Stone Age of Pakistan

Introduction

The story of the stone age is a story of human evolution as well as the account of man‘s journey
to civilization. Humans like to think that they have always been the center of the universe, but
science has proved that this is not so. This planet and its innumerable species are part of an
amazingly long, complex, and continuing drama of evolution, in which human beings made a
very little entry, and have so far played a very minor role. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old
and humans appeared on it only some two million years ago, in fact the modern humans just
200,000 years ago and the behaviorally modern humans not earlier than 70,000 years ago.

In fact, human stock grew from a creature that walked upright and in order to get the starting
point of the history of man, we are required to go as far back in time as 2 or more million years
ago.

Geologists divided the history of the earth into four eras or ages related to the evolution of life
forms; Primary (Palaeozoic), Secondary (Mesozoic), Tertiary and Quaternary. The Tertiary and
Quaternary together form the Cenozoic or the age of the mammals, which began about 100
million years ago. The Cenozoic is divided into seven epochs, of which the last two, the
Pleistocene and Holocene are especially important for the story of human evolution. The
Pleistocene began about 2 million years ago, and the Holocene or recent period in which we live
starts about 10,000 years ago. The human evolution essentially occurred in these two epochs.

It is generally agreed that the African continent was the birthplace of mankind. Anthropologists
estimate that the human lineage diverged from other primates about 5 million years ago, with
chimps being our closest living relative. Early members of our own genus Home erectus and its
near relative Homo ergaster, arose in this region about 2.5 million years ago. These hominins
migrated out of Africa approximately 1.5 to 2 million years ago to found population in Europe,
the Middle East, and Asia.

Apart from the inheritance of the bodily form, we have strong evidence for continuity in learned
behavior, such as making and using the same types of tools generation after generations,
millennium after millennia. While every new generation might have contributed their bit of
innovation to the manufacturing technology, they retained their technological inheritance. The
stone tools that originated in very early stages of human existence continued to be made and used
tens of thousands years after while new generations continued adding newer types.

The stone age technology essentially consisted of the ability of early humans to make tools. Flint
was widely used to make these tools. Hand Axes of different kinds made by chipping away
flakes to make the most common. Eventually axes were set into wooden handles, making them
easier to use. By attaching wooden poles to spear points and hardening the tips in fire, humans
created spears that gave them the ability to hunt and kill large animals. Towards the end of the
stone age humans made microliths, tiny stone blades that could be mounted in wooden or bone
handles. Bones and antlers were also used for making a great variety of tools. Bones could be
also used to make harpoons in catching fish. Near the end of the stone age, there is evidence of
even more refined tools, especially bone needles, which could be used for making nets and
baskets and even sewing hides together for clothing.

The earliest stone tools industry, the Olduwan, was developed by the earliest member of the
genus Homo such as home habilis, around 2.6 million years ago in East Africa. It contained tools
such as choppers, burins and awls. These tools were completely replaced around 250,000 years
ago by the more complex Acheulean industry which was first conceived around 1.8 or 1.65
million years ago. Human groups in different parts of the world began using stone tools at
different times and abandoned stone for metal at different times. In South Asia the earliest sone
tools of Olduvan type, were discovered in the Pothwar region of northern Punjab in Pakistan.
These have been dated to 2 million years ago almost the same time frame when first such
evidence is available from East Africa, an area that is generally recognized as the cradle of man.

The use of stone tools continued in this part of the world to as late as the third millennium BC.
Although by than copper tools had started to become available.

Paleolithic Culture (Lower, Middle, Upper)

The term ―Stone Age‖ was made in the late 19th century CE by the Danish scholar Christian J.
Thomsen, who came up with a framework for the study of the human past, known as the ―Three
Age System‖. The basis of this framework is technological: it revolves around the notion of three
successive periods or ages: Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, each age being
technologically more complex than the one before it. Thomsen came up with this idea after
noticing that the artefacts found in archaeological sites displayed regularity in terms of the
material that they were made with: stone-made tools were always found in the deepest
layers, bronze artefacts in layers on top of the deepest layers, and finally iron-made artefacts
were found closest to the surface. This suggested that metal technology developed later than
stone-made tools.

