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Eur asian Pre his tory, 9 (1–2): 29–49.

THE SHELL MID DENS OF THE BAY OF DAUN:EN VI RON MEN TAL CHANGES AND HU MAN IM PACT ALONG

THE COAST OF LAS BELA (BALOCHISTAN, PA KI STAN)BE TWEEN THE 8TH AND THE 5TH MIL LEN NIUM BP

Paolo Biagi1, Tiziano Fantuzzi2 and Carlo Franco3

1 De part ment of Asian and North Af ri can Stud ies, Ca’ Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Ca’ Cappello, San Polo 2035,I-30125 Venezia, It aly; [email protected]

2 De part ment of Hu man i ties, Ca’ Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Pa laz zo Malcanton Marcor¥, Dorsoduro 3245,I-30123, Venezia, It aly; [email protected]

3 De part ment of Asian and North Af ri can Stud ies, Ca’ Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Ca’ Cappello, San Polo 2035,I-30125 Venezia, It aly. It aly; [email protected]

Ab stractThe dis cov ery of shell mid dens around the Bay of Daun and Lake Siranda (Las Bela, Balochistan) shows that groups

of pre his toric gath er ers set tled along the coasts of Las Bela at least since the last two cen tu ries of the 8th mil len nium BP.The ra dio car bon dat ing of the Daun sites in di cates that the ex ploi ta tion of the man grove re sources was not con tin u ous, buttook place mainly dur ing two dis tinct pe ri ods of the 7th and 5th mil len nia BP. The pres ence of Neo lithic shell mid densalong the north ern coasts of the Ara bian Sea re in forces the im pres sion that this part of the In dian Ocean was first set tleddur ing the Mid dle Ho lo cene when the sea level had sta bi lized. The ra dio car bon dates ob tained from ma rine and man groveshells from the Tharro and Makli Hills in Lower Sindh, sug gest that coastal sea far ing be gan al ready in this pe riod.

Key words: Ara bian Sea, Balochistan, Las Bela, shell mid dens, ra dio car bon chro nol ogy, man grove en vi ron ment, mon -soon cy cles.

PREF ACEThe first shell mid dens of the coast of Las

Bela (Balochistan, Pa ki stan) were dis cov ered inJan u ary 2000 dur ing a visit paid by one of the au -thors (P.B.), to gether with Pro fes sor A.R. Khan of the De part ment of Ge og ra phy, Karachi Uni ver -sity, to Daun, a small bay some 15 km south ofGadani prom on tory. Given the im por tance of thefinds, sur veys aimed at the dis cov ery of moremiddens were pro moted by the Ital ian Ar chae o -log i cal Mis sion in 2004 and 2008, along theshores of the same bay, and the high ma rine ter -race that ex tends south of it (Biagi, 2004; 2011a;Biagi and Franco, 2008).

Lit tle is known of the pre his tory of Las Bela(Shaffer, 1986). Most of the sur veys have been

car ried out in the re gions of the in te rior (Stein,1943; Raikes and Dyson, 1961; Khan, 1964; Rai-kes, 1967–1968; Fairservis, 1975; Khan, 1979b;De Cardi, 1983; Flam, 1998; Franke-Vogt, 1999), while no at ten tion has ever been paid to this partof the north Ara bian Sea coast. From this ter ri tory A.R. Khan (1979a:5) re ports the pres ence of pre -his toric finds near Kunari Nallah, be tween Ga-dani and Phuari head lands, whose Perh limesto-nes are rich in flint nod ules ex ploited since at least the be gin ning of the Mesolithic (Abbas, 1976:7;Khan, 1979a:12; Naseem et al., 1996–1997:129).

Dur ing the sur veys car ried out in the 1970s,Pro fes sor A.R. Khan dis cov ered a few pre his toricsites west of the Hab River mouth (Khan, 1979a:map 1); he also pointed out the im por tance of theWindar River delta (Khan, 1979b:75) and Khur-

kera plain, where the Chalcolithic/Bronze Agemound of Kot-Bala (Balakot) is lo cated (Dales,1974; 1981). Con trary to any ex pec ta tion pre his -toric sites were never dis cov ered dur ing the phys -i cal ge og ra phy re con nais sance of Las Bela coastal zone (Snead, 1969), the only prov ince of Balo-chistan reached by the summer mon soon rains,rich in wa ter sup plies (Pithawalla, 1953:33).

Ac cord ing to the chron i cles of the clas si calau thors the coasts of an cient Gedrosia (pres ent-day Makran) were in hab ited by fish-eat ers in Hel -le nis tic times, and also dur ing the 1st cen tury AD(see for in stance Eggermont, 1975:64, re fer ring to Arrian’s In dica; McCrindle, 1973:195), while thecoast of Las Bela was set tled by the Oreitai, “aneth nic group dis tin guished by strongly prim i tivetraits and cul tur ally sim i lar to the Ichthyophagi”(Longo, 1987:12). M.U. Hasan (2002:28) re portsthat fish ing ham lets of “cab ins sup ported bybones of whale” were still vis i ble along the coastof Makran dur ing the mid-1970s, as they were inthe 4th cen tury BC (Hughes-Bull er, 1996:36; seealso Holdich, 2002:160).

