The discovery and AMS dating of many shell middens along the shores of the dry basin of Lake Siranda (Las Bela, Balochistan, Pakistan) have shown that it was a lagoon in the northern coast of the Arabian Sea in Neolithic times, densely settled by communities of mangrove shellfish gatherers

A. Girod

P. Biagi

R. Nisbet

T. Fantuzzi

Paolo Biagi

Renato Nisbet

Alberto Girod

Tiziano Fantuzzi

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università degli Studi di Venezia Ca' Foscari

The Middle Holocene shellfish gatherers of Las Bela coast (Balochistan, Pakistan): New AMS dates from Lake Siranda shell middens

Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca

The Middle Holocene mangrove shellfish gatherers of Las Bela coast (Balochistan, Pakistan): new AMS dates from Lake Siranda shell middens

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Antiquity Volume 087 Issue 337 September 2013
The Middle Holocene mangrove shellfish gatherers of Las Bela
coast (Balochistan, Pakistan): new AMS dates from Lake Siranda
shell middens
Paolo Biagi, Renato Nisbet, Alberto Girod & Tiziano Fantuzzi
Introduction
In the early 1970s, Professor A.R. Khan of Karachi University conducted the first geoarchaeological survey of the coast of Las Bela
(Khan 1979a). The results (Khan 1979b) suggested that the coastal areas of Las Bela and southern Sindh have great archaeological
potential because of their geographical location and morphological characteristics, as is also reported in the chronicles of the Classical
authors, especially Arrian (see for example McCrindle 1879). In 2011, a joint programme of archaeological surveys was initiated by the
universities of Ca' Foscari (Venice) and Balochistan (Quetta). Its principal scope was to locate prehistoric shell middens along the shores
of Lake Siranda, to AMS-date samples of mangrove gastropods from any new sites, to contribute to the study of the Neolithic peopling
of the region and their eventual seafaring along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea and, finally, to interpret the geomorphological
variations that took place in the territory of Las Bela since the start of the Holocene.
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Figure 1. Location of Lake Siranda (blue spot) in Las Bela
province of Balochistan, Pakistan (from Stein 1943: 195,
with variations).
Click to enlarge.
Geographical setting
The first geological account of the landscape surrounding Lake Siranda
was written by R.E. Snead (1966: 58): "a desert depression with no
normal outlet to the sea". The lake stretches from north to south between
the Holocene dunes of the Sonmiani Hills in the west, and the Pleistocene
sand plain that extends to the east (Snead & Frishman 1968), while in the
south it is delimited by the Khurkera plain, formed by the silting of the
Winder River flowing from the Pab Range (Pithawalla 1952: 33).
Lake Siranda, some 14km long and 3km wide, and only 0.30–0.45m above
the present sea level, is located in the southernmost part of Las Bela
Valley (Figure 1) (Snead 1969). Although fed by summer monsoon rains
draining into the basin mainly by the Watto River—an easternmost branch
of the Porali River (Stein 1943: 198)—today the lake is often dry,
depending on the seasonal precipitation (Akhtar 2011). According to data
from the 1950s, its maximum depth was 1.5m in the winter and 3m in the
summer (Pithawalla 1952: 33).
In one of his papers, Snead reports scatters of marine and mangrove
shells, both along the eastern shores of the lake and within its bed (Snead 1966: fig. 15), suggesting that the lake, formed by the
recession of the sea (Minchin 1907: 10), "was lower and functioned as a tidal lagoon in the not-too-distant past" (Snead 1966: 60).
Given these premises, research in the area was resumed between 2011 and 2013 in order to verify the presence of shell middens along
the lake shores, to establish a radiocarbon chronology of the sites, if any, and to contribute to the knowledge of the events that led to
the present geographical situation.
The surveys
Sir Aurel Stein was the first archaeologist to visit Las Bela province during his journey in search of the route followed by Alexander the
Great (Stein 1943: 198), although Siranda is also reported in other papers devoted to the same topic, mainly based on the chronicles
of ancient Greek geographers (see for example Holdich 1910: 155; Eggermont 1975: 92; Hasan 2002: 20).