The Stone Age begins with the first production of stone implements and ends with the first use of
bronze. Since the chronological limits of the Stone Age are based on technological development
rather than actual date ranges, its length varies in different areas of the world. The earliest global
date for the beginning of the Stone Age is 2.5 million years ago in Africa, and the earliest end
date is about 3300 BCE, which is the beginning of Bronze Age in the Near East. Tools and
weapons during the stone age were not made exclusively of stone: organic materials such as
antler, bone, fibre, leather, and wood were also employed.

There is evidence suggesting that the 2.5-million-year limit for stone tool manufacture might be
pushed further back. The reason is that the capacity of tool use and even its manufacture is not
exclusive of our species: there are studies indicating that bonobos1 are capable of flaking and
using stone tools in order to gain access to food in an experimental setting. Nevertheless, there
are differences between the tools produced by modern apes and those produced by the early
toolmakers, who had better biomechanical and cognitive skills and produced more efficient tools.
The difference, however, is of degree, not of nature. In fact it is believed that some of the
Australopithecines2 were the first tool makers.

In addition, some researchers have claimed that the earliest stone tools might even have an
earlier origin: 3.4 million years ago. Although no stone tools that old have been found, some
bones showing signs of striations3 and gouges (An impression in a surface) have been found in
Ethiopia, which might represent cut marks made with stone tools. This view, however, is not
widely accepted: the marks have also been interpreted to be the result of crocodile predation or
animal trampling.
1
Small chimpanzee of swamp forests in Zaire; a threatened species
2
Any of several extinct humanlike bipedal primates with relatively small brains of the genus Australopithecus; from
1 to 4 million years ago.
3
Any of a number of tiny parallel grooves such as: the scratches left by a glacier on rocks or the streaks or ridges in
muscle tissue.
The Stone Age is divided into three different periods.

Paleolithic or Old Stone Age: from the first production of stone artefacts, about 2.5 million
years ago, to the end of the last Ice Age4, about 9,600 BCE. This is the longest Stone Age period.
The main types of evidence are fossilized human remains and stone tools, which show a gradual
increase in their complexity. On the basis of the techniques employed and the quality of the
tools, there are several stone industries (sometimes referred to as ―lithic‖ industries). The earliest
of these (2.5 million years ago) is called Oldowan, which are very simple choppers and flakes.
About 1.7 million years ago, we find another type of lithic industry called Acheulean, producing
more complex and symmetrical shapes with sharp edges. There are several other types of lithic
industries until finally towards the end of the Paleolithic, about 40,000 years ago, we see a
―revolution‖ of lithic industries where many different types coexisted and developed rapidly.
Around this same time, we also have the first recorded expressions of the artistic life: personal
ornaments and cave paintings.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

Tools and weapons during the Stone Age were not made exclusively of stone: organic materials
such as antler, bone, leather and wood were also employed. The archaeological record, however,
is based made of stone because these are far more durable than the organic materials, which are
easily obliterated (Reduced to nothingness) by the many processes of decay that they are subject
to and can only survive under rare circumstances such as cold temperatures or very dry climate.
Other durable materials such as copper and glass-made items have also survived. Under rare
circumstances, plant, animal, and human remains have also managed to survive, sometimes
merely fossilized, but other times they still present part of the soft tissue such as the several
frozen specimens of the extinct woolly rhino and woolly mammoth (extinct elephants
widely distributed in the Pleistocene5) that have survived in Siberia virtually intact.