The eth no-ar chae o log i cal study of Las Belafish er men (Belch er, 1999; Desse and Desse-Ber-chet, 2005) has pointed out the im por tance offish ing in the sub sis tence of the vil lag ers set tled

be tween Gadani prom on tory and the Hab Rivermouth (Minchin, 1983:94). The cur rent ev i dencehighly con trasts with the ar chae o log i cal data,given that traces of pre his toric fish er men set tle -ments along the en tire coast of Balochistan arevery scarce (Belch er, 2005; Desse et al., 2005),de spite the many sur veys car ried out in the re gion(Stein, 1931; 1943; Dales, 1982; Besenval andSanlaville, 1990; Sanlaville et al., 1991; Dalesand Lipo, 1992; Besenval and Didier, 2004).

Sonari, a shell mid den lo cated at the top ofthe eastern high ter race of the Hab River close toits flow ing into the Ara bian Sea, is the only site tohave yielded net-sink ers ob tained from beachpeb bles (Biagi, 2004:fig.6). Quite an op po site sit -u a tion is known from the Oman Pen in sula, whereall the Ho lo cene shell mid dens so far ex ca vatedshow the im por tance of fish ing in the sub sis tencestrat egy of their in hab it ants (Uerpmann and Uer-pmann, 2003; Cleuziou, 2004; Biagi and Nisbet,2006; Lézine et al., 2010:12; Charpentier et al.,2012).

GEO GRAPH ICAL SET TINGThe shell mid dens of Daun Bay are dis trib -

uted over a roughly rect an gu lar area be tween24°59’18.08”–25°00’27.29” Lat. N. and 66°42’19.35”–66°43’07.22” Long. E. They lie partlyalong the sand beach around and south of the bay,some 6m above the max i mum level reached bythe tide, partly on the top of the Pleis to cene ma-rine ter race ex tend ing south of a small head land(Snead, 1966:47; 1967; 1969:38; Snead andFrishman, 1968:1673). Their dis tance from thepres ent shore line var ies from 60 to 700 m. Mostsites con sist of heaps or scat ters of frag mented Te- rebralia palustris gas tro pods (Biagi, 2004; Biagiand Franco, 2008), al though other man grove andma rine spe cies are rep re sented, among which areTelescopium telescopium and Anadara uropyg-melana.

Ac cord ing to their lo ca tion the sites can be di -vided in five main groups (Fig. 1):

1) Daun 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, are lo cated at thetop of the ma rine ter race at an av er age al ti tude ofsome 30 m. (Fig. 2);

2) Daun 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106,107 and 108, north-west of group 1), along thesand beach be low the above ter race;

30 P. Biagi et al.

Fig. 1. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid densmen tioned in the text (from Biagi and Franco, 2008with mod i fi ca tions)

3) Daun 110, 111, 112, 113 and, slightly tothe north Daun 114, 115, 116 and 117, lie close tothe sand shore line, north-east of the small prom -on tory (Fig. 3);

4) Daun 1, 10, 2 and 118, are lo cated slightlyto the north-east, not far from the south-east ernshore of the bay (Fig. 4);

5) Daun 3 and 119, ad ja cent to each other notfar from the east ern shore of the bay (Fig. 5).

The sites and their as sem blagesThe Daun shell mid dens are of dif fer ent shape

and di men sion. They yielded as sem blages con sist -ing al most ex clu sively of chipped and coarse stone tools (Ta ble 1). Among the 7th mil len nium BP

sites, Daun 1 is a large mid den (Fig. 6) on the sur -face of which fifty pit ted crush ing stones withpecked round or oval grooves on one or both sur -faces were re corded (Figs 7 and 8). In con trastDaun 10 yielded only one crush ing stones and one ham mer-stone. The site, well shel tered be tweenvol ca nic rocky out crops, con sists of scat ters ofvery small frag ments of T. palustris shells (Fig. 9) on the sur face of which many chipped and coarsestone artefacts were col lected (Fig. 10).

The chipped stone in dus tries of the 7th mil len -nium BP sites are ob tained from flint avail ablefrom Perh lime stone for ma tions that out crop from Gadani and Phuari head lands, some 15 km northof the bay (Naseem et al., 1996–1997:fig.1). Theartefacts have been pro duced on the spot, asshown by the pres ence of nar row bladelet cores

The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 31

Fig. 2. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid dens4–9 on the ma rine ter race south of the bay. The tri an gle109 mark, the point where a quartz ite side scarper wasfound (draw ing C. Franco)

Fig. 3. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid dens110–117, along the beach south of the bay: net-sinker(star), quern (cir cle), core (square) (draw ing C. Franco)

Fig. 4. Daun: lo ca tion and ex ten sion of the shell mid -dens 1, 10, 2 and 118, south of the bay (draw ing C.Franco)

Fig. 5. Daun: lo ca tion and ex ten sion of the shell mid -dens 3 and 119, east of the bay (draw ing C. Franco)

32 P. Biagi et al.

Ta ble 1Daun: main char ac ter is tics of the lithic as sem blages and other finds

