Bricks,Beads,and Bones ​

Chapter 1
Notes

Sources
-​ Harappan seal is possibly the most distinctive artefact of IVC
-​ Contains plants and Animal motifs
-​ Script still undeciphered
-​ Pots,tools , ornaments , seals.

Timeline
-​ 3300- 2600 BCE : Early
-​ 2600- 1900 BCE : Mature
-​ 1900- 1300: late
-​ Early and Late - associated with distinctive pottery , agriculture, pastoralism and craft
-​ Early settlements were small and had no large buildings. But mature settlement
buildings were large

Subsistence Strategies
-​ Archaeo-botanists have been able to reconstruct the dietary practices from finds of
charred grains, seeds and bones.
-​ They ate a wide range of plant products
-​ Grains found : Wheat , Barley,lentil , rice ,chickpea, and sesame
-​ Some time millets were found in gujarat
-​ They also ate a wide range of animal products like : Cattle, Sheep, Goat, Buffalo and Pig
-​ Archaeo-zoologists have also found bones of wild boar. Deer, and Gharial
-​ We don't not know if they were hunted or imported from other hunting communities

Agricultural Technologies
 -​ Prevalence of agriculture is indicated by grains
-​ Representations of seals and terracotta sculpture indicates that the bull was known and
Oxen were used for ploughing
-​ Terracotta models have been found in cholistan and Banawali
-​ Evidence of a ploughed field at Kalibangan , this field had two sets of furrows at right
angles to each other , this suggests crops were grown together
-​ Traces of canals have been found in Afghanistan ,water reservoirs in Dholavira , have
been found . Irrigation was an essential part of many sites that were located in semi-arid
lands

Mohenjodaro
-​ Settlement was divided into two sections , upper town or citadel and lower town.

Citadel or Upper town

-​ Higher elevation but smaller

-​ Walled from the lower town
-​ Warehouse:
-​ a massive structure of which the lower brick remained and the upper portion
(most likey) made of wood decayed a long time ago
-​ The Great Bath:
-​ A large rectangular tank in the courtyard is surrounded by a corridor on all four
sides.
-​ Two flights of stair , one on the north and other on south
-​ Tank was made watertight by setting bricks on edge and using a mortar or
gypsum.
-​ Rooms on three sides in which one was a large well .
-​ Water form the tank flowed into a large drain
-​ Eight bathrooms were there on a lane to the north , on each side of the corridor ,
there were four bathrooms, with drains connecting to a drain that ran along the
corridor
-​ Suggested that it was for a ritual bath of some kind

Lower Town

-​ Also walled
-​ Buildings were built on a platform
-​ Settlement was first planned and then it was built accordingly
-​ Bricks were of a standard ratio and were sun-dried or baked
 -​ Drains:
-​ Carefully planned and one of the most distinctive features
-​ The layout of the lower town was an approximate grid pattern, intersecting at
the right angles
-​ The streets and drains were laid out then the houses were built
-​ Domestic Architecture:
-​ The lower town has many residential buildings
-​ Many were centered with a courtyard with rooms on all sides
-​ Courtyard was probably the center of all activities such as cook and weaving
-​ There was a concern for privacy- there were no windows at the ground level
-​ Main entrance does not give direct view of the interior courtyard
-​ Every house has its own bathroom paved with bricks with drains connected
through the walls to the street drains
-​ Many houses have remains of staircases to reach a second storey or the roof
-​ Many houses had wells , often in a room that could be used by passers-by
-​ A total of 700 wells have been found

Social Differences

Burials

-​ Dead were generally laid in pits but there were differences

-​ Some instances , hollowed out spaces were lined with bricks
-​ Some graves contain pottery and ornaments , which could indicates the beliefs of the
afterlife was there
-​ Jewellery has been found in burial of both men and women
-​ A burial contained ornament consisting of three shell rings , a jasper bead and hundreds
of microbeads were found near the skull of a skull of male at Harappan cemetery
-​ Sometimes, dead were buried with copper mirrors
-​ But it appears that the Hrapans did not believe in burying precious things with the dead
-​ Another way to identify social differences is to study artefacts which can broadly
classified as Utilitarian and Luxurious
-​ Utilitarian : Daily objects made out of stones or clay like querns, pottery , needles
-​ Luxuries: objects made from costly , non-local materials or complicated technologies
-​ Faience pots (ground sand or silica mixed with color and gum the fired) were probably
precious because they were difficult to make

