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1. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Craft Production

Chanhudaro is a tiny settlement exclusively devoted to craft production, including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making and weight-making.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.

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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.

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MOHENJODARO: A planned urban city
Two Sections of settlement:-

1. The Citadel

These were constructed on mud brick platforms and were walled, which meant that it was physically separated from the Lower Town

These include the warehouse – a massive structure of which the lower brick portions remain.

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.

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AGRICULTURE
#Terracotta sculpture#
-- bull was known
--oxen used for ploughing
--- two sets of furrows at right angles
--two sets of crops were grown
--traces of canals
--water drawn from wells
--semi arid region
◆sites of evidence◆
Kalibangan,Cholistan,Banawali and Shortughai in Afghanistan,Dholavira

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SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES
●ate wide range of plant and animal products
●wheat,barley,lentil,chickpea,sesame and millets were found
●ARCHAEO BOTANISTS -- Specialist in ancient plant remains
●Animals like goat,buffalo, pig ,cattle and sheep  were domesticated
●Bones of wild species like boar,deer, fish ,fowl ,gharial are also found

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BP -- Before present
BCE -- Before common era
CE-- Common era

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CULTURE
Group of objects distinctive in style usually found together within a specific area and period of time
-- seals,beads,weights,stone blades and baked bricks
# FOUND IN #
Afghanistan
Jammu
Baluchistan
Gujarat

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The Harappan seal
--most distinctive artefact
--made of stone called steatite
--contains animal motifs and signs
OTHER EVIDENCES
--Houses
-- pots
--ornaments
-- tools