CHAPTER- 1 BRICKS, BEADS AND BONES THE HARAPPAN CIVILISATION
NOTES
1. Harappa Civilization– It is also known as the Indus Valley Civilization.- The total time span of the civilization is from 6000 BCE to 1300 BCE.
- The decline of the civilization began around 1900 BCE.
- The inhabitants of the Harappan Civilization consumed food obtained from various types of plants and trees, as well as from animals, including fish.
- The grains found at Harappan sites include wheat, barley, pulses, white chickpeas, and sesame. Millet grains were discovered at sites in Gujarat. Rice grains were found relatively less frequently.
- The animal bones found at Harappan sites include those of cattle, sheep, goats, buffaloes, and pigs. Bones of wild species such as wild boar, deer, and gharial have also been discovered. Bones of fish and birds have also been found.
2. Agricultural Technology– Models of ploughs made of clay have been found at several sites in Cholistan and at Banawali (Haryana). In addition, archaeologists have found evidence of ploughed fields at a site called Kalibangan (Rajasthan), which is associated with the early Harappan levels.
- Two different crops were grown simultaneously.
- At the Harappan site of Shortugai in Afghanistan, some remains of canals have been found; however, no such remains have been discovered in Punjab and Sindh.
- The reservoirs found at Dholavira (Gujarat) were possibly used for water storage for agricultural purposes.
3. Planned cities of the Harappan culture-
- The most unique aspect of the Harappan Civilization was the development of urban centers.
- The settlement is divided into two parts — one smaller but built at a higher elevation, and the other much larger but constructed at a lower level. Archaeologists have referred to these as the Citadel and the Lower Town.
- The height of the citadel was due to its structures being built on mud-brick platforms. The citadel was surrounded by a wall, which indicates that it was separated from the Lower Town.
a) Construction of Drains– One of the most unique features of Harappan cities was their carefully planned drainage system.
- The streets and lanes of the Lower Town were laid out in an almost 'grid pattern' and intersected each other at right angles.
- To connect the wastewater from houses to the street drains, it was necessary for at least one wall of each house to be adjacent to the street.
b) House Architecture– In the Lower Town of Mohenjo-daro, many of the residential buildings were centered around a courtyard, with rooms constructed around it.
- The courtyard served as the center for activities such as cooking and grinding.
- The walls built on the ground floor did not have windows.
- The main entrance did not provide a direct view of the interior or the courtyard.
- Each house had its own bathroom with a brick floor, and its drains were connected to the street drains through the walls.
- In some houses, remains of staircases leading to the upper floor or roof have been found.
- Many houses had wells, most of which were constructed in rooms that were accessible from outside and were likely used by passersby. The total number of wells was approximately 700.
c) Citadel– On the citadel, we find evidence of structures that were possibly used for specific public purposes.
- A granary – It is a large structure of which only the lower parts made of bricks remain, while the upper parts, which were possibly made of wood, were destroyed long ago.
- Another large structure is the Great Bath – a rectangular water tank built in a courtyard, surrounded on all sides by a corridor.
- Two staircases were built on the northern and southern sides of the reservoir to reach its bottom.
- The water from the reservoir drained into a large outlet.
- To the north, on the other side of a street, there was a relatively smaller structure that had eight bathrooms.
4. Observation of Social Differences-
a) Burial Practices– At Harappan sites, the deceased were generally buried in pits.
- Sometimes, the construction of burial pits varied from one another — at some places, the surfaces of the pits were lined with bricks.
- Some graves contained pottery and ornaments, which suggests the belief that these items could be used after death.
- At some places, the dead were buried along with copper mirrors.
b) Discovery of Luxury Items-
- Another way to identify social differences is by studying artifacts, which archaeologists broadly classify into utilitarian and luxury items.
- The first category includes items of daily use such as grinding stones, pottery, needles, and strainers. These objects are generally found among people across all sections.
- Archaeologists consider objects valuable if they are rare or made from expensive materials that were not locally available, or if they were produced using complex techniques. In this way, small faience objects were possibly considered valuable because they were difficult to make.
5. Information about Craft Production-
- The Harappan city of Chanhu-daro was almost entirely devoted to craft production. Craft activities included bead-making, shell cutting, metalwork, seal-making, and the production of weights.
- The variety of materials used in bead-making is remarkable: stones such as carnelian (a beautiful red stone), jasper, crystal, quartz, and steatite; metals like copper, bronze, and gold; as well as shell, faience, and terracotta were all used in the production of beads.
