Neolithic Revolution; Ancient Near East; The Indus Valley
The Ancient
Near East or Ancient Orient encompasses the early civilizations predating
Classical Antiquity in the region roughly corresponding to that described by the
modern term Middle East (Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia), during the time
roughly spanning the Bronze Age from the rise of Sumer and Gerzeh in the 4th millennium
B.C. to the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC. The Ancient
Near East is generally understood as encompassing Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and
Syria), Persia (Iran), Egypt, the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestinian
Authority), and Anatolia (Turkey). Some users of the term would extend its application
into the Caucasus region, into modern Afghanistan (Bactria, Indus Valley Civilization),
Minoan and Mycenaean Greece and other peripheral areas of
During the Neolithic Revolution, North Eastern Balochistan is connected to Afghanistan by passes over the Toba Kakar Range. The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, as first adopted by various independent prehistoric human societies, in various locations, semi-permanent settlements, a corresponding reduction in nomadic lifestyles, the concept of land ownership, primarily for developments in social organization and technology, an increased reliance on vegetable and cereal foods in the total diet, increasing crop yields, and the development of new technologies.
Local climates at the end of the last ice age became warmer and drier whereas in Europe of grain crops and plants originating in the wetter Mediterranean climate and mountain foothill areas of the Middle East.
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Hunter-gatherer lifestyles are the product of the depletion of the biological potential of a specific location, either through localised overhunting or over gathering, and lead to a movement to a new area where game and foodstuffs are not depleted, allowing the earlier ranges to recover. Prehistorically it appears to have happened first with certain beachcomber or lacustrine cultures, such as the Jomon of Japan, the areas of Sundaland and Sahulland of Greater Melanesia, and historically in the salmon country of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Natufian sedentism before the Younger Dryas was proto-agricultural in nature, principally around gathering, but not planting crops. In fact most cultivated crops were discovered more than 2,500 years ago, and despite the scientific and technological revolutions, only a few marginal nut crops (e.g. macadamia nuts) have been added in recent times. The Indus River was very important to Indus life providing irrigation and creating fertile land for farming. In the middle of India is the Deccan Plateau which might have helped protect the Indus people from foreign invaders. Valleys on the Makran coast are open towards the Arabian Sea. |  |
Agriculture first arose in the Fertile Crescent because of many factors and developed independently in different parts of the world. In the Late Paleolithic of the Old World, sites which have been discovered in Egypt along the Nile for harvesting grain, plant cultivation and animal husbandry. The Mediterranean climate has a long, dry season with a short period of rain, which made it suitable for small plants with large seeds, like wheat and barley. These were the most suitable for domestication because of the ease of harvest and storage and the wide availability. In addition, the domesticated plants had especially high protein content. Climatic changes over time forced some people to work much harder and travel longer distances in search of food. Over thousands of years, hunter-gatherers unconsciously adjusted to their surroundings. Without agriculture, the emergence of many of the traits popularly referred to as civilization would not have been possible. Hunter-gatherers began to stay near reliable sources of water and bring wild seeds back to their base camp to plant pioneer crops nearby. Global climates at the end of the last ice age became warmer and drier, making plants more efficient at producing crops but encouraging settlement near water sources. Some that domestic cultivation may have existed in South East Asia earlier than in the Near East (Iraq). The finding of pottery, and polished stone tools from 6,600 B.C. also upset the theory that these technologies only arrived in the region about 3,000 B.C. from China. The Haobinhian culture also produced a waisted adze, hafted transversely, the first evidence of a hoe confirmed in the world.
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India and Iran have had close relations since ancient times. Aryan civilization first entered the north-west of India probably around 2000 BCE. Of the Iranian plateau (Persia) are descended from the same Proto-Indo-Iranian group of people. The Indo-Iranians were nomadic people originating from the Central Asian steppes, probably in the region of the Oxus river valley, pre-2000 BCE. They referred to themselves as Aryans, from which the word Iran originates.
The separation of Indo-Aryans proper from Proto-Indo-Iranians (Satem language removed less than a millennium from the late Proto-Indo-European language) has been dated to roughly 2000 BC–1800 BC. There was a shift of settlements from the northwestern part of India to the Gangetic valley and to the south during the second millennium BCE, but does not clearly support a migration of Indo-Aryan people into India. The region lies on the ancient route used by successive waves of migrations from Aryans to Huns, and later by Turks and Mughals to South Asia over the passes in the Hindu Kush.
The Himalayas are also located near the Indus Valley, as is the Hindu Kush mountain range. Around 1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge. People started to leave the cities. Those who remained were poorly nourished. By around 1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures. Current archaeological data suggests that the Late Harappan may have persisted until at least c. 1000-900 BCE, and was partially contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware and perhaps early NBP cultures.
The Aryans through Iron Age expansion reached the Indus
Valley civilization probably around 1600 BC. The Indo-Aryan migration is often
compared and associated with the Indo-European migrations, the Indo-Iranian migrations
and with other Eurasian nomads or that the Dravidian speakers migrated to India
from the north-west. Other migrations that are connected with South Asia include
the migrations of Ghandari/ Niya Prakrit, Parya and Dumaki speakers, the Indo-Scythians,
the Indo-Greeks and the Islamic invasion of India.
The only Indo-Aryan branch surviving outside the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas is the Romani language, the language of the Roma people (Gypsies). For Hellenistic times suggests that there were Indo-Aryan speakers of Hindi (Classical Sanskrit) in the Pontic steppe and the Maeotes and the Sindes, the latter also known as "Indoi" and described by Hesychius as an "an Indian people". The Roma migration began shortly before 1000 A.D., when the Roma make their first appearance in recorded history in the Shahnameh, or Persian Book of Kings. The Roma people migrated westward in medieval times, and modern migration gave rise to Indo-Aryan minorities on every continent. According to the Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis, Gujarat (in western India) and Pakistan were the first settlements for Indo-Aryans before 1500 BCE. The Vedas and the Gathas of the Avesta include fire worship, the performance of sacrifice (Sanskrit yajna or Avestan yasna) and the importance of priests or Magi. The myths that appear in the Yasht part of the Avesta probably have their roots in ancient Indo-Iranian culture.
The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 26 languages that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran. The family with the Japonic languages, Basque, Korean, Sumerian, the Australian Aboriginal languages and the unknown language of the Indus valley civilisation, although legends common to many Dravidian-speaking groups speak of their origin in a vast, now-sunken continent far to the south. Dravidian languages spread southwards and eastwards through the Indian subcontinent, based on the fact that the southern Dravidian languages show some signs of contact with linguistic groups which the northern Dravidian languages do not. Proto-Dravidian is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian, Proto South-Central Dravidian and Proto-South Dravidian around 1500 BC.
Most of the languages of North India belong to a single language family, the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European family of languages. The languages of South India belong to a different language family, the Dravidian languages, the Brahui (which is spoken in parts of Baluchistan), the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages. The Elamite language, an extinct language of Southwestern Iran, has also often been linked to Dravidian. The early formation of political states also affects the distribution of languages. The Punjab was in historical times settled by Iranians, Greeks, Kushans (replacing Greeks and their language), and Hephthalites, yet Indo-Aryan languages dominate, probably due to the dominance of later Indian empires and states. Hence in regions where Persian and Indian empires dominated many languages died out. This process can be seen in the elimination of Saka and Tocharian languages through the influence of Persians, Buddhism (spreading Prakit language), and Turks.