"Most dramatically, Mehrgarh threw the date for evidence of agriculture back two entire millennia. This clearly underscores the danger of establishing theories predicated on argumentum ex silentio in the archaeological record. Mehrgarh also undermined previous assumptions that urbanization and agriculture were diffused from the centers of civilization to the west of the subcontinent. The site also set the stage for the indigenous development of complex cultural patterns that culminated in the great cities of the Indus Valley: "The origins of the Indus urban society can be traced to the socio-economic interaction systems and settlement patterns of the indigenous village cultures of die alluvial plain and piedmont. More importantly, the factors leading to this transformation ap- pear to be autochthonous and not derived from direct stimulus or diffusion from West or Central Asia" (Kenoyer 199lb, 11)."
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in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9
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Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh (Urdu, Balochi: مہرگڑھ) is a Neolithic archaeological site (dated circa 7000 BCE – circa 2500/2000 BCE) situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in modern-day Pakistan. It is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River and between the modern-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by the French Archaeological Mission led by the French archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and his wife, Catherine Jarrige.
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