Clay is another material which is abundant in the bulk of Stone Age material remains. Clay can
be fashioned into a desire shape and baked to fix its form. This is the birth of pottery. Usable

4
The most recent ice age was during the Pleistocene
5
From two million to 11 thousand years ago; extensive glaciation of the northern hemisphere; the time of human
evolution
clay is widely available, which explains why pottery was independently invented in many parts
of the world at different times. The oldest evidence of pottery manufacture has been found in an
archaeological site known as Odai Yamamoto, in Japan, where fragments from a specific vessel
have been dated to 16,500-14,920 BP ("before present", meaning 16,500-14,920 years ago,
usually associated with radiocarbon dating). Non-agricultural Jomon peoples of Japan were
producing clay pots that were elaborately decorated by about 13,000 BP, which were used for
food preparation.

During the Early Neolithic era, around 8,000 BCE, special ovens used to parch cereal grains and
to bake bread were being built in the Near East, which allowed people to control fire and produce
high temperatures in enclosed facilities. Initially, pottery was made in open fires, but the use of
ovens added new possibilities to the development of pottery. Around the same time, some areas
of South America were also developing pottery technology.

With the introduction of Bronze metallurgy, the Stone Age came to an end. Bronze is a mixture
of copper and tin, which has greater hardness than copper, better casting properties, and a lower
melting point. Bronze could be used for making weapons, something that was not possible with
copper, which is not hard enough to endure combat conditions. In time, bronze became the
primary material for tools and weapons, and a good part of the stone technology became
obsolete, signaling the end of the Stone Age.
Soan Valley

Soan Valley Or Potohar Region proved to be 500,000 years old. Soan Valley is extended from
Himalayas to the Salt Range and from River Jhelum to the River Indus. Remains of Ramapithecus
(Punjabicus) is found with heavy stone tools and Morghanian hand axes. British Archaeological
Mission, Italian Mission, American team, Yale-Cambridge Expedition and indigenous scholars
have carried out research in this regard. Goitto discovered Kashmir Climatic Zone in the names of
Karewa and Moraine. Swillerton discovered the geological formation of the six beds of River
Soan.
Pre-Historic Culture (stone-age) of Pakistan goes back to 2.5 million years and ends during 4,000
B.C. On the basis of stone tools it is divided into three cultures as; Paleolithic or old stone-age (2.5
m.y.b.p – 10,000 B.C), Mesolithic or middle stone-age (10,000 – 8,000 B.C) and Neolithic or new
stone-age (8,000 – 4,000 B.C). Paleolithic is further divided into three cultures; lower Paleolithic
(2.5 m.y.b.p—100,000 B.C), middle Paleolithic (100,000—40,000 B.C) and upper Paleolithic
(40,000—10,000 B.C).
The best-known Palaeolithic culture of Central Asia is generally accepted as that of the Soan
valley. Identified, following the work of H. de Terra and T. T. Paterson on the Potwar plateau in
Pakistan. The bulk of the early Soan tools were taken from the top or flanks of these terraces. In
rare cases artefacts were excavated from pebble beds or the loess-type soils that cover them, but
no proper geological study of these finds has yet been carried out.
Many specialists have pointed out that the chief peculiarity of the Soan industry was, from the
early phase of its development, the use of rounded pebbles for tool-making, with the additional
feature that most tools were made in such a way that part of the pebble was left intact.

Sanghao Cave

The history of mankind in NWFP hardly went back beyond first millennium BC before the
discovery of Sanghao Cave in 1963. Dr. A .H. Dani traced back from here the human occupation
in the frontier province dated to 40,000 years back, when man was living in the caves and
chasing the game of prey for his subsistence. The cave yielded stone tools of different types like
blades, burins, scrappers, arrowheads and points. Three different period of prehistoric nature
were identified, namely the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. A part from
the stone tools, bones of the hunted animals were also collected in large quantity, throwing light
on the ancient Flora and fauna and the climatic condition as well.

The cave is situated 60 miles North-East of Peshawar, 15 miles North-East of Mardan city. The
cave is 3 miles away from the village Sanghao. The mountain series in which this cave is situated
separates Mardan district from Buner. The name of the cave is derived from the old Sanskrit
word ―Sangha‖ which means a ‗Buddhist Monastery‘. The name implies due to the presence of
many Buddhist ruins in the valley. The village in which this cave is located is known as Mian
Khan-Sanghao. Thus, the cave is named after the name of this particular village.

