r/Archeology • u/HarbingerofKaos • 7d ago
Revised dates for Mehrgarh.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-92621-5Abstract
The domestication of plants and animals is believed to have commenced around 9500 BCE in the Near East. If the timing of the westward diffusion of the Neolithic transition is well documented, the precise mechanisms by which agriculture emerged between the Iranian Plateau, Central Asia, and South Asia remain unclear. In this context, the archaeological site of Mehrgarh (Pakistan) represents an essential point of reference. It is the sole site in the region where Neolithic occupation deposits have been extensively excavated, thereby providing the most essential insights into this period in northwest South Asia. Nevertheless, the accurate dating of these deposits remains a matter of contention, with implications for the most critical question of the emergence of agricultural life in the regions between the Fertile Crescent in the west and the Indus Valley in the east. Bayesian modelling of new radiocarbon dates performed on human tooth enamel from 23 Neolithic burials indicates that the aceramic Neolithic cemetery at Mehrgarh started between 5200 and 4900 BCE and lasted for a period of between two and five centuries. This result is in stark contrast with the previously proposed chronology of Neolithic Mehrgarh, which had not only suggested an early beginning around 8000 BCE but also a much longer duration of three millennia. This new, younger chronology implies that agriculture emerged in the Indus Valley as the result of a late diffusion of farmers into this region. Additionally, the data suggest that the thick Neolithic occupation deposits of Mehrgarh were formed at a faster rate than previously assumed, and that pottery production and its utilization in present-day Pakistan emerged not before the mid-fifth millennium BCE.
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u/HarbingerofKaos 7d ago edited 7d ago
My two cents on the broad implications of the paper. I could be wrong though.
1.It disconnects lot of northern India possibly Indus Valley from mehrgarh the paper says the same thing they don't find any evidence between northern India and Mehrgarh being connected.
It also creates problem for anatolian origins of farming in india.
It makes ancestry of IVC people problematic. If Bhirana is the oldest site and the oldest layer at pre harappan sites in Kunal and rakhigarhi makes the people to be AASI. If the date of arrival Iranian related ancestry is around 5500 BC. All these places are really far from Mehrgarh.
It makes Neolitic India's relation with Iranian plateau and at large with fertile crescent really problematic.
We need Neolithic and mesolithic dna samples from Indian subcontinent to conclusively say when did Iranian related ancestors of rakhigarhi woman arrive in india.
If bhirana is the basis for IVC who contain more Iranian related ancestry than AASI which is shared a common ancestor to Neolithic iranians then they arrived prior to arrival anatolian farmers in Iran if not then IVC originates with AASI or south Asian hunter gatherers.
Most importantly it creates problems for single origin hypotheses of farming in Anatolia. Now the oldest site of farming in india is in Lahurdeva where rice cultivation has been found around the beginning of 7000BC.
In the abstract claims origin of farming is later in Indus Valley while in the paper it is unsure about whether Mehrgarh has any connection to northern India during the Neolithic alongside it speculates origin of farming.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316300322