Chapter Notes

THEME ONE

The Harappan seal is one of the most unique and recognizable artifacts from the Harappan or Indus valley civilisation. These seals, typically made from a soft stone called steatite, often feature animal designs and signs from a script that we still cannot read. Even without understanding their writing, we can learn a great deal about the Harappans from the things they left behind: their houses, pottery, tools, and ornaments. This physical evidence, studied by archaeologists, is our main window into their world. As we explore what is known, we will also see how archaeologists interpret this evidence and how those interpretations can change over time.

Terminologies, Places and Time

The Harappan Civilisation is named after Harappa, the first site where this unique culture was discovered. It is also commonly known as the Indus Valley Civilisation. The civilisation's timeline is divided into three main phases:

• Early Harappan (c. 6000 BCE - 2600 BCE): This was the formative period when the culture was developing.
• Mature Harappan (c. 2600 BCE - 1900 BCE): This was the urban and most prosperous phase of the civilisation.
• Late Harappan (c. 1900 BCE - 1300 BCE): This period marks the decline of the civilisation.

Distinctive Harappan artifacts like pottery, seals, weights, and bronze tools have been found across a vast area, including parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan (Baluchistan, Sind, Punjab), and several Indian states like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

Harappan Settlements

Archaeologists have discovered over 2,000 Harappan sites, with most located in the river basins of the Indus and the now-dry Saraswati. The large number of settlements in the Saraswati basin suggests it was a very important region for the Harappans. Among these sites, five have been identified as major cities: Rakhigarhi, Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Ganweriwala.

Beginnings

The great cities of the Mature Harappan phase did not appear suddenly. They developed out of earlier, simpler cultures that existed in the region. These early cultures were characterized by:

• Distinctive pottery styles.
• Evidence of agriculture and pastoralism (raising animals).
• Small settlements with almost no large buildings.

Recent evidence suggests that Harappan culture emerged gradually from these early farming communities, with the urban phase being a result of internal development and transformation over thousands of years.

Subsistence Strategies

The Mature Harappan culture developed in many of the same areas as the Early Harappan cultures and shared similar ways of getting food. The Harappans had a diverse diet consisting of a wide range of plant and animal products.

• Plant-based diet: Archaeologists have found charred grains and seeds, which are studied by archaeo-botanists (specialists in ancient plant remains). Grains found at Harappan sites include wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, and sesame. Millets have been found in Gujarat, while rice was relatively rare.
• Animal-based diet: Bones found at sites are studied by archaeo-zoologists. These include bones of domesticated animals like cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, and pig. They also ate wild animals such as boar, deer, and gharial, though it's unclear if they hunted these themselves or traded for meat. Bones of fish and fowl have also been found.

Agricultural technologies

While we know agriculture was practiced, reconstructing the exact methods is challenging. Archaeologists have pieced together the following picture:

• Ploughing: Representations of bulls on seals and terracotta sculptures suggest that oxen were used for ploughing. Terracotta models of ploughs have been found at sites in Cholistan and Banawali (Haryana).
• Farming Techniques: At Kalibangan (Rajasthan), archaeologists found evidence of a ploughed field from the Early Harappan period. The field had two sets of furrows at right angles to each other, which suggests that two different crops were grown together in the same field.
• Irrigation: Most Harappan sites are in semi-arid regions, so irrigation was likely necessary.
  • Traces of canals have been found at Shortughai in Afghanistan.
  • It's possible that water from wells was used for irrigation.
  • Large water reservoirs found in Dholavira (Gujarat) may have been used to store water for agriculture.

Mohenjodaro: A Planned Urban Centre

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Harappan civilisation was its urban centres. Mohenjodaro is the most famous of these, largely because it was much better preserved than Harappa, the first site to be discovered. Harappa was badly damaged by brick robbers in the 19th century, who took ancient bricks to build a railway line.

The city of Mohenjodaro shows clear signs of planning. The settlement was divided into two main sections:

1. The Citadel: A smaller, higher area built on mud-brick platforms. It was walled and physically separated from the rest of the city.
2. The Lower Town: A much larger, lower area that was also walled. Buildings here were also constructed on platforms.

The level of planning is astonishing. It seems the city was first planned and then built. Other signs of planning include the use of standardized bricks (both sun-dried and baked) across all Harappan settlements. The bricks had a uniform ratio, where the length was four times the height, and the breadth was twice the height.

Laying out drains

One of the most distinctive features of Harappan cities was their carefully planned drainage system.

• Roads and streets were laid out in a "grid" pattern, intersecting at right angles.
• It appears that streets with drains were constructed first, and then houses were built alongside them.
• To ensure wastewater flowed into the street drains, every house had to have at least one wall along a street.

Domestic architecture

The Lower Town at Mohenjodaro provides excellent examples of residential buildings.