The only known prehistoric site in the territory before the new survey work was Balakot (Kot Bala), a stratified Chalcolithic/Bronze Age
mound located in the northern part of the Khurkera plain, excavated by G. Dales in the 1970s (Dales 1974, 1979). The 2011–2013
surveys led to the discovery of 73 archaeological sites along the ancient shores of Siranda, 18 of which were AMS dated (Figure 2).
They consist mainly of shell middens of different sizes and shapes, sometimes forming clusters within very restricted areas. They are
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Figure 2. Lake Siranda: distribution map of the shell
middens, AMS dated to the eighth millennium (yellow),
seventh millennium (blue) and sixth millennium BP (red).
BK1 is Balakot (drawing by R. Nisbet).
Click to enlarge.
Figure 3. Lake Siranda: site SRN 2 in the background,
and scatters of T. palustris, T. telescopium and marine
bivalves on the surface of SRN 1 in the lower right corner
(photographs by P. Biagi).
Click to enlarge.
characterised by huge mounds, or small scatters or heaps, of fragmented mangrove gastropods (Terebralia palustris & Telescopium
telescopium) (Figure 3), often found associated with other species of marine and mangrove shells, mainly bivalves. Very large middens
were discovered mostly along the south-eastern shores of the lake, where the basin begins to narrow (Figure 4), although another
very large site, some 75m in diameter, was discovered along the south-western shore (Figure 5).
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Figure 4. Lake Siranda: site SRN 29 in the background,
and scatter of T. telescopium gastropods on the surface
of SRN 30 in the lower right corner (photographs by P.
Biagi).
Click to enlarge.
Figure 5. Lake Siranda: the white spot of site SRN 67,
the largest shell midden so far discovered along the
south-western shore of the basin (photograph by P.
Biagi).
Click to enlarge.
Figure 6. Lake Siranda: chipped stone tools of Gadani
reddish-brown flint from shell midden SRN 29: trapezoidal
geometrics (nos. 1–3), lunate (no. 4), backed bladelets
(nos. 5 & 10), micro-drill (no. 6), truncation (no. 7) and
unretouched bladelets (nos. 8 & 9) (drawings by P. Biagi,
inking by E. Starnini).
Click to enlarge.
Apart from mangrove and marine shell fragments, the sites yielded
characteristic items of material culture among which are chipped stone
tools—often obtained from bladelets of Gadani reddish-brown flint
(Naseem et al. 1996–1997)—represented by different types of microlithic
geometrics, mainly isosceles trapezes and lunates (Figure 6), as well as a
few net weights, ground stones and pestles. Small fragments of pottery
have also been recovered from a few sites.
The radiocarbon chronology
As mentioned above, 18 shell middens have been AMS dated from single,
adult mangrove shell specimens, preferably T. palustris. The results
obtained so far (Figure 7; Table 1) show that the Siranda shores were
settled for a period of some 2000 years between the last two centuries of
the eighth and the second half of the sixth millennia uncal BP, that is,
during the Neolithic and part of the Chalcolithic periods, when the Arabian
Sea level was some 3m higher than present (Lambeck 1996) and the lake
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Click to enlarge.was a tidal lagoon of the Arabian Sea partly surrounded by a mangrove
environment.
Site name Coordinates Metres asl Material Lab. number Delta 13C Age BP Cal BC 2s Reference
SRN 43 25°30'25"N-
66°38'32"E
8 T. palustris GrA-54290 -3.55 7200±35 5611–5454 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 38 25°30'07"N-
66°38'45"E
9 T. palustris GrA-54303 -6.58 7095±35 5519–5333 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 33 25°29'58"N-
66°39'16"E
12 T. palustris GrA-54291 -6.16 6770±35 5223–4977 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 37 25°29'59"N-
66°38'57"E
7 T. palustris GrA-55821 -5.78 6595±45 5028–4747 Unpublished
SRN 29 25°30'27"N-
66°37'35"E
10 T. palustris GrA-54299 -5.57 6595±35 5010–4765 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 39bis 25°30'08"N-
66°38'41"E
9 T. telescopium GrA-54298 -4.53 6336±35 4698–4468 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 1 25°32'31"N-
66°37'09"E
5 T. palustris GrA-50323 -4.638 6305±40 4682–4437 Biagi 2013: 11
SRN 40 25°30'10"N-
66°38'40"E
4 T. palustris GrA-55823 -3.86 6145±45 4496–4271 Unpublished
SRN 39 25°30'08"N-
66°38'41"E
9 T. palustris GrA-55822 -4.33 6145±45 4496–4271 Unpublished
