Indo-Mesopotamia relations
[15][16][b] At Mehrgarh, around 7000 BCE, the full set of Near Eastern incipient agricultural products can be found: wheat, barley, as well as goats, sheep and cattle.
[1] The westernmost Harappan city was located on the Makran coast at Sutkagan Dor, near the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and is considered as an ancient maritime trading station, probably between modern day Pakistan and the Persian Gulf.
[45] Sea-going vessels were known in the Indus region, as shown by seals showing ships with land-finding birds (disha-kaka), dating to 2500–1750 BCE.
[53][54] Clove heads, thought to originate from the Moluccas in Maritime Southeast Asia were found in a 2nd millennium BCE site in Terqa.
[52] Various objects made with shell species that are characteristic of the Indus coast, particularly Trubinella Pyrum and Fasciolaria Trapezium, have been found in the archaeological sites of Mesopotamia dating from around 2500–2000 BCE.
[57] In particular, carnelian beads with an etched design in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley, and made according to a technique of acid-etching developed by the Harappans.
Lapis Lazuli probably originated in northern Afghanistan, as no other sources are known from that time, and had to be transported across the Iranian plateau to Mesopotamia, and then Egypt.
[60][61][62][63][64][65] The water buffalos that appear on Akkadian cylinder seals from the time of Naram-Sin (circa 2250 BCE) may have been imported to Mesopotamia from the Indus as a result of trade.
[100] In the archaeological sites of the Indus valley civilization, twenty-four stone haematite weights of the Mesopotamian barrel-shaped type were found at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
[107] It has long been suggested that the Sumerians, who ruled in Lower Mesopotamia from circa 4500 to 1900 BCE and who spoke a non-Indo-European and non-Semitic language, may have initially come from India.
[117] All the studied individuals carried mtDNA haplotypes corresponding to the M4b1, M49 and/or M61 haplogroups, which are believed to have arisen in the area of the Indian subcontinent during the Upper Paleolithic, and are absent in people living today in Syria.
[117] The data suggests a genetic link of the region with the Indian subcontinent in the past that has not left traces in the modern population of Mesopotamia.
[117] The fact that the studied individuals comprised both males and a female, each living in a different period and representing different haplotypes, suggests that the nature of their presence in Mesopotamia was long-lasting rather than incidental.
[117] The close ancestors of the specimens could fall within the population founding Terqa, a historical site that was probably constructed during the early Bronze Age, at a time only slightly preceding the dating of the skeletons.
[128][129][130] Sargon of Akkad (circa 2300 or 2250 BCE), was the first Mesopotamian ruler to make an explicit reference to the region of Meluhha, which is generally understood as being the Baluchistan or the Indus area.
Many scholars have pointed towards exaggerated notions of cultural diffusions from Western Asia to the Indian subcontinent, such as when overlinking Vedic astronomy and mathematics to Sumerian origins.
[135] Likewise scholars have questioned the supposed borrowings of Western Asian motifs without the evidence of any actual artifact and trade contacts.
[137] According to Richard H. Meadow, evidence gathered from Mehrgarh points towards domestication of sheep, cattle and goats as a separate local phenomenon in the subcontinent around 7,000 BCE.
