ABSTRACT
The value of surface pottery collections often lies largely in the evidence they afford for dating the sites on which they were found and the light they shed on the distribution and marketing of ceramics in the region. One of the most recent and elaborate provides the background for discussion of the proto-urban cultures of eastern Iran and has the merit of including Mehrgarh in its columns. Mehrgarh was abandoned in Period VII, apparently before the Harappans settled at Nowsharo, some three miles away, but a few objects with affinities to that culture suggested that Mehrgarh VII was contemporary with the period immediately preceding the mature Harappan. On the basis of the provisional dates suggested for Mehrgarh it is likely that Anjira was in occupation from the start of the fourth millennium or earlier with Kile Gul Mohammed (KGM) and basket-marked wares relating Periods I-II to Mehrgarh IIB, Mundigak I and KGM II-III.
