Eur asian Pre his tory, 9 (12): 2949.

THE SHELL MID DENS OF THE BAY OF DAUN:

EN VI RON MEN TAL CHANGES AND HU MAN IM PACT ALONG
THE COAST OF LAS BELA (BALOCHISTAN, PA KI STAN)
BE TWEEN THE 8
TH
AND THE 5
TH
MIL LEN NIUM BP
Paolo Biagi
1
, Tiziano Fantuzzi
2
and Carlo Franco
3
1
De part ment of Asian and North Af ri can Stud ies, Ca Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Ca Cappello, San Polo 2035,
I-30125 Venezia, It aly; pavelius@unive.it
2
De part ment of Hu man i ties, Ca Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Pa laz zo Malcanton Marcor, Dorsoduro 3245,
I-30123, Venezia, It aly; tiziano.fantuzzi@gmail.com
3
De part ment of Asian and North Af ri can Stud ies, Ca Foscari Uni ver sity Ven ice, Ca Cappello, San Polo 2035,
I-30125 Venezia, It aly. It aly; utinum@gmail.com
Ab stract
The dis cov ery of shell mid dens around the Bay of Daun and Lake Siranda (Las Bela, Balochistan) shows that groups
of pre his toric gath er ers set tled along the coasts of Las Bela at least since the last two cen tu ries of the 8
th
mil len nium BP.
The ra dio car bon dat ing of the Daun sites in di cates that the ex ploi ta tion of the man grove re sources was not con tin u ous, but
took place mainly dur ing two dis tinct pe ri ods of the 7
th
and 5
th
mil len nia BP. The pres ence of Neo lithic shell mid dens
along the north ern coasts of the Ara bian Sea re in forces the im pres sion that this part of the In dian Ocean was first set tled
dur ing the Mid dle Ho lo cene when the sea level had sta bi lized. The ra dio car bon dates ob tained from ma rine and man grove
shells from the Tharro and Makli Hills in Lower Sindh, sug gest that coastal sea far ing be gan al ready in this pe riod.
Key words: Ara bian Sea, Balochistan, Las Bela, shell mid dens, ra dio car bon chro nol ogy, man grove en vi ron ment, mon -
soon cy cles.
PREF ACE
The first shell mid dens of the coast of Las
Bela (Balochistan, Pa ki stan) were dis cov ered in
Jan u ary 2000 dur ing a visit paid by one of the au -
thors (P.B.), to gether with Pro fes sor A.R. Khan of
the De part ment of Ge og ra phy, Karachi Uni ver -
sity, to Daun, a small bay some 15 km south of
Gadani prom on tory. Given the im por tance of the
finds, sur veys aimed at the dis cov ery of more
middens were pro moted by the Ital ian Ar chae o -
log i cal Mis sion in 2004 and 2008, along the
shores of the same bay, and the high ma rine ter -
race that ex tends south of it (Biagi, 2004; 2011a;
Biagi and Franco, 2008).
Lit tle is known of the pre his tory of Las Bela
(Shaffer, 1986). Most of the sur veys have been
car ried out in the re gions of the in te rior (Stein,
1943; Raikes and Dyson, 1961; Khan, 1964; Rai-
kes, 19671968; Fairservis, 1975; Khan, 1979b;
De Cardi, 1983; Flam, 1998; Franke-Vogt, 1999),
while no at ten tion has ever been paid to this part
of the north Ara bian Sea coast. From this ter ri tory
A.R. Khan (1979a:5) re ports the pres ence of pre -
his toric finds near Kunari Nallah, be tween Ga-
dani and Phuari head lands, whose Perh limesto-
nes are rich in flint nod ules ex ploited since at least
the be gin ning of the Mesolithic (Abbas, 1976:7;
Khan, 1979a:12; Naseem et al., 19961997:129).
Dur ing the sur veys car ried out in the 1970s,
Pro fes sor A.R. Khan dis cov ered a few pre his toric
sites west of the Hab River mouth (Khan, 1979a:
map 1); he also pointed out the im por tance of the
Windar River delta (Khan, 1979b:75) and Khur-
kera plain, where the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age
mound of Kot-Bala (Balakot) is lo cated (Dales,
1974; 1981). Con trary to any ex pec ta tion pre his -
toric sites were never dis cov ered dur ing the phys -
i cal ge og ra phy re con nais sance of Las Bela coastal
zone (Snead, 1969), the only prov ince of Balo-
chistan reached by the summer mon soon rains,
rich in wa ter sup plies (Pithawalla, 1953:33).
Ac cord ing to the chron i cles of the clas si cal
au thors the coasts of an cient Gedrosia (pres ent-
day Makran) were in hab ited by fish-eat ers in Hel -
le nis tic times, and also dur ing the 1
st
cen tury AD
(see for in stance Eggermont, 1975:64, re fer ring to
Arrians In dica; McCrindle, 1973:195), while the
coast of Las Bela was set tled by the Oreitai, an
eth nic group dis tin guished by strongly prim i tive
traits and cul tur ally sim i lar to the Ichthyophagi
(Longo, 1987:12). M.U. Hasan (2002:28) re ports
that fish ing ham lets of cab ins sup ported by
bones of whale were still vis i ble along the coast
of Makran dur ing the mid-1970s, as they were in
the 4
th
cen tury BC (Hughes-Bull er, 1996:36; see
also Holdich, 2002:160).
