by Paolo Biagi

Almost all known human sites from 100,000 to 3000 B.C. in South Asia could fit into the Rohri flint quarries. With the pyramids, they are among the largest known manufacturing enterprises of ancient times. The head of the Italian-Pakistani team investigating reports on a vanishing area. In 2008 we plan to publish an extensive update on the findings at Rohri and elsewhere in Sindh by Dr. Biagi and his team. In the mean time, we present the recent paper in PRAEHISTORIA by Dr. Biagi The Mesolithic Settlement of Sindh (Pakistan): A Preliminary Assessment (PDF) which contains much new information on the area around 10,000 B.C., some 7,000 years before the ancient Indus civilization flourished. A second paper, The Levalloisian assemblages of Sindh (Pakistan) and their importance in the Middle Palaeolithic of the Indian subcontienent published here in January 2008, describes even more recent findings and analysis. These concern a period 150,000 to 50,000 years ago. These findings, as well as those in neighboring India, are leading to a much expanded understanding of the ancient subcontinent and the origins of human culture in the area. Unfortunately, as our understanding of this period in Sindh is advancing, extensive development in the area is destroying these ancient sites. Dr. Biagi's recent paper The Archaeological Sites of the Rohri Hills (Sindh, Pakistan): the Way they are Being Destroyed summarizes the discoveries and the destruction that is accompanying them.

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