--- In cybalist@..., george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
> *****GK: What are the origins of Harappan
> civilization? Is it considered fully
> "autochtonous"?*****
VA; The quote below may be taken as fairly representative of the
scholarly consensus -
Page 37: "The chronological priority of Mesopotamian civilization
among world civilizations has naturally prompted many scholars to
assume that the Indus Civilization stemmed from the direct contacts
with the west. Mesopotamian references to the populous land of Dilmun
located east of it have led the eminent American Sumerologist, Samuel
Noah Kramer, to look for this place in the Indus Valley. He also
suggested the possibility of migration of the people during the Ubaid
Period (ca. 3500 to 2900 BC) from Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley,
where they initiated the development of civilization. But we know
that the Indus Civilization was already matured and flourishing about
2500 BC. There is no evidence to suggest that urbanization in the Pak-
Iranian borderlands and the Indus Valley was the result of exterior
influence."
Page 38 "
On the present evidence we believe that the style of the
civilization had its manifestations in the regions not remote from
the Indus Valley and the sea coast where contacts with the countries
around the Persian Gulf are assumed to have occurred, simultaneously
with the overland contracts. It is, however, unlikely that any
contact with Mesopotamian germinated in the Indus Civilization. The
evidence does suggest that the Indus Civilization was an indigenous
development and that it arose out of the evolution of developed
village cultures in Baluchistan and the Indus Valley in a favorable
environment. It emphasizes the sub-continental roots and the
consequent style which gives this civilization its uniqueness. On the
present evidence, the Indus Civilization cannot be said to have
originated through the direction or even stimulus diffusion from
Mesopotamia, even though the rise of civilization took place in
Mesoptamia earlier than in the Indus Valley."
REFERENCE: KHAN, F. A. 1992 "Ancient Cultural Contacts Acoss the
Indus Valley".pp. 33-43 in POSSEHL, Gregory. 1992. South Asian
Archaeology Studies. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.: New
Delhi/Calcutta/Bombay
> ***GK: Thank you for the reference. No DNA tests yet I
> gather?*****
VA: Actually there are DNA studies available. You will find them in
KENNEDY's book listed in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/12936
Sincerely,
Vishal