The eth no-ar chae o log i cal study of Las Bela
fish er men (Belch er, 1999; Desse and Desse-Ber-
chet, 2005) has pointed out the im por tance of
fish ing in the sub sis tence of the vil lag ers set tled
be tween Gadani prom on tory and the Hab River
mouth (Minchin, 1983:94). The cur rent ev i dence
highly con trasts with the ar chae o log i cal data,
given that traces of pre his toric fish er men set tle -
ments along the en tire coast of Balochistan are
very scarce (Belch er, 2005; Desse et al., 2005),
de spite the many sur veys car ried out in the re gion
(Stein, 1931; 1943; Dales, 1982; Besenval and
Sanlaville, 1990; Sanlaville et al., 1991; Dales
and Lipo, 1992; Besenval and Didier, 2004).
Sonari, a shell mid den lo cated at the top of
the eastern high ter race of the Hab River close to
its flow ing into the Ara bian Sea, is the only site to
have yielded net-sink ers ob tained from beach
peb bles (Biagi, 2004:fig.6). Quite an op po site sit -
u a tion is known from the Oman Pen in sula, where
all the Ho lo cene shell mid dens so far ex ca vated
show the im por tance of fish ing in the sub sis tence
strat egy of their in hab it ants (Uerpmann and Uer-
pmann, 2003; Cleuziou, 2004; Biagi and Nisbet,
2006; Lzine et al., 2010:12; Charpentier et al.,
2012).
GEO GRAPH ICAL SET TING
The shell mid dens of Daun Bay are dis trib -
uted over a roughly rect an gu lar area be tween
245918.08250027.29 Lat. N. and 6642
19.35664307.22 Long. E. They lie partly
along the sand beach around and south of the bay,
some 6m above the max i mum level reached by
the tide, partly on the top of the Pleis to cene ma-
rine ter race ex tend ing south of a small head land
(Snead, 1966:47; 1967; 1969:38; Snead and
Frishman, 1968:1673). Their dis tance from the
pres ent shore line var ies from 60 to 700 m. Most
sites con sist of heaps or scat ters of frag mented Te-
rebralia palustris gas tro pods (Biagi, 2004; Biagi
and Franco, 2008), al though other man grove and
ma rine spe cies are rep re sented, among which are
Telescopium telescopium and Anadara uropyg-
melana.
Ac cord ing to their lo ca tion the sites can be di -
vided in five main groups (Fig. 1):
1) Daun 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, are lo cated at the
top of the ma rine ter race at an av er age al ti tude of
some 30 m. (Fig. 2);
2) Daun 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106,
107 and 108, north-west of group 1), along the
sand beach be low the above ter race;
30 P. Biagi et al.
Fig. 1. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid dens
men tioned in the text (from Biagi and Franco, 2008
with mod i fi ca tions)
3) Daun 110, 111, 112, 113 and, slightly to
the north Daun 114, 115, 116 and 117, lie close to
the sand shore line, north-east of the small prom -
on tory (Fig. 3);
4) Daun 1, 10, 2 and 118, are lo cated slightly
to the north-east, not far from the south-east ern
shore of the bay (Fig. 4);
5) Daun 3 and 119, ad ja cent to each other not
far from the east ern shore of the bay (Fig. 5).
The sites and their as sem blages
The Daun shell mid dens are of dif fer ent shape
and di men sion. They yielded as sem blages con sist -
ing al most ex clu sively of chipped and coarse stone
tools (Ta ble 1). Among the 7
th
mil len nium BP
sites, Daun 1 is a large mid den (Fig. 6) on the sur -
face of which fifty pit ted crush ing stones with
pecked round or oval grooves on one or both sur -
faces were re corded (Figs 7 and 8). In con trast
Daun 10 yielded only one crush ing stones and one
ham mer-stone. The site, well shel tered be tween
vol ca nic rocky out crops, con sists of scat ters of
very small frag ments of T. palustris shells (Fig. 9)
on the sur face of which many chipped and coarse
stone artefacts were col lected (Fig. 10).
The chipped stone in dus tries of the 7
th
mil len -
nium BP sites are ob tained from flint avail able
from Perh lime stone for ma tions that out crop from
Gadani and Phuari head lands, some 15 km north
of the bay (Naseem et al., 19961997:fig.1). The
artefacts have been pro duced on the spot, as
shown by the pres ence of nar row bladelet cores
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 31
Fig. 2. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid dens
49 on the ma rine ter race south of the bay. The tri an gle
109 mark, the point where a quartz ite side scarper was
found (draw ing C. Franco)
Fig. 3. Daun: dis tri bu tion map of the shell mid dens
110117, along the beach south of the bay: net-sinker
(star), quern (cir cle), core (square) (draw ing C. Franco)
Fig. 4. Daun: lo ca tion and ex ten sion of the shell mid -
dens 1, 10, 2 and 118, south of the bay (draw ing C.
Franco)
Fig. 5. Daun: lo ca tion and ex ten sion of the shell mid -
dens 3 and 119, east of the bay (draw ing C. Franco)
32 P. Biagi et al.
Ta ble 1
Daun: main char ac ter is tics of the lithic as sem blages and other finds
Site num ber Lithic ma te ri als
Blocks, Pre-cores
and Core types
Tool types
Coarse ground
tools
Pot tery Clus ter
Daun 1
Gadani red flint, chert,
limnoquartzite, sand stone
Small blocks;
subconical and
subcylindrical cores
Tra peze, bladelets,
flake(let)s
Crush ing stones,
hammerstone
Pre his toric 1
Daun 2 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 3
Gadani red flint, banded
chert
Small block
Flakes, re touched
blade
Crush ing stone,
net-weight
None 4
Daun 4 Gadani red flint Small block None None Pre his toric 3
Daun 5 None None None
Net-weight, tomb,
hearths?
