Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus valley civilisation."Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus Valley civilisation", according to Ahmad Hassan Dani, Prof. emeritus of Archaeology at Quadi-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Here the whole sequence is available right for the begining of settled village life. According to Catherne Jarrigeof the Centre for Archaeological Research Indus Baluchistan, Musee Guirnet, Paris.The Kachi plain and in the Bolan Basin are situated at the Bolan Peak Pass, one of the main routes connecting southern Afghanistan, eastern Iran, the Balochistan hills and the Indus valley.This area of rolling hills is thus located on the western edge of the Indus valley, where, around 2500 BCE, a large urban civilisation emerged at the at the same time as those of Mesopotamia and the ancient Egyptian Empire. For the first time in the Indian subcontinent , a continuous sequence of dwelling-sites has been established from 7000 BCE to 500 BCE,as a result of the explorations in Pirak from 1968 to 1974;in Mehrgarh from 1975 to 1985;and of Nausharofrom1985 to 1996.The people of Mehrgarh also had contacts with contemporary cultures of northern Afghanistan, north eastern Iran and southern central Asia.
