Khirthar National Park
Baseline Environmental Study

Chapter 7: Archaeology

Hopkins, L.

Introduction

The archaeological survey carried out as part of the Khirthar National Park Baseline Study, Component Two, in September 2000, was an attempt to investigate the long and continuing history of human settlement and exploitation of this arid zone from the earliest times up until the turn of the twentieth century AD. Despite its harsh climate and apparent lack of resources, the Khirthar area has occupied an important geographical position throughout human history, both because of its central location and because of its proximity to one of the great cradles of world civilisation, the Indus Valley. The importance of this location is reflected in traces of human presence in the area going back more than 5000 years (Flam, 1996: 34). Remains of ongoing, if perhaps sporadic, occupation of the Khirthar area are evident from Neolithic through Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, Proto-historic, Early Historical, Islamic and Colonial times. Contemporary settlement in Khirthar continues the long tradition of human use and occupation of the region.

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