His toric? 3
Daun 6 None None None None None 2
Daun 7 None None None None Is lamic Not dated
Daun 8 Chert None None Quern None 3
Daun 9 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 10
Gadani red flint, chert,
limnoquartzite, sand stone,
lime stone
Small tested blocks;
subcylindrical, pris -
matic cores
Lunate, side scraper
Crush ing stone,
hammerstone
None 1
Daun 100 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 101 None None None None None 3
Daun 102 Gadani red flint, chert None Flakelets None Pre his toric 3
Daun 103 Chert Mi cro-core
Trun ca tion on
bladelet
None Pre his toric 3
Daun 104 None None None None Pre his toric 3
Daun 105 None None None None None 3
Daun 106 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 107 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 108 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 109 Quartz ite None Side scraper None None None
Daun 110
Gadani red flint,
limnoquartzite, lime stone
Small tested block Flakelets
Crush ing stone,
hammerstone
None 1
Daun 111
Gadani red flint, chert,
limnoquartzite, lime stone
Small tested blocks;
pris matic core
Flake(let)s Net-weight None 1
Daun 112 None None None None None 3
Daun 113 None None None None None 3
Daun 114 Gadani red flint None Pri mary flakes None None Not dated
Daun 115 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 116 Chert None Flakelet None None Not dated
Daun 117
Gadani red flint, chert
(striped), quartz ite
Pris matic and
polyhedric cores
Per fo ra tors, flakes None None Not dated
Daun 118 None None None None None Not dated
Daun 119
Gadani red flint, chert,
limnoquartzite, sand stone,
lime stone
Tested blocks
Side scraper, blade,
flakelets
Crush ing stone None 4
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 33
Fig. 6. Daun: shell mid den 1 from the north (pho to graph P. Biagi)
Fig. 7. Daun: group of querns in shell mid den 1 (pho to graph P. Biagi)
with par al lel de tach ments (Fig. 11), most prob a -
bly ob tained by pres sure (Inizan, 2012) (Fig. 12:
1, 2), debitage flakes, par al lel-sided mi cro-bla-
delets (Fig. 12:57) and re touched tools (Ta ble 2).
Among the lat ter par tic u larly im por tant are one
isos ce les tra peze ob tained with the microburin
tech nique from Daun 1 (Fig. 12:3), and one
lunate, from Daun 10 (Fig. 12:4).
The dis cov ery of geo met ric micro liths raises
the prob lem of the ty po logi cal vari abil ity, func -
tion and chro nol ogy of these tools. Dif fer ent
classes of isos ce les tra pezes have been re cov ered
from the Mesolithic sites of the Mulri Hills, east
of Karachi (Biagi, 20032004), and the Thar
Desert dunes of Up per Sindh (Biagi, 2008a:fig.4);
while horned tra pezes, re call ing cen tral Asian,
Early Neo lithic types (Masson, 1996:fig.5; Bru -
net, 1998; 2012), come from the aceramic Neo -
lithic lay ers of Mehrgarh (Lechevallier, 2003;
Jarrige, 20072008; Inizan, 2012). Lunates,
which can be sub di vided into sev eral classes ac -
cord ing to their typology, di men sion and re touch,
make their ap pear ance in Sindh around the end of
the Palaeo lithic (Biagi, 2011a) and con tin ued to
be in use at least un til the Neo lithic. Al though the
34 P. Biagi et al.
Fig. 8. Daun: shell mid den 1: dis tri bu tion map of
crushing stones (cir cles), and flint core (square) (draw -
ing C. Franco)
Fig. 9. Daun. shell mid den 10 be tween vol ca nic out crops, from the north-west (pho to graph P. Biagi)
func tion of the geo met ric tools from the Daun
sites is still un de fined, lunates have al ready been
re corded from other 8
th
and 7
th
mil len nium BP
shell mid dens along the Red Sea coast (Bar-Yosef
Mayer and Beyin, 2009:114).
The coarse stone tools are rep re sented mainly
by crush ing stones, which find par al lels from
many shell mid dens lo cated along the coast of the
Sul tan ate of Oman, like Saruq and Khor Milkh,
for in stance, where they are sug gested to have
been em ployed for open ing T. palustris shells
(Uerpmann and Uerpmann, 2003:115). Con cen -
tra tions of crush ing stones have been no ticed only
at Daun 1, where they rep re sent the com mon est
tools of this im por tant site, sug gest ing that it acted
as a spe cial ised work ing place for the pro cess ing
of man grove shells (Clarke, 2009).
Only a few sites dated to the 5
th
mil len nium
BP yielded chipped and coarse stone tools (Fig.
13:3, 4), among which is Daun 3 from which co -
mes a re touched blade of ex otic chert with use
wear traces, from (Biagi, 2004:fig.8).
The ev i dence for fish ing is sug gested by one
plaquette chipped from lime stone from Daun 111
(Fig. 13:1), one iso lated net-sinker from a notched
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 35
Fig. 10. Daun: shell mid den 10: dis tri bu tion map of
chipped stone artefacts (dots), lunate (moon-like sym -
bol), chal ce dony frag ment (tri an gle), and coarse
ground stones (cir cles) (draw ing C. Franco)
Fig. 11. Daun: shell mid den 10. Pris matic microbladelet core on the sites sur face (pho to graph P. Biagi)
36 P. Biagi et al.
Ta ble 2
Daun: main char ac ter is tics of the sites and ra dio car bon dates
Site
num ber
Co or di nates
Mea sures
m.