SRN 2 25°31'31"N-
66°36'49"E
2 T. palustris GrA-50325 -6.213 5950±40 4306–4046 Unpublished
SRN 31 25°30'01"N-
66°39'19"E
4 T. palustris GrA-55820 -5.03 5875±45 4230–3967 Unpublished
SRN 47 25°30'40"N-
66°38'06"E
10 T. palustris GrA-54296 -3.46 5800±35 4155–3920 Unpublished
SRN 23 25°30'48"N-
66°37'39"E
7 T. palustris GrA-54294 -5.05 5780±30 4133–3901 Unpublished
SRN 42 25°30'25"N-
66°30'32"E
11 T. palustris GrA-54292 -5.79 5755±35 4072–3810 Unpublished
SRN 44 25°30'22"N- 2 T. palustris GrA-54301 -7.20 5690±35 3982–3766 Unpublished
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Figure 7. Lake Siranda: chronological distribution of the
calibrated dates from the different sites. Data from Table
1 (scatterplot by T. Fantuzzi). 
Click to enlarge.
Figure 8. Balakot: the prehistoric mound from the
south-east (photograph by P. Biagi).
Click to enlarge.
Table 1. Lake Siranda: list of the AMS-dated shell middens. Calibration applied ΔR of 229±27 years according to Dutta et al. (2001) and
Reimer et al. (2009).
66°38'38"E
SRN 24 25°30'48"N-
66°37'37"E
5 T. telescopium GrA-55818 -6.12 5665±45 3971–3719 Unpublished
SRN 28 25°30'32"N-
66°37'36"E
9 T. palustris GrA-55819 -2.55 5440±40 3727–3510 Unpublished
SRN 16 25°31'39"N-
66°35'54"E
7 T. palustris GrA-55817 -3.86 5065±40 3330–3023 Unpublished
Following the retreat of the ocean, after the middle of the sixth millennium BP, and the consequent disappearance of the mangrove
forests, the territory dried up and, as the surveys have shown, was never settled again—even in historical times. Nevertheless, it is
important to point out that one specimen of T. palustris, collected from the surface of Balakot mound (BLK 1; Figure 8) was AMS dated
to 4660±40 BP (2831–2498 cal BC at 2s: GrA-55828). This assay, which is some 500 years later than the most recent results
obtained from the Siranda sites, shows that Balakot inhabitants exploited another mangrove environment, possibly located along the
shores of Miani Hor.
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Conclusion
The AMS dates obtained from the Siranda shell middens contribute to the definition of the Holocene peopling of the northern coast of
the Arabian Sea, of which very little was known as recently as 10 years ago. The discovery of shell middens around the Bay of Daun,
along the coast of Las Bela (Biagi 2004, 2011; Biagi et al. 2013), and on the limestone outcrops rising from the Indus delta (Biagi
2009, 2013), have radically changed our view of the Neolithic peopling of this part of the Arabian Sea. Indeed, the research at present
underway along the southern coast of the Sultanate of Oman has revealed a very similar pattern of mid Holocene human exploitation,
with groups of fisher-gatherers settled along the shores of former tidal lagoons, in a period of maximum expansion of the mangrove
environments (Lézine et al. 2002; Berger et al. 2005, 2013).
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Professor M. Khalid Badini (University of Balochistan, Quetta) for organising their stay at Uthal Circuit
House during the 2012 and 2013 fieldwork seasons at Lake Siranda, and to Professor M. Altaf Bouk, former director of the Department
of Informatics at the University of Balochistan. Thanks are also due to Mr Iftikhar Badini, Haqdil Hakeem and Muhammad Qasim,
students of Uthal Maritime and Agricultural University, who took part in the 2012 and 2013 surveys, and to Dr E. Starnini (Turin
University, Italy) for the reassessment of Figures 3 and 4. Research at Las Bela was made possible thanks to contributions from the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE, Rome), and the Ca' Foscari University Archaeology Research Funds (Venice). Thanks are due
also to EURAL Gnutti Ltd. (Rovato, Brescia) for financing some of the AMS dates.
References
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Authors
*Author for correspondence
Paolo Biagi* & Renato Nisbet
Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari University, Ca' Cappello, San Polo 2035, I-30125 Venezia, Italy (E-
mail: pavelius@unive.it; renatonisbet@gmail.com)
Alberto Girod
Via Ponte Tresa 7, CH-69024 Sorengo, Switzerland (E-mail: fraberto.girod@gmail.com)
Tiziano Fantuzzi
Department of Humanities, Ca' Foscari University, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484D, I-30123 Venezia, Italy (E-mail:
tiziano.fantuzzi@gmail.com)
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BIAGI, Paolo

