Ace, Ancient Civilisations of the East, South Asia and the Indus Civilisation
Interpretations of Indus Society
We are going to be looking at some of the interpretations of Indus society.
Lack of Textual Records
Due to the absence of textual records, reconstructing the social and political structure of the Indus civilization relies heavily on archaeological findings. This scarcity of written documents necessitates a reliance on material culture to infer societal organization.
Evidence for Elite Groups
What is the evidence for elite groups within the Indus, how society may be structured, and how the Indus is the odd one out of the early civilisations.
Urban Centers and Planning
Large urban centers existed within the Indus, notably Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, with monumental citadel mounds and well-laid-out lower towns.
The uniformity between cities suggested strong political oversight. The standardization in urban planning and architecture across different sites implies a central authority or shared governance model.
The well-planned and maintained towns indicate communal investment and planning. This suggests a sophisticated understanding of urban development and resource management.
Lack of Monumental Architecture
Most sites lack monumental architecture like temples or palaces, except for the Great Bath at Mohenjo Daro and large warehouses at Harappa. The absence of grand religious or palatial structures distinguishes the Indus from other contemporary civilizations.
Absence of Palatial Structures
There is no palatial structure or large-scale domestic venue within the Indus, even at Mohenjo Daro.
Momental architecture is geared towards communal structures like the Great Baths and warehouses. This focus on public amenities rather than private residences for rulers or elites offers insights into the social priorities of the time.
Uniformity in Housing
Houses in the lower town of Mohenjo Daro followed similar designs with little differentiation.
Key objects like seals and weights are concentrated in the lower town, not the citadels. This distribution pattern challenges traditional notions of hierarchical urban layouts, where elite-controlled goods are typically housed in elevated areas.
Absence of Palaces
There is no palace within the whole of the Indus anywhere.
Shrines and Archaeological Visibility
Shrines may have been ephemeral, affecting archaeological visibility.
Cemeteries and Burial Practices
Cemeteries are small with uniformity in supine burials oriented in the same way. The largest cemetery is R37 at Harappa with about 115 burials.
Burials lack conspicuous wealth, and materials are utilitarian. This lack of elaborate grave goods suggests a more egalitarian society or a deliberate attempt to minimize social distinctions in death.
Isotope analysis suggests no significant dietary stress among the buried individuals. The absence of widespread malnutrition indicates a relatively stable and equitable food supply.
Injuries Among Women and Children
Gwen Robyns Shug suggested greater evidence of injuries among women and children within these burials with a small data set due to survivability. These findings raise questions about gender and social dynamics within the Indus civilization.
Other Burial Practices
Other burial practices may exist but are not yet properly excavated or understood. The principal method of Funerary Rites within South Asia is cremation.
Regional Variation
Cemeteries at Caliban and Oliveira Lo Tal follow similar patterns but also show interesting, slight differences, indicating regional variation. These variations underscore the complexities of the Indus civilization, with diverse regional customs and practices.
Lack of Conspicuous Wealth in Burials
There is no evidence of conspicuous wealth display within these cemeteries. There are no royal burials present. This reinforces the idea of either an egalitarian society or a conscious effort to suppress overt displays of social hierarchy.
Hiding Wealth Inequality
Paul Recen identified that wealth objects don't appear in burials but are found within small caches within houses buried on floor surfaces. He suggested a deliberate policy of hiding wealth inequality within the Indus. This hypothesis challenges conventional understandings of social stratification and wealth distribution.
Lack of Evidence of Warfare
There are no murals depicting glorious armies, and weaponry is scarce. Agricultural implements could have served as weapons. The relative absence of warfare imagery and specialized weaponry distinguishes the Indus from many other ancient civilizations.
Fortification Walls
Fortification walls may have been for flood prevention or symbolic boundaries rather than defense.
There is no standing army within the Indus.
Gateway Designs
Gateways were designed to structure the flow of individuals into the city, possibly for taxation purposes. These architectural features hint at administrative controls and economic regulation.
Lack of Monumental Art
There is a lack of monumental art, such as huge sculptures or carvings depicting people, within the Indus. However, issues of Art can be due to the archaeological survivability. The absence of monumental art poses questions about the cultural values and artistic preferences of the Indus people.
Interpretations of Indus Society
The question is whether there was a single unified leadership or a decentralised system.
Traditionally, researchers focused on uniformity, but more recently, they explore regional and local diversity which suggest that were looking at a decentralised system of cities and regional policies.
Classification of a State Level Civilisation
Due to its size, the Indus has been classified as a state-level civilisation. However, it lacks elite residences, wealth accumulation by individuals, royal burials, formal art, and evidence of warfare. This challenges traditional definitions of state-level societies.
Fitting into State-Level Society Notions
The Indus only fits some criteria of a state-level society, leading to questions on whether it wasn't a state-level society or our definitions are wrong. This prompts a reevaluation of how civilizations are categorized and understood.
Categories of Interpretation
Three categories exist: traditional interpretations, normative models (decentralised state), and post-structural approaches and the question of today is, what do we know about the people and how were they organised?
