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The identification, dating and provenancing of Indian ceramics found in coastal Somalia, Arabia and the Persian Gulf constitute the necessary first steps to tracing precise space/time connections in the ancient trading networks in the western Indian Ocean Also, expectations from such studies are linked to specifying particular regions within the Indian subcontinent engaged in maritime trade with different areas of coastal West Asia/East Africa. The refining of ceramic analysis by close comparison with similar pottery found in India may enable us to even pin-point specific port-sites in the subcontinent in contact with the market-towns across the Arabian sea. It is only recently that Indian pottery finds in West Asia and East Africa are drawing the attentions of archaeologists, leading to broadening of perspectives and awareness of the essential economic interdependence of littoral regions of the western Indian Ocean. The relatively contemporary beginnings of the study of exported Indian pottery and also the present nascent stage in the sharing of expertise among archaeologists working in West Asia and India have kept much of the interpretations tentative and open-ended. Of course it is only logical that investigations should proceed from tenuous probings to certainty. Observations offered in the present study on Indian pottery from Qana, Khor Rori and (in the next section) on Indian storage jars from Oman\Persian Gulf may be thus regarded as part of the collective effort to reach 'stable' conclusions The first principle applied by archaeologists working in coastal West Asia to isolate suspected Indian pottery is the contrasting shape and fabric of the ceramics in question vis.a.vis the local wares. This principle is illustrated. by Kervran (1996-40) who formalises her response to suspected Indian pottery found at the Omani port-site of Sohar:- 'I should say that during this excavation, as most of the archaeologists of the Near East, I was not able to identify the Indian ceramics. I just noticed a group of vessels very characteristic in fabric, shapes and surface treatment, different from the locally made pottery. Later on, while visiting the Indus delta and western India, I convinced myself that this ceramic originated in these regions > At Qana, the site specially focused upon here, two categories of suspected Indian sherds have been presented in the preliminary reports. Of the first type the

145 report of the Qana excavations says 'fragments of grey and black pottery Similar wares are known from first and second century AD sites in the Persian Gulf such as the necropolis of Janussan in Bahrain and the settlement of Ed-Dur in the UAE We have also found this sort of pottery on the surface of the site of Hajra on the island of Socotra. This type of ware has close parallels on contemporary sites in central and south India (Sedov 1992:126; for Socotra finds see Naumkin and Sedov 1993:605) This grey\black ware described by Sedov was first studied in detail by Prof J.F. Salles (Head of the French Archaeological Mission at Failaka and Bahrain) who suspected the pottery to be from India He compared sherds collected from Ed-Dur with grey\black coarse ware reported from the Early Historic levels of the site of Nevasa in western India (Salles 1984 246-247) Detailed discussion on the Black Ware is taken up in the next section on the Persian Gulf The second category of Indian pottery found in Lower Period at Qana is the Red Polished Ware (Sedov 1996:16). Prof. A. Sedov allowed me to photograph, on of his visit to Delhi in Feb-March 1994, a collection of suspected RPW pottery from Qana (Pls. XVI.a, XIX.a.b.c.d). I was given two of the sherds as study samples My observations on the sample of probable Indian pottery from Qana are given below:Plate. XVI.a Rim fragment, most probably of a small bowl. Found in the Lower-Middle overlap layers Slightly out-turned beaded rim. Thin groovings at interior of rim. The sherd possess brick-red polished slip on both sides Prof. Sedov thinks that the sherd might have 'come up' from the Lower Period layers. I find this sample strikingly similar to some of the fine Red Polished Ware pieces from Nevasa (Pl. XVI.a) The similarity with the Nevasa sherds is observed in terms of shape, surface treatment and internal dimension (thickness of rim and body). The sherd from Qana shows a thin ledge at its broken lower portion This ledge, in all likelihood, is the upper border of a decorative band around the bowl The Nevasa RPW, coming from Pd V have a 1 st-2 nd century AD date which is consonant with the Qana Lower-Middle period overlap. It may be mentioned that in the opinion of Prof. A. Tchernia (C.N.R.S., France), the piece in question is probably part of an Arretine vessel. This opinion is important. Since the Qana sherd is close to the Nevasan RPW then the inference would be that the latter pottery may have also derived from the terra sigillata tradition. Such an inference tends to support the theory that the Red Polished Ware emerged as a result of the Mediterranean ceramic techniques brought to India along the route of sea trade.