Rohri Hills

The first Paleolithic sites of the Rohri Hills in Sind Province were discovered by Allchin in 1975.
The Rohri Hills are a limestone plateau, deeply dissected by the erosion, some 40 km long and
16 km wide. Sites have so far discovered from Rohri Hills are produced early Paleolithic
assemblages and tools. The major site to have produced an assemblage of this culture including
handaxes and side scrapers on Clactonian flake, is that of Milestone 101 in lower Sind near
Hyderabad.

Mesolithic Culture

Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, begins at the end of Ice Age, about 9,600 BCE. The Mesolithic
period ends when agriculture starts. This is the time of the late hunter-gatherers.

Because agriculture developed at different times in different regions of the world, there is no
single date for the end of the Mesolithic period. Even within a specific region, agriculture
developed during different times. For example, agriculture first developed in Southeast Europe
about 7,000 BCE, in Central Europe about 5,500 BCE, and Northern Europe about 4,000 BCE.
All these factors make the chronological limits of the Mesolithic somehow uncertain. Moreover,
some regions do not have a Mesolithic period. An example is the Near East, where agriculture
was developed around 9,000 BCE, right after the end of the Ice Age.

During the Mesolithic period, important large-scale changes took place on our planet. As the
climate was getting warmer and the ice sheets were melting, some areas in the northern latitudes
rose as they were being freed from the weight of the ice. At the same time, the sea levels rose,
drowning low-lying areas, resulting in major changes in the land worldwide: the Japanese islands
were separated from the Asian mainland, Tasmania from Australia, the British Isles from
continental Europe. Around 5,000 BCE, the shape of the continents and islands was very much
those of the present day.

Thar Desert

The work was conducted recently in 2000, by Dr. Nelofar Sheikh and G.M. Vaiser, Khairpur
University Sindh. They have discovered about twenty new sites in Thar Desert from which
Mesolithic period tools were reported.

Khanpur Cave

In 1968, Eldon Jonson, excavated the Khanpur Cave located in Khanpur valley near Taxila. He
collected Mesolithic period chert tools particularly blades. In 1973 the Department of
Archaeology University of Peshawar and the similar tools have been reported by Farid Khan.
The smaller size blades are the important findings of this period.

Jamal Garhi Cave

Jamal Garhi, a small hamlet in the Mardan District where a Mesolithic rock shelter and Buddhist
stupa have been found. Col. H. Gordon discovered the cave and found microlithic tools in 1950.
Prior to this, Alexander Cunningham discovered and excavated the stupa and monastery at Jamal
Garhi in 1873. The stupa has a long history behind it, which was started during the time of Asoka
and culminated during Kushanas.

Neolithic Culture

Neolithic or New Stone Age, begins with the introduction of farming, dating variously from c.
9,000 BCE in the Near East, c. 7,000 BCE in Southeast Europe, c. 6,000 BCE in East Asia, and
even later in other regions. This is the time when cereal cultivation and animal domestication
was introduced.
In order to reflect the deep impact that agriculture had over the human population, an Australian
archaeologist named Gordon Childe popularized the term ―Neolithic Revolution‖ in the 1940s
CE. Today it is believed that the impact of agricultural innovation was exaggerated in the past:
the development of Neolithic culture appears to have been more gradual rather than a sudden
change.

Agriculture brought major changes in the way human society is organized and how it uses the
earth, including forest clearance, root crops, and cereal cultivation that can be stored for long
periods of time, along with the development of new technologies for farming and herding6 such
as plows, irrigation systems, etc. More intensive agriculture implies more food available for
more people, more villages, and a movement towards a more complex social and political
organization. As the population density of the villages increase, they gradually evolve into towns
and finally into cities. Towards the end of the Neolithic era, copper metallurgy is introduced,
which marks a transition period to the Bronze Age, sometimes referred to as Chalcolithic era.

