It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and Barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats)in south Asia, near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River Valley and between the present day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat, and Sibi. Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by French Archaeologist Jean Franchois Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 to 1986. The earliest settlement at Merhgarh - in the north east corner of the 495-acres site - was a small farming village dated between 7000 BCE-5500 BCE. Early Merhgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated six row barley, einkorn,and emmar wheat, jujubes and herded sheep,goats,and cattle. Residents of the later period (5500-2600) BCE put much effort into crafts, including flint knapping , tanning, bead production, and metal working . The site was occuppied continuously until about 2600 BCE.In April, 2006, in the scintific journal it was announced that the oldest evidence in human history for the drilling in teeth of a living person was found in Mehrgarh.