146 Plate XIX.a Rim portion of a jar Sherd comes from the Lower-Middle 1 st-2 nd century AD. The sherd has an outThe fabric is light-red at the core, uniformly is well levigated The surface has light-red overlap strata and can be dated to turned grooved rim with inner ridge fired and the clay, of micaecous quality, slip matching the colour of the fired clay. There are three thin black-painted lines on the interior of rim and one black-painted line on the outer groove The redware sherd from Qana is too coarse to be placed in the Red Polished Ware repetoire. However the sample is seen to closely match in terms of rim shape (outward, grooved, inner ridge), size (diameter of rim, thickness of body wall) and quality of clay an ubiquitous RPW type reported by Orton (1992-46-81) in her catalogue of RPW from 12 sites In my opinion the sherd from Qana is Indian and can be placed among the 'coarser associated wares of RPW' which Orton (1992:48) speaks of. In fact, grooved-rim red ware sherds similar to the Qana specimen can be traced to samples reported from Nagara (Mehta 1968 Fig 37:351- 354,pp.68) and Bhokardan (Deo and Gupte 1974: Fig 5:7 c;pp.84). In particular the rim-fragment from Nagara seems close to the Qana specimen. The Nagara sherd has been described as having 'three incised lines on the inner side' As we have observed, the Qana specimen has instead three black-painted lines. However, the two types of decorations were current in India as Orton (1992:48) points out that both black-painted lines and incisions are commonly observed decorations on RPW Plate. XIX.b: Rim portion. Straight rim with thin groove on the exterior of rim. Probably part of a cup or dish. The fabric constitutes of extremely well- levigated and evenly fired clay. The sherd is red-slipped on both sides. The slip is not burnished and is well bonded to the body of the sherd. The slip actually seems indistinguishable from the fabric. The sherd has been recovered in the Middle layers at Qana and falls within the 2 nd-4 th century A.D. On initial examination I discounted the possibility of the sherd having its origin in the Indian red wares of the historical period. Later, going through the pottery collected by me from the surface of the Early Historic site of Kamrej (Dist. Surat, Gujarat) I came upon a similar sherd. The Kamrej specimen - a body sherd also has a very fine and evenly fired light-red fabric. The thickness of this sherd approximates to the dimensions of the Qana specimen There is an orange-red slip on the Kamrej sherd and like the Qana specimen the slip is thin and well bonded to the clay

147 Plate. XIX.c: Rim portion. Straight rim with two grooves on exterior of rim. There is a light-red slip on both sides showing slight burnish burnish The sherd comes from the Lower-Middle overlap layers and may be dated about the end of 2 nd century A.D. Convincing parallels cannot be identified in the Indian pottery corpus. Plate XIX.d: Fragment of a dish or flat bowl. From the Lower Period? layers Fine dark red polished slip on both exterior and interior surfaces as well as on the base. The polished slip on the vessel-fragment is similar to the slip on a number of Red Polished Ware sherds from Early Historic Nevasa (Pl. XVI.a, XVII.a.c) A similar fragment published from Qana has been tentatively recorded by Sedov (1996 Fig 4:19) as Red Polished Ware. However, the dish-fragment could be part of imitation terra sigillata made locally at Qana. Such pseudo terra sigillata ware also occurs at the coastal site of Khor Rori (Yule and Kervran 1993:91-93). The difficulty in attributing a clear provenance to this fragment indirectly indicates the similarity of the terra sigillata and the fine RPW. The review of the material indicators of contact points to the complex interrelationship of Roman, Indian and Arab elements in the western Indian Ocean trade. The constant interaction of traders from east and west had its various syncretic manifestations, not least among them being the minglings reflected in the ceramic traditions