The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c8.39

c8.39

Other buff-ware groups include a complex to which the name "Amri-Nal" has been given by Piggott from two type-sites: Amri on the Indus plain south of Mohenjo-daro, and Nal, near Kalāt in the heart of the Baluch hills. At Kile Gul Mohammed (mentioned above) and at another site, Damb Saadat, Amri-ware underlay the Quetta-Zhob group, but at Amri itself the ware was found underneath the Harappā culture, to which the complex would there appear to be immediately antecedent with an approximate date in the earlier half of the third millennium. On the whole it is perhaps preferable, however, to divide and treat separately the two main components, and they are here separately mapped (fig. 2).¹ An extensive cemetery at Nal showed that the dominant rite was that of "fractional" burial, or the burial of fragments of the skeleton after exposure elsewhere. This differs from the known burials of the Harappā culture, where complete inhumations are normal. The characteristic ware is buff with a white slip, on which the design is painted in brownish black occasionally augmented by red, yellow, blue or green to form an extremely gay polychrome. Multiple lines are favoured, and the "omega" and stepped patterns are characteristic, often on small straight-sided vessels. At Amri a more normal type is the beaker, with footstand or pedestal; and both looped bands and chequered panels are common. The animal designs found on Nal ware are almost entirely absent from the Amri series. Finally, Amri ware occurs only sporadically in the hills; its main distribution lies on the plain between the Kirthār Range and the Indus. On the other hand, the Nal wares occur abundantly in the upland valleys and extend far down them towards Makrān. Neither culture has yet been linked satisfactorily with the Iranian series, and the individual and attractive features of the Nal in particular may at present claim a substantially local origin.