Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c13.33

c13.33

The picture given by the Jhukar material is not dissimilar from that of the less abundant relics from the Shahi-tump cemetery. In both cultures the pottery appears to represent a more or less indigenous type in a late stage of evolution or devolution, but the smaller portable objects, such as seals, beads, metal implements, and weapons, and habits of dress implied by the use of pins, all suggest the arrival of new blood in the region. At Chanhu-daro one of the most interesting features is the use of faience by the Jhukar people, and it can hardly be explained in any way except by the supposition that the invaders conscripted, or at least were prepared to acquire the products of, local craftsmen skilled in this technique who survived the Harappā disasters and were set to work imitating as best they could the type of beads demanded by their new rulers. Although the newcomers may have known faience by sight, they are unlikely to have brought with them craftsmen who could make it, though as we have seen, some faience beads may have been imported into India from the Eastern Mediterranean region. At these three sites in Sind where the Jhukar Culture has been found, we can feel only that we are witnessing the arrival of barbarians, either as the destroyers of the Harappā civilization or following hard in the wake of the first raiders. It is their portable objects that are significant and which give the clue to their origins: here for once we can relegate pottery to a secondary place in estimating the content of these allied cultures.