An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c10.s1.19

v1.c10.s1.19

Apart from the stratigraphical position and changes in the cultural outfit, the presence of certain objects, pottery types and designs helped in dating the post-Harappa cultures in the Indus valley and Baluchistan in the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. Thus, while the Cemetery H, Rana Ghundai IV, the Jhukar and Jhangar cultures were categorized as post-Harappa in view of stratigraphy and change in the cultural repertoire, the shaft-hole axe and 'compartmented' seals from Shahi Tump were respectively compared with similar ones found at Maikop and Tsarkaya in s. Russia and Hissar II and Anau III. Some of the material recovered from the burial cairns at Moghul Ghundai and its comparison with Sialk Cemetery B led to their dating in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C., and to this period were also 'assigned the cemeteries at Zangian and Jiwanri, and also the Londo ware' (Lal, 1953, p. 91). In view of the fact that 'quite a few of the artefacts in these cultures have their counterparts in Iran' it was considered 'reasonable to suppose that they were brought along by people coming from the area . . . . In w. Asia there is evidence of a great upheaval and folk-movement about this time (first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.), resulting largely from the inroads of barbaric tribes from the north. Perhaps the influx of people of Shahi Tump, Jhukar, RG IV, etc., has also to be viewed in that context' (Lal, 1953, p. 90). It may be added here that in the dating of these post-Harappa cultures literary evidence about Vedic Aryans—with whom some of these cultures were identified—was also linked (Wheeler, 1968, pp. 131-3).