A Preliminary Archaeological Assessment of Cultural Material from the Gurha Shahan, District Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Abstract

The site covered in this report is a Gurha Shahan site in the Rawalpindi District of the Punjab north of Pakistan, in the wider Soan valley landscape. The research relies on field research which is not invasive and the archaeological remains of the site are examined systematically. The recorded collection includes pottery fragments, stone tools and lithic debitage, slag, and fauna, and suggests a variety of domestic, subsistence, and small-scale productive endeavors. Each of the materials discussed in this paper is housed in the Taxila Institute of Archaeology and Civilizations (TIAC), Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Pottery is mainly utilitarian, mostly and mostly handmade, body, rim and base sherds that have plain and painted surface treatments. Flakes, cores, debitage, and ground stone tools are lithic materials that represent several steps of the stone tool production and utilization. Fragments of slag that are irregular and vesicular in form are in line with the low level of metallurgical work, whereas fragmented fauna remains can be interpreted as animal processing and consumption. Due to the superficially derived and reconstructed nature of the assemblage, no conclusive cultural or chronological assumption is put forward. The Gurha Shahan site can therefore be viewed as a multi period site indicating repeated human interaction with favourable landscape environment. This report indicates the importance of documenting in a systematic manner small and hitherto poorly documented sites to know more about the long term technological practices and land use approaches on the Soan Valley and the neighboring Potohar Plateau.