The Emerging Tochi-Gomal Cultural Phase in the Gomal Plain, Northwest Pakistan

Abstract

The article is related briefly to a cultural phase that appeared exclusively in the Bannu Basin and Dera Ismail Khan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in northwestern Pakistan, at the end of Neolithic Age. Typological and chronological sequence suggests that the Tochi-Gomal Phase co-existed for a certain period with other contemporaneous regional cultures of South Asia such as the Ravi (Ravi-Hakra) Phase in the Punjab; Amri - Nal culture in Sindh; Togau & Kechi Beg Phases in Baluchistan and Sothi-Siswal culture in Rajasthan, India. Although reported earlier in 1970s, no proper attention is paid to this cultural phase of the Tochi-Gomal as a separate unit having its own distinctive features. Here in this paper, the diagnostic features are highlighted for identification as well as understanding its pivotal role it played in the emergence of urbanization in South Asia.