Mehrgarh

One of the most important Neolithic (7000 BC to c. 2500 BC), lies on what is now the "Kachi
plain" of today's Balucgistan. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and
barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia.". Early farming village in Mehrgarh,
c. 7000 BC, with houses built with mud bricks.

Mehrgarh is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River valley and between the
present-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, alat and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by an
archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was excavated
continuously between 1974 and 1986. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, in the northeast
corner of the 495-acre site, was a small farming village dated between 7000 BC to 5500 BC.

Lifestyle and Technology

Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned
tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated
six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle.

6
A group of cattle, sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans
Residents of the later period (5500 BC to 2600 BC) put much effort into crafts, including flint
knapping, tanning, bead production, and metal working. The site was occupied continuously
until about 2600 BC.

In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early
Neolithic) evidence in human history for the drilling of teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was
found in Mehrgarh.

Archaeological Significance

Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. "Discoveries at Mehrgarh
changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization," according to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor
emeritus of archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, "There we have the whole
sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life." According to Catherine Jarrige of the
Centre for Archaeological Research Indus Balochistan at the Musée Guimet in Paris:

"…the Kachi plain and in the Bolan basin (are) situated at the Bolan peak pass, one of the main
routes connecting southern Afghanistan, eastern Iran, the Balochistan hills and the Indus River
valley. This area of rolling hills is thus located on the western edge of the Indus valley, where,
around 2500 BC, a large urban civilization emerged at the same time as those of Mesopotamia
and the ancient Egyptian empire. For the first time in the Indian subcontinent, a continuous
sequence of dwelling-sites has been established from 7000 BC to 500 BC, (as a result of the)
explorations in Pirak from 1968 to 1974; in Mehrgarh from 1975 to 1985; and of Nausharo from
1985 to 1996." The chalcolithic people of Mehrgarh also had contacts with contemporaneous
cultures in northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran and southern central Asia.

Jhandi Babar I

The site of Jhandi Babar is located in the Gomal Plain about 60 km southwest of the city of D.I.
Khan. The archaeological importance of the Gomal Plain was first highlighted by A. Stine in
1927 where he discovered some early period sites. It was further enhanced when A.H. Dani then
the Chairman of the Department of Archaeology University of Peshawar conducted excavations
at Gumla and Hathala and also discovered a few sites including that of Rehman Dheri (Dani;
1970-71).
The site was discovered in 1997 and proper excavation was started in 1998. On the basis of
structural remains, the site showed four main occupational phases divided into two distinct
periods. The first three lower phases belong to the Neolithic period, while the upper one belongs
to the early bronze age (Kot Digian). The antiquities recovered from the first three phases are
contemporary to the early farming communities of Sheri Khan Tarakai in the Bannu Basin, while
those of the upper one have close resemblance with those of Kot Diji, Gumla, Rehman Dheri and
Sarai Khola.

Kili Gul Muhammad

On August 23, 1950, The American Museum of Natural History led an expedition to West
Pakistan in collaboration with DOAM to carry out a survey in Quetta Tehsil. The interest of the
expedition aroused when the team examined the Neolithic site of Kili Gul Muhammad. Before
Kili Gul Muhammad, merely six prehistoric sites were known in the region. For understanding
the cultural sequence of the site, the excavator put a vertical trench and obtained flint-flakes,
grinding stones, polyhedral cores, and the bones of domesticated animals.

Kili Gul Muhammad was excavated by Walter Fairservis in 1950-51. The site has been coded by
the excavator as Q24 during his surveys in the Quetta Valley. The cultural mound was
extensively occupied by Muslim graves on the uppermost level which resulted limited space for
scientific excavations. The first trench was laid down on the southern fringe and measured 7×7
m. Notwithstanding, after a depth level of 2 m, the trench was refilled as several Muslim
gravepits were exposed. Anon, as a compulsion, they only opened a sondage measuring 3.5×3.5
m to record the cultural profile of the site. However, it was reached to the bedrock at a depth of
11.4 m reduced to an area of 1.7×1.7 m. Providentially, this small Pre-pottery sounding set the
earliest Chrono-cultural strata of not only Balochistan but as whole of South Asia (Fairservis
1952; 1956; de Cardi 1965; 1983).

The first two periods are Neolithic. The beginning of cultural activities at Kili Gul Muhammad
are dated to 4555 BC. Its first period is pre-pottery Neolithic, whereas period II is indicated by
basket marks and hand made pottery. The sickle blades reported from the first period is an
indirect evidence of agriculture. Besides, animals like goat, sheep and cattle were also
domesticated. The mud bricks indicate building activities. Besides, Kili Gul Muhammad, period
I and II, there are few more sites which are also placed in the Neolithic era like, Mundigak period
I, Angira period I, Rana Ghundai period I, Sur jangle period I. All these site yielded similar
material.

Gumla

Gumla is located 12 km away from D I Khan city on the main D I Khan-Tank road. Gumla was
the first site Excavated By Dr. A. H. Dani in 1970-71. It pushed back the history of the region to
the nomadic community of the fourth Millennium BC who were having ceramic technology.
Gradual developments in the site were noticed from semi nomadic and hut-dwelling community
to sedentary farming and incipient community in the succeeding Phase. The excavator also
observed mature urban phase and host Harappen remains on the site. The site is named after the
neighboring village of Gumla that lies its north although it stands in between this village and
Garhi Hayat on the south.

The excavator revealed 6 cultural phases during the digging operations. The first period is a
ceramic Neolithic, second is ceramic Neolithic, third is Kot Dijin phase, the fourth is Harrapan
phase, fifth is Gandhara Grave Complex and the sixth is assigned to the Iron age. It is an
important discovery from the Neolithic levels at Gumla. There are large circular shape
community ovens with prepared inner sides. The evidence of charcoal and ashes proves this
theory that these might have been used for cocking purposes. Besides these community ovens the
saddle querns and pastels are the other important features of this site.

Sheri Khan Tarakai

Sheri Khan Tarakai is an ancient settlement site located in the Bannu District of Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Bannu District makes up a part of the topographic region
known as the Bannu basin, which sits adjacent to the hills of Afghanistan and Waziristan to the
west and the Indus River floodplain on the east.

The site of Sheri Khan Tarakai was discovered in 1985 by members of the Bannu Archaeological
Project, and it is the oldest known village settlement in the Bannu region. Archaeological
excavations were carried out at the site for five seasons between 1986 and 1990. These
excavations have shown that the settlement at Sheri Khan Tarakai was a small village, populated
at any one time by perhaps a few hundred people who lived in mud-walled houses, some of
which had stone foundations and flat roofs made of wattle and daub. It is unlikely that the whole
area of the identified site was occupied at one time.

The past inhabitants of the village used a variety of utilitarian pottery vessels that were decorated
with a range of geometric and figurative motifs, and it is likely that these vessels were being
made from raw materials collected close to the site. The stone tools (lithic artefacts) that were
used at the settlement were also produced from raw materials sourced close by, and the majority
of small-find objects, which include a diverse range of terracotta human figurines, were
predominantly made from locally available materials. The range of finished pottery vessels, lithic
tools and small finds, and the associated production debris that was discovered, indicate the
range of craft activities being carried out on-site, including pottery firing, bone working, lithic
flaking, stone grinding and bead drilling. The diverse range of terracotta figurines and the motifs
depicted on many of the ceramic vessels suggest that the lives of the inhabitants were enlivened
by a rich iconographic tradition.

