Chapter 1

Bricks ,Beads and Bones

Period:-
1. Early Harappan culture – Before 2600 BCE
2. Mature Harappa culture – 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE
3. Late Harappa culture – After 1900 BCE
4. Extent of Harappan civilisation:-
1. Northern boundary- Manda Southern Boundary- Daimabad
2. Eastern boundary- Alamgirpur Western boundary- Sutkagendor
Characteristics of the Harappan Civilisation.
R.E.M Wheeler:-
R.E.M. Wheeler was mainly a British archaeologist. He was the Director General of
Indian Archaeology from 1944-48. He did a lot in the Harappa excavations.
Alexander Cunningham
* Alexander Cunnigham, the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of
India.
* He is often called the father of Indian Archaeology.
* The Archaeological Survey of India is founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham.
John Marshall
* Sir John Hubert Marshall was the Director-General of the
Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928.
He announced the world about harrapan civilisation in 1924.
* He was responsible for the excavations that led to the discovery of Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro.
Explain why the seals and sealings were used by the Harappans.
Seals and Sealings:
i) They were used to facilitate long distance communication.
(ii) On the mouth of a bag of goods, which is tied with a rope, seals were pressed,
leaving an impression.
(iii) If the bag reaches with sealing intact, it means, it has not been tampered with.
(iv) The sealing also conveyed the identity of the sender.
Subsistence strategies
1. The Harappans ate wide range of plants and animal products.
2. Animal bones found at Harappan sites include those of cattle, sheep, goat,
buffalo and pig.
3. The bones of wild species found suggest the Harappans hunted these animals
themselves or obtained meat from other hunting communities. Bones of fish
and fowl are also found.
Agricultural technologies:
 Representations on seals and terracotta sculpture indicate that the bull
was known, and archaeologists extrapolate from this that oxen were used
for ploughing.
 Terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in Cholistan and
at Banawali. Evidence of a ploughed field at Kalibangan has also been
found.
 Traces of irrigation canals have been found at Shortugahi in Afghanistan.
 Traces of rainwater harvesting found in Dholavira in Gujarat through
water reservoirs.
MOHENJODARO: A planned urban city
Two Sections of settlement:-
The Citadel
1. These were constructed on mud brick plaforms and were walled, which meant
that it was physically separated from the Lower Town.
2. These include the warehouse – a massive structure of which the lower brick
portions remain.
3. The upper portions, probably of wood, was – the Great Bath. It was a large
rectangular tank in courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.
The Lower Town
 It had carefully planned drainage system. The roads and streets were laid
out along an approximate “grid” pattern.
  It provides examples of residential buildings. Many were centred on a
courtyard, with rooms on all sides.
 Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks, with drains
connected through the wall to the street drains.
 The uniqueness of the structure, as well as the context in which it was
found (the Citadel, with several distinctive buildings), has led scholars to
suggest that it was meant for some kind of a special ritual bath.
Social differences
Burials: At burials in Harappan site,s the dead were generally laid in
pits. Sometimes, there
were differences in the way the burial pit was made. Some graves contain
pottery and ornaments, perhaps indicating a belief that these could be
used in the afterlife. Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and
women.
Looking for “luxuries”: The artefacts are classified as utilitarian and
luxuries by the archaeologists. Utilitarian objects are of daily use made
fairly easily out of ordinary materials such as stone or clay. Luxuries are
those items if they are rare or made from costly, non-local materials or
with complicated technologies. The situation becomes more complicated
when we find what seem to be articles of daily use, such as spindle whorls
made of rare materials such as faience.
Craft Production
 Chanhudaro is a tiny settlement exclusively devoted to craft production,
including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making and
weight-making.
 The variety of materials used to make beads is remarkable.
 Techniques for making beads differed according to the material.
 Nodules were chipped into rough shapes, and then finely flaked into the
final form.
 Specialised drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and more
recently at Dholavira.
  Nageshwar and Balakot were specialised centres for making shell objects
– including bangles, ladles and inlay.
 Centres of production: Archaeologists identified centres of production by
looking for raw materials and tools used.
 Waste is one of the best indicators of craft work. Sometimes, larger waste
pieces were used up to make smaller objects.
 These traces suggest that apart from small, specialised centres, craft
production was also undertaken in large cities such as Mohenjodaro and
Harappa.
Strategies for procuring material:-
Procured from the subcontinent and beyond:
 The Harappans procured materials for craft production in various ways.
 Terracotta toy models of bullock carts suggest that this was one important
means of transporting goods and people across land routes.
 Another strategy for procuring raw materials may have been to send
expeditions, which established communication with local communities.
Contact with distant lands: archaeological finds suggest that copper was
also probably brought from Oman, on the southeastern tip of the Arabian
peninsula.
