The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c8.42

c8.42

Such are the scrappy, ill-documented materials which for the time being have to serve as an introduction to the Indus civilization. Village-cultures or bare pottery-groups—Zhob, Togau, Quetta, Nal, Amri, Kulli-Mehi—some isolated, some linked more or less recognizably with plateau-cultures or even with the plains beyond, are a curtain-raiser rather than a first act for the drama which must now unfold before us. For, unless doubtfully at Mehi and a few related sites, there is little yet that anticipates the Indus civilization in its cultural details, and we have still to admit that only in the most general terms can we trace the beginnings of the great civilization to which we must now turn. Exploration in northern Baluchistan, in the North-west Frontier Province, in Afghanistan and, not least, in the profoundest depths of Mohenjo-daro itself are the necessary preliminaries to enlightenment.