Bricks, Beads and Bones: The Harappan Civilisation - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, concepts, archaeological methods, figures, and places from Theme One: Bricks, Beads and Bones (The Harappan Civilisation).

Steatite

A soft stone used by the Harappans to produce distinctive seals, micro beads, and molded objects.

Early Harappan

The formative phase of the Harappan civilisation that spanned from 6000 BCE to 2600 BCE.

Mature Harappan

The urban and most prosperous phase of the Harappan civilisation, spanning from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.

Late Harappan

The decadent or decline phase of the Harappan civilisation, spanning from 1900 BCE to 1300 BCE, characterized by a return to a rural way of life.

Archaeo-botanists

Specialists in ancient plant remains who analyze charred grains and seeds to reconstruct ancient dietary practices.

Archaeo-zoologists

Specialists who study ancient animal bones to determine whether animals were domesticated or hunted.

Saddle Querns

Grinding equipment made of hard, gritty igneous rock or sandstone, found in large numbers at Mohenjodaro and used as the primary means for grinding cereals and pounding herbs or spices.

Citadel

The smaller, western, and elevated section of Harappan cities, constructed on mud-brick platforms and used for special public or ritual purposes.

Lower Town

The larger, eastern section of Harappan cities that contained residential buildings laid out on a grid pattern with intersecting streets and drains.

Alexander Cunningham

The first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), known as the father of Indian archaeology, who surveyed and published a report on a Harappan seal in 1875.

Faience Pot

A luxury vessel made of ground sand or silica mixed with colour and gum and then fired, used to hold precious items such as perfumes.

Hoards

Valuable objects, such as gold jewellery or metal tools, kept carefully inside containers like pots for reuse or safekeeping until discovered by archaeologists.

Carnelian

A stone of a red colour, produced by firing yellowish raw materials and used extensively in Harappan bead-making.

Shortughai

A Harappan settlement located in far-off Afghanistan, situated near the best source of lapis lazuli.

Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Culture

A non-Harappan culture in the Khetri region of Rajasthan, noted for its non-Harappan pottery and an unusual wealth of copper objects supplied to the Harappans.

Magan

A region named in Mesopotamian texts datable to the third millennium BCE as a source of copper, identified by scholars as Oman.

Meluhha

A region mentioned in Mesopotamian texts as a land of seafarers, believed to refer to the Harappan region.

Dilmun

An island trading region mentioned in Mesopotamian texts, identified as Bahrain, whose local weights followed the Harappan standard.

Haja-bird

A bird referenced in a Mesopotamian myth concerning Meluhha, which some archaeologists believe refers to the peacock.

Chert

A stone material generally used by the Harappans to make cubical weights with binary lower denominations and decimal higher denominations.

Priest-king

A stone statue recovered at Mohenjodaro depicting a seated figure, named by archaeologists in parallel with Mesopotamian political-religious leaders.

Archaeogenetics

The study of ancient population DNA using molecular genetics methods to understand population history and genetic continuity.

Stratigraphy

The archaeological study of the layers of occupational debris in a mound to determine the cultural sequence of a site.

John Marshall

The Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India who officially announced the discovery of a new civilization in the Indus valley in 1924.

Daya Ram Sahni

The Indian archaeologist who discovered seals at Harappa in the early decades of the twentieth century in layers older than Early Historic levels.

Rakhal Das Banerji

The archaeologist who found seals at Mohenjodaro similar to those from Harappa, leading to the conjecture that both sites belonged to a single archaeological culture.

R.E.M. Wheeler

Director-General of the ASI appointed in 1944 who introduced military precision and stratigraphical digging methods to Harappan excavations.

Great Bath

A large rectangular tank situated on the Citadel of Mohenjodaro, made watertight with edge-set bricks and gypsum mortar, believed to have been used for special ritual bathing.

Linga

A polished conical stone object classified by archaeologists as a symbol worshipped in connection with Shiva.

Shamans

Men and women who claim magical and healing powers, as well as an ability to communicate with the other world.

Rakhigarhi

The largest Harappan city, covering an area of 550 hectares in the Hisar district of Haryana, where significant archaeogenetic research was conducted.