Catherine Jarrige

Catherine Jarrige, nee Catherine Klein (born 27 January 1942), is a retired French archaeologist, best known for co-leading the discovery of Mehrgarh, a Neolithic site in Balochistan, Pakistan.

Career Jarrige began working in Balochistan in 1964. She lived with her husband, Jean-François Jarrige, in Lucknow, India from 1967 until 1969.

In 1974, Jarrige and her husband co-led the team that discovered Mehrgarh. During this time, Jarrige and her coworkers forged both professional and emotional connections with nearby villagers.

Jarrige was particularly interested in the human figurines unearthed at the sites she worked at. She found that the older figurines tended to be of uncertain gender, with later figurines increasingly differentiating male or female physical characteristics. Male figurines ultimately made up 85% of the figurines found, with some holding infants, a subversion of "the usual perception of figurines serving as fertility icons"; she also described such figurines being found at Nausharo. Some of the youngest female figurines sported elaborate hairstyles and ornamentation.

Articles

Une tête d'éléphant en terre cuite de Nausharo (Pakistan) (1992) The figurines of the first farmers at Mehrgarh and their offshoots (2008)

Chapters

Les figurines humaines au Baluchistan (1988)

Co-author

Sickles and Harvesting Motions in Baluchistan (Pakistan) (1987) Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry (2006) Mehrgarh. Neolithic Period - Seasons 1997-2000: Pakistan (2013)

Editor

South Asian archaeology, 1989 : papers from the Tenth International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet, Paris, France, 3–7 July 1989 (1992)