Site num ber Lithic ma te ri als Blocks, Pre-coresand Core types Tool types Coarse ground

tools Pot tery Clus ter

Daun 1 Gadani red flint, chert,limnoquartzite, sand stone

Small blocks;subconical and

subcylindrical cores

Tra peze, bladelets,flake(let)s

Crush ing stones,hammerstone Pre his toric 1

Daun 2 None None None None None Not dated

Daun 3 Gadani red flint, bandedchert Small block Flakes, re touched

bladeCrush ing stone,

net-weight None 4

Daun 4 Gadani red flint Small block None None Pre his toric 3

Daun 5 None None None Net-weight, tomb,hearths? His toric? 3

Daun 6 None None None None None 2Daun 7 None None None None Is lamic Not datedDaun 8 Chert None None Quern None 3Daun 9 None None None None None Not dated

Daun 10Gadani red flint, chert,

limnoquartzite, sand stone,lime stone

Small tested blocks;subcylindrical, pris -

matic cores Lunate, side scraper Crush ing stone,

hammerstone None 1

Daun 100 None None None None None Not datedDaun 101 None None None None None 3Daun 102 Gadani red flint, chert None Flakelets None Pre his toric 3

Daun 103 Chert Mi cro-core Trun ca tion onbladelet None Pre his toric 3

Daun 104 None None None None Pre his toric 3Daun 105 None None None None None 3Daun 106 None None None None None Not datedDaun 107 None None None None None Not datedDaun 108 None None None None None Not datedDaun 109 Quartz ite None Side scraper None None None

Daun 110 Gadani red flint,limnoquartzite, lime stone Small tested block Flakelets Crush ing stone,

hammerstone None 1

Daun 111 Gadani red flint, chert,limnoquartzite, lime stone

Small tested blocks;pris matic core Flake(let)s Net-weight None 1

Daun 112 None None None None None 3Daun 113 None None None None None 3Daun 114 Gadani red flint None Pri mary flakes None None Not datedDaun 115 None None None None None Not datedDaun 116 Chert None Flakelet None None Not dated

Daun 117 Gadani red flint, chert(striped), quartz ite

Pris matic andpolyhedric cores Per fo ra tors, flakes None None Not dated

Daun 118 None None None None None Not dated

Daun 119Gadani red flint, chert,

limnoquartzite, sand stone,lime stone

Tested blocks Side scraper, blade,flakelets Crush ing stone None 4


Fig. 6. Daun: shell mid den 1 from the north (pho to graph P. Biagi)

Fig. 7. Daun: group of querns in shell mid den 1 (pho to graph P. Biagi)

with par al lel de tach ments (Fig. 11), most prob a -bly ob tained by pres sure (Inizan, 2012) (Fig. 12:1, 2), debitage flakes, par al lel-sided mi cro-bla-delets (Fig. 12:5–7) and re touched tools (Ta ble 2). Among the lat ter par tic u larly im por tant are oneisos ce les tra peze ob tained with the microburintech nique from Daun 1 (Fig. 12:3), and onelunate, from Daun 10 (Fig. 12:4).

The dis cov ery of geo met ric micro liths raisesthe prob lem of the ty po logi cal vari abil ity, func -tion and chro nol ogy of these tools. Dif fer entclasses of isos ce les tra pezes have been re cov eredfrom the Mesolithic sites of the Mulri Hills, eastof Karachi (Biagi, 2003–2004), and the TharDesert dunes of Up per Sindh (Biagi, 2008a:fig.4); while “horned” tra pezes, re call ing cen tral Asian,Early Neo lithic types (Masson, 1996:fig.5; Bru -net, 1998; 2012), come from the aceramic Neo -lithic lay ers of Mehrgarh (Lechevallier, 2003;Jarrige, 2007–2008; Inizan, 2012). Lunates,which can be sub di vided into sev eral classes ac -cord ing to their typology, di men sion and re touch,make their ap pear ance in Sindh around the end ofthe Palaeo lithic (Biagi, 2011a) and con tin ued tobe in use at least un til the Neo lithic. Al though the

34 P. Biagi et al.

Fig. 8. Daun: shell mid den 1: dis tri bu tion map ofcrushing stones (cir cles), and flint core (square) (draw -ing C. Franco)

Fig. 9. Daun. shell mid den 10 be tween vol ca nic out crops, from the north-west (pho to graph P. Biagi)

func tion of the geo met ric tools from the Daunsites is still un de fined, lunates have al ready beenre corded from other 8th and 7th mil len nium BPshell mid dens along the Red Sea coast (Bar-Yosef Mayer and Beyin, 2009:114).

The coarse stone tools are rep re sented mainly by crush ing stones, which find par al lels frommany shell mid dens lo cated along the coast of theSul tan ate of Oman, like Saruq and Khor Milkh,for in stance, where they are sug gested to havebeen em ployed for open ing T. palustris shells(Uerpmann and Uerpmann, 2003:115). Con cen -tra tions of crush ing stones have been no ticed only at Daun 1, where they rep re sent the com mon esttools of this im por tant site, sug gest ing that it acted as a spe cial ised work ing place for the pro cess ingof man grove shells (Clarke, 2009).

Only a few sites dated to the 5th mil len niumBP yielded chipped and coarse stone tools (Fig.13:3, 4), among which is Daun 3 from which co -mes a re touched blade of ex otic chert with usewear traces, from (Biagi, 2004:fig.8).

The ev i dence for fish ing is sug gested by oneplaquette chipped from lime stone from Daun 111(Fig. 13:1), one iso lated net-sinker from a notched


Fig. 10. Daun: shell mid den 10: dis tri bu tion map ofchipped stone artefacts (dots), lunate (moon-like sym -bol), chal ce dony frag ment (tri an gle), and coarseground stones (cir cles) (draw ing C. Franco)

Fig. 11. Daun: shell mid den 10. Pris matic microbladelet core on the site’s sur face (pho to graph P. Biagi)

36 P. Biagi et al.

Ta ble 2Daun: main char ac ter is tics of the sites and ra dio car bon dates

Sitenum ber Co or di nates Mea sures

m.Ex ten -

sion mq.Lab.

Num ber Sam ple14C date

BP d13C (‰) Clus ter GeoGroups

Cul turalAt tri bu -

tionRef er ence

Daun 1 25°00’14.34” N,66°42’39.82” E 121.00 837.00 GrN-26368 T. palustris 6380±40 -3.08 1 4 Neo lithic Biagi,

2004: 16

Daun 2 25°00’14.00” N,66°42’47.00” E 25.30 23.80 Un dated None None None Un dated 2 Un de -

fined

Daun 3 25°00’26.55” N,66°43’04.67” E 250.00 3560.00 GrN-27954 T. palustris 4100±30 -4.49 4 5 Fi nal

Indus

Biagi,2004: 16

Daun 4 24°59’18.07” N,66°42’29.46” E 14.00 13.60 GrN-28800 Ostreidae 4800±35 -5.30 3 1

Ma tureIndus

Daun 5 24°59’18.46” N,66°42’28.53” E 37.40 104.00 GrN-28801 T. palustris 4900±35 -5.44 3 1

Daun 6 24°59’20,49” N,66°42’31,38” E 13.20 13.30 GrN-28802 T. palustris 5370±35 +1.27 2 1 Amri/Nal


fined

Daun 8 24°59’25,99” N,66°42’33,00” E 15.70 19.60 GrN-28803 Mactridae 4540±35 -5.16 3 1 Ma ture

IndusBiagi,

2004: 16


finedDaun

1025°00’12.61” N,66°42’45.14” E 83.10 254.00 GrN-31489 T. palustris 6305±45 -3.97 1 4 Neo lithic Biagi, 2011:

Fig. 1Daun100

24°59’37.19” N,66°42’19.35” E 16.60 18.00 Un dated None None None Un dated 2 Un de -

finedDaun101

24°59’37.03” N,66°42’19.86” E 15.70 11.70 GrN-31490 T. palustris 4470±30 -5.49 3 2

Ma tureIndus

Biagi,2011: Fig. 1

Daun102


Daun103


Daun104

24°59’35.01” N,66°42’21.63” E 17.80 16.70 GrN-32118 T. palustris 4470±35 -610 3 2

Daun105

24°59’34.64” N,66°42’21.60” E 15.00 15.60 GrN-31643 T.

telescopium 4470±40 -5.09 3 2

Daun106

24°59’34.10” N,66°42’20.96” E 24.30 30.90 Un dated None None None Un dated 2

Un de -fined

Daun107


Daun108


Daun109

24°59’20.84” N,66°42’20.52” E N N Un dated None None None Quartz ite

scraper N

Daun110


Neo lithic

Biagi,2011: Fig. 1

Daun111


Daun112


Ma tureIndusDaun


beach peb ble, col lected some 20 m east of Daun111 (Fig. 13:2), and two larger net-weights fromDaun 3 and 5.

Very small pot sherds, mainly pre his toric,were col lected from a few sites (see Ta ble 2).

THE RA DIO CAR BON RE SULTSAc cord ing to the ra dio car bon re sults, four

shell mid dens de vel oped dur ing the 7th mil len niumBP. Daun 110 is the old est site (GrN- 31492:

6690±40 BP), fol lowed by Daun 111, some 100 mto the east (GrN-31493: 6590±45 BP), while Daun1 and Daun 10, roughly 600 m to the north-west,are slightly more re cent (GrN-26368: 6380±40 BPand GrN-31489: 6305±45 BP re spec tively) (clus -ter 1). The clus ter of Neo lithic dates is fol lowedby a gap of some one thousand years, cor re spond -ing to the Chalcolithic, dur ing which only Daun 6was set tled (GrN-28802: 5370±35 BP) (clus ter 2).

The ra dio car bon dates from Daun 5 and Daun 4 (GrN-28801: 4900±35 BP and GrN-28800:


Ta ble 2 continued

Sitenum ber Co or di nates Mea -

sures m.Ex ten -

sion mq.Lab.

