The city of Rohri in Pakistan is located in the Sukkur District. It lies on the eastern bank of the Indus River across from Sukkur. The town is the administrative center of the Rohri Taluka. The town also forms part of the greater metropolitan area of Sukkur. It is surrounded by a large river delta.
Indus River
The Indus River is one of the largest rivers in Pakistan. It originates in the Tibetan Plateau, near Lake Mansarovar, and flows through the plains of Ladakh, Gilgit and Baltistan, and Sindh. Its length is 3,180 km, and its drainage area exceeds 1,165,000 square kilometers. The Indus supports temperate forests and supports numerous aquatic life.
The Indus River flows between the towns of Rohri and Sukkur, separating them by a gap in limestone hills. As a result, the river has to be ferried across by ferry. The best spot for a river crossing is on Bukkur Island. The Indus flows through a narrow gorge in the limestone hills, splitting the river into two channels.
There are numerous fishing sites along the Indus River, especially in the Sindh province. Several of the rivers of the province are known for their trout fishing. Fish farming has become an increasingly important industry, especially in the reservoirs of dams. Its riverbed also extends for 150 miles along the coastline, providing a large body of shallow seawater that harbors a variety of marine species. Most fish are caught between November and March. Modern fish harbours provide cold storage and marketing services for the fish that are caught.
Indus communities imported flint from elsewhere in the region, and a probable source was the nearby Rohri Hills. The Rohri Hills are located about 50 kilometers north-east of Mohenjo-daro. During excavations in the area in 1995 and 1997, researchers uncovered the remains of the Acheulians, a group of pre-historic people dating back to 50,000 B.C.E. The quarries in the area are large and suggest that these were the dwellings of large, early human entities.
The Khwaja Khizr shrine and the Zinda Pir temple are located near the Indus River. The two buildings share the same space, although the temple was constructed after the 1870s. Due to communal disturbances, the Khwaja Khizar shrine was partitioned into two parts, one for the Muslims and one for the Hindus. Eventually, the Muslims and Hindus moved away from the shrine.
Location of chert quarries
The Rohri chert quarries are an important part of the Indian chert industry, and are considered to be among the most important in the world. This ancient stone was used to make tools and utensils, but was not exclusively used for this purpose. Many of the Rohri chert blades were retouched and used for other purposes, such as making pointy objects. The Rohri chert blades found at Shikarpur had a fluted or small cylindrical core, and many blades were made from them. This suggests that the Rohri chert found in Shikarpur was a local product.
The Rohri hills are situated in the northeastern corner of Sindh. The mountains, which are 40 km long and sixteen km wide, contain fossiliferous lime stone rocks that date back to the Middle Eocene. The chert quarries produce a wide variety of flint and other stone products.
Some of the Rohri chert blades were used in ancient Indian temples. The Rohri hills were the source of stone for Mohenjo-Daro, which was located on a silty river-plain. The quarries provided the village with the stone needed to build monuments and utensils. A new survey has identified the sites of workshops and uncovered the extraordinary scale of the production process.
The Rohri chert quarries are near the prehistoric site of Kot Diji. It is about 50 km north of Mohenjo-daro. There are traces of Acheulian workshops at the site. These remains are from 50,000 B.C.E. The size of the quarries suggests that they were once large early human entities.
Source of flint used by ancient Indus communities
The Indus civilization exhibited a uniform material culture, closely knit administration, and extensive internal trade. Although evidence of actual exportation is difficult to find, the sheer scale of the Sukkur site and the almost identical bronze carts found at Harappa and Chanhu-daro strongly suggest trade.
The Indus people imported flint from elsewhere, and it is now believed that the source was near the Rohri Hills, about 50 km north-east of Mohenjo-daro. Excavations at Rohri revealed evidence of Acheulian workshops, dated to between 50,000 and 2,500 B.C.E. These quarries indicate that the ancient human population was large and able to migrate throughout the area.
Flint is a sedimentary rock that is a cryptocrystalline form of quartz. It occurs naturally in masses and nodules in sedimentary rocks and is widely used for stone tools and fire starters. It is white in color and often has a rough texture.
Indus communities used a variety of techniques, including the potter’s wheel, scraping, and coiling. However, no evidence has been found for wheel-throwing techniques. Indus communities’ different practices and tools may have reflected their differences in social and technological traditions.
Origin of Rohri chert tools
The Rohri chert site was a major settlement center in northwestern South Asia. The chert was easy to quarry and its distinctive appearance made it easy for traders and craftsmen to produce uniform tools and weights. This chert replaced many different varieties of flint and chert in the IIIrd millennium BC.
The Rohri chert tools were created with sharp points that were intentionally shaped. The blades are larger, broader and thicker than other stone tools. Some Rohri chert tools had multiple blades. Some are broken on purpose. This type of use is called lithic debitage.
The Rohri chert site has an assemblage of 655 blades, 23 geometric tools, and 36 fragments of lithic debitage. The Rohri chert site includes flakes with and without a cortex. The chert at Shikarpur contains a mix of primary and secondary (core-less) chert, with primary flakes representing more than half of the debitage.
Recent research in Sindh has focused on lithic raw material sources, as well as the typology of Indus chipped stone assemblages. The findings provide preliminary evidence of the existence of early hominids in Sindh. The Rohri hills are in the northern districts of Sukkur and Khairpur. The rocks in the area date from the Middle Eocene. The Rohri hills are rich in flint, and a large number of tools have been found in the region.
These tools were used by hunters in the upper Paleolithic, known as homo-sapiens. They made tools that were used for cutting, flaking, and coring. They also made cleavers and spear-heads.
