Meluhhan sea traders were bringing perishable items from Mesopotamia to Dilmun
and/or Magan in exchange for copper, diorite, chlorite/steatite, etc. to bring back to
the greater Indus Valley, then we can explain the lack of non-perishable Mesopotamian
goods in South Asia. Sadly, only the fragmentary texts from Mesopotamia provide us
with a glimpse of the broader trade system through the Persian Gulf in the second half
of the third millennium BC.
Our reconstruction of the sea trade between Mesopotamia and Meluhha is still
largely speculative and will require far more research. However, it is possible now to
observe larger patterns of socio-economic and cultural influence over the Gulf trade
based on the material evidence published thus far (e.g., Reade 2008 ; Edens 1993 ;
Cleuziou and Méry 2002 ). While many scholars have argued that the presence of
material culture from Mesopotamia and the greater Indus Valley in the Gulf polities
of the third millennium BCprovides evidence for a socio-political dominance or
hegemony over “peripheral” regions, it is equally possible that these “secondary states”
in fact exerted great agency and independence (see Edens 1992 : 133 ). Just as Persia and
Afghanistan played the Russian Bear and the English Lion against each other during
the “Great Game” of the nineteenth century, so Magan and Dilmun may have
manipulated their powerful neighbors in order to maintain sovereignty. For example,
it is interesting to note that Magan seems to have played a much stronger role than
Meluhha or even Mesopotamia in the formation of the important Barbar Culture of
Dilmun (e.g., Rice 1994 : 238 ; Laursen 2009 , 2011 : 43 note 8 ).
In an attempt to demonstrate the material evidence for such relationships, this
chapter will focus on the area of Magan (i.e., the Emirates and Northern Oman,
possibly also the coast of Southeastern Iran and the Pakistani Makran; see Frifelt 2002 ;
Reade 2008 : 16 ) vis-à-vis its relations with Mesopotamia and the greater Indus Valley.
While the rise of Sumerian, Akkadian, and later dynasties of Southern Mesopotamia
is detailed in other parts of this volume, it behooves the author to first provide a short
summary of the rise and fall of the Harappan Civilization before speaking about its role
in Gulf trade with Mesopotamia and Magan. In addition, the influence of Marhashi
on Magan will be discussed briefly as a counter-point to traditional east–west thinking
on the rise of the Gulf trade.THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
The developmental trajectory of the Harappan Civilization often begins in the Quetta
Valley of north-eastern Baluchistan (e.g., Possehl 1990 ), which is today the important
highland region situated between the Afghani lowlands of the Helmand and
Arghandab Valleys and the Pakistani lowlands of the Indus Valley. The Quetta Valley
provides the earliest evidence of sedentary farming communities in South Asia in the
seventh to fifth millennium BC. From these humble beginnings, the highlands of
Pakistan and northwest India produced a number of archaeologically defined cultures
of the Chalcolithic period (c. 4500 – 3000 BC). These “cultures,” possibly representing
distinct ethnic or cultural identities, are best represented by the beautifully painted and
well-made ceramic types of each region, such as Togau and Kechi Beg Wares (northern
Baluchistan), Sohr Damb I/Miri II-III wares (southern Baluchistan/Makran), and
Sheri Khan Tarakai Ware (Bannu Basin) (Franke 2008 ). Most importantly, it is at the
end of the Chalcolithic (fourth millennium BCE) that coherent archaeological
–– Mesopotamia, Meluhha, and those in between ––