John Marshall's Influence
John Marshall, following his discovery of in the 1920s, was influenced by his work in Crete, noting the uniformity of urban centres.
Mortimer Wheeler's Interpretation
Mortimer Wheeler interpreted the Indus as an authoritarian empire, with the priest-king as the authority figure. He saw granaries as evidence of state-level bureaucracy and Harappa and Mohenjo Daro as twin capitals.
He linked this to the British Empire's control over South Asia which was not a coincidence. It's part of the colonial legitimisation of British rule within South Asia.
Imperial Status
Wheeler saw the Indus exhibiting an imperial status akin to the British Empire, with the citadel housing elites and the lower town comprising middle-class merchants and craftspeople.
Stuart Piggot's Perspective
Stuart Piggot also fixated on the priest-king as a religious figure with absolute power, indicating centralised government control.
Identified two locations on the citadels and one on Harappa of these small cell-like structures to the northwest of both citadels. Interprets these as workmen's quarters.
Gordon Child's Marxist Approach
Gordon Child, a Marxist, saw the Indus as demonstrating the exploitation of people and connected racial inequality to social and economic hierarchies.
Uniformity
Child argued that uniformity was ephemeral and highlighted underlying variation with idea of diffusion.
Shift in Interpretation
More excavations in the 1970s and 1980s revealed diversity within the sites.
Mark Noia's Excavations
Mark Noia's new excavations at Harappa suggested the absence of a centralising authority and proposed dividing the Indus into approximately 50 states. Instead of a unitary imperial structure, there would be councils presiding over cities. The rulers were Merchants, ritual specialist, traders, farmers, herders etc.
Economic Nature
Trey built on Gordon Child's idea that the Indus system is really of an economic nature. A Giant Economic entity.
Greg Purcell's Theory
Greg Purcell emphasized decentralisation, with local politics rooted in earlier tribal institutions and linked through kinship ties. Two levels of allegiance existed.
City States
The Indus was never a purely unified state, always existing as a series of city-states with Mohenjo Daro perhaps being pre-eminent.
Cultural Imperialism
Gujarat could almost be a colony of the Indus in in an exceedingly resource-rich area.
It contains interjections into the landscape for procuring raw materials and shipping from the Indus.
The duality of settlements
You had settlements with Heavy fortifications, strong boundaries and then settlements of the same activity 1 kilometer down the road without fortification.
Communities
You see a multitude of communities all operating within the same network.
William First Service's Hypothesis
William First Service hypothesised that wealth and status were dictated by cattle ownership, with the power of elites residing outside the cities.
Wealth and status is not characterised by, you know, how much gold, silver gems you have or the size of your house, but that it's dictated by how much cattle you own, and that actually the power of the wealthy, the powerful, the elite, solid in the cities that are outside the cities.
Social Structure vs Political Organisations
Individuals like to shop for these, looking at a more social structure rather than social political organisations. He's really interested in the lack of wealth and strong patrols between people.
Lack of Wealth in Burials
Lactate, Wealth items are not hereditary or they are redistributed. Well-Defined Social stratification. No one was allowed to accumulate that much wealth to begin with, and there was a rule in place preventing the display of wealth
Mask Social Inequality
Within Indian society, there is an unwritten rule that you shy away from conspicuous displays of wealth.
The uniformity we see across the region is this deliberate attempt to mask any social inequality that may exist in the society.
Low-Level Exploitation
The houses are devoid of luxury, but they're also devoid of signs of exploitation. Everyone just seems to be this sort of same level of sort of low level. Reasonably okay.
Hidden Wealth
There Are little pockets of wealth and Gary within Falls of some of the houses you get these little pockets, which are full of sort of semi-precious stone gems etc.
Anthony Miller's Interpretation
Anthony Miller linked this to a timeless and stateless South Asia where the Indus contradicts itself. The Indus contradicts itself, and everyone attempted to look, attempt to have the appearance of equality.
Power through Rejection of Material Wealth
Danny Miller suggested that elites may have held power through the rejection of material wealth and living a life of penance.
High Density of Hidden Wealth
Wealthiest goods from Harappa from the Darrow Other Wortman forces. In the northwest of the citadel, the so-called slave barracks, coolie lines, Workers quarters follow the floors of those rooms.
Sources of Religious Piety
The sharing of material wealth becomes a source of wealth and is a central tendency of many later South Asian religious structures.
Economic Integration of Communities
What we are actually looking at what you're getting is an intense period of integration between these different disparate communities that are distinct within the landscape.
Early Interpretations and Partition of India
Partition in 1947 which creates India. Pakistan gets their independence from the British of all India sites in 1947. So in particular, goes on this massive hunt to find more Indus sites within its borders.
Diversity in Society
There are multiple ethnicity, linguistic groups, religious activities, practices that actually it's a very diverse and sort of cosmopolitan society.
Inclusivity
Our existing models are wrong and needs to be more inclusive to capture the complexity that exists within the Indus.