Economy (Art And Craft) Flashcards
Plainness of Harappan culture
Earlier writings tended to contrast the plainness of Harappan artefacts with the opulence of
their Egyptian and Mesopotamian counterparts. Nowadays, the technological sophistication
and beauty of some of the Harappan artefacts are recognized.
Standardization – impressive level
a. Brick and Pottery
b. Units of weights and measure.
i. The system is binary in the smaller weights
(1:2:8:16:32:64) and decimal in the higher
weights (with a ratio of 160, 200, 320, and
640).
ii. The largest weight found at Mohenjodaro
weighs 10.865 g.
- There is a great variety of standardized, mass-produced
craft items at Harappan sites.
a. Harappan artists made very delicate and beautiful
objects using different kinds of material including
metals/stones/terracotta/ ivory/seashells - An important feature of urbanization was highly organized art and craft.
Craft specialisation at settlement(localisation)
a. Lothal – bead factory
b. Gujarat sites – shell working – Nageshwar, Kuntasi, Rangpur
Textile
Cotton cloth was a major item of manufacture and trade – numerous
spindle-whorls found.
• Mesopotamian texts mention cotton as one of the imports from
Meluhha
• Silk fibres also found in Harappa, around a copper alloy neckless.
Ivory
Couple of elephant tusks found with skeletons of group of people
Shell working
Evidence of shell working was found at Chanhudaro and bangles and
ladles were made at this site
Wood carving
Must have been experts but nothing survived
Metallurgy
Great number of copper objects found.
o Artefacts out of pure
copper, as well as alloyed
copper with arsenic, tin, or
nickel. The number of pure
copper artefacts was far
greater than alloyed
bronze ones. Most
important craft was bronze work.
o Dancing girl – Mohenjodaro.
o Bronze bull – Kalibangan
o Copper bird and dog – Lothal
o These articles were fashioned using the
technique of lost-wax which we use even
today.
Harappan people used silver and gold basically for ornaments while
copper was used for implements and tools.
Stone work
Important craft
• Relatively rarer + high efforts → elite
work
o Stone quarry – Rohri Hills
• Stone Masonry and fine polished
pillars at Dholavira
• Sculpture: Very few of the stone sculptures are
found in the Harappan zone, less than 15. All are
small in size.
o Bearded man.
o Nude male torso from Harappa
Bead
ornaments
(lapidary
work)
Semi-precious stones: Lapis Lazuli, Agate, Jasper, Jade, Carnelian,
Onyx etc.
• Hard material processing: Cutting, rounding, polishing (cylindrical),
then drilling.
• Prestige work + Great demand world
over
• Elite consumption, status symbol
• Chanhudaro had a bead making
factory.
Seal making
Purpose of seals: These are not coins. Some could have been amulets.
But most were used as stamp seals for commercial purpose.
• Maximum seals are found in Mohenjodaro.
• Material
o Soft stone (eg steatite) – carving not possible on hard stone.
o Sometimes Faience.
• Features
o Mostly squarish in shape. Or rectangular.
o Average size is about 2.5 cm but some as large as 6 cm.
o ‘’Intaglio” carving
Faience sculpture
Costly composite material: Manufactured material out of paste of
crushed quartz, which is coloured with various mineral sands and then
coated with glaze.
• Animals, bangles, rings, pendants, miniature vessels
Terracotta
Found all across Harappan civilization.
Figures
o Human and animal figures.
o Children toys.
o But these are all crudely made
Imitation jewellery made of terracotta.
• Pottery
o Well-fired, wheel-turned Harappan
pottery
o Highly glazed (shining even today)
o It is called black-on-red (black paintings on red pottery) – thus
decorative painting.
o Mediocre artistic merit, mostly plain and severely utilitarian.
