Helmand Civilization

The people of the Helmand civilization lived partly in cities with temples and palaces, providing evidence for a complex and advanced social structure. The main cities so far known are Shahr-i Sokhta (in Zabol, Iran) and Mundigak (in modern Afghanistan). Research on the finds from both places showed that these cities shared the same culture. These are the earliest discovered cities in this part of the world, although the village Mehrgarh further to the southeast is considerably older. It is possible that the Helmand culture once formed one ancient state.

The pottery of the Helmand civilization is colorfully painted with mainly geometrical patterns. Plants and animals are also depicted. In Shahr-i Sokhta, texts were found in the Elamite language providing evidence of connections to the west of the Iran. There are also a few connections with the Indus Valley Civilisation, but it seems that the Helmand civilization existed earlier and did not have significant chronological overlap with the cities in the Indus valley.

V. M. Masson discussed several types of early civilizations. He distinguishes three typesː 1. Civilizations of tropical agriculture; 2. Civilizations of irrigation agriculture; and 3. civilizations of non-irrigated Mediterranean agriculture. For the civilizations of irrigation agriculture he sees two sub typesː Civilizations with irrigation derived from large rivers and civilizations with irrigation agriculture based on limited water sources. According to Masson, the Helmand culture clearly belongs to the latter type. He does not mention the term Helmand culture, but the cities Mundigak and Shahr-i Sokhta.

Geography and Archaeology

The formative phase of Helmand civilization was in the middle and lower Helmand river, which flows c. 1300 km southwestwards, crossing the deserts of Registan and Margo, reaching Iranian Sistan. The two most known sites are Mundigak, 35 km northwest of Kandahar, in Afghanistan, and Shahr-i Sokhta, 425 km distant, 50 km south-southwest of Zabol in Iran. Lamberg-Karlovsky and Tosi (1973) considered important the uniformity of finds in Shahr-i Sokhta and Mundigak shown in thousands of potsherds, lithic industry, metal working, building techniques, brick shapes, figurines and seals at the end of 4th millennium BCE. And although the Afghan region between both main sites bears no archaeological centers identified, there are two pottery production hubs, Tepe Dash and Rud-i Biyaban 2, both to the south of Shahr-i Sokhta; and Deh Morasi Ghundai and Said Qala Tepe to the southeast of Mundigak.

Significant archaeological similarities have been found also in Quetta Valley at Damb Sadaat, and in the Kachi Plain in Pakistan, around 200 km and over 300 km to the southeast of Kandahar respectively.