Forum Pakistan

This engulfed Pakistan in the late 2nd and early 1st millennia BC. The culture of cairn-burials was discovered in the valleys of the rivers Zhob and Loralai in *Balochistan. Around 1,000 burials have been found so far with a large number of iron arrowheads, swords, knives and hooks. The pottery is modelled. The settlement of Pirak in the valley of the Kachni River in Balochistan is unique. It existed between the 15th and 18th centuries BC. Iron implements appeared side by side with the old bronze ones at the second development stage (13th-12th centuries BC) that continued into a later period. In Pirak, the shift from the Bronze Age (phase I) to the Early Iron Age was smooth-there are no changes in pottery, the adobe houses became smaller. Phase III of Pirak is characterized with wheeled grey burnished pottery with grooved patterns. It can be compared with the *Jhangar ware dated to the first half of the 1 st millennium BC. Jhangar, a culture of the Early Iron Age, can be traced in *Sindh over a limited territory (settlements of * Amri, *Chanhu-Daro). The burials and settlements of the later period of the *Swat culture (dated between the 8th and 4th centuries BC) are related to the Early Iron Age of the northwest of Pakistan. There are spears, arrowheads, knives and parts of harness. There are analogies with the Iron Age II in Iran, that iron metallurgy may have penetrated the northwest of Pakistan from Iran.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: N.R. Banerjee, 'Iron Age in India', Delhi, 1965; D.P. Agrawal, 'The Archaeology of India', Copenhagen, 1982.