- They came in various shapes such as disc-shaped, cylindrical, spherical, drum-shaped, and segmented.
- Steatite, which is a very soft stone, was easy to work with. Some beads were made by molding a paste of powdered steatite into a desired shape.
- Experiments conducted by archaeologists have shown that the red color of carnelian was obtained by firing the yellow-colored raw material and the beads at various stages of production.
- Finished goods from Chanhu-daro and Lothal were transported to major urban centers such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
a) Identification of Production Centers– To identify craft production centers, archaeologists generally look for the following: raw materials such as stone nodules, whole shells, and copper ore; tools; unfinished objects; discarded items; and waste debris.
6. Policies Related to Procuring Materials-
- Various types of raw materials were used for craft production, including stone, wood, and metal, which had to be procured from regions outside the alluvial plains.
- Another policy for procuring raw materials was to send expeditions to regions such as the Khetri area of Rajasthan and South India.
- The evidence found in the Khetri region has been named the Ganeshwar-Jodhpur culture by archaeologists.
- Archaeological findings indicate that copper was possibly also brought from Oman, located at the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
- Chemical analyses show that both Omani copper and Harappan artifacts contain traces of nickel, indicating a common origin for both.
- A large Harappan pot coated with a thick layer of black clay has been found at Omani sites.
- Mesopotamian texts dated to the third millennium BCE mention the arrival of copper from a region called Magan, which was possibly the name used for Oman.
- Other archaeological discoveries indicating long-distance contacts include Harappan seals, weights, dice, and beads.
7. Seals, Script, and Weights-
a) Seals and Impressions– Seals and impressions were used to facilitate long-distance contacts.
- Impressions also revealed the identity of the sender.
b) Mysterious Script– On Harappan seals, there is a line of writing that possibly indicates the owner’s name and title.
- Most inscriptions are brief; the longest inscription contains about 26 symbols. This script has not been deciphered to date, but it was definitely not alphabetical, as it contains a much larger number of symbols—approximately between 375 and 400.
- This script was written from right to left.
c) Weights– Exchanges were regulated by a precise system of weights.
- Weights were generally made from a stone called chert and were usually cube-shaped without any markings.
- Small weights were possibly used for weighing jewelry and beads.
8. Ancient Authority– Archaeological evidence does not provide us with quick answers about centers of power or the ruling people.
- Archaeologists have referred to a large building found in Mohenjo-daro as a palace.
- A stone statue has been identified as that of a priest-king.
- Archaeologists were familiar with the history of Mesopotamia and its priest-kings, and they found similar parallels in the Indus region as well.
- Some archaeologists hold the view that there were no rulers in Harappan society and that everyone had an equal social status.
9. End of the Civilization– There is evidence suggesting that by around 1800 BCE, most of the well-developed Harappan sites in regions like Cholistan were abandoned. At the same time, population started increasing in new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.
- The Northern Harappan regions continued to exist even after 1900 BCE.
- Several explanations have been proposed regarding the decline of the civilization—
- Climate change, - Deforestation, - Excessive flooding, - Rivers drying up and/or changing course, - Overuse of land.
- Some of these reasons may apply to certain settlements, but they do not explain the decline of the entire civilization.
10. Discovery of the Harappan Civilization-
a) Cunningham's Confusion– Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, began archaeological excavations in the mid-19th century.
- Cunningham's main interest was also in the archaeology of the early historical and later periods.
- Cunningham also collected, documented, and translated the inscriptions found during his surveys.
- An Englishman gave Cunningham a Harappan seal. Although he paid attention to the seal, he unsuccessfully tried to date it to a time period he was familiar with.
b) A New Ancient Civilization– In the early decades of the 20th century, archaeologists like Daya Ram Sahni discovered seals at Harappa that were definitely associated with levels much older than the early historical periods.
- In 1924, John Marshall, the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, announced to the world the discovery of a new civilization in the Indus Valley.
- John Marshall's tenure as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India was truly a period of significant transformation in Indian archaeology.
11. Classification of Discoveries– The recovery of antiquities is only the beginning of an archaeological endeavor. After this, archaeologists classify their discoveries.
- A common principle of classification relates to the materials used—such as stone, clay, metal, bone, ivory, etc.
- The second, and more complex, principle is based on their utility.
12. Problems of Interpretation– The challenges of archaeological reconstruction probably arise most prominently in attempts to reconstruct religious practices.
- These include female terracotta figurines adorned with jewelry, some of which had elaborate headgear. They have been identified as mother goddesses.
