Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.28

c12.28

As we saw in the previous chapter, there is good evidence for trading contacts between South Baluchistan, and the folk of the Kulli Culture, and Sumer in the Early Dynastic period, about 2800 B.C. That the trade contacts of South Baluchistan were not westwards by sea routes is shown by the abundant evidence at such sites as Mehi of reciprocal mercantile relations eastwards and overland with the Indus Valley and the Harappā Culture. The shifting shoals and the mangrove swamps of the Indus mouths can never have encouraged the establishment of a port there, and the Kulli merchants may have been middle-men in the original trade between Harappā and the west, sailing from harbours on the Makran coast. At all events, there is no absolutely certain evidence that Sumer and the Harappā empire were in touch in Early Dynastic times: clear signs of contact first appear in Akkadian times - that is, about 2300 B.C. In Northern Persia there are certain points of evidence suggesting that some phase of the Harappā civilization was contemporary with the Hissar III period, and at Anau, in Russian Turkestan, Harappā contacts seem perceptible in Anau III - on independent showing contemporary with Hissar III. The dating of these phases is still somewhat controversial, but some time between 2300 and 2000 B.C. seems probable.