Kot Bala, or Balakot is an archaeological site located in

Lasbela District Lasbela District ( , , ) is a coastal district and part of the Kalat Division situated in the south-east of Balochistan, Pakistan. Located approximately northwest of Karachi, the district is geographically and economically significant. A ...

, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is near the

Makran Makran (), also mentioned in some sources as ''Mecran'' and ''Mokrān'', is the southern coastal region of Balochistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in the Balochistan province in Pakistan and in Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. I ...

coast of the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

, and goes back to around 4000 BC. The settlement of Balakot precedes the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...

by many centuries. It is located in the interior of the Sonmiani Bay, along the Lasbela coast (the Plain of Las Bela). This site is of importance due to its proximity to the Arabian Sea, and is believed to have been a main harbour, from which the Indus traders sailed to the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula.

Excavations

The site was excavated by Professor George F. Dales of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in the 1970s, but full details were not published. It is the only site in the region that was professionally excavated. The upper levels of the site belong to Indus Civilization, while the lower levels feature a culture of its own. The arrival of Indus influence was rather sudden.

Balakot culture

The ancient Balakot culture flourished only in this coastal area. The Balakot Phase pottery is known from excavations at Balakot. Three radiocarbon dates from later occupations of this phase indicate the period of 3500–3000 BC. Other archaeologists give the date of 4000 BC for the start of this settlement. Kech-

culture flourished in the Kech River Valley in protohistoric times as early as the fifth millennium BC. Balakot was part of that settlement network. Pottery of Balakot was all wheel-made red ware, although some storage jars were hand-made. It features complex floral and zoomorphic motifs. There are similarities to the Nal pottery of Baluchistan. Sometimes the use of red or green paint produced a polychrome effect. A later Balakot Phase pottery closely resembles the style of Amri culture.

Early furnaces

Excavations at pre-Indus levels of Balakot have yielded evidence of an early furnace. The furnace was most likely used for the manufacturing of

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

objects. Ovens, dating back to the civilization's mature phase (c. 2500–1900 BCE), were also excavated at Balakot.Dales, George (1974), "Excavations at Balakot, Pakistan, 1973", ''Journal of Field Archaeology'', 1 (1–2): 3–22 0/ref>

References

Literature

* Franke-Vogt, U., Balakot Period I: A review of its stratigraphy, and cultural sequence, in South Asian Archaeology 2001 * Franke-Vogt, U., Reopening Research on Balakot: A Summary of Perspectives and First Results. 217–235. in South Asian Archaeology 1995, Edited by Raymond Allchin & Bridget Allchin, The Ancient India and Iran Trust, London (1997) * Dales, G.F. 1974. Excavations at Balakot, Pakistan, 1973. Journal of Field Archaeology 1: 3–22. * Dales, G.F. 1979. The Balakot Project: Summary of Four Years Excavations in Pakistan. Pages 241–274 in Taddei, M.(ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1977. (Seminario di Studi Asiatici, Series Minor VI) (Naples, Istituto Universitario Orientale) * Dales, G.F. 1981. Reflections on five years of Excavations at Balakot. Pages 25–32 in Dani, A.H. (ed.), Indus Civilisation: New Perspectives (Islamabad, Quaid-I-Azam University)
History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Dawn of Civilization: Earliest Times to 700 B.C.
(Volume 1) / Eds.: A. H. Dani; V. M. Masson (1992)

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