Num ber Sam ple14C date

BP d13C (‰) Clus ter GeoGroups

Cul turalAt tri bu -

tionRef er ence

Daun114


Un de -fined

Daun115


Daun116


Daun117


Daun118


Daun119

25°00’25.44” N,66°43’06.72” E 74.80 418.00 GrN-31644 T.

palustris 4165±25 -4.05 4 5 Fi nalIndus

Biagi,2011: Fig. 1

Fig. 12. Daun: chipped stone as sem blage. Pris matic bladelet cores (1 and 2), isos ce les tra peze (3), lunate (4), nar -row microbladelets (5–7). Num bers 1, 3, 6 and 7 from Daun 1; 2, 4 and 5 from Daun 10. 3 and 5 are from Gadanired flint (scale in cm) (draw ings P. Biagi, ink ing G. Almerigogna)

38 P. Biagi et al.

Fig. 13. Daun: coarse stone tools. Re touched lime stone plaquette from Daun 111 (1), lime stone net-sinker fromeast of Daun 111 (2), crush ing sand stone from Daun 10 (3) and lime stone hammerstone from Daun 119 (4) (scale in cm) (draw ings E. Starnini)

4800±35 BP, re spec tively) are fol lowed by eightother dates (Daun 112, 102, 8, 113, 101, 104, 105and 103) all around the mid dle of the same mil -len nium (clus ter 3). Daun 119 and Daun 3 forman other small clus ter (4) slightly more re cent thanclus ter 3 (GrN-31644: 4165±25 BP and GrN-27945: 4100±30 BP, re spec tively) (Fig. 14).

Vari a tions in the d13C val uesThe d13C val ues of the sam ples show quite a

dis tinc tive pat tern. Clus ter 1 yielded val ues rang -ing from –3.44 to –3.97, char ac ter is tic of a man -grove en vi ron ment. Daun 6, with a much highervalue (+1.27), should in di cate its non-man groveprov e nance (clus ter 2). The fol low ing ex ploi ta -tion ep i sodes (clus ter 3) show some de ple tion in

the d13C val ues, rep re sented by an other “low”peak rang ing from –4.95 to –6.10 fol lowed by aslight en rich ment at Daun 119 (–4.05) and Daun 3 (–4.49) (clus ter 4).

The curve of the above d13C val ues is be -lieved to show a well de fined cli ma tic and bio -chem i cal events. Given that “car bon iso tope ra -tios of shell car bon ates have been con sid ered agood in di ca tor of the iso to pic com po si tion of in -or ganic car bon in sea wa ter” (Lin et al., 1991:339), var i ous lo cal and re gional al ter ation pro -cesses, among which are changes in pre cip i ta tion, hy dro log i cal re gimes and coast line vari a tions, areto be con sid ered. Thus a pre lim i nary in ter pre ta -tion of the events that took place around the baycan be put for ward, given that most re sults (ex -


Fig. 14. Daun: scatterplot of the uncalibrated BP dates. The colours in di cate the four clus ters into which they have been sub di vided: 7th mil len nium (brown), 6th mil len nium (yel low), mid 5th mil len nium (blue) and late 5th mil len -nium BP (green) (draw ing T. Fantuzzi)

cept for Daun 4, 8 and 105) have been ob tainedfrom T. palustris gas tro pods that are con sid eredto be re li able cli ma tic in di ca tors:

1) As re ported above the four dates of clus ter1 show low d13C val ues (av er age –3.515). If wecom pare them with the d13C val ues from otherman grove swamps (Lin et al., 1991), they sug gest that man groves were al ready pres ent at Daunaround the early-mid 7th mil len nium BP, when the sea level line was prob a bly slightly higher thanthat of the pres ent (Lambeck, 1996:55);

2) The higher d13C value of Daun 6, and theab sence of any fur ther 6th mil len nium ar chae o log -i cal ev i dence, might sug gest that man groves re -treated dur ing the Chalcolithic;

3) The 5th mil len nium BP as says show a gen -eral de ple tion in d13C val ues, which is con sis tentwith a typ i cal man grove en vi ron ment. The factthat low val ues match with the ma jor ity of sitesshows that man groves had re-es tab lished aroundDaun Bay in this pe riod, and were ex ploited byMa ture Indus com mu ni ties. Mid 5th mil len niumBP dates from ma rine shells as so ci ated with pot -sherds are re ported from Pasni (Makran) bySanlaville et al. (1991:13), sug gest ing the pres -ence of other Bronze Age sites in the re gion;

4) The dates from Daun 119 and 3 show thatthe man grove swamps re treated again dur ing thelate 5th mil len nium BP. They prob a bly mark anarid ep i sode, re corded also from the north ern andeast ern Ara bian Sea (Sarkar et al., 2000; Staub-wasser et al., 2003), and the Thar Desert lakes(Saifuddin and Iqbaluddin, 2000; Kajale et al.,2004:90), cor re spond ing to the de cline of the Indus civ i li za tion (Madella and Fuller, 2006:1298). San-laville et al. (1991:13) re port sim i lar dates fromPasni in Makran, obtained from ma rine shells. The ab sence of other late 5th mil len nium re sults sug -gests that, dur ing this pe riod, man groves werecon fined to the east ern part of the bay, where thecur rent mor phol ogy fa vours a pro longed per sis -tence of wet ter en vi ron ments. The fact that thed13C val ues of clus ter 4 are higher than the av er -age pre ced ing ones might point to an other clue inthis re gard;

Al though the above in ter pre ta tion is dis put -able due to pos si ble al ter ation ef fects in the testedsam ples, a few more prob lems are con sid ered tobe rel e vant. They are:

