Bricks, Beads and bones/bronze age

The most distinctive artifact of the Harappan/Indus valley civilisation

• The Harappan seal

• Made of stone called steatite

• Contained animal motifs and signs

• The script remains undecipherable

What archaeological evidence was left behind?

• Houses

• Pots

• Ornaments

• Tools

• Seals

Where was the term derived of?

The place in where it was first identified

Total time-span(6000 BCE - 1300 BCE)

• Early Harappan (6000 BCE - 2600 BCE)

  • Formative phase

• Mature Harappan (2600 BCE - 1900 BCE)

  • Urban phase, most prosperous

• Late Harappan (1900 BCE - 1300 BCE)

  • Decline of the civilisation

Regions where artifacts were found

• Afganistan

• Balochistan

• Sind

• Punjab provinces of Pakistan

Indian sites where artifacts were found

• Jammu and Kashmir

• Punjab

• Haryana

• Rajasthan

• Uttar Pradesh

• Maharashtra

What types of artifacts are found?

• Pottery

• Bricks(Baked or unbaked)

• Seal

• Weights

• Beads

• Copper and bronze articles

Why is Harappan civilisation also called as the Harappan culture?

• Archaeologists use the term “culture" for:

  • A group of objects

  • distinctive in style

  • Usually found together

  • Within a specific geographical area and period of time

• For the Harappans these were:

  • Pottery

  • Bricks(baked and unbaked)

  • Seals

  • Weights

  • Beads

  • Copper and bronze articles

Theories about the transition from early Harappa to Mature Harappa

• ABRUPT BREAK

  • Large-scale burning at some-sites

  • Abandonment of some settlements

• GRADUAL TRANSFORMATION

  • Internal development of the civilization during the early Harappan phase

  • Cultures prior to Mature Harappa

    • Distinctive pottery

    • Agriculture and pastoralism

    • Crafts

    • Settlements were generally very small

  • Harappan culture emerged from early farming communities (7000BCE)

Harappan settlements

• 2000 sites discovered in the Indian sub-continent

• Most located between Indus and Saraswati(2/3) river basins

• Five Major cities

  • Rakhigarhi

  • Mohen-jo-daro

  • Harappa

  • Dholavira

  • Ganweriwal

• Remaining sites

  • Regional centers

  • Agricultural villages

  • Ports

  • Manufacturing centers

Evidence used by archaeologists to reconstruct dietary practices

• Some of mature Harappan culture(2600-1900BCE) and early Harappan(6000-2600BCE) culture developed in similar sites, they shared common elements, such as subsistence farming practices.

• Finds of charred grains and seeds(archaeo-botanists)

  • Wheat

  • Barley

  • Lentil

  • Chickpea

  • Sesame

  • Millet(Gujarat)

  • Rice(Rare)

• Animal bones, presumably domesticated(archaeo-zoologists)

  • Cattle

  • Sheep

  • Goat

  • Buffalo

  • Pig

  • Bones of wild animals

    • Boar

    • Deer

    • Gharial

• Bones of fish and foul were also found

Agricultural technologies

• Bulls and Oxen for ploughing, as represented by seals and terracotta sculptures

• CHOLISTAN & BANAVALI(Haryana)

  • Terracotta models of the plough

• KALIBANGAN(Rajasthan)

  • Ploughed fields

  • Two different crops grown

  • Two sets of furrows at right angles to each other

• Most Harappan sites were located in semi-arid lands

  • SHORTUGHAI, Afganistan

    • Traces of canals

  • DHOLAVIRA, Gujarat

    • Wells and water reservoirs

Saddle quern & food processing

• Food processing equipment made up of

  • Stone

  • Metal

  • Terracotta

• Saddle quern, Mohen-jo-daro

  • 1937, Ernest Mackey

  • Abundant

  • For grinding cerals

  • Made of

    • Hard

    • Gritty

    • Igneous rock or sandstone

  • Signs of hard usage

  • Convex base

  • Set in mud to prevent rocking

  • Of 2 types

    • For grains

    • For herbs(mortar-pestle esq)

Town-planning of Harappan civilization: Lower Town

• Larger and lower

• Walled

  • Several buildings were built on platforms, which served as foundations.

• Carefully planned drainage system

• Roads and streets were laid out along an approximate grid pattern, intersecting at right angles

• Drains were laid out first and then houses were built along them

• Residential buildings were centered on a courtyard

  • Rooms on all sides

  • Courtyard was probably the center of activities

• Main entrance did not give a direct view of the interior

  • No windows at ground floor

• Every house had its own bathroom

  • Drains were connected through the walls to the street drains

• Remains of staircases to reach the second floor

• Many houses has wells(700 total), often accessible to outsiders

Town-planning of Harappan civilization: Upper town/Citadel

• Buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms

  • Walled; physically separated from the lower town

• Two most important buildings

  • WARE HOUSE

    • A massive structure

    • Only lower brick portion remains

  • GREAT BATH

    • Large rectangular tank in a courtyard

    • Surrounded on all 4 sides by a corridor

    • Two flights of steps on the north and south leading into the tank

    • Made watertight by setting bricks on the edge and mortar of gypsum

    • Rooms on all 3 side, one has a large well

    • North lay a smaller building with 8 bathrooms, 4 on each side

    • May have been for a special ritual bath

      • It is unique

      • It is in the Citadel

Drainage system of the Harappan civilization

• Streets with drains were laid out first and then the house were built along them

  • Every house had at least one wall along the street

• Main channels were made of bricks set in mortar and covered with loose bricks that could be removed for cleaning

  • Some used limestone for the covering

• PROCESS OF DRAINAGE

  • House drains emptied into a sump/cesspit

  • Solid matter settled these, waste water flowed out

  • Very long drainage channels had sumps at intervals for cleaning

  • Even found in smaller settlements like LOTHAL

    • Houses of mud bricks and drains of burnt bricks