The discovery of shell-middens (mounds) in Las Bela, Balochistan, from roughly 8000 BCE raises the possibility of trade across the Arabian Sea during Neolithic times. >
Surveys conducted along the southeastern coast of Las Bela in the following years have shown that shell middens with different characteristics and variable chronology exist in many places among which are Gadani and Phuari Headlands and the shores of Lake Siranda. Shell middens are places where the debris from eating shellfish and other food has accumulated over time. >
Ras Gadani and Phuari were surveyed in the 2000s by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Las Bela and Lower Sindh. The discovery of a few sites on the two headlands has shown the importance of the Las Bela coast for the archaeology of the northern Arabian Sea. >
Results from a 2011 survey of Lake Siranda in Balochistan to locate prehistoric shell middens and study the Neolithic people who lived there in greater detail between the 8th and 6th milleniums BCE. >
A closer look at the mysterious Kulli culture of Balochistan that both pre-dated and was contemporaneous with ancient Indus culture, and apparently was part of an elaborate trading network that stretched west as far as the Jiroft culture in Iran. >
A spectacular exhibition opened on June 24, 2014 at the National Museum of Oriental Art (MNAO) 'Giuseppe Tucci' in Rome, Italy. Living Symbols presented a group of painted protohistoric objects from the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, illegally excavated in Balochistan and seized in 2005 by the Italian… >
An examination of a variety of discovered artifacts which suggest a trade system within the region. Trade trends are marked and explained as the excavated items reflect shifts in the market. >
Another important summary paper by Paolo Biagi reprises all the discoveries made by Italian teams in Sindh and Balochistan that have upended our understanding of pre and neighbouring areas to the Indus civilization. >
"Lazurite - the constituent of lapis lazuli that gives the rock its blue color - is a rare mineral in nature," writes Randall Law, and there is likely to have been only one source in the region during ancient times, the Badakhshan mines in Afghanistan. >
