Surveys in Lower Sindh: Preliminary Results of the 2021 Season

Surveys carried out in December 2021 around Gharo, Gujo, the Makli Hills, and the terraces of the Khadeji and Mol Rivers have yielded important knapped stone assemblages, which contribute to the study of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene prehistory of Lower Sindh. The surveys were conducted by three persons, and the finds were mapped with the help of a high-precision GPS. Moreover, marine and mangrove shell samples were collected for radiocarbon dating to build a detailed chronology of the prehistoric periods during which the coastal area was settled. Special attention has been paid to the limestone terraces around Gharo, just north of the historical centre of Bhambore, the Tharro Hills, Beri and part of the Makli Hill, close to the city of Kalan Kot. The lithic assemblages recovered during the surveys are not very rich. However, some of them show characteristic technotypological traits, which attribute them to the Chalcolithic Amri Culture, while others are undoubtedly older. This fact, and the absence of Bronze Age material culture remains, is very important. It shows that some of the terraces which rise from the alluvial plain of the Indus, were settled during the fourth millennium cal BC when the landscape was very different from that of the present, and the limestone outcrops were islands surrounded by Arabian Sea waters or mangrove environments.