NISBET, RENATO

pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIHOME CURRENT ISSUE ANTIQUITY+ ARCHIVE CONTRIBUTE SUBSCRIBE CONTACT<< Previous PageExplore the Project GalleryAntiquity Volume 087 Issue 337 September 2013The Middle Holocene mangrove shellfish gatherers of Las Belacoast (Balochistan, Pakistan): new AMS dates from Lake Sirandashell middensPaolo Biagi, Renato Nisbet, Alberto Girod & Tiziano FantuzziIntroductionIn the early 1970s, Professor A.R. Khan of Karachi University conducted the first geoarchaeological survey of the coast of Las Bela(Khan 1979a). The results (Khan 1979b) suggested that the coastal areas of Las Bela and southern Sindh have great archaeologicalpotential because of their geographical location and morphological characteristics, as is also reported in the chronicles of the Classicalauthors, especially Arrian (see for example McCrindle 1879). In 2011, a joint programme of archaeological surveys was initiated by theuniversities of Ca' Foscari (Venice) and Balochistan (Quetta). Its principal scope was to locate prehistoric shell middens along the shoresof Lake Siranda, to AMS-date samples of mangrove gastropods from any new sites, to contribute to the study of the Neolithic peoplingof the region and their eventual seafaring along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea and, finally, to interpret the geomorphologicalvariations that took place in the territory of Las Bela since the start of the Holocene.pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIFigure 1. Location of Lake Siranda (blue spot) in Las Belaprovince of Balochistan, Pakistan (from Stein 1943: 195,with variations).Click to enlarge.Geographical settingThe first geological account of the landscape surrounding Lake Sirandawas written by R.E. Snead (1966: 58): "a desert depression with nonormal outlet to the sea". The lake stretches from north to south betweenthe Holocene dunes of the Sonmiani Hills in the west, and the Pleistocenesand plain that extends to the east (Snead & Frishman 1968), while in thesouth it is delimited by the Khurkera plain, formed by the silting of theWinder River flowing from the Pab Range (Pithawalla 1952: 33).Lake Siranda, some 14km long and 3km wide, and only 0.30–0.45m abovethe present sea level, is located in the southernmost part of Las BelaValley (Figure 1) (Snead 1969). Although fed by summer monsoon rainsdraining into the basin mainly by the Watto River—an easternmost branchof the Porali River (Stein 1943: 198)—today the lake is often dry,depending on the seasonal precipitation (Akhtar 2011). According to datafrom the 1950s, its maximum depth was 1.5m in the winter and 3m in thesummer (Pithawalla 1952: 33).In one of his papers, Snead reports scatters of marine and mangroveshells, both along the eastern shores of the lake and within its bed (Snead 1966: fig. 15), suggesting that the lake, formed by therecession of the sea (Minchin 1907: 10), "was lower and functioned as a tidal lagoon in the not-too-distant past" (Snead 1966: 60).Given these premises, research in the area was resumed between 2011 and 2013 in order to verify the presence of shell middens alongthe lake shores, to establish a radiocarbon chronology of the sites, if any, and to contribute to the knowledge of the events that led tothe present geographical situation.The surveysSir Aurel Stein was the first archaeologist to visit Las Bela province during his journey in search of the route followed by Alexander theGreat (Stein 1943: 198), although Siranda is also reported in other papers devoted to the same topic, mainly based on the chroniclesof ancient Greek geographers (see for example Holdich 1910: 155; Eggermont 1975: 92; Hasan 2002: 20).The only known prehistoric site in the territory before the new survey work was Balakot (Kot Bala), a stratified Chalcolithic/Bronze Agemound located in the northern part of the Khurkera plain, excavated by G. Dales in the 1970s (Dales 1974, 1979). The 2011–2013surveys led to the discovery of 73 archaeological sites along the ancient shores of Siranda, 18 of which were AMS dated (Figure 2).They consist mainly of shell middens of different sizes and shapes, sometimes forming clusters within very restricted areas. They arepdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIFigure 2. Lake Siranda: distribution map of the shellmiddens, AMS dated to the eighth millennium (yellow),seventh millennium (blue) and sixth millennium BP (red).BK1 is Balakot (drawing by R. Nisbet).Click to enlarge.Figure 3. Lake Siranda: site SRN 2 in the background,and scatters of T. palustris, T. telescopium and marinebivalves on the surface of SRN 1 in the lower right corner(photographs by P. Biagi).Click to enlarge.characterised by huge mounds, or small scatters or heaps, of fragmented mangrove gastropods (Terebralia palustris & Telescopiumtelescopium) (Figure 3), often found associated with other species of marine and mangrove shells, mainly bivalves. Very large middenswere discovered mostly along the south-eastern shores of the lake, where the basin begins to narrow (Figure 4), although anothervery large site, some 75m in diameter, was discovered along the south-western shore (Figure 5).pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIFigure 4. Lake Siranda: site SRN 29 in the background,and scatter of T. telescopium gastropods on the surfaceof SRN 30 in the lower right corner (photographs by P.Biagi).Click to enlarge.Figure 5. Lake Siranda: the white spot of site SRN 67,the largest shell midden so far discovered along thesouth-western shore of the basin (photograph by P.Biagi).Click to enlarge.Figure 6. Lake Siranda: chipped stone tools of Gadanireddish-brown flint from shell midden SRN 29: trapezoidalgeometrics (nos. 1–3), lunate (no. 4), backed bladelets(nos. 5 & 10), micro-drill (no. 6), truncation (no. 7) andunretouched bladelets (nos. 8 & 9) (drawings by P. Biagi,inking by E. Starnini).Click to enlarge.Apart from mangrove and marine shell fragments, the sites yieldedcharacteristic items of material culture among which are chipped stonetools—often obtained from bladelets of Gadani reddish-brown flint(Naseem et al. 1996–1997)—represented by different types of microlithicgeometrics, mainly isosceles trapezes and lunates (Figure 6), as well as afew net weights, ground stones and pestles. Small fragments of potteryhave also been recovered from a few sites.The radiocarbon chronologyAs mentioned above, 18 shell middens have been AMS dated from single,adult mangrove shell specimens, preferably T. palustris. The resultsobtained so far (Figure 7; Table 1) show that the Siranda shores weresettled for a period of some 2000 years between the last two centuries ofthe eighth and the second half of the sixth millennia uncal BP, that is,during the Neolithic and part of the Chalcolithic periods, when the ArabianSea level was some 3m higher than present (Lambeck 1996) and the lakepdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIClick to enlarge.was a tidal lagoon of the Arabian Sea partly surrounded by a mangroveenvironment.Site name Coordinates Metres asl Material Lab. number Delta 13C Age BP Cal BC 2s ReferenceSRN 43 25°30'25"N-66°38'32"E8 T. palustris GrA-54290 -3.55 7200±35 5611–5454 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 38 25°30'07"N-66°38'45"E9 T. palustris GrA-54303 -6.58 7095±35 5519–5333 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 33 25°29'58"N-66°39'16"E12 T. palustris GrA-54291 -6.16 6770±35 5223–4977 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 37 25°29'59"N-66°38'57"E7 T. palustris GrA-55821 -5.78 6595±45 5028–4747 UnpublishedSRN 29 25°30'27"N-66°37'35"E10 T. palustris GrA-54299 -5.57 6595±35 5010–4765 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 39bis 25°30'08"N-66°38'41"E9 T. telescopium GrA-54298 -4.53 6336±35 4698–4468 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 1 25°32'31"N-66°37'09"E5 T. palustris GrA-50323 -4.638 6305±40 4682–4437 Biagi 2013: 11SRN 40 25°30'10"N-66°38'40"E4 T. palustris GrA-55823 -3.86 6145±45 4496–4271 UnpublishedSRN 39 25°30'08"N-66°38'41"E9 T. palustris GrA-55822 -4.33 6145±45 4496–4271 UnpublishedSRN 2 25°31'31"N-66°36'49"E2 T. palustris GrA-50325 -6.213 5950±40 4306–4046 UnpublishedSRN 31 25°30'01"N-66°39'19"E4 T. palustris GrA-55820 -5.03 5875±45 4230–3967 UnpublishedSRN 47 25°30'40"N-66°38'06"E10 T. palustris GrA-54296 -3.46 5800±35 4155–3920 UnpublishedSRN 23 25°30'48"N-66°37'39"E7 T. palustris GrA-54294 -5.05 5780±30 4133–3901 UnpublishedSRN 42 25°30'25"N-66°30'32"E11 T. palustris GrA-54292 -5.79 5755±35 4072–3810 UnpublishedSRN 44 25°30'22"N- 2 T. palustris GrA-54301 -7.20 5690±35 3982–3766 Unpublishedpdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIFigure 7. Lake Siranda: chronological distribution of thecalibrated dates from the different sites. Data from Table1 (scatterplot by T. Fantuzzi). Click to enlarge.Figure 8. Balakot: the prehistoric mound from thesouth-east (photograph by P. Biagi).Click to enlarge.Table 1. Lake Siranda: list of the AMS-dated shell middens. Calibration applied ΔR of 229±27 years according to Dutta et al. (2001) andReimer et al. (2009).66°38'38"ESRN 24 25°30'48"N-66°37'37"E5 T. telescopium GrA-55818 -6.12 5665±45 3971–3719 UnpublishedSRN 28 25°30'32"N-66°37'36"E9 T. palustris GrA-55819 -2.55 5440±40 3727–3510 UnpublishedSRN 16 25°31'39"N-66°35'54"E7 T. palustris GrA-55817 -3.86 5065±40 3330–3023 UnpublishedFollowing the retreat of the ocean, after the middle of the sixth millennium BP, and the consequent disappearance of the mangroveforests, the territory dried up and, as the surveys have shown, was never settled again—even in historical times. Nevertheless, it isimportant to point out that one specimen of T. palustris, collected from the surface of Balakot mound (BLK 1; Figure 8) was AMS datedto 4660±40 BP (2831–2498 cal BC at 2s: GrA-55828). This assay, which is some 500 years later than the most recent resultsobtained from the Siranda sites, shows that Balakot inhabitants exploited another mangrove environment, possibly located along theshores of Miani Hor.pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIConclusionThe AMS dates obtained from the Siranda shell middens contribute to the definition of the Holocene peopling of the northern coast ofthe Arabian Sea, of which very little was known as recently as 10 years ago. The discovery of shell middens around the Bay of Daun,along the coast of Las Bela (Biagi 2004, 2011; Biagi et al. 2013), and on the limestone outcrops rising from the Indus delta (Biagi2009, 2013), have radically changed our view of the Neolithic peopling of this part of the Arabian Sea. Indeed, the research at presentunderway along the southern coast of the Sultanate of Oman has revealed a very similar pattern of mid Holocene human exploitation,with groups of fisher-gatherers settled along the shores of former tidal lagoons, in a period of maximum expansion of the mangroveenvironments (Lézine et al. 2002; Berger et al. 2005, 2013).AcknowledgementsThe authors are very grateful to Professor M. Khalid Badini (University of Balochistan, Quetta) for organising their stay at Uthal CircuitHouse during the 2012 and 2013 fieldwork seasons at Lake Siranda, and to Professor M. Altaf Bouk, former director of the Departmentof Informatics at the University of Balochistan. Thanks are also due to Mr Iftikhar Badini, Haqdil Hakeem and Muhammad Qasim,students of Uthal Maritime and Agricultural University, who took part in the 2012 and 2013 surveys, and to Dr E. Starnini (TurinUniversity, Italy) for the reassessment of Figures 3 and 4. Research at Las Bela was made possible thanks to contributions from theItalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE, Rome), and the Ca' Foscari University Archaeology Research Funds (Venice). Thanks are duealso to EURAL Gnutti Ltd. (Rovato, Brescia) for financing some of the AMS dates.ReferencesAKHTAR, S. 2011. The South Asiatic monsoon and flood hazards in the Indus River, Pakistan. Journal of Basic and AppliedSciences 7: 101–15.BERGER, J.-F., S. CLEUZIOU, G. DAVTIAN, M. CATTANI, F. CAVULLI, V. CHARPENTIER, M. CREMASCHI, J. GIRAUD, P. MARQUIS,C. MARTIN, S. MERY, J.-C., LLAZIAT & J.F. SALIÈGE. 2005. 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The Geographical Journal 102: 193–227.Authors*Author for correspondencePaolo Biagi* & Renato NisbetDepartment of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari University, Ca' Cappello, San Polo 2035, I-30125 Venezia, Italy (E-mail: pavelius@unive.it; renatonisbet@gmail.com)Alberto GirodVia Ponte Tresa 7, CH-69024 Sorengo, Switzerland (E-mail: fraberto.girod@gmail.com)Tiziano FantuzziDepartment of Humanities, Ca' Foscari University, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484D, I-30123 Venezia, Italy (E-mail:tiziano.fantuzzi@gmail.com)HomeCurrent IssueAntiquity+ArchiveContributeSubscribeTerms and conditionsSite mapPrivacy policyCookies and accessibilityAdministrator loginAntiquity, Department of ArchaeologyDurham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UKassistant@antiquity.ac.uk | editor@antiquity.ac.ukTel: +44 (0)191 3341125 | Fax: +44 (0)191 3341101

Biagi, Paolo

Nisbet, Renato

Girod, Alberto

Fantuzzi, Tiziano

Archivio Ricerca Ca'Foscari

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The Middle Holocene mangrove shellfish gatherers of Las Bela coast (Balochistan, Pakistan): new AMS dates from Lake Siranda shell middens

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