Ex ten -
sion mq.
Lab.
Num ber
Sam ple
14
C date
BP
d
13
C () Clus ter
Geo
Groups
Cul tural
At tri bu -
tion
Ref er ence
Daun 1
250014.34 N,
664239.82 E
121.00 837.00 GrN-26368 T. palustris 638040 -3.08 1 4 Neo lithic
Biagi,
2004: 16
Daun 2
250014.00 N,
664247.00 E
25.30 23.80 Un dated None None None Un dated 2
Un de -
fined
Daun 3
250026.55 N,
664304.67 E
250.00 3560.00 GrN-27954 T. palustris 410030 -4.49 4 5
Fi nal
Indus
Biagi,
2004: 16
Daun 4
245918.07 N,
664229.46 E
14.00 13.60 GrN-28800 Ostreidae 480035 -5.30 3 1
Ma ture
Indus
Daun 5
245918.46 N,
664228.53 E
37.40 104.00 GrN-28801 T. palustris 490035 -5.44 3 1
Daun 6
245920,49 N,
664231,38 E
13.20 13.30 GrN-28802 T. palustris 537035 +1.27 2 1 Amri/Nal
Daun 7
245925.00 N,
664233.00 E
25.20 46.50 Un dated None None None Un dated 1
Un de -
fined
Daun 8
245925,99 N,
664233,00 E
15.70 19.60 GrN-28803 Mactridae 454035 -5.16 3 1
Ma ture
Indus
Biagi,
2004: 16
Daun 9
245925.00 N,
664235.00 E
23.70 44.60 Un dated None None None Un dated 1
Un de -
fined
Daun
10
250012.61 N,
664245.14 E
83.10 254.00 GrN-31489 T. palustris 630545 -3.97 1 4 Neo lithic
Biagi, 2011:
Fig. 1
Daun
100
245937.19 N,
664219.35 E
16.60 18.00 Un dated None None None Un dated 2
Un de -
fined
Daun
101
245937.03 N,
664219.86 E
15.70 11.70 GrN-31490 T. palustris 447030 -5.49 3 2
Ma ture
Indus
Biagi,
2011: Fig. 1
Daun
102
245936.54 N,
664221.03 E
54.70 140.00 GrN-32117 T. palustris 459035 -5.96 3 2
Daun
103
245935.37 N,
664221.77 E
27.80 50.60 GrN-31491 T. palustris 443540 -5.37 3 2
Daun
104
245935.01 N,
664221.63 E
17.80 16.70 GrN-32118 T. palustris 447035 -610 3 2
Daun
105
245934.64 N,
664221.60 E
15.00 15.60 GrN-31643
T.
telescopium
447040 -5.09 3 2
Daun
106
245934.10 N,
664220.96 E
24.30 30.90 Un dated None None None Un dated 2
Un de -
fined
Daun
107
245933.04 N,
664221.72 E
6.95 3.10 Un dated None None None Un dated 2
Daun
108
245928.97 N,
664223.69 E
12.40 12.20 Un dated None None None Un dated 2
Daun
109
245920.84 N,
664220.52 E
N N Un dated None None None
Quartz ite
scraper
N
Daun
110
250000.66 N,
664221.20 E
87.30 469.00 GrN-31492 T. palustris 669040 -3.44 1 3
Neo lithic
Biagi,
2011: Fig. 1
Daun
111
250000.17 N,
664225.67 E
26.10 49.00 GrN-31493 T. palustris 659045 -3.57 1 3
Daun
112
250000.52 N,
664227.87 E
20.80 27.60 GrN-32462 T. palustris 462530 -4.95 3 3
Ma ture
Indus
Daun
113
250003.42 N,
664222.96 E
21.40 30.20 GrN-32463 T. palustris 445530 -5.44 3 3
beach peb ble, col lected some 20 m east of Daun
111 (Fig. 13:2), and two larger net-weights from
Daun 3 and 5.
Very small pot sherds, mainly pre his toric,
were col lected from a few sites (see Ta ble 2).
THE RA DIO CAR BON RE SULTS
Ac cord ing to the ra dio car bon re sults, four
shell mid dens de vel oped dur ing the 7
th
mil len nium
BP. Daun 110 is the old est site (GrN- 31492:
669040 BP), fol lowed by Daun 111, some 100 m
to the east (GrN-31493: 659045 BP), while Daun
1 and Daun 10, roughly 600 m to the north-west,
are slightly more re cent (GrN-26368: 638040 BP
and GrN-31489: 630545 BP re spec tively) (clus -
ter 1). The clus ter of Neo lithic dates is fol lowed
by a gap of some one thousand years, cor re spond -
ing to the Chalcolithic, dur ing which only Daun 6
was set tled (GrN-28802: 537035 BP) (clus ter 2).
The ra dio car bon dates from Daun 5 and Daun
4 (GrN-28801: 490035 BP and GrN-28800:
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 37
Ta ble 2 continued
Site
num ber
Co or di nates
Mea -
sures m.
Ex ten -
sion mq.
Lab.