Craft Productions
 -​ Mohenjodaro focused on craft production, including bead-making, shell-cutting,
metalworking, and weight-making.
-​ Various raw materials were used, such as Carnelian (red stone), Jasper (yellowstone),
crystal, quartz, copper, bronze, gold, shell, and clay.
-​ Crafts came in different shapes like disk, cylindrical, spherical, barrel, and segmented.
Some were incised, painted, or etched with designs.
-​ Certain stones were decorated with gold caps.
-​ Techniques varied by material, including moulding, chipping, grinding, polishing, and
drilling.
-​ Chanudaro, Lothal, Dholavira, Nageshwar and Balakot are some of the craft centers

Identifying Centers of Production

-​ Archaeologists search for raw materials like stone nodules, whole shells, and copper ore,
as well as craft-making tools.
-​ They also look for unfinished objects, rejects, and waste, which are key indicators of
craftwork.
-​ These traces suggest craft production occurred not only in small specialized centers but
also in large cities like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa

Strategies for Procuring Materials

-​ Terracotta Toy models of bullock carts suggest that this was one important means of
transporting good and people across land routes
-​ Seals and boats on seals suggest that riverine routes along the Indus and its tributaries,
as well as coastal routes - probably used for transporting good and people
-​ Strategies:
-​ Harappans obtained craft materials in various ways, including establishing
settlements near raw material sources:
-​ Nageshwar & Balakot – Shell
-​ Shortughai – Lapis lazuli (blue stone)
-​ Lothal – Carnelian
-​ Rajasthan & Gujarat – Metal
-​ Expeditions were likely sent to regions such as:
-​ Khetri (Rajasthan) – Copper
-​ South India – Gold
-​ These expeditions helped establish contact with local communities.
 -​ Steatite microbeads were found in these areas are indications of such contacts
-​ There is evidence in the Khetri area for what archaeologists the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura
culture

Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Culture

-​ A distinctive non-harappan pottery and a usual wealth of copper objects

-​ Possible that inhabitants of this region supplies copper to the harappans

Contact with distant lands

-​ Copper was probably brought from Oman

-​ Chemical analyses have shown that Omani copper and Hrappan copper have traces of
nickel
-​ A large harappan jar coated with a thick layer of black clay has been found at Oma ni
sites
-​ Possible that Harappans exchange the contents of these vessels for Omani copper
-​ Mesoptamian texts datable to the 3rd millennium BCE refer to copper coming from a
region called Magan (maybe a name for Oman)
-​ Mesopotamia texts mentioned contact with regions named Dilmun(Bahrain), Magan and
Meluhha( maye IVC regions)
-​ Imported:
-​ Carnelian
-​ Lapis lazuli
-​ Copper
-​ Gold
-​ Varieties of wood
-​ Mesoptamian Myth of Meluhha: May your bird be the Baja-bird, may its call be heard in
the royal palace.” Some archaeologists think the Baja-bird was the peacock.
-​ Depictions of ships and boats on the Harappan seals were also there

Seals
-​ Used to facilitate long-distance communication
-​ Bags of goods were tied with wet clay and impression on it
-​ If the bag reached with the sealing intact , it meant it had not been tampered with
-​ Also conveyed the identity of the sender
-​ Usually has a line of writing and animal motif , motifs conveyed a meaning to those who
could not read
Scripts
-​ Most inscriptions are short , the longest - 26 signs
-​ Undeciphered to date
-​ Not alphabetical but syllable
-​ A lot of signs - 375 to 400
-​ Written left to right as some seals have a wider spacing on the right and cramping on the
left
-​ A variety of objects with writing have been found: seals, copper tools, rim of jars,
copper, and terracotta tablets, jewellery , bone rods and sign board andcloth, animal skin

