Chronology and origins: Mehrgarh to the Mature Harappan

Detail

Three-phase chronology

Phase	Dates	Character
Early Harappan	6000–2600 BCE	formative; farming villages, regional pottery styles
Mature Harappan	2600–1900 BCE	urban, most prosperous phase
Late Harappan	1900–1300 BCE	decline; rural "successor cultures"

Mehrgarh — base of sequence

• Location: Bolan river valley, Kacchi plain, Baluchistan — near Bolan Pass, west of Indus, between Quetta-Kalat-Sibi [2].
• Oldest Neolithic site / earliest agricultural village of subcontinent, c. 7000 BCE [2].
• Discovered 1974, excavated 1974-86 and 1997-2000 by French Archaeological Mission (Jean-François and Catherine Jarrige) [2].
• Occupation spans ~5000-6000 yrs across two major periods: 8th-6th millennium BCE, then 5th-4th (possibly 3rd) millennium BCE [2].
• Material culture: sun-dried brick houses, granaries, burials, ornaments of lapis lazuli/carnelian/shell, wheat-barley cultivation, zebu cattle.
• First copper objects appear → site turns Chalcolithic by c. 4000 BCE — lays basis of Bronze Age civilisation.
• Britannica frames Mehrgarh explicitly as precursor to Indus Valley Civilisation, predating Harappa/Mohenjo-daro [2].

Early-to-Mature continuities

• Shared threads: pottery traditions, semi-precious stone bead-making, shell bangles, terracotta, copper work.
• Perimeter walls, seals, even script have Early Harappan forerunners: graffiti on pottery, simple seals found at Harappa, Rehman Dheri, Kunal.
• Early bead-production centres: Harappa, Kunal (Haryana), Datrana (Gujarat).

Sarasvatī-belt pre-Harappan dates

• Radiocarbon at Bhirrana and Kunal (dried Sarasvatī channel) push pre-Harappan occupation to 7000-5500 BCE — among oldest dates in the sequence, rivalling Mehrgarh.

Village → town → city transition

• Urbanisation crystallises c. 2600 BCE.
• NCERT stance: internal, gradual evolution out of Early Harappan bases — not a diffused/imported urban model.

No conflicts found between scaffold and retrieved facts; Britannica corroborates Mehrgarh dating and precursor status.

Prelims Hooks

• Mehrgarh located on Bolan river, Kacchi plain, Baluchistan — oldest Neolithic/farming site in subcontinent, c. 7000 BCE.
• Mehrgarh discovered 1974 by French Archaeological Mission (Jarrige).
• Mehrgarh turns Chalcolithic by c. 4000 BCE (first copper objects).
• Mature Harappan phase: 2600-1900 BCE — most urban/prosperous.
• Early Harappan phase: 6000-2600 BCE — formative, regional pottery.
• Late Harappan: 1900-1300 BCE — rural successor cultures.
• Bhirrana and Kunal (Sarasvatī belt) radiocarbon dates as early as 7000-5500 BCE.
• Early bead-production sites: Harappa, Kunal (Haryana), Datrana (Gujarat).
• Script/seals have Early Harappan forerunners at Harappa, Rehman Dheri, Kunal.

Mains Points

• Urbanism c. 2600 BCE = internal evolutionary process, continuity from Early Harappan village base — counters diffusionist (Mesopotamia-origin) theories of Indus urban rise.
• Mehrgarh evidences Neolithic→Chalcolithic transition indigenously, giving Indus Bronze Age civilisation a local, not borrowed, technological base — link to broader debate on "pristine" civilisations.
• Sarasvatī-belt dates (Bhirrana/Kunal) feed into ongoing "Sindhu-Sarasvati" nomenclature debate — political/historiographic dimension re: river system's role in civilisational origin.