Num ber
Sam ple
14
C date
BP
d
13
C () Clus ter
Geo
Groups
Cul tural
At tri bu -
tion
Ref er ence
Daun
114
250008.37 N,
664221.72 E
22.00 35.00 Un dated None None None Un dated 3
Un de -
fined
Daun
115
250007.40 N,
664223.49 E
23.20 39.90 Un dated None None None Un dated 3
Daun
116
250007.92 N,
664223.66 E
16.30 16.10 Un dated None None None Un dated 3
Daun
117
250007.62 N,
664223.05 E
66.30 307.00 Un dated None None None Un dated 3
Daun
118
250014.40 N,
664247.78 E
26.30 45.40 Un dated None None None Un dated 4
Daun
119
250025.44 N,
664306.72 E
74.80 418.00 GrN-31644
T.
palustris
416525 -4.05 4 5
Fi nal
Indus
Biagi,
2011: Fig. 1
Fig. 12. Daun: chipped stone as sem blage. Pris matic bladelet cores (1 and 2), isos ce les tra peze (3), lunate (4), nar -
row microbladelets (57). Num bers 1, 3, 6 and 7 from Daun 1; 2, 4 and 5 from Daun 10. 3 and 5 are from Gadani
red flint (scale in cm) (draw ings P. Biagi, ink ing G. Almerigogna)
38 P. Biagi et al.
Fig. 13. Daun: coarse stone tools. Re touched lime stone plaquette from Daun 111 (1), lime stone net-sinker from
east of Daun 111 (2), crush ing sand stone from Daun 10 (3) and lime stone hammerstone from Daun 119 (4) (scale in
cm) (draw ings E. Starnini)
480035 BP, re spec tively) are fol lowed by eight
other dates (Daun 112, 102, 8, 113, 101, 104, 105
and 103) all around the mid dle of the same mil -
len nium (clus ter 3). Daun 119 and Daun 3 form
an other small clus ter (4) slightly more re cent than
clus ter 3 (GrN-31644: 416525 BP and GrN-
27945: 410030 BP, re spec tively) (Fig. 14).
Vari a tions in the d
13
C val ues
The d
13
C val ues of the sam ples show quite a
dis tinc tive pat tern. Clus ter 1 yielded val ues rang -
ing from 3.44 to 3.97, char ac ter is tic of a man -
grove en vi ron ment. Daun 6, with a much higher
value (+1.27), should in di cate its non-man grove
prov e nance (clus ter 2). The fol low ing ex ploi ta -
tion ep i sodes (clus ter 3) show some de ple tion in
the d
13
C val ues, rep re sented by an other low
peak rang ing from 4.95 to 6.10 fol lowed by a
slight en rich ment at Daun 119 (4.05) and Daun 3
(4.49) (clus ter 4).
The curve of the above d
13
C val ues is be -
lieved to show a well de fined cli ma tic and bio -
chem i cal events. Given that car bon iso tope ra -
tios of shell car bon ates have been con sid ered a
good in di ca tor of the iso to pic com po si tion of in -
or ganic car bon in sea wa ter (Lin et al., 1991:
339), var i ous lo cal and re gional al ter ation pro -
cesses, among which are changes in pre cip i ta tion,
hy dro log i cal re gimes and coast line vari a tions, are
to be con sid ered. Thus a pre lim i nary in ter pre ta -
tion of the events that took place around the bay
can be put for ward, given that most re sults (ex -
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 39
Fig. 14. Daun: scatterplot of the uncalibrated BP dates. The colours in di cate the four clus ters into which they have
been sub di vided: 7
th
mil len nium (brown), 6
th
mil len nium (yel low), mid 5
th
mil len nium (blue) and late 5
th
mil len -
nium BP (green) (draw ing T. Fantuzzi)
cept for Daun 4, 8 and 105) have been ob tained
from T. palustris gas tro pods that are con sid ered
to be re li able cli ma tic in di ca tors:
1) As re ported above the four dates of clus ter
1 show low d
13
C val ues (av er age 3.515). If we
com pare them with the d
13
C val ues from other
man grove swamps (Lin et al., 1991), they sug gest
that man groves were al ready pres ent at Daun
around the early-mid 7
th
mil len nium BP, when the
sea level line was prob a bly slightly higher than
that of the pres ent (Lambeck, 1996:55);
2) The higher d
13
C value of Daun 6, and the
ab sence of any fur ther 6
th
mil len nium ar chae o log -
i cal ev i dence, might sug gest that man groves re -
treated dur ing the Chalcolithic;
3) The 5
th
mil len nium BP as says show a gen -
eral de ple tion in d
13
C val ues, which is con sis tent
with a typ i cal man grove en vi ron ment. The fact
that low val ues match with the ma jor ity of sites
shows that man groves had re-es tab lished around
Daun Bay in this pe riod, and were ex ploited by
Ma ture Indus com mu ni ties. Mid 5
th
mil len nium
BP dates from ma rine shells as so ci ated with pot -
sherds are re ported from Pasni (Makran) by
Sanlaville et al. (1991:13), sug gest ing the pres -
ence of other Bronze Age sites in the re gion;
4) The dates from Daun 119 and 3 show that
the man grove swamps re treated again dur ing the
late 5
th
mil len nium BP. They prob a bly mark an
arid ep i sode, re corded also from the north ern and
east ern Ara bian Sea (Sarkar et al., 2000; Staub-
wasser et al., 2003), and the Thar Desert lakes
(Saifuddin and Iqbaluddin, 2000; Kajale et al.,
2004:90), cor re spond ing to the de cline of the Indus
civ i li za tion (Madella and Fuller, 2006:1298). San-
laville et al. (1991:13) re port sim i lar dates from
Pasni in Makran, obtained from ma rine shells. The
ab sence of other late 5