 Mesopotamian texts datable to the third millennium BCE refer to copper
coming from a region called Magan, perhaps a name for Oman.
 Other archaeological finds include Harappan seals, weights, dice and
beads which suggests contacts with regions named Dilmun (probably the
island of Bahrain), Magan and Meluhha, possibly the Harappan region.
 It is likely that communication with Oman, Bahrain or Mesopotamia was
by sea. Mesopotamian texts refer to Meluhha as a land of seafarers.
Besides, we find depictions of ships and boats on seals.
Seals, Script, Weights
 Seals and sealings were used to facilitate long distance
communication. The sealing also conveyed the identity of the sender.
 An enigmatic script: Harappan seals usually have a line of writing,
probably containing the name and title of the owner. Scholars have also
suggested that the motif (generally an animal) conveyed a meaning to
those who could not read.
 Most inscriptions are short, the longest containing about 26 signs.
Although the script remains undeciphered to date, it was evidently not
alphabetical as it has just too many signs – somewhere between 375 and
400. The script was written from right to left.
 Weights: Exchanges were regulated by a precise system of weights,
usually made of a stone called Chert and generally cubical, with no
markings.
 Metal scale-pans have also been found.
Ancient Authority
 There are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented
in Harappan society.
 Palaces and kings: A large building found at Mohenjodaro was labelled as
a palace by archaeologists but no spectacular finds were associated with
it. A stone statue was labelled and continues to be known as the “priest-
king”.
 Some archaeologists are of the opinion that Harappan society had no rulers,
whereas other archaeologist feels that there was no single ruler but several
rulers, Mohenjodaro had a separate ruler, Harappa another. While some
believe that there was a single state.
The End of the Civilisation
 There is evidence that by c. 1800 BCE most of the Mature Harappan sites in
regions such as Cholistan had been abandoned. Simultaneously, there was an
expansion of population into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana and
western Uttar Pradesh.
  Several explanation for the decline of Harappan civilisation are climatic
changes, deforestation, excessive floods, the shifting and/or drying up of
rivers.
 The end was evidenced by the disappearance of seals, the script, distinctive
beads and pottery, the shift from a standardised weight system to the use of
local weights; and the decline and abandonment of cities.
Discovering the Harappan Civilisation
When Harappan cities fell into ruin, people gradually forgot all about them.
Cunningham’s confusion: The first Director-General of the ASI, Cunningham used
the accounts left by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who had visited the subcontinent
between the fourth and seventh centuries CE to locate early settlements. A site like
Harappa, which was not part of the itinerary of the Chinese pilgrims and was not
known as an Early Historic city.
 A Harappan seal was given to Cunningham by an Englishman. He noted the
object, but unsuccessfully tried to place it within the time-frame with which he
was familiar. It is not surprising that he missed the significance of Harappa.
A new old civilisation: In 1924, John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI,
announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world.
 It was then that the world knew not only of a new civilisation, but also of one
contemporaneous with Mesopotamia.
 Marshall tended to excavate along regular horizontal units, measured uniformly
throughout the mound, ignoring the stratigraphy of the site. This meant that all
the artefacts recovered from the same unit were grouped together.
New techniques and questions: Since the 1980s, there has also been growing
international interest in Harappan archaeology.
 Specialists from the subcontinent and abroad have been jointly working at both
Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
 They are using modern scientific techniques including surface exploration to
recover traces of clay, stone, metal and plant and animal remains as well as to
minutely analyse every scrap of available evidence. These explorations promise
to yield interesting results in the future.
Problems of Piecing Together the Past
 It is not the Harappan script that helps in understanding the ancient civilisation.
Rather, it is material evidence that allows archaeologists to better reconstruct
Harappan life. This material could be pottery, tools, ornaments, household objects,
etc.
 Organic materials such as cloth, leather, wood and reeds generally decompose,
especially in tropical regions. What survive are stone, burnt clay (or terracotta),
metal, etc.
Classifying finds: One simple principle of classification is in terms of material, such
as stone, clay, metal, bone, ivory, etc. The second, is in terms of function.
Archaeologists have to decide whether, for instance, an artefact is a tool or an
ornament, or both, or something meant for ritual use.
 Sometimes, archaeologists have to take recourse to indirect evidence. For instance,
though there are traces of cotton at some Harappan sites, to find out about clothing
we have to depend on indirect evidence including depictions in sculpture.
Problems of interpretation: Early archaeologists thought that certain objects
which seemed unusual or unfamiliar may have had a religious significance.
Attempts have also been made to reconstruct religious beliefs and practices by
examining
seals, some of which seem to depict ritual scenes.
 Others, with plant motifs, are thought to indicate nature worship.
 Several reconstructions remain speculative at present.