|
EXPLORATION
OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN NORTHERN
BALOCHISTAN AND THEIR CULTURAL
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ADJACENT REGION
With
the archaeological discoveries in Bannu and D.1. Khan districts of N.W.F.P. and
at Mehrgarh in Kachi plains of Balochistan, the Zhob and Loralai Valleys on
account of their location on the main communication routes became the focal
point for further researches and discussions (Kakar, 1987). During my field
researches in March, 1986 four new sites at Janabad Mazghare and Raddarzai were
explored along the road from Zhob to Quetta and Chinjane in the north-west of
Loralai. Subsequent
explorations conducted near Loralai and in the eastern part of the Central
Balochistan rather confirmed the cultural importance of the area it had as
central and cultural pivot during pre/protohistoric, and early historic periods
of our history. The archaeological sites at Chapper Waga and Mehar represent
typical cultural traditions of Central Balochistan while Beakker Damb
represented early and Mature Harappan Occupation during 4th and 3rd millennium
B.C. Besides these pre and protohistoric sites, some structural remains of
historic period probably representing the Tower of Silence of Zoroastrian were
explored west of the RakhniBeakkar road. The details of the archaeological sites and their cultural assemblages are as under: Janabad The
site is located on the Zhob-Quetta road, west of the 18th mile-stone
on the way to Quetta. It is about 700 yards away from the road, in the middle of
a farm. It has been completely leveled by the plouging with tractors. Only on
the outer rim of the farm survires some portion of the mound, 18 ft. high and 20
ft. round. The cultural debris may be intact below the surface level but the top
has been completely bulldozed. The
potsherds collected from the site indicated various types like globular jars,
bowls, beakers, dishes and short-necked jar. The pottery is extremely fine
textured and red cream or buff-slipped with decorations in black colour. Most
prominent designs include fish motives and tree branch leaves. The other designs
include lozanges, chevrons etc. Whereas some designs correspond to the Faiz
Muhammad blackon-grey and polychrome. On comparison these have parallel to
Mehrgarh III, IV, V. VI, VIIA, VIIB. It is unfortunate that the mound has been
razed to the ground, diminishing its importance. Mazghare The
site is bated on the Zhob-Quetta road, 25 miles
south of Zhob and 6 miles to the east of the road, on the out-skirts of the
fruit orchards of the Meena-Bazzar Village. The mound is locally known as
Maz~hare. The site consists of two mounds I and 2. The
mound-I has a length of 70 ft breadth of 40 ft. and is about 28 ft. high while
the mound-2 is 60 feet long, 45 ft. wide and 21 ft. high from the ground level.
There are innumerable potsherds on the surface and the remains of stone walls
are also discernable at various places. Most of the stones have been extracted
by the villagers to build boundary walls of their orchard hut. The mounds are
still intact to quite an extent. Besides potsherds clay bangle pieces and chert
cores and burins were collected from the surface. On the basis of the surface
collections from both, it can safely be concluded that they belong to the same
culture and are completely homogeneous. The
study of the potsherds revealed various pottery types like shallow bowls,
globular jars, short-necked jars, straight-necked jars, carinated bowls, dishes,
beakers, flared beakers and overtedrim bowls. Most
of the pottery from Mazghare is treated either with red buff cream or greyish
buff slip. The motifs are mostly consists of lozanges, chevrons, cross-hatched
and black buck. These painted designs have comparable parallels at Mehrgarh III,
IV, V and VI. Raddarzai There
too are twin mounds. They are located near the village of Raddarzai which is 11
miles south of the 26th milestone on the QuettaZhob road. The site can be
reached by an unmettled road leading to the village. From
afar, these mounds seem like natural hillocks but on going near them, one can
easly seen that they are manmade debris. There are huge stones lying all over
the mounds. These were probably used in building of walls. The
first mound, named R.I is 50 ft. long, 35 ft.
wide, and only 15 ft. high. The second, R. 2 is 45 ft. long, 30 ft. wide and
also 15 ft. high. Surface collection included many potsherds, chert cores and
stone balls. The potsherds from both the mounds were of a similar nature and
belonged to the same cultural period. The profiles indicated short-necked jars,
globular jar and bowls etc. and most of the pottery at Raddarzai in red cream or
buff-slipped but some are burnished. A few pieces of Faiz Muhammad
black-on-gray ware were also collected. On comparing with Mehrgarh, these too
belonged to the MR-Ill, IV, V, VI and VII, and are thus dated between 4500-2800
B.C. Chinjane This
site is located on an extremely difficult road, built by the British, near
village of Chinjane. The road leading from Loralai to Killa Saifullah leads on
to a secondary road at about 40 miles from Loralai. The village of Chinjane is
located 20 miles from the point from where this secondary roads separates from
the Loralai-Killa Saifullah road. The site is located right in the middle of the
Chinjane village. The
mound measuring about 110 feet and 70 feet. wide and survives to a height of 1 5 to 20 feet at places. Part of the mound has been included in the
agricultural land of the village. The surface collection besides potsherds included two Zhob mother Goddess type terracotta figurines, one bull and terracotta bangle pieces. The profiles of the potsherds indicates globular vessels, short-necked jar, beakers, bowls and small cups and they were all red slipped, cream and buff-slipped. On comparison these too were found to he parallel to Mchrgarh III. IV and VI. |
|