Purdy (eds), Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production, Cambridge, 65–76
Majumdar, N.G. 1934. Explorations in Sind. Being a report of exploratory survey carried out during the years 1927–28, 1929–30 and 1930–31, New Delhi, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 48
Mallah, Q.H. 2010. Recent archaeological discoveries in Sindh, Pakistan. In T. Osada and A. Uesugi (eds), Current Studies on the Indus Civilization Volume I, Delhi, 27-75
Marshall, J. 1931. Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization Being an Official Account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro Carried out by the Government of India Between the Years 1922 and 1927, Volume III, London
Méry, S. 1994. Excavation of an Indus potter’s workshop at Nausharo (Baluchistan), Period II. In A. Parpola and P. Koskikallio (eds), South Asian Archaeology 1993, Volume II, Helsinki, 471–482
Méry, S., Anderson, P., Inizan, M.L., Lechevallier, M. and Pelegrin, J. 2007. A pottery workshop with flint tools on blades knapped with copper at Nausharo (Indus Civilization, ca. 2500 BC), Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 1098–1116
Possehl, G. 1988. Radiocarbon Dates from South Asia, Man and Environment 12, 169–196
Possehl, G. 2002. The Indus Civilization. A Contemporary Perspective, New Dehli
Purdy, B.A. 1984. Quarry studies: technological and chronological significance. In J.E. Ericson and B.A. Purdy (eds), Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production, Cambridge, 119–127
Ratnagar, S. 2001. The Bronze Age: Unique Instance of a Pre-Industrial World System?, Current Anthropology 42 (3), 351–379
Ratnagar, S. 2004a. Trading Encounters: From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age, New Delhi
Ratnagar, S. 2004b. Materials Used in the Bronze Age. In E. Olijdam and R.H. Spoor (eds), Intercultural Relations between South and Southwest Asia. Studies in commemoration of E.C.L. During Caspers (1934–1996), Oxford, Archaeopress, British Archaeological Reports International Series 1826, 56–60
Shaikh, N., Mallah, Q.H. and Veesar, G.M. 2004–2005. The Excavations of Indus Period Site Lakhan-jo-Daro 2006. Khairpur, Ancient Sindh 8, 7–193
Starnini, E. and Biagi, P. 2011. The Archaeological Record of the Indus (Harappan) Lithic Production: The Excavation of RH862 Flint Mine and Flint Knapping Workshops on the Rohri Hills (Upper Sindh, Pakistan), Journal of Asian Civilizations, Special Issue 34 (2), 1–61
Vidale, M. 1987. Some aspects of lapidary craft at Moenjodaro in the light of the surface record of Moneer South East Area. In M. Jansen and G. Urban (eds), Interim Reports volume 2, Aachen, 113–150
Vidale, M. 2000. The Archaeology of Indus Craft, Indus craftspeople and why we study the, Rome, IsIAO
Vidale, M., Siviero, A., Sidoti, G., Guida, G. and Priori, G. 2013. Three end-scrapers from Mohenjo-Daro (Pakistan). In E. Starnini (ed.), Unconformist Archaeology, Papers in honour of Paolo Biagi, Oxford, Archaeopress, British Archaeological Reports International Series 2528, 119–129
Wheeler, sir M. 1997. The Indus Civilization. Lahore, Supplementary volume to the Cambridge History of India (1st reprint)
Wright, R.P. 2010. The Ancient Indus Urbanism, Economy, and Society, Cambridge

Start page:

79

End page:

88

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-SA 3.0 PL license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-SA 3.0 PL] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-SA 3.0 PL license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Projects co-financed by:

Operational Program Digital Poland, 2014-2020, Measure 2.3: Digital accessibility and usefulness of public sector information; funds from the European Regional Development Fund and national co-financing from the state budget. ; European Union. European Regional Development Fund

Access:

Open

×

Citation

Citation style: