An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s7.3

v1.c9.s7.3

Much more intensive and extensive work has since been done in Baluchistan (as elsewhere in the Indus civilization zone), adding new dimensions to Indo-Mesopotanian contacts. The discovery of off-shore Harappa sites on the Makran coast certainly indicate that at least part of the trade was coastal. The question of whether the trade was direct or through middlemen has also engaged attention. Perhaps it was both direct and indirect. It is now well known that at the time of Sargon the Great (24th century B.C.) merchant ships from Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun visited the docks of Akkad. One of these lands must have stood for the Indus region, though which one, is still not beyond dispute. This establishes a direct trade between the two regions. Dales, 1968, pp. 14-23, holds that 'the importance of seafaring activities for both the Harappans and Mesopotanians is strongly indicated, if not proved, by archaeological and written records.' There is evidence of indirect trade too. The discovery of a 'Persian Gulf' seal at LOTHAL and of seals with Indus motifs at Ras a Qal'a (Bahrain) and Failka (Kuwait) tends to indicate the head of the Persian Gulf as a centre of Central Place Trade as defined by Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1972. Another claimant for Central Place Trade is the Kirman area in e. Iran, which has been called the e. most boundary of effective Mesopotanian Culture-zone as well as the w. most limit of effective Harappan Culture-zone (Asthana, 1979, pp. 55-60) and which, with its rich resources of copper, tin, alabaster and steatite, might have attracted the Harappans. One of the sites in this area, Tepe Yahya, has even produced the impression of an Indus seal on a potsherd, together with pre-Harappa (Nal) pottery in the earlier levels, which, along with such other pre-Harappa sites of the late 4th and 3rd millennia B.C., is believed to be directly related in a causative manner to the later consolidation of the mature Harappa (Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1972, pp. 222-30).