Mehrgarh: farming and village crafts

Mehrgarh stood on the Kachi Plain of Baluchistan near routes between uplands and lowlands. Around the seventh millennium BCE, residents established a mud-brick village. They used wheat and barley, kept cattle, sheep and goats, and continued hunting. Grain could be stored in compartments within buildings, while stone tools helped process plants and other materials.

Small rooms formed houses that were repaired and enlarged over time. Storage extended the use of harvests across seasons. Cultivation, herding and maintenance tied much of the community’s work to the settlement and its surrounding land.

References: [1]

Burials and habitation layers contain bone tools, stone implements, shells and beads. Some materials originated beyond the immediate locality and show participation in wider exchange. Bead makers drilled, polished and selected materials for ornaments used on bodies and in burial. Pottery was not widespread in the earliest phase, but later ceramic production added new containers for storage and cooking to village manufacture.

References: [1]

Mehrgarh’s long sequence records continuing changes in cultivation, herding and crafts. The village did not simply remain unchanged until it became an Indus city. Other settlements and exchange centers developed across the region. Grain production, animal management, mud-brick construction and material working continued to be adapted within larger networks, preserving an early chapter in how South Asian communities organized subsistence and manufacture.

References: [1]