Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.49

c10.49

We are left with a problem which must be touched on before leaving the Mesopotamian and Persian material and turning our attention to that from India. In describing the stratification at Tepe Hissar and at Anau I have mentioned the intrusion of unpainted grey or black ware which cuts across and finally supplants the old painted pottery. Now this is more than a change in fashion among the makers or purchasers of pottery; such a radically different type of ware, associated with quite different traditions of kiln building and firing, can only mean the arrival of new people in North Persia and Turkestan at this time. And this is borne out by the other finds, which show all the innovations that might be expected from the arrival of fresh settlers - new types of copper and bronze tools and weapons and, at Hissar at least, a considerable access of wealth in the form of gold, silver and semi-precious stones. These newcomers are, as we have seen, attested at Hissar, Giyan, and Anau among the sites whose earlier prehistoric occupations we have studied, and they are also known to have settled at two other sites not very far from Hissar, at Shah Tepe, where they replaced makers of painted wares of the Hissar II type, and at Turang Tepe nearby, where no earlier occupation is attested. There is also evidence of makers of the same grey pots from Namazga Tepe and Askabad, both near Anau, and there is a cemetery containing similar ware (Cemetery B) at Sialk, overlying the earlier prehistoric deposits. Finally traces of the same folk have been found in Afghanistan, at Nad-i-Ali.