Editing Mehrgarh (section)

=== Mehrgarh Period I (pre-7000–5500 BCE) ===
The Mehrgarh Period I (pre-7000–5500 BCE){{refn|group=note|Jarrige: "Though it is difficult to date precisely
the beginning of Period I, it can be rather securely assessed that the first occupation of Mehrgarh has to be put in a context probably earlier than 7000 BC."<ref>Jean-Francois Jarrige (2006), [https://www.academia.edu/4648302/Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic ''Mehrgarh Neolithic''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215153746/http://www.academia.edu/4648302/Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic_Mehrgarh_Neolithic |date=15 December 2018 }}; paper presented in the International Seminar on the "First Farmers in the Global Perspective", Lucknow India 18–20 January 2006. Published in 2008 as ''Mehrgarh Neolithic'', Pragdhara 18:136-154; see page 151.</ref>}} was [[Neolithic]] and [[aceramic]] (without the use of pottery). The earliest [[farming]] in the area was developed by semi-nomadic people using plants such as [[wheat]] and [[barley]] and animals such as [[sheep]], [[goat]]s and [[cattle]]. The settlement was established with unbaked mud-brick buildings and most of them had four internal subdivisions. Numerous burials have been found, many with elaborate goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, beads, bangles, pendants, and occasionally animal sacrifices, with more goods left with burials of males. Ornaments of [[sea shell]], [[limestone]], [[turquoise]], [[lapis lazuli]] and [[sandstone]] have been found, along with simple [[figurine]]s of women and animals. Seashells from far seashores, and lapis lazuli from as far away as present-day [[Badakshan]], show good contact with those areas. One ground [[stone axe]] was discovered in a [[burial]], and several more were obtained from the surface. These ground stone axes are the earliest to come from a stratified context in [[South Asia]].

Periods I, II, and III are considered contemporaneous with another site called Kili Gul Mohammad.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_I%20silk%20road_pre%20indus%20and%20early%20indus%20cultures%20of%20pakistan%20and%20india.pdf |first=J.G. |last=Shaffer|first2=B.K. |last2=Thapar|title=Pre-Indus and Early Indus Cultures of Pakistan and India |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=11 April 2020 |archive-date=28 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028131200/http://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_I%20silk%20road_pre%20indus%20and%20early%20indus%20cultures%20of%20pakistan%20and%20india.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The aceramic Neolithic phase in the region had originally been called the ''Kili Gul Muhammad phase''. While the Kili Gul Muhammad site itself probably started {{Circa|5500 BCE}}, subsequent discoveries allowed the date range of 7000–5000 BCE to be defined for this aceramic Neolithic phase.<ref>Mukhtar Ahmed, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HbvTBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA387 ''Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709130217/https://books.google.ca/books?id=HbvTBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA387 |date=9 July 2022 }} Volume II: A Prelude to Civilization. Amazon, 2014 {{ISBN|1495941302}} p.&nbsp;387</ref>

In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of nine men from Mehrgarh discovered that the people of this civilization knew proto-[[dentistry]]. In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' that the oldest (and first ''early Neolithic'') evidence for the drilling of human teeth ''in vivo'' (''i.e.'' in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of that region. "Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in early farming culture."<ref name="Coppa">Coppa, A. et al. 2006. [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7085/pdf/440755a.pdf "Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry: Flint tips were surprisingly effective for drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127160643/http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7085/pdf/440755a.pdf |date=27 November 2007 }} ''Nature''. Volume 440. 6 April 2006.</ref>