• Houses were often centered around a courtyard, which was likely the hub of activities like cooking and weaving.
• There was a strong concern for privacy. Houses had no windows on the ground-floor walls, and the main entrance did not offer a direct view of the interior or the courtyard.
• Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks, with drains that connected to the street drains.
• Some houses had staircases, suggesting a second storey or a roof.
• Many houses had wells, often in a room accessible from the outside, perhaps for passers-by to use. It's estimated there were about 700 wells in Mohenjodaro.

The Citadel

The Citadel was home to structures likely used for special public purposes.

• The Warehouse: A massive building of which only the lower brick portions remain. The upper parts were probably made of wood and have since decayed.
• The Great Bath: A large rectangular tank in a courtyard. It was made watertight with bricks and a mortar of gypsum. Steps led down into the tank from two sides. Scholars believe this structure was used for a special kind of ritual bath, given its unique design and location on the Citadel.

Tracking Social Differences

Archaeologists use several strategies to understand if there were social or economic differences within Harappan society.

Burials

The way people were buried can offer clues about social status.

• At Harappan sites, the dead were generally laid in pits.
• Some burial pits were lined with bricks, which might indicate a difference in status, but we can't be certain.
• Some graves contained pottery and ornaments, suggesting a belief that these items could be used in the afterlife. Jewellery has been found in the graves of both men and women.
• However, compared to other civilisations like ancient Egypt, the Harappans did not seem to believe in burying precious things with the dead. This makes it difficult to identify "royal" or elite burials.

Looking for "luxuries"

Another way to find social differences is by studying artifacts, which archaeologists divide into two categories:

• Utilitarian: Objects of daily use made from common materials like stone or clay (e.g., querns, pottery, needles). These are found throughout settlements.
• Luxuries: Rare objects made from costly, non-local materials or with complicated technologies.

Rare and valuable objects, like faience pots (perhaps for perfume) and gold jewellery, are mostly found in large settlements like Mohenjodaro and Harappa. They are rarely found in smaller settlements like Kalibangan. This suggests that a wealthy elite was concentrated in the major cities.

Finding Out About Craft Production

Chanhudaro, a tiny settlement compared to Mohenjodaro, was almost entirely dedicated to craft production. Activities included bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making, and weight-making.

A remarkable variety of materials was used to make beads:

• Stones: Carnelian (a red stone), jasper, crystal, quartz, and steatite.
• Metals: Copper, bronze, and gold.
• Other materials: Shell, faience, and terracotta (burnt clay).

Beads were made in numerous shapes (disc-shaped, cylindrical, spherical) and decorated by painting, incising, or etching. The techniques varied with the material. For example, the red color of carnelian was achieved by firing the yellowish raw material at different stages.

Specialized craft centers were often located near sources of raw materials.

• Nageshwar and Balakot, both near the coast, were centers for making shell objects like bangles and ladles.
• Finished products, like beads from Chanhudaro and Lothal, were likely transported to large urban centers like Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

Identifying centres of production

How do archaeologists know where craft production took place? They look for specific evidence:

• Raw materials (like stone nodules or whole shells).
• Tools.
• Unfinished objects.
• Rejects and waste material.

Strategies for Procuring Materials

While clay was locally available, many materials like stone, timber, and metal had to be brought in from distant places. Terracotta models of bullock carts suggest land transport was important, while river and coastal routes were also likely used.

Materials from the subcontinent and beyond

The Harappans used several strategies to obtain raw materials:

1. Establishing settlements near sources: They set up sites like Nageshwar and Balakot for shell, and Shortughai in far-off Afghanistan near the best source of lapis lazuli (a highly valued blue stone).
2. Sending expeditions: They may have sent expeditions to the Khetri region of Rajasthan for copper and to south India for gold. These expeditions established contact with local communities. The presence of the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture in the Khetri region, with its wealth of copper objects, suggests they may have supplied copper to the Harappans.

Contact with distant lands

There is strong evidence of trade with other regions:

• Oman: Chemical analysis shows that both Omani copper and Harappan artifacts have traces of nickel, suggesting a common origin. A distinctive large Harappan jar coated with black clay has been found at Omani sites. Mesopotamian texts refer to copper coming from a region called Magan, which was likely the name for Oman.
• Mesopotamia: Mesopotamian texts mention trade with regions they called Dilmun (probably Bahrain), Magan (Oman), and Meluhha (believed to be the Harappan region). They list products from Meluhha, including carnelian, lapis lazuli, copper, and gold.
• Communication with these lands was probably by sea. Mesopotamian texts call Meluhha a "land of seafarers," and Harappan seals sometimes depict ships and boats.

Seals, Script, Weights

Seals and sealings

Seals were crucial for long-distance trade. A bag of goods would be tied with a rope, and a lump of wet clay with a seal impression (a sealing) would be placed on the knot.

