Kot Diji

Kot Diji is the type site, i.e. the first excavated site of this type of culture, for the Kot Diji Culture which belongs to the Early Harappan Phase of the Indus Valley Civilisation, c.3300-2800 BCE. • Kot Diji (3300 BCE), near Dera Ismail Khan and close to River Zhob Valleyin Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. • Kunal in Hisar district of Haryana in India has a similar culture to the Pre-Harappan site of Rehman Dheri. A button seal was discovered at Kunal during the 1998-99 excavations by Archaeological Survey of India. The seal is similar to the Rehman Dheri examples. It contained a picture of two deer on one side, and a geometrical pattern on other side. ==Kot Diji culture (3300–2600 BCE)==

Kot Diji culture': Based on the pottery found here, it is classified as a separate archaeological culture / subculture. The site covers . The earliest occupation of this site is termed 'Kot Dijian', which is pre-Harappan, or early formative Harappan. The houses and fortifications were made from unbaked mud-bricks. Lithic material, such as leaf-shaped chert arrowheads, shows parallels with Mundigak layers II-IV. The pottery seems to anticipate Harappan Ware. Progress towards Harappa Phase Glazed steatite beads were produced. There was a clear transition from the earlier Ravi pottery to what is commonly referred to as Kot Diji pottery. Red slip and black painted designs replaced polychrome decorations of the Ravi Phase. Then, there was a gradual transformation into what is commonly referred to as Harappa Phase pottery. Early Indus script may have appeared at Kot Diji on pottery and on a sealing. The use of inscribed seals and the standardization of weights may have occurred during the Kot Diji period. ==Rani Kot (600-1843 AD)==

According to legends, the wall existed during Umayyad rule and later under the Abbasid rule. The Soomro tribe inhabited the fort and later the Samma tribe positioned large infantry formations inside the fort. The Mughal Emirs armed the walls of the fort with cannons and muskets. They were the first to renovate the entire structure. The Kalhora tribe later gained control of the fort, and finally the Talpurs saw the fort as a strategic asset especially during the reign of Mir Fatih Ali Khan Talpur, until they were defeated and overthrown by the British Empire, in 1843 AD. The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overturned in the riverbed at Sann (Eastern) Gate, Ranikot, confirms that at least this sector of the fort was built, or repaired, between the beginning of the 18th century and the beginning of 19th century, that is between the beginning of the Kalhoras and the beginning of the Talpurs rule. The present note, without positively solving the much debated issue of the age of the fort, points to a new line of research on the topic, which deserves future work, in order to collect more organic material for absolute dating. An Acacia charcoal sample collected from the above exposed surface was sent to Groningen Radiocarbon Laboratory (NL) for AMS dating. It yielded the following result 160±30 uncal BP (GrA-44671). Although its calibration is rather problematic, given that the curve at this point is highly fluctuating with several interceptions, most probabilities indicate that the pillar was erected between cal AD 1720 and 1828 (47.6% at 2 sigmas, according to OxCal 4.10: BRONK RAMSEY, 2009),although another interception suggests a much more recent date (fig.6). ==See also==