The Helmand Sistan Project, conducted by the Smithsonian Institution and Afghan Directorate of Archaeology and Historic Preservation in the 1970s but hitherto unpublished, uncovered through survey and excavation an extensive settlement system along the lower Helmand River dating to the late second and early first millennia BCE. Of note were a series of platform-based settlements in the Sar-o-Tar region east of the Helmand River along of a series of large canals first constructed at this time, which allowed for extensive cultivation in the otherwise deserted region. Excavations at one of these sites, Qala 169, gave us a rich understanding of the settlement pattern and material culture of the early Iron Age, including a style of hitherto-unknown fine ware wheel-made painted ceramics. Finds from Qala 169 are compared to at least 21 other related sites surveyed by the project in the lower Helmand Valley and in Sar-o-Tar. Comparisons are also made between this corpus and early Iron Age sites elsewhere in Afghanistan, Iran, South Asia, and Central Asia, showing that this material represented a unique regional style.
Early Iron Age