ABSTRACT
A critical stage in human evolution took place some six million years ago, during the later Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene geological time periods, when our remotest ancestors emerged in Africa. Palaeontologists and archaeologists refer to them by the term hominins. The culmination of the long period of evolution, adaptation and diffusion by the pre-human species such as the Australopithecines and the three hominin branches was reached when our own species, Homo Sapiens modern humans biologically similar to us emerged around 400,000 years ago. The most ancient site is that of Mehrgarh in Baluchistan. Owing to the findings of major excavations there in 1974, under Jean-Franois Jarrige and his Franco-Pakistani team, it provides evidence of links between the Neolithic society and the Mature Harappan culture. The geographical position of Mehrgarh is particularly worth examining. The alluvium and floodwaters of the Bolan River and Indus basin made the Mehrgarh site suitable for farming.
