Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.31

c10.31

After the very early and primitive ‘Stone Age’ phases, such as Hassuna I, the most distinctive feature of the prehistoric cultures of Mesopotamia, and even more of Persia, is the frequent and sometimes exclusive occurrence of pottery painted with designs in one or, less frequently, two or more colours. Such painted pottery, with its enormous repertoire of designs and styles, forms the basis of much of our classification of prehistoric Western Asian cultures, and in Baluchistan, where so little scientific excavation has been carried out, comparison of painted pottery styles is the only method of disentangling the various regional groups of people and their trade and movements.