Mehrgarh: why new dates change a cemetery’s history
Tooth-enamel measurements published in 2025 suggest a later date for Mehrgarh’s cemetery. They do not automatically redate every layer of the settlement.
A new date from tooth enamel
A 2025 study in Scientific Reports reports new radiocarbon dates on human tooth enamel from the Neolithic cemetery at Mehrgarh. Its modeled range places the cemetery's start around 5200 to 4900 cal BCE and its end around 4770 to 4680 cal BCE, substantially later than the eighth-to-seventh-millennium chronology found in older excavation literature. Scientific Reports ↗
Keep both models visible
The research record stores this as a chronology dispute: the legacy model and the new model each keep their method, samples, and publication provenance. The new dates revise the cemetery chronology; the record cautions against generalizing them automatically to every occupation layer or every claim about the wider site.
Which sample changed the date?
When a date moves, ask what exactly was dated. Enamel from burials dates the people in the cemetery. It does not by itself date the earliest fields, houses, or craft activity. Match each claim to its sample.
Which neighboring dates need another look?
If this revision holds, which other regional dates were calibrated against the old Mehrgarh chronology, and how would you check them?