1) The 6th mil len nium BP peak is rep re sented

by only one date. If com pared with those of thearid ep i sodes re corded from the Ara bian Sea andlake-cores (Von Rad et al., 1999; Ajithprasad,2004; Staubwasser and Weiss, 2006), we can ar -gue that man grove swamps ef fec tively re treateddur ing this period;

2) The vari abil ity of the d13C val ues of theabove sam ples might de pend on both spe cific/in -di vid ual dif fer ences, and lo cal/re gional cli ma ticef fects among which the most im por tant are:

(a) Di men sion, in di vid ual age and feed inghab its of the sam ples (Pape et al. 2008);

(b) Mon soon cy cle-tied cli ma tic vari a tions(Shankar et al., 2002; Loschnigg et al., 2003;Wright et al., 2008), that may sig nif i cantly al terthe d13C val ues (Bouil lon et al., 2004);

(c) Riverine/pre cip i ta tion re gime (Jain andTandon, 2003), shore line (Lambeck, 1996) andspe cific hy dro log i cal changes (Raikes, 1967;Meadows and Mead ows, 1999) even tu ally caus -ing un de tect able hard-wa ter ef fects (Badgley etal., 1972; Banse, 1984);

(d) En vi ron men tal con di tions, among whichare man grove swamp ex ten sions, in flu enc ing, forin stance, both or ganic lit ter de com po si tion andlight in ten sity (Snedaker, 1984; Ahmed, 1999);

3) Four teen of the above sev en teen d13C val -ues are from T. palustris gas tro pods. The re sultswere then com pared with typ i cal man grove andnon-man grove val ues from dif fer ent spe cies re -cov ered from other man grove en vi ron mentsaround the world, es pe cially Florida (Lin et al.,1991). This might mask pos si ble inter-spe cific lo -cal and/or re gional dif fer ences. Re gional and sea -sonal vari abil ity might even com pli cate the prob -lem, as they are dif fi cult to rec og nize on the ba sisof the avail able data.

Cal i bra tion prob lemsThe prob lems re lated with the cal i bra tion of

the ra dio car bon dates of the pre his toric shell mid -dens of the north-west ern Ara bian Sea have beenlong de bated with con trast ing re sults (Uerpmann,1990; Biagi, 1994; Uerpmann and Uerpmann,2003; Sali¿ge et al., 2005). As al ready pointed outfor the Oman sites, the ab sence of data from thenorth ern coast of the Ara bian Sea makes the choice of the ap pro pri ate cal i bra tion curve of the Daunsites rather prob lem atic for two main rea sons:

1) As the d13C val ues show, most sam ples

40 P. Biagi et al.


Fig. 15. Daun: chro no log i cal dis tri bu tion of the cal i brated BC re sults ac cord ing to the three mod els de scribed inthe text (a-c) (draw ing T. Fantuzzi)

come from man grove en vi ron ments. This can notex clude pos si ble al ter ation ef fects among whichare hard-wa ter, fresh wa ter, and or ganic lit ter de -com po si tion, as well as other spe cific/in di vid ualdif fer ence as, for ex am ple, age and feed ing hab itsof the in di vid u als tested (Pape et al., 2008).

2) There is no spe cific da tum such as deep-wa ter upwelling and/or oce anic res er voir ef fectthat may have in flu enced the Daun sites cal i bra -tion. The near est data come from a core 300 kmnorth of port Okha, with a re gional mean of229±27 14C yrs (Reimer and Reimer, 2001) andfrom Port Okha it self, with a value of 163±30 14Cyrs (Dutta et al., 2001). They were cho sen to con -struct two of the in ter pre ta tive mod els pre sentedin this pa per, al though fixed and con stant val uesal ways need to be treated with cau tion given thatboth lo cal and de cad al (or even inter-year) vari a -tions, that have proven to be rel e vant in mod ernsam ples (Dutta et al., 2001), may be unrecognised to some extent.

Fol low ing the above con sid er ations, we havepre ferred to pres ent both the “raw” uncalibratedre sults (Ta ble 2; Fig. 14), and three dif fer ent cal i -bra tion mod els: 1) the se quence af ter cal i bra tionagainst the 229±27 res er voir value from the regio- nal mean pub lished by Reimer and Reimer (2001),2) the 163±30 res er voir ef fect from Port Okha(Dutta et al., 2001), and 3) the Ma rine 09 Cal i bra -tion Curve, with out res er voir ef fect (Fig. 15).

The gen eral dis tri bu tion of the cal i brated dates looks un var ied as ex pected, al though mainly in thedi a grams of Fig. 15 a) and b) the shell ex ploi ta tionpeak matches well with the Ma ture Indus civ i li za -tion pe riod.