th
mil len nium re sults sug -
gests that, dur ing this pe riod, man groves were
con fined to the east ern part of the bay, where the
cur rent mor phol ogy fa vours a pro longed per sis -
tence of wet ter en vi ron ments. The fact that the
d
13
C val ues of clus ter 4 are higher than the av er -
age pre ced ing ones might point to an other clue in
this re gard;
Al though the above in ter pre ta tion is dis put -
able due to pos si ble al ter ation ef fects in the tested
sam ples, a few more prob lems are con sid ered to
be rel e vant. They are:
1) The 6
th
mil len nium BP peak is rep re sented
by only one date. If com pared with those of the
arid ep i sodes re corded from the Ara bian Sea and
lake-cores (Von Rad et al., 1999; Ajithprasad,
2004; Staubwasser and Weiss, 2006), we can ar -
gue that man grove swamps ef fec tively re treated
dur ing this period;
2) The vari abil ity of the d
13
C val ues of the
above sam ples might de pend on both spe cific/in -
di vid ual dif fer ences, and lo cal/re gional cli ma tic
ef fects among which the most im por tant are:
(a) Di men sion, in di vid ual age and feed ing
hab its of the sam ples (Pape et al. 2008);
(b) Mon soon cy cle-tied cli ma tic vari a tions
(Shankar et al., 2002; Loschnigg et al., 2003;
Wright et al., 2008), that may sig nif i cantly al ter
the d
13
C val ues (Bouil lon et al., 2004);
(c) Riverine/pre cip i ta tion re gime (Jain and
Tandon, 2003), shore line (Lambeck, 1996) and
spe cific hy dro log i cal changes (Raikes, 1967;
Meadows and Mead ows, 1999) even tu ally caus -
ing un de tect able hard-wa ter ef fects (Badgley et
al., 1972; Banse, 1984);
(d) En vi ron men tal con di tions, among which
are man grove swamp ex ten sions, in flu enc ing, for
in stance, both or ganic lit ter de com po si tion and
light in ten sity (Snedaker, 1984; Ahmed, 1999);
3) Four teen of the above sev en teen d
13
C val -
ues are from T. palustris gas tro pods. The re sults
were then com pared with typ i cal man grove and
non-man grove val ues from dif fer ent spe cies re -
cov ered from other man grove en vi ron ments
around the world, es pe cially Florida (Lin et al.,
1991). This might mask pos si ble inter-spe cific lo -
cal and/or re gional dif fer ences. Re gional and sea -
sonal vari abil ity might even com pli cate the prob -
lem, as they are dif fi cult to rec og nize on the ba sis
of the avail able data.
Cal i bra tion prob lems
The prob lems re lated with the cal i bra tion of
the ra dio car bon dates of the pre his toric shell mid -
dens of the north-west ern Ara bian Sea have been
long de bated with con trast ing re sults (Uerpmann,
1990; Biagi, 1994; Uerpmann and Uerpmann,
2003; Salige et al., 2005). As al ready pointed out
for the Oman sites, the ab sence of data from the
north ern coast of the Ara bian Sea makes the choice
of the ap pro pri ate cal i bra tion curve of the Daun
sites rather prob lem atic for two main rea sons:
1) As the d
13
C val ues show, most sam ples
40 P. Biagi et al.
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 41
Fig. 15. Daun: chro no log i cal dis tri bu tion of the cal i brated BC re sults ac cord ing to the three mod els de scribed in
the text (a-c) (draw ing T. Fantuzzi)
come from man grove en vi ron ments. This can not
ex clude pos si ble al ter ation ef fects among which
are hard-wa ter, fresh wa ter, and or ganic lit ter de -
com po si tion, as well as other spe cific/in di vid ual
dif fer ence as, for ex am ple, age and feed ing hab its
of the in di vid u als tested (Pape et al., 2008).
2) There is no spe cific da tum such as deep-
wa ter upwelling and/or oce anic res er voir ef fect
that may have in flu enced the Daun sites cal i bra -
tion. The near est data come from a core 300 km
north of port Okha, with a re gional mean of
22927
14
C yrs (Reimer and Reimer, 2001) and
from Port Okha it self, with a value of 16330
14
C
yrs (Dutta et al., 2001). They were cho sen to con -
struct two of the in ter pre ta tive mod els pre sented
in this pa per, al though fixed and con stant val ues
al ways need to be treated with cau tion given that
both lo cal and de cad al (or even inter-year) vari a -
tions, that have proven to be rel e vant in mod ern
sam ples (Dutta et al., 2001), may be unrecognised
to some extent.
Fol low ing the above con sid er ations, we have
pre ferred to pres ent both the raw uncalibrated
re sults (Ta ble 2; Fig. 14), and three dif fer ent cal i -
bra tion mod els: 1) the se quence af ter cal i bra tion
against the 22927 res er voir value from the regio-
nal mean pub lished by Reimer and Reimer (2001),
2) the 16330 res er voir ef fect from Port Okha
(Dutta et al., 2001), and 3) the Ma rine 09 Cal i bra -
tion Curve, with out res er voir ef fect (Fig. 15).
The gen eral dis tri bu tion of the cal i brated dates
looks un var ied as ex pected, al though mainly in the
di a grams of Fig. 15 a) and b) the shell ex ploi ta tion
peak matches well with the Ma ture Indus civ i li za -
tion pe riod.