Weights
-​ Exchanges were regulated by a precise system of weights, usually made of a stone called
chert and generally cubical , with no markings
-​ The lower denominations of weights were binary `( 1, 2, 4, 8,16 etc)
-​ While higher denominations followed the decimal system
-​ Smaller weights generally used for weighing jewelry and beads
-​ Bigger weights were used for food grains
-​ Metal scale pans have also been found

Ancient Authority
-​ Extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artefacts is evident in pottery,seals,weights and
bricks
-​ Bricks were not produced at any single centre, and were of a uniform ratio throughout
the region
-​ Settlements were strategically set up in specific location for various reasons

Palaces and Authority

-​ A large building found at mohenjodaro was labelled as a palace by archaeologists but no

spectacular finds were finds were associated with it
-​ A stone statue was labelled and continues to be known as the “priest-kings”
-​ Some archaeologists say that Harappan society had no ruler and democracy was there
-​ Some thought that there were no single rulers but many

The End of the Civilization

Decline of the Harappan Civilisation

●​ By c. 1800 BCE, most Mature Harappan sites, such as Cholistan, were abandoned.
●​ Population expanded into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana, and western Uttar
Pradesh.
●​ Distinctive artefacts (weights, seals, special beads), writing, long-distance trade, and
craft specialization disappeared.
●​ House construction techniques declined, and large public structures were no longer
built.
●​ Evidence suggests a shift to a rural lifestyle, marking the beginning of the Vedic
civilisation.
●​ Possible causes: climatic change, deforestation, excessive floods, shifting/drying rivers,
overuse of land.

Evidence Against an Invasion Theory

●​ Human remains found in Mohenjodaro include:

○​ A skeleton at a depth of 4 ft 2 in, lying diagonally.
○​ Sixteen skeletons were discovered in 1925, with ornaments still intact.
●​ R.E.M. Wheeler attempted to link these remains to the Rigveda.
●​ No evidence of extensive burning, bodies of warriors, war weapons, or destruction
layers.
●​ The citadel, the city's only fortified area, shows no signs of a final battle.

Discovering the Harappan Civilisation

Cunningham’s Confusion

●​ First Director-General of ASI, focused on textual sources for excavations.

●​ Used Chinese Buddhist accounts to locate early settlements.
●​ Harappan artefacts were frequently found but misdated.
●​ Failed to recognize the significance of Harappa.

John Marshall’s Ignorance

●​ First professional archaeologist in India, influenced by Greek archaeology.

●​ Focused on spectacular finds but ignored site stratigraphy.
●​ Excavated uniformly, causing loss of crucial historical data.

R.E.M. Wheeler’s Contributions

●​ Became ASI Director-General in 1944, improved excavation methods.

●​ Stressed the importance of stratigraphy.
●​ Due to partition, major sites were in Pakistan, prompting new discoveries in India.

Key Discoveries

●​ Daya Ram Sahni – Discovered seals at Harappa.

●​ Rakhal Das Banerji – Found similar seals at Mohenjodaro, confirming a shared culture.
●​ John Marshall (1924) – Announced the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Reconstructing Harappan Life

●​ Recovering Artefacts – First step in archaeological research.

●​ Classification – Based on material (stone, clay, metal, bone, ivory).
●​ Function Analysis – Identifying tools, ornaments, or ritual objects.
●​ Context Investigation – Examining where artefacts were found (houses, drains, graves,
kilns).
●​ Indirect Evidence – Comparing with present-day objects.

Problems to Archeological Interpretation

-​ Early archaeologists thought that certain objects which seemed unusual or
unfamiliar may have had a religious significance.
-​ These included terracotta figurines of women, heavily jewelled, some with
elaborate headdresses. These were regarded as mother goddesses.
-​ Attempts have also been made to reconstruct religious beliefs and
practices by examining seals, some of which seem to depict ritual scenes.
-​ In some seals, a figure shown seated cross-legged in a “yogic” posture,
sometimes surrounded by animals, has been regarded as a depiction of
“proto-Shiva”, that is, an early form of one of the major deities of
Hinduism. Besides, conical stone objects have been classified as lingas
-​ Many reconstructions of the Harappan religion are made on the
assumption that later traditions provide parallels with earlier ones.
-​ This is because archaeologists often move from the known to the
unknown, that is, from the present to the past.