Pipal Tree Goblet 34

Jean-Marie Casal writes in his book on the enigma of the Indus civilization, in a section called The last days of Mundigak and the problem of Baluchistan: "In Mundigak, the destruction of the first city, roughly at the same time, is probably linked to the same cause. A heap of ashes near the rampart, sections of walls blackened by smoke and floors reddened by fire in the Palace bear witness to the violence and suddenness of the attack. It is likely that these events explain the the loosening of ties between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and the already noted isolation in which the villages and towns of this latter region now appear to develop.

"Relieved for the first time from its ruins and soon again destroyed by an earthquake, the city of Mundigak will rebuild itself yet again but it will now decline. This decline, apparent in its constructions, in the abandonment where the ruins left of the Palace, is also apparent in the ceramics where we find old themes, impoverished and poorly executed, and where the preponderance of a bright red background, replacing the traditional cream background, indicates new links and influences from the south.

"Throughout this long gestation period of a culture, and through the vicissitudes that follow its development, we can only guess at the existence of forces still little known to us. If Mundigak gives us a general outline for the [history of] south Afghanistan, it unfortunately is not the same yet for neighboring regions. Balochistan, in particular, is so important because we can sense how events which took place there must have influenced civilization close to the Indus, but our understanding of its archeology is still too much fragmented." (La Civilisation d l'Indus et ses enigmes [The Indus Civilization and its Puzzles] 1969, p. 74)

Image 2: bottom portion of Figures Ceramic from Period IV [2750-2500 BCE] from Casal, Fouilles De Mundigak, 1961.