• If the sealing was intact upon arrival, it meant the goods had not been tampered with.
• The sealing also identified the sender.

An enigmatic script

The Harappan script remains a puzzle.

• It is undeciphered, meaning we cannot read it.
• It was not alphabetical, as it has too many signs (between 375 and 400).
• It was likely written from right to left.
• Inscriptions are usually short and found on seals, copper tools, jar rims, and even an ancient signboard.

Weights

The Harappans had a precise and regulated system of weights for exchange.

• They were usually cubical and made of a stone called chert, with no markings.
• Lower denominations were binary (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.).
• Higher denominations followed the decimal system.
• Smaller weights were probably used for weighing jewelry and beads.

Ancient Authority

The incredible uniformity of Harappan artifacts—from pottery and seals to the standardized bricks used from Jammu to Gujarat—suggests that complex decisions were being made and implemented. Who organized the labor for building massive platforms and walls? Who ensured that bricks everywhere had the same ratio?

Palaces and kings

Finding a center of power or a ruler is difficult.

• A large building at Mohenjodaro was labeled a "palace," but no special artifacts were found there.
• A famous stone statue is known as the "priest-king," a name given because archaeologists were familiar with Mesopotamian priest-kings and saw parallels. However, there is no proof that this person held political power.

There are several theories about Harappan governance:

• Some scholars believe there were no rulers, and everyone enjoyed equal status.
• Others think there was no single ruler, but several—one for Mohenjodaro, one for Harappa, and so on.
• A third theory suggests there was a single state, given the uniformity of artifacts, planned settlements, and standard brick sizes.

The End of the Civilisation

Around c. 1800 BCE, evidence shows that most Mature Harappan sites were abandoned. At the same time, populations expanded into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.

In the sites that remained occupied after 1900 BCE, a major transformation occurred:

• Distinctive artifacts like weights, seals, and special beads disappeared.
• Writing, long-distance trade, and craft specialization vanished.
• Fewer materials were used, and house construction techniques declined.
• The culture shifted to a more rural way of life, known as "Late Harappan" or "successor cultures."

Several explanations have been proposed for this decline, including climatic change, deforestation, floods, or the drying up of rivers. While these might explain the collapse in certain areas, they don't account for the end of the entire civilisation. It seems that a strong unifying element, perhaps the Harappan state, came to an end, leading to the gradual decay of its urban culture.

Discovering the Harappan Civilisation

Cunningham's confusion

Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), began excavations in the mid-nineteenth century. His main interest was in the Early Historic period (c. sixth century BCE onwards), and he often used written accounts from Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to locate sites. When he came across Harappan seals, he didn't realize how old they were and tried unsuccessfully to place them within the historical timeframe he was familiar with. He missed the significance of Harappa because it didn't fit his focus.

A new old civilisation

In the early 20th century, archaeologists like Daya Ram Sahni at Harappa and Rakhal Das Banerji at Mohenjodaro found similar seals in layers that were clearly much older than Early Historic levels.

• In 1924, John Marshall, then Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world.
• This was a massive breakthrough, as similar seals had been found at sites in Mesopotamia, proving that a major civilisation existed in India at the same time.
• Marshall excavated in a way that ignored the layers of the site (stratigraphy), grouping all artifacts found in the same horizontal unit together. This resulted in the loss of valuable information about the context of the finds.

New techniques and questions

When R.E.M. Wheeler became Director-General of the ASI in 1944, he recognized the importance of following the stratigraphy of a mound. After the partition of India in 1947, many major Harappan sites became part of Pakistan, which spurred Indian archaeologists to find and excavate new sites in India, such as Kalibangan, Lothal, Rakhi Garhi, and Dholavira.

Problems of Piecing Together the Past

Reconstructing Harappan life is challenging because the script is undeciphered. Archaeologists rely entirely on material evidence.

Classifying finds

The first step for an archaeologist is to classify artifacts, usually by material (stone, clay, metal) and by function (tool, ornament, or for ritual use). Understanding an artifact's function often comes from:

• Its resemblance to present-day objects (e.g., pots, beads).
• The context in which it was found (in a house, a drain, a grave).
• Indirect evidence, such as using depictions in sculptures to learn about clothing, since cloth itself rarely survives.

Problems of interpretation

Reconstructing religious practices is one of the most difficult tasks.

• Early archaeologists often assumed that unusual or unfamiliar objects had a religious significance.
• Mother goddesses: Terracotta figurines of heavily jeweled women were interpreted this way.
• "Proto-Shiva": A seal depicting a figure seated in a yogic posture and surrounded by animals was identified as an early form of the Hindu god Shiva. This interpretation is highly speculative, as the depiction does not match the description of the god Rudra in the Rigveda, the earliest religious text from the region.
• Lingas: Conical stone objects were classified as lingas, symbols of Shiva.