The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c8.18

c8.18

A study of the hill societies, with their lowland extensions, is therefore a necessary preliminary to the social study alike of the Indus and of the Mesopotamian civilizations. But to the archaeologist it has further values in compensation for the strenuous and often uncomfortable fieldwork involved. Amidst the cultural diversity of the Baluch hills and of the plateau behind them, it is gradually becoming possible to trace interconnexions which will ultimately (after much further research) give an element of cohesion both to the village-cultures themselves and to the two riverine civilizations which are in part rooted in them. How far cultural equations may reflect chronological equations is matter for constant and cautious consideration in view of the almost unpredictable durability of some of these mountain communities. But it may be that in chronology also it will be possible eventually to use the upland cultures as elements in an objective time-scale, anchored primarily to the hardening historical sequence of Mesopotamia.