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BEFORE HARAPPA · 7th millennium–2600 BCE

Before the Indus civilisation

The grid began as a village

Before the great cities of the Indus, communities like Mehrgarh already built in adobe and worked the land.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction of Rehman Dheri; the general layout is supported by archaeology and the elevations and everyday life are revisable hypotheses.

Plan of the enclosure and streets of the proto-urban settlement of Rehman Dheri
DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction of Rehman Dheri; the general layout is supported by archaeology and the elevations and everyday life are revisable hypotheses.

History and context

Long before Mohenjo-daro, an adobe village settled beside the Bolan Pass. In Mehrgarh, generations cultivated cereals, tended flocks, buried their dead and transformed shells, stone and clay; the settlement changed location several times instead of growing as an immobile city. Over millennia, craft specialisation and contacts between mountains, plains and coast increased.

Around 3300 BCE, centres like Rehman Dheri already had an enclosure and organised streets, although they did not yet share all the weights, seals and urban forms of the mature Harappan period. The great Indus civilisation was not a sudden invention: it arose when ancient regional traditions began to coordinate at an extraordinary scale.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Beneath the mound survive more than four metres of occupation. From its early phases, Rehman Dheri disposed a perimeter and streets that organised dwellings and craft activity. It was not yet Mohenjo-daro nor did it share all its norms, but it demonstrates that planning a settlement was a process tried and tested for centuries before the great cities of the Indus. Interpretation and caution: The organised layout documents planning, but does not demonstrate that the institutions, weights or writing of mature urbanism already existed. Historical transition: Long-lasting villages, specialised crafts and planned settlements were gradually connected until making possible the standardisation of the mature Harappan period. Limit of the transition: Mehrgarh and Rehman Dheri were not mature Harappan cities nor links of a single chain; the process brought together several regional trajectories.

Catalogue facts

Previous period
7th millennium–2600 BCE
Sphere of influence
Bolan Pass, Indus plains and northwest of present-day Pakistan and India
Threshold element
Enclosure and Streets of Rehman Dheri
Element date
c. 3300–2600 BCE
Location
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Material or support
adobe, brick and earth
Time frame
7th millennium–2600 BCE
Documented fact 01
Mehrgarh preserves a sequence from the 7th to the 3rd millennium BCE.
Documented fact 02
Rehman Dheri comprises about 4.5 metres and approximately 1,400 years of occupation.
Documented fact 03
Its planning does not yet imply the full mature Harappan system.
Visual credit
Nusratg · CC BY-SA 4.0

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

The driller's skill reached the body

The study by Coppa and his collaborators on Mehrgarh documented perforations carried out in the teeth of living people during the Neolithic. Microscopic analysis and experimentation with flint points allowed investigation of how the holes were made. This finding adds an unexpected dimension to the skills of those communities: techniques we associate with working small materials could also be applied to the body. We do not know the practitioners nor a complete medical system, but the teeth preserve a deliberate intervention prior to the great cities.

The region before this culture

7th millennium–2600 BCE · Bolan Pass, Indus plains and northwest of present-day Pakistan and India

  1. VII–VI millennium BCE · Documented

    Mehrgarh aceramic

    Adobe houses, cereals, livestock and burials document an early sedentary life alongside the Bolan Pass.

  2. ca. 5500–3300 BCE · Documented

    Artisan villages

    Pottery, beads, copper and raw material networks grew as settlements shifted location.

  3. c. 3300–2600 BCE · Documented

    Rehman Dheri

    Ordered enclosure and streets anticipated urban planning before mature Harappan standardisation.

What changes and what we should not assume

Long-lasting villages, specialised crafts and planned settlements gradually connected to make possible the standardisation of the mature Harappan period.

Mehrgarh and Rehman Dheri were not mature Harappan cities nor links in a single chain; the process brought together several regional trajectories.

Enclosure and Streets of Rehman Dheri

c. 3300–2600 BCE · Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Beneath the mound survive more than four metres of occupation. From its early phases, Rehman Dheri laid out a perimeter and streets that organised dwellings and craft activity. It was not yet Mohenjo-daro nor did it share all its conventions, but it demonstrates that planning a settlement was a process rehearsed for centuries before the great cities of the Indus. It allows one to reveal on the plan a city in formation and for the visitor to compare regional trial and later standardisation.

Beneath the mound survive more than four metres of occupation. From its early phases, Rehman Dheri laid out a perimeter and streets that organised dwellings and craft activity. It was not yet Mohenjo-daro nor did it share all its conventions, but it demonstrates that planning a settlement was a process rehearsed for centuries before the great cities of the Indus.

The organised layout documents planning, but does not demonstrate that the institutions, weights or writing of mature urbanism already existed.

adobe, brick and earth

Wikimedia Commons · Rahman_dheri_2.png · Nusratg · CC BY-SA 4.0

Time frame
7th millennium–2600 BCE
Documented fact 01
Mehrgarh preserves a sequence from the 7th to the 3rd millennium BCE.
Documented fact 02
Rehman Dheri comprises about 4.5 metres and approximately 1,400 years of occupation.
Documented fact 03
Its planning does not yet imply the full mature Harappan system.

Sources and references

Expand this antecedent and consult its sources

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