DIS CUS SION
The Daun ra dio car bon dates sug gest that
man grove en vi ron ments were pres ent around the
bay just be fore the mid 7
th
mil len nium BP, and
were ex ploited by the Neo lithic in hab it ants for
shell fish con sump tion. Their ex ploi ta tion ceased
dur ing the 6
th
mil len nium BP, the only ex cep tion
be ing that of Daun 6, whose high d
13
C value
shows a non-man grove or i gin. This re sult al lows
us to hy poth e size that man grove swamps re -
treated or dis ap peared (?) from the area dur ing the
Chalcolithic Amri/Nal cul tures, re in forc ing the
im pres sion of a Mid Ho lo cene dry ep i sode al -
ready known from other parts of Eur asia (An der -
son et al., 2007:8), among which are the Indus-
Sarasvati re gion (Brooks, 2006:38), and the Thar
Desert lakes of Rajastan (Deotare et al., 2004:20).
Man grove swamps spread again dur ing the
5
th
mil len nium BP, when a peak in T. palustris ex -
ploi ta tion is marked by a clus ter of dates with de -
pleted d
13
C val ues, typ i cal for man grove en vi ron -
ments. Man grove swamps re treated again,
per haps dur ing an other dry ep i sode, in the late 5
h
mil len nium BP, when only two shell mid dens
were set tled east of the la goon, not far from the
pres ent-day shore line.
The sug gested cy cles of man grove ex haus -
tion and re ju ve na tion seem to match well with the
mon soon cy cles, which show a gen eral weak en -
ing around 60005500 BP (Morrill et al., 2003).
Arid pe ri ods have been re corded from a few
Rajasthan and Gujarat lake cores, in par tic u lar
Nal Sarovar, where dryer ep i sodes oc curred dur -
ing the early 7
th
and the 6
th
mil len nia BP, and gen -
eral arid con di tions be fore the end of the 5
th
mil -
len nium BP (Ajithprasad, 2004). Fur ther more
global-scaled arid/cool ing ep i sodes al ter nated be -
tween 5200 and 4200 BP, and pos si bly also 6000
BP (Staubwasser and Weiss, 2006). They are in -
trigu ing for the dif fer ent ep i sodes of mangrove
exhaustion and rejuvenation at Daun.
The cli ma tic and mor pho log i cal changes of
Las Bela coastal zone can be com pared to those
that took place along the coast of Oman dur ing the
Mid dle Ho lo cene (Lzine, 2009), where vari a tions
in the lit to ral Ara bian Sea en vi ron ments have been
re corded along for merly an cient la goons rich in
man groves, at pres ent dis sected bas ins, which had
been sea son ally set tled dur ing most fa vour able pe -
ri ods by dif fer ent hu man groups (Charpentier et
al., 2000; 2012; Lzine et al., 2002; Mar tin, 2002,
Cleuziou, 2004:134).
As for other parts of the world the sys tem atic
ra dio car bon dat ing of man grove shell sam ples
around the Bay of Daun has shown that, also in
this re gion, shell mid dens are not ex clu sively a
stone age phe nom e non (Andersen, 2007). Shell
gath er ing took place in dif fer ent pe ri ods ac cord -
ing to the avail abil ity of the man grove re sources,
with two dis tinct picks of ex ploi ta tion dur ing the
Neo lithic and the Bronze Age, as part of dif fer ent
cy cles of prehistoric subsistence.
42 P. Biagi et al.
CON CLU SION
Ac cord ing to the ra dio car bon re sults, hu man
groups be gan to set tle along the coasts of Daun
Bay dur ing the first half of the 7
th
mil len nium BP
(Fig. 14). Sim i lar dates come from other sites dis -
trib uted along the shores of the Ara bian Pen in sula
and the Gulf (Biagi, 2008b; Boivin and Fuller,
2009:fig.5; Uerpmann and Uerpmann, 2003:ta ble
2.1), which were set tled dur ing the mid dle Ho lo -
cene, when the sea-level sta bi lised along a line
some 0.53m higher than that of the pres ent (see
for in stance Gupta, 1972; Sanlaville, 1992;
Bernier et al., 1995; Lambeck, 1996).
The re search un der-way along the coasts of
Las Bela and Lower Sindh led to the dis cov ery of
a few 8
th
mil len nium, and sev eral 7
th
mil len nium
BP shell mid dens along the shores of Lake Siranda
(Balochistan) (Biagi et al., in press a; in press b),
the Tharro and Makli Hills (Lower Sindh) (Biagi,
2010; 2011b). These discoveries raise im por tant
ques tions re gard ing the mid-Ho lo cene peo pling
of this part of the Ara bian Sea, al though we have
to con sider that the dis tri bu tion of shell mounds
is prob a bly a poor in di ca tor of the dis tri bu tion of
coastal pop u la tion (Bailey and Milner, 2002:6),
and that peo ple moved across the Gulf (Cleuziou,
2004:136; Carter, 2008) and the Ara bian Sea, ex -
ploited dif fer ent en vi ron ments, and de vel oped
spe cific ac tiv i ties ac cord ing to the dif fer ent lo ca -
tions they in hab ited, as they still do now a days
(Potts, 1990: 57; Costa, 1991; Lan cas ter and Lan -
cas ter, 1992; Nadjmabadi, 1992).
The most im por tant ques tions to be an swered
re gard 1) the prob lems re lated with the ear li est
sea far ing along the north ern shores of the Ara bian
Sea (Biagi, in press), 2) the changes that took
place in the coastal en vi ron ment dur ing the Ho lo -
cene, and the Mid dle At lan tic pe riod in par tic u lar
(Ken nett and Ken nett, 2006:76; Bailey et al.,
2007:133), and 3) the re la tion ships be tween coas-
tal shell mid dens and Neo lithic set tle ments of the
interior (Khan, 1979b).
