The AGROCHRONO project team travelled Pakistan with the French Archaeological Mission of the Indus Basin (MAFBI, led by A. Didier and D. Sarmiento-Castillo).
The AGROCHRONO project explores the development of agropastoralism in Southwest Asia, particularly in southern Iran and the Indo-Iranian border regions, with an emphasis on the chronological, economic and cultural links between ancient societies.
For the first field campaign, the team members joined the MAFBI and their local partners to ensure the successful implementation of the objectives.
The aim of the mission was to open a new excavation site with test trenches at Peyajero-mari (Ghazi Shah) led by B. Mutin. The goal was to find occupations prior to the Bronze Age, which would be confirmed by radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bones.
The team also carried out geoarchaeological surveys led by E. Brisset. The team surveyed the area around Ghazi Shah and Lake Manchar to gain a better understanding of the past environment around the excavation site and the water supply in the region.
Finally, the team also visited farms to understand current livestock farming and animal product exploitation practices and to provide a point of comparison with the archaeological data.
