For Balochistan, it is not only the future that is murky

Two decades later, French archaeologists decide to publish unfinished work.


Saad Hasan October 05, 2012

KARACHI:


After working in Balochistan’s Makran region for two decades, a team of French archaeologists has finally decided to publish their findings with regrets that many questions remain unanswered as the conflict-hit part of the country has become out-of-bounds for them.


“We are personally not scared of the situation. The locals love us,” said Roland Bensenval, who, along with Aurore Didier and Vincent Marcon, has unearthed the remains of settlements that existed 2,000 years before the Indus Civilization.

“We don’t know what has happened to the sites that we dug up in Makran. None of us has gone there since 2006,” he said, speaking at the Alliance française de Karachi. “There is no point in waiting now. The information and findings we have must be published.”

The research, which started in 1987 and covers the archaeological discoveries of settlements that existed between 2800 and 4000 BC, will take two years to be compiled.

Site risks

The government disallowed the archaeologists from going to Makran in Balochistan, which has been plagued not only by an insurgency but also sectarian killings.

But the fear of kidnapping is the last thing on the minds of the archaeologists. “There was this Kuh-e-Batil Dam, which is like nothing ever found anywhere else in Pakistan,” said Bensenval.

However, due to a lack of maintenance, the ancient dam and other sites they dug up have been wasted. A lot of the archaeological finds were washed also away in the floods.

Questions remain unanswered

The team’s suspension of work has also piled on many unanswered questions: Who were these people who lived in Balochistan? What was their religion? Did they even have one? Where did they go? Where did they come from? If they used to fish, did they also trade via sea?

Aurore Didier says a lot of research is needed for the puzzle to be solved. “It is interesting how we found certain type of bangles in Makran that resembled the kind worn by the Lady of Sarazm found in Tajikistan – 1,500 kilometres away,” she said.

There is a possibility that the people who lived in the Makran regions in the fourth and fifth millennium exported earthenware to Oman, Iran and South Afghanistan. “I am not sure if they used the sea route. That needs to be investigated,” she added.

Some findings are unique to the place like the terracotta bangles, which haven’t been excavated in any part of the Pakistan-Iran border region, Didier said. “Such a rich collection of pots, beads and other material has not been found anywhere else.”


Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2012.

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