1) A small scat ter of Ostreidae along the
south ern edge of the Tharro Hills (Gujo, Lower
Sindh), ra dio car bon-dated to 691060 BP (THR2:
GrN-32119), shows that the is let was reached by
boat around the be gin ning of the 7
th
mil len nium BP
(Biagi, 2010:fig.16). The Makli Hills were set tled a
few cen tu ries later, as shown by a scat ter of T. pa-
lustris shells (KKT2: GrN- 32464: 632045 BP)
(Biagi, 2013);
2) The above dates show that the Tharro and
Makli Hills, at pres ent sur rounded by the al lu vial
plain of the Indus delta (Bland ford, 1880:24),
were is lands in the 7
th
mil len nium BP. The new
dates ob tained from shell mid dens dis cov ered
along the shores of Lake Siranda, two of which
yielded 8
th
mil len nium, and five 7
th
mil len nium BP
re sults (van der Plicht pers. comm. 2012; Biagi et
al., in press b), help us fol low the en vi ron men tal
changes that ef fected this ba sin that, ac cord ing to
R.E. Snead (1966:60), was con nected to the
Sonmiani la goon in the not-too-dis tant past;
3) The 7
th
mil len nium Daun shell mid dens
show that man grove (and ma rine) re sources were
sea son ally ex ploited by com mu ni ties of shell fish
gath er ers mov ing sea son ally be tween the coast and
other land scapes, whose base set tle ments were lo -
cated most prob a bly slightly in land (Lzine et al.,
2002:229), al though so far there is no ev i dence for
Early Neo lithic sites in this part of Las Bela and
Lower Sindh (Khan, 1979a; 1979b; Shaffer,
1986; Possehl, 1999; Gangal et al., 2010). This
fact is most prob a bly due to the ab sence of any ac -
cu rate sur veys aimed at the re cov ery of set tle -
ments of this pe riod (Khan, 1979c:58). The un -
known chro nol ogy of the Early Neo lithic sites of
Balochistan (Fairservis, 1956), and the un cer tain
ra dio car bon seriation of Neo lithic Mehrgarh
(Jarrige et al., 1995:555; 20072008), have been
The shell mid dens of the Bay of Daun 43
Fig. 16. Dis tri bu tion map of the ra dio car bon-dated 8
th
and 7
th
mil len nium BP shell mid dens of Las Bela and
Lower Sindh: 1) Daun, 2) Lake Siranda, 3) Tharro
Hills, 4) Makli Hills (draw ing P. Biagi)
re cently criti cised (Petrie et al., 2010). Nev er the -
less the ab so lute dates ob tained from the bot tom
of the pol len col umn sam pled from this lat ter site
shows that Neo lithic Mehrgarh started to be set -
tled at the be gin ning of the 8
th
mil len nium BP as
shown by a con ven tional date of 7928126 uncal
BP (R-2290: Costantini, 20072008:171). The in -
hab it ants of Mehrgarh un doubt edly en ter tained
re la tion ships with the north ern coasts of the Ara -
bian Sea since the be gin ning of the Neo lithic, as
in di cated by the great quan tity of ma rine shell or -
na ments in the aceramic Neo lithic graves goods
(Ray, 2003:33; Jarrige, 2004:48). In this re spect it
is im por tant to point out that the new ra dio car bon
re sults from Lake Siranda show that the shores of
this an cient la goon were al ready set tled dur ing the
last two cen tu ries of the 8
th
mil len nium BP (Fig.
16), re mark ing the com plex ity of the oce anic and
ter res trial move ments that shaped the geo mor -
phol ogy of the re gion since the be gin ning of the
Ho lo cene (Bailey and Parkington, 1988).
At Daun, the al most ab sence of 6
th
mil len -
nium shell mid dens con trasts with the high num -
ber of 5
th
mil len nium BP sta tions, sug gest ing that
cli ma tic and en vi ron men tal changes af fected the
peo pling of this part of the coast of Las Bela dur -
ing the above pe ri ods. These data point out the
im por tance of the fresh wa ter re sources and mon -
soon pre cip i ta tions for the com mu ni ties that tem -
po rarily set tled in the area to ex ploit the rich man-
grove en vi ron ments avail able along the shores of
the bay (Ewel et al., 1998) dur ing pe ri ods of in -
creas ing pro duc tiv ity of the oce anic coastal mi cro-
en vi ron ments (Erlandson and Fitzpatrick, 2006).
Ac knowl edg ments
Re search at Las Bela has been made pos si ble thanks
to the fi nan cial sup port of the Ital ian Min is try of For eign
Af fairs (MAE, Rome), EURAL Gnutti (Rovato, Brescia),
and Ca Foscari Uni ver sity ar chae ol ogy funds.
The au thors are very grate ful to Pro fes sor A.H.
Bouk (De part ment of Com puter Sci ence, Balochistan
Uni ver sity, Quetta), for his com pany, help and sup port
dur ing the 2008 field work sea son. Spe cial thanks are
due to Pro fes sor A.R. Khan (De part ment of Ge og ra -
phy, Karachi Uni ver sity) with out whose ad vise the
Daun sites would have never been dis cov ered, and Dr.
M. Spataro (Brit ish Mu seum, UK) who took part in the
2000 and 2004 ex plor atory vis its, and Pro fes sor P.J.
Reimer (Queens Uni ver sity, Bel fast) for the use ful
discussions on isotopic fractionation.
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