The inhabitants of Sheri Khan Tarakai deployed a range of subsistence strategies, including the
cultivation of barley and wheat, the management of domestic sheep, goat and cattle, the
collection of a range of wild plant and wood species, and the hunting of a wide variety of wild
animals. The abundance of grinding artefacts at the site and the presence of rachis internodes and
chaff in some deposits suggests that several phases of grain processing were probably taking
place on-site. Few young domestic animals appear to have been slaughtered at the site, and the
fact that most lived on into adulthood suggests that they were primarily used as a source of meat,
but possibly also to provide secondary products such as wool and milk, as well as work and
dung. The location of the settlement would have allowed use of the run-off from the ephemeral
torrents that flowed from the hills of Waziristan to the west of the site, and the inhabitants are
likely to have engaged in some type of flood-water farming. Storage structures imply that people
might have lived at the site throughout the year, but there is also evidence that either a proportion
of the population, or other people that they were interacting with, were engaging in some form of
transhumant pastoralism.

Sheri Khan Tarakai and several other contemporaneous sites in the Bannu basin and the Gomal
plain present a relatively conservative cultural assemblage that shows limited technological
change throughout much of the fourth millennium BC. The available dating evidence indicates
that Sheri Khan Tarakai was occupied from the late fifth until the early third millennium BC.
This date range indicates that the occupation at Sheri Khan Tarakai was also contemporaneous
with several other important early village sites in the borderlands at the northwestern edge of
South Asia, including Mehrgarh (Periods III-V), Kili Gul Mohammad (Periods III-IV), and Rana
Ghundai (Periods I-II). The earliest occupation at Sheri Khan Tarakai appears to slightly predate
the earliest occupation at major sites on the plains of the Punjab, such as Harappa (Period Ia -
Ravi phase).

Lower Palaeolithic Age

Pakistan can trace its history all the way back to the Palaeolithic or the Old Stone Age. The most notable
archaeological site is found at Riwat in Punjab where evidence of the earliest Homo migration and occupation
outside Africa can be found. Also present in its vicinity, at the Soan Valley, are traces of one of the
major Lower Palaeolithic techno-complexes from the Indian subcontinent.

Riwat (ca. 1.9 million — 45,000 years ago)

Riwat (or Rawat) near Murree is a Lower Paleolithic site in Punjab, Pakistan. This site provides evidences of
the earliest Homo occupation outside Africa and dates to 1.9 million years ago. The site was discovered in
1983. The artefacts found at the site consist of flakes and cores made on quartzite. Another site at Riwat shows
a later occupation dating back to around 45,000 years ago.

Soanian culture (ca. 500,000 — 125,000 years ago)

One of the many gorges of the Soan River where prehistoric fossils have been found and recorded.

The Soanian (also spelt Sohanian) culture is spread across sites that are found along the Sivalik region of the
present-day Pakistan, India and Nepal. The Sivalik region runs from Bhutan and Bangladesh in the east
through southern Nepal, northern India and northern Pakistan at their western extremities, roughly parallel to
the Himalayan range. The culture was first identified and named by Dr Hellmut de Terra in 1936.
The ancient Soanian culture is characterised by the various edged pebble tools, like hand axes and cleavers,
discovered in the Soan terrace between Adiala and Khasala, situated about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Rawalpindi.
The Soanian culture is a contemporary of another Lower Palaeolithic culture, the Acheulean.
Tools dating back 2 million years have been recovered from the Soan terrace. Many fossil-bearing rocks are
exposed at the surface in the Soan River gorges. Fossils
of gazelles, rhinoceros, crocodiles, giraffes and rodents dating back 14 million years have also been found
here. A sample of these fossils are displayed at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad.
References
1. ↑ Lycett, Stephen J. (September 2007). "Is the Soanian techno-complex a Mode 1 or Mode 3 phenomenon? A
morphometric assessment". Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (9). doi:10.1016/j.jas.2006.11.001. Retrieved
23 August 2015.
2. ↑ Chauhan, Parth R. (2013). "An Overview of the Siwalik Acheulian & Reconsidering Its Chronological
Relationship with the Soanian – A Theoretical Perspective". Assemblage(University of Sheffield) (7). Retrieved
23 August 2015.
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