DIS CUS SIONThe Daun ra dio car bon dates sug gest that

man grove en vi ron ments were pres ent around thebay just be fore the mid 7th mil len nium BP, andwere ex ploited by the Neo lithic in hab it ants forshell fish con sump tion. Their ex ploi ta tion ceaseddur ing the 6th mil len nium BP, the only ex cep tionbe ing that of Daun 6, whose high d13C valueshows a non-man grove or i gin. This re sult al lowsus to hy poth e size that man grove swamps re -treated or dis ap peared (?) from the area dur ing the Chalcolithic Amri/Nal cul tures, re in forc ing the

im pres sion of a Mid Ho lo cene dry ep i sode al -ready known from other parts of Eur asia (An der -son et al., 2007:8), among which are the Indus-Sarasvati re gion (Brooks, 2006:38), and the TharDesert lakes of Rajastan (Deotare et al., 2004:20).

Man grove swamps spread again dur ing the5th mil len nium BP, when a peak in T. palustris ex -ploi ta tion is marked by a clus ter of dates with de -pleted d13C val ues, typ i cal for man grove en vi ron -ments. Man grove swamps re treated again,per haps dur ing an other dry ep i sode, in the late 5h

mil len nium BP, when only two shell mid denswere set tled east of the la goon, not far from thepres ent-day shore line.

The sug gested cy cles of man grove ex haus -tion and re ju ve na tion seem to match well with themon soon cy cles, which show a gen eral weak en -ing around 6000–5500 BP (Morrill et al., 2003).Arid pe ri ods have been re corded from a fewRajasthan and Gujarat lake cores, in par tic u larNal Sarovar, where dryer ep i sodes oc curred dur -ing the early 7th and the 6th mil len nia BP, and gen -eral arid con di tions be fore the end of the 5th mil -len nium BP (Ajithprasad, 2004). Fur ther moreglobal-scaled arid/cool ing ep i sodes al ter nated be -tween 5200 and 4200 BP, and pos si bly also 6000BP (Staubwasser and Weiss, 2006). They are in -trigu ing for the dif fer ent ep i sodes of mangroveexhaustion and rejuvenation at Daun.

The cli ma tic and mor pho log i cal changes ofLas Bela coastal zone can be com pared to thosethat took place along the coast of Oman dur ing the Mid dle Ho lo cene (Lézine, 2009), where vari a tionsin the lit to ral Ara bian Sea en vi ron ments have beenre corded along for merly an cient la goons rich inman groves, at pres ent dis sected bas ins, which hadbeen sea son ally set tled dur ing most fa vour able pe -ri ods by dif fer ent hu man groups (Charpentier etal., 2000; 2012; Lézine et al., 2002; Mar tin, 2002,Cleuziou, 2004:134).

As for other parts of the world the sys tem aticra dio car bon dat ing of man grove shell sam plesaround the Bay of Daun has shown that, also inthis re gion, shell mid dens are not ex clu sively astone age phe nom e non (Andersen, 2007). Shellgath er ing took place in dif fer ent pe ri ods ac cord -ing to the avail abil ity of the man grove re sources,with two dis tinct picks of ex ploi ta tion dur ing theNeo lithic and the Bronze Age, as part of dif fer entcy cles of prehistoric subsistence.

42 P. Biagi et al.

CON CLU SION

Ac cord ing to the ra dio car bon re sults, hu mangroups be gan to set tle along the coasts of DaunBay dur ing the first half of the 7th mil len nium BP(Fig. 14). Sim i lar dates come from other sites dis -trib uted along the shores of the Ara bian Pen in sula and the Gulf (Biagi, 2008b; Boivin and Fuller,2009:fig.5; Uerpmann and Uerpmann, 2003:ta ble2.1), which were set tled dur ing the mid dle Ho lo -cene, when the sea-level sta bi lised along a linesome 0.5–3m higher than that of the pres ent (seefor in stance Gupta, 1972; Sanlaville, 1992;Bernier et al., 1995; Lambeck, 1996).

The re search un der-way along the coasts ofLas Bela and Lower Sindh led to the dis cov ery ofa few 8th mil len nium, and sev eral 7th mil len niumBP shell mid dens along the shores of Lake Siranda(Balochistan) (Biagi et al., in press a; in press b),the Tharro and Makli Hills (Lower Sindh) (Biagi,2010; 2011b). These discoveries raise im por tantques tions re gard ing the mid-Ho lo cene peo plingof this part of the Ara bian Sea, al though we haveto con sider that “the dis tri bu tion of shell moundsis prob a bly a poor in di ca tor of the dis tri bu tion ofcoastal pop u la tion” (Bailey and Milner, 2002:6),and that peo ple moved across the Gulf (Cleuziou,2004:136; Carter, 2008) and the Ara bian Sea, ex -ploited dif fer ent en vi ron ments, and de vel opedspe cific ac tiv i ties ac cord ing to the dif fer ent lo ca -tions they in hab ited, as they still do now a days(Potts, 1990: 57; Costa, 1991; Lan cas ter and Lan -cas ter, 1992; Nadjmabadi, 1992).

The most im por tant ques tions to be an sweredre gard 1) the prob lems re lated with the ear li estsea far ing along the north ern shores of the Ara bian Sea (Biagi, in press), 2) the changes that tookplace in the coastal en vi ron ment dur ing the Ho lo -cene, and the Mid dle At lan tic pe riod in par tic u lar(Ken nett and Ken nett, 2006:76; Bailey et al.,2007:133), and 3) the re la tion ships be tween coastal shell mid dens and Neo lithic set tle ments of theinterior (Khan, 1979b).

