Prehistoric research is carried out by an Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh and Las Bela province of Balochistan (Pakistan) since the last 30 years. Until the mid-1980s the prehistory of the two regions was known mainly from the impressive urban remains of the Bronze Age Indus Civilisation and the Palaeolithic assemblages discovered at the top of the limestone terraces that elongate south of Rohri in Upper Sindh. Very little was known of other periods, their radiocarbon chronology, and the peopling of the Arabian Sea coastal zone. Our knowledge radically changed thanks to the discoveries made during the last three decades of surveys and excavations conducted in the above-mentioned territories by the Italian Archaeological Mission. The University of Pisa is cooperating with the analysis and study of the several lithic assemblages of various ages discovered during the surveys.
Contact: Elisabetta Starnini
Research outputs
Biagi, P., Franco C., Starnini E., 2022 – Archaeological survey along the Khadeji and Mol Rivers (Lower Sindh, Pakistan): preliminary results of the 2021 season, Praehistoria 3 (13), pp. 11-33.
P. Biagi, R. Nisbet, E. Starnini, 2021 – The Prehistoric Fishers and Gatherers of the Northern and Western Coasts of the Arabian Sea. In Jawad, Laith Abd Jalil (ed.) The Arabian seas, Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures. Springer Verlag, printed book ISBN 978-3-030-51505-8, https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030515058
P. Biagi, R. Nisbet, E. Starnini, 2021 – A Late Upper Palaeolithic site in the Red Desert (Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), PAST 98, Summer 2021, the Newsletter of the Prehistoric Society. pp.5-8.
Biagi P., Starnini E., 2020 – Prehistoric Fishing along the Coasts of the Arabian Sea: A Short Overview from Oman, Balochistan and Sindh (Pakistan), In: Tales of Three Worlds. Archaeology and Beyond: Asia, Italy, Africa. A Tribute to Sandro Salvatori, ed: D. Usai, S. Tuzzato, M. Vidale, BAR, Archaeopress, pp. 15-32.
P. Biagi, R. Nisbet, M. Spataro, E. Starnini, 2020 – Archaeology at Ras Muari: Sonari, a Bronze Age fisher-gatherers settlement at the Hab river mouth (Karachi, Pakistan), The Antiquaries Journal, 101, pp. 16-66.