Prehistoric Baluchistan: With Excavation Report on Said Qala Tepe

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With the growing evidence of cultural developments in south and southeastern (Baluchistan) areas of Afghanistan, the archaeologists are now led to infer that there existed some kind of interaction between these and other regions, even such disparate regions as Soviet Central Asia and the Indus Valley during pre-and protohistoric periods. Investigations in Baluchistan and southeastern Afghanistan, therefore, provide vital information with regard to such interactions.

Dr Shaffer's present study on prehistoric Baluchistan, incorporating comprehensively his findings on Said Qala Tepe excavations, forms an important landmark in the history of Indo-Iranian Borderland archaeology. Said Qala, located in a geographical area, commonly referred to as Baluchistan, is one of the very few pre- and protohistoric excavated sites in Afghanistan. Presenting new material evidence from this Borderland, Dr Shaffer sets out a detailed discussion of the stratigraphical, architectural, ceramic and chronological findings yielded by Sald Qala excavations. His study, particularly of the ceramics is at once brilliant-nay, peerless.

Developing a theoretical approach, evolved directly out of his anthropological training, Jim Shaffer supports his interpretations and conclusions on a 'Systematic Model' involving the study of 'Adaptive areas, Traditions-artifactual and material culture-and 'Interaction Spheres', where trade and religion play a significant role.

Dr Shaffer's thoughtful review of Borderland prehistoric archaeology, his magnificent handling of the primary evidence he himself obtained, and scholarly vision of what approaches we need lend a rare distinction to his study.

Jim G. Shaffer (born 1944) received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in anthropology with a specialization in archaeology from Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona U.S.A.). Between 1962 and 1967 he took part in, and directed, several archaeological excavations and surveys in the American Southwest concerned with prehistoric North American Indian cultures. In 1967 he entered the anthropology graduate program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied under Dr C.S. Chard received his Ph.D. in 1972. Since 1967 Dr Shaffer has been exclusively engaged in research concerning Old World pre-and protohistory, specifically that of South Asia. As a result of this interest, he has directed excavations at Said Qala Tepe (southeastern Afghanistan), participated in the excavations at Allahdino (Sind, Pakistan), and most recently co-directed a site survey in Haryana (northwest India).

After completing his education Dr Shaffer joined the anthropology faculty of Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.) where he is currently an assistant professor. During 1974-75 he held a Senior Fulbright-Hays Lectureship in Anthropology at the University of Islamabad (Pakistan). The Indian research was conducted while he was an Indo-American Research Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi (1976-77).

This publication is a revised edition of the author's doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Six years have passed since the original research was completed. During that period new information has become available which necessitated some major and minor changes, although the interpretative framework remains basically unaltered. Unfortunately it still remains impossible at this time to present a complete and detailed report on all aspects of the excavations. In spite of this difficulty, the author hopes the data and theory presented here will be of use to concerned scholars.

The research here is the result of sincere efforts on the parts of many people besides the author. To Dr. Chester S. Chard, who assumed the major responsibility for the author's graduate training, a great deal of thanks must be extended. The opportunity to conduct research in Afghanistan was provided by Dr. Louis Dupree of The American Universities Field Staff. Without the help and encouragement provided by Dr. Dupree, and his wife Nancy, none of this research would have been possible. My close friend, and colleague, Dr. Michael A. Hoffman gave freely of his time, skill and knowledge, and without his assistance much of the data could not have been assembled. Of course a researcher in a foreign country is dependent upon the hospitality of the host government. In the process of conducting this research the author came into contact with many officials of the Afghanistan government who gave most freely and graciously of their time. Among these a special thanks is due to the Ministry of Information and Culture and especially to the Afghan Institute of Archaeology and its then Director Dr. S. Mustamindi.

Additional thanks must go to Professor George F. Dales who kindly consented to read and comment on the original manuscript. This research has also profited from the advice of Professor John T. Hitchcock who provided much assistance throughout the author's time at the University of Wisconsin. Thanks must also be extended to the Heintz Archaeological Foundation which in-part some of the research.

The prehistory of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands is obviously of seminal importance to any understanding of the origin of the Harappan civilization and indeed of the advent of civilization it- self on the subcontinent. It is therefore something of a pity that little intensive, ongoing archaeological research has gone on there over the past thirty years. Any effort to synthesize the late prehistoric evidence known for the region must largely rely on the fieldwork of the pioneers in the field whose efforts in terms of modern methodologies are often frustratingly inadoquate. To give examples: Stein, Hargreaves, and Majumdar tended to run horizontal trenches into sites, thus stratigraphic position was too often lost; Brigadier Ross at Rana Ghundai dutifully plucked potsherds out of the site in vertical order but left no sense of occupational context; de Cardi with limited means went much beyond Ross in this regard but could nowhere extend her excavations to reveal in detail the broador occupational features. Casal at Mundigak had both the means and the time to complete his oxcavations and thus provides us with the more reliable body of evidence, but this too is qualified by selective techniques.

As to my own work in the Borderlands, something I hope which is not yet terminated, there is much and there is little that can be said. My use of seriation as we then understood it has again and again been put under critical fire. Piggott, for example, rejected it entirely; Dales misunderstood it; and I have yet to see where a single Indian or Pakistani archaeologist has made any real effort to develop a quantitative technique against which to measure the validity of the results one in consequence obtains. In 1950-1951 we were faced with the immense task of bringing some viable order to a vast body of seemingly unrelated material evidence. Only one serious attempt to do this had been made, that by Piggott, and much of this was based on apparent parallel- isms in style as represented by the decoration of potsherds found in one context or another from region to region.