Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh: one of the world's earliest farming settlements (~7,000 BCE). Independent agricultural origin with wheat, barley, cattle domestication.
Proves the Indian subcontinent had its own independent Neolithic revolution — not a backwater of Near Eastern farming.
Overview
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic settlement on the Kacchi plain in Balochistan, excavated by Jean-François Jarrige from 1974 to 2000. It provides the earliest evidence of farming and pastoralism in South Asia, with domesticated wheat, barley, and cattle appearing independently of the Near Eastern Neolithic. The site spans seven occupation periods from ~7,000 to 2,500 BCE, showing a continuous trajectory from mud-brick village to proto-urban center. Period I already shows mud-brick houses, granaries, and sophisticated burial practices. Mehrgarh's dentistry evidence — teeth drilled with flint-tipped bows — is among the oldest surgical evidence anywhere. The site's ceramic sequence and craft traditions show direct cultural continuity into the Indus-Saraswati Civilization, challenging the idea that IVC urbanism was imported.
Key Findings
- 1One of the world's earliest farming settlements
- 2Independent agricultural origin — wheat, barley, cattle domestication
- 3Mud-brick architecture predating the Indus cities by millennia
- 4Evidence of early dentistry — drilled teeth from 7,000 BCE