Helmand culture

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Painted vessel from Schahr-e Suchte

The Helmand culture (also the Helmand civilization ) flourished in the fourth and third millennium BC in the south of Afghanistan and in the southeast of Iran . This urban Bronze Age culture is only known from a few sites. Mundigak (Afghanistan) and Schahr-e Suchte (Iran) are the most important cities with considerable dimensions. Other important places are Bampur and Said Qala Tepe . The name of the culture refers to the Hilmend , a river in Afghanistan and Iran, in whose area most of the sites of this culture are located. The name is formed analogously to the name of the Indus culture and Oxus culture , which also developed along rivers. Possibly the area of ​​the Helmand culture is to be equated with an ancient state structure.

It is the earliest known culture in the region that built cities. A large palace and a monumental temple have been excavated in Mundigak. The palace in particular demonstrates an advanced social structure of society. Bronze was processed. Part of the ceramic is painted. There are numerous terracotta figures in the finds. Seals with geometric patterns were found at various sites.

There were contacts with the cultures of the Indus in the east, the oasis culture in the north and the Jiroft culture in the west. However, the exact chronological classification of the culture causes difficulties in research. While the older research assumed that the Indus culture was around the same time, more recent studies are cautious and rather assume that the Helmand culture was as early as 2500 BC. Had disappeared shortly before the Indus culture was in full bloom.

Individual evidence

  1. E. Cortesi sem-linkM. Tosi, A. Lazzari, M. Vidale: Cultural Relationships beyond the Iranian Plateau: The Helmand Civilization, Baluchistan and the Indus Valley in the 3rd Millennium BCE , in: Paléorient Année 2008 34-2 pp. 5-35
  2. Jane McIntosh: The Ancient Indus Valley. New Perspectives , Santa Barbara 2008, ISBN 978-1-57607-908-9 , 86-87
  3. Jean-François Jarrige, Aurore Didier, Gonzague Quivron (2011): Shahr-i Sokhta and the chronology of the Indo-Iranian regions , In: Paléorient , 2011, vol. 37, n ° 2. pp. 7-34.

literature

  • Cameron A. Petrie and Jim G. Schaffer, in: Raymond Allchin, Warwick Ball, Norman Hammond (Eds.): The Archeology of Afghanistan, From earliest Times to the Timurid Period , Edinburgh, University Press, Edinburgh 2019, ISBN 978-0 -7486-9917-9 , pp. 161-259
  • Raffaele Biscione: Relative Chronology and pottery connection between Shahr-i Sokhta and Munigak, Eastern Iran , in Memorie dell'Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana II (1974), 131-145