1) A small scat ter of Ostreidae along thesouth ern edge of the Tharro Hills (Gujo, LowerSindh), ra dio car bon-dated to 6910±60 BP (THR2:GrN-32119), shows that the “is let” was reached by boat around the be gin ning of the 7th mil len nium BP (Biagi, 2010:fig.16). The Makli Hills were set tled a few cen tu ries later, as shown by a scat ter of T. pa-

lustris shells (KKT2: GrN- 32464: 6320±45 BP)(Biagi, 2013);

2) The above dates show that the Tharro andMakli Hills, at pres ent sur rounded by the al lu vialplain of the Indus delta (Bland ford, 1880:24),were “is lands” in the 7th mil len nium BP. The newdates ob tained from shell mid dens dis cov eredalong the shores of Lake Siranda, two of whichyielded 8th mil len nium, and five 7th mil len nium BPre sults (van der Plicht pers. comm. 2012; Biagi etal., in press b), help us fol low the en vi ron men talchanges that ef fected this ba sin that, ac cord ing toR.E. Snead (1966:60), was con nected to theSonmiani la goon “in the not-too-dis tant past”;

3) The 7th mil len nium Daun shell mid densshow that man grove (and ma rine) re sources weresea son ally ex ploited by com mu ni ties of shell fishgath er ers mov ing sea son ally be tween the coast and other land scapes, whose base set tle ments were lo -cated most prob a bly slightly in land (Lézine et al.,2002:229), al though so far there is no ev i dence for Early Neo lithic sites in this part of Las Bela andLower Sindh (Khan, 1979a; 1979b; Shaffer,1986; Possehl, 1999; Gangal et al., 2010). Thisfact is most prob a bly due to the ab sence of any ac -cu rate sur veys aimed at the re cov ery of set tle -ments of this pe riod (Khan, 1979c:58). The un -known chro nol ogy of the Early Neo lithic sites ofBalochistan (Fairservis, 1956), and the un cer tainra dio car bon seriation of Neo lithic Mehrgarh(Jarrige et al., 1995:555; 2007–2008), have been


Fig. 16. Dis tri bu tion map of the ra dio car bon-dated 8th

and 7th mil len nium BP shell mid dens of Las Bela andLower Sindh: 1) Daun, 2) Lake Siranda, 3) TharroHills, 4) Makli Hills (draw ing P. Biagi)

re cently criti cised (Petrie et al., 2010). Nev er the -less the ab so lute dates ob tained from the bot tomof the pol len col umn sam pled from this lat ter siteshows that Neo lithic Mehrgarh started to be set -tled at the be gin ning of the 8th mil len nium BP asshown by a con ven tional date of 7928±126 uncalBP (R-2290: Costantini, 2007–2008:171). The in -hab it ants of Mehrgarh un doubt edly en ter tainedre la tion ships with the north ern coasts of the Ara -bian Sea since the be gin ning of the Neo lithic, asin di cated by the great quan tity of ma rine shell or -na ments in the aceramic Neo lithic graves goods(Ray, 2003:33; Jarrige, 2004:48). In this re spect it is im por tant to point out that the new ra dio car bonre sults from Lake Siranda show that the shores ofthis an cient la goon were al ready set tled dur ing the last two cen tu ries of the 8th mil len nium BP (Fig.16), re mark ing the com plex ity of the oce anic andter res trial move ments that shaped the geo mor -phol ogy of the re gion since the be gin ning of theHo lo cene (Bailey and Parkington, 1988).

At Daun, the al most ab sence of 6th mil len -nium shell mid dens con trasts with the high num -ber of 5th mil len nium BP sta tions, sug gest ing thatcli ma tic and en vi ron men tal changes af fected thepeo pling of this part of the coast of Las Bela dur -ing the above pe ri ods. These data point out theim por tance of the fresh wa ter re sources and mon -soon pre cip i ta tions for the com mu ni ties that tem -po rarily set tled in the area to ex ploit the rich man-grove en vi ron ments avail able along the shores ofthe bay (Ewel et al., 1998) dur ing pe ri ods of in -creas ing pro duc tiv ity of the oce anic coastal mi cro-en vi ron ments (Erlandson and Fitzpatrick, 2006).

Ac knowl edg mentsRe search at Las Bela has been made pos si ble thanks

to the fi nan cial sup port of the Ital ian Min is try of For eignAf fairs (MAE, Rome), EURAL Gnutti (Rovato, Brescia), and Ca’ Foscari Uni ver sity ar chae ol ogy funds.

The au thors are very grate ful to Pro fes sor A.H.Bouk (De part ment of Com puter Sci ence, BalochistanUni ver sity, Quetta), for his com pany, help and sup portdur ing the 2008 field work sea son. Spe cial thanks aredue to Pro fes sor A.R. Khan (De part ment of Ge og ra -phy, Karachi Uni ver sity) with out whose ad vise theDaun sites would have never been dis cov ered, and Dr.M. Spataro (Brit ish Mu seum, UK) who took part in the2000 and 2004 ex plor atory vis its, and Pro fes sor P.J.Reimer (Queen’s Uni ver sity, Bel fast) for the use fuldiscussions on isotopic fractionation.

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