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By Bahzad Alam Khan
 To study the memoirs of the archaeological survey of India compiled by the then superintendent of the Frontier Circle, H. Hargreaves, the first step is to seek out the work-shy librarian of the federal archaeological department in Karachi. From the back of the room - where on shelves sit dog-eared and hard-to-come-by books and journals, gathering dust - he finally emerges with a well-thumbed tome, published by the government of India in 1929 in Calcutta (now renamed as Kolkata). The volume is marked: "Excavations in Baluchistan 1925, Sampur Mound, Mastung and Sohr Damb, Nal."
Hargreaves reports that a hundred years ago Sir John Marshall, who was appointed director-general of archaeology in India in 1902, wrote about a new type of pottery recovered from a mound known as the Sohr Damb (literally, the red mound), near Nal in the Jhalawan Division of the Kalat State. (For most people, Nal’s only claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of great nationalist leader Mir Ghaus Buksh Bizenjo.) Apparently, it was the politician’s tribe which helped the British excavate the area. Hargreaves quotes the then assistant political agent of Jhalawan as writing in a report: "The Sohr Damb at Nal, Jhalawan, was completely excavated in 1908 by the Hazara Pioneers under the command of Colonel (now General Sir Claud) Jacob and whatever few specimens they could obtain were removed. The Bizenjo Sardar, in whose jurisdiction the ruin exists, assures me that no more specimens of pottery could be got from this ruin."
It, therefore, required no small optimism and courage to organize an expedition at Nal. And yet Hargreaves, as enterprising as they come, went ahead with the cumbersome archaeological process in the hope of finding more artifacts, which in the past winged their way into private collections more easily than they do these days.
And Hargreaves wasn’t disappointed. He writes: "A preliminary survey of the mound made it quite clear that it was artificial. Traces of stone walls were visible here and there on the surface and in one place where rain had cut a small channel the face of a line of mud bricks 12" X 12" X 71/2" was already disclosed. Evidences of the previous excavation were plain. The Pioneers had dug a narrow winding trench low down on the western slope of the mound and the end made a deep cut into the side. It was assumed that this deep digging indicated the spot where they had been most successful. The section made by this cutting revealed layers of light reddish material alternating with bands of ashes and charcoal and bore a striking resemblance to the ancient brick kilns so common around Lahore. As fragments of polychrome pottery were abundant and close to this excavation and very rare elsewhere, it was presumed they were due to the operations of the Pioneers and had come from some deep stratum."
While discerning archaeologists knew full well that methodical excavations at Sohr Damb along scientific lines would almost certainly yield valuable data, the federal archaeology department did precious little to conserve the site, let alone excavate it and subject the antiquities thus recovered to tests.
In the winter of 1996 noted German archaeologist Dr Ute Franke-Vogt, who studied Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranistan studies and cultural anthropology in Goettingen, Munich and Berlin, established the Joint German-Pakistani Archaeological Mission to Kalat. Not unfamiliar with Pakistani archaeological sites - she worked with the German Research Project on Moenjodaro until 1987 and devoted her doctoral dissertation to the inscribed objects recovered from the site - Dr Franke-Vogt was well suited for the job she had undertaken.
"In a survey of south-eastern Balochistan carried out in 1996-97, quite a few sites of archaeological import were discovered, but only a few mounds, which are known as damb in the local vernacular. As a rule, a mound shows occupation of various periods. For instance, Sohr Damb reveals four distinct periods of occupation. Period I (from 3,500 BC to 3,200 BC), Period II (from 3,200/3,000 BC to 2,700 BC), Period III (2,700 BC to 2,400 BC) and Period IV (2,400 BC to the present-day). So, this site is over 5,000 years old. I visited Nal for the first time in 1998. I revisited it in 2000 and re-opened excavations in 2001," she recalls.
Dr Franke-Vogt points out that the excavations conducted by Hargreaves tell us only about Period II occupation. "But our excavations have brought to light occupation of Period I, Period III and Period IV. This has extended the time of occupation on the site considerably. Besides, with this well-stratified and well-dated material, one can develop a very detailed typological sequence," she explains.
Like most archaeologists whose joy knows no bounds when they chance upon graves, Dr Franke-Vogt says she was also beside herself with delight when her team discovered eight tombs at the site, one of them fully located in a trench. "The graves contain exclusively multiple fractional burials. Usually, only small portions of the skeleton were found in an articulate position. Many skeletal parts were totally absent or very rare. Infants, children and adults were buried together. Often bones from infants were deposited in bowls. Skulls were often placed in shallow pits lined with pebbles. Their number certainly exceeds that of individuals represented by other parts of the body. The excavated evidence indicates that secondary burials were extremely common and that the tombs were in use for a long time," she explains, adding that the reason why archaeologists love tombs is that they, being closed contacts, give a lot of information about burial customs, belief systems and an analysis of bones could also yield a great deal of data.
"But I am not saying that tombs are more archaeologically interesting than settlements. Of course, vessels in tombs are better preserved - they are either intact or can be reconstructed - than they are in settlements, where there is a lot of activity. In 2004, we found a large number of grave goods, including pottery, beads, shells with ochre and small ’offering tables’ made of stone. Some beakers with shells were also discovered. The vessels are of an amazing variety and include previously unknown shapes and decorations," she says.
Dr Franke-Vogt does not subscribe to the theory that a dramatic climatic change led to the dwindling of the population at Nal. "A study of bones indicates that no severe or climatic change occurred in the region. Seeds and plants that we discovered there are the same ones mentioned in the gazetteers of Balochistan, compiled in around 1900. We have evidence that there was a river close by. The area has certainly become drier and more arid than it was, but it hasn’t become so arid as to force people to migrate. Perhaps aridity and barrenness that we witness in the region these days was caused by overgrazing. In 2000 BC, settlements were abandoned in the Nal basin and elsewhere, and traces of settled life re-appear only around 400 BC, as in other regions of Balochistan and beyond. Since the data from Sohr Domb does not indicate that river changes and climate played a major role in this process; so, we have to look for possible explanations," she says.
"To propose a model in which the cessation of Indus civilization plays a major role in the abandonment of settled life around 2000/1900 BC, also implies in a way that the processes that took place in the western highlands around 2500/2300 BC were related to the rise of this power, through its strong economic and possible political focus. The spheres that carried these processes are yet unknown, but an interplay of various factors is more than likely. Besides, our knowledge about the religious belief system of the Nal settlement is sketchy, primarily because text and material related to the religious belief system have not been discovered," she notes.
Dr Franke-Vogt says it would be very nice if the federal archaeology department could put the artifacts on display when the excavations at Sohr Damb have come to an end. She says she will certainly do her bit if she is asked to help the government in this task.
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