Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c7.32

c7.32

Until recently, a classic instance of the variable relationship of pottery to microliths was supplied by Sankalia's well-known site in Gujarāt, at Langhnāj. There a considerable depth of dry wind-blown sand accumulated anciently, but, at an average depth of four feet from the present surface, the accumulation was interrupted by a faint layer of humus, indicating temporarily damper conditions. In the lower part of the sand above the humus, microliths were associated with potsherds of 'Neolithic' age or later. The humus land-surface itself and the sand below it were long thought to be completely devoid of pottery; but further examination of these layers in 1952 and 1954 is said to have produced 'very small quantities of extremely comminuted pieces of coarse, handmade and ill-fired pottery'.²² The few fragments found were exceedingly tiny, and, if they are truly *in situ* and have not merely percolated through the very flimsy humus-layer, it would be interesting to know whether we are here confronted with true pottery or rather with baked basket-linings such as have been noted in the Upper Kenya Capsian. The buried humus layer produced vast numbers of microliths (including a majority of primary flakes) of quartz, jasper and chert. With them were sandstone slabs flattened on one side and used for grinding; and mineralized human skeletons of 'modern' dolichocephalic type, found in a crouched position below the humus, are assumed to be related burials. The fauna included Indian rhinoceros, hog-deer, axis deer, nilgai antelope, black buck, bovines, mongoose, pig, horse, dog or wolf, tortoise and fish, but not, in the latest review of the material, any hint of domestication. Nor do the grinding-stones necessarily reflect agriculture, since they may equally have been used for wild grasses and spices. In any case, it seems likely that the economy of the settlement was dominantly that of the hunter. It should be added that, in the sand below the main occupation-level was found a part of the shoulder-blade of *Rhinoceros unicornis* bearing at least eight artificial pits on one side and suggesting use as an anvil in the fabrication of microliths.