MT1 Week4 Harappa

Question 1

South Asia

Answer 1

Geographically defined by major barriers

•Himalayas to the north – massive chain of mountains with passes and gorges to access Afghanistan, Tibet, Central Asia, Arabian
Peninsula

• Tropical forest to the east
• Physical barriers created distinct civilizations with mixed cultures, Flanguages and religions

Question 2

Background

Answer 2

• Climate for region stabilized about 8000 BC
• Monsoons May to September and December to March bring rains for agriculture
• Monsoons fluctuate over time: during Indus civilization the climate was wetter

Question 3

Discovery

Answer 3

• Harappa civilization was unknown until the 20th century
• 1856 British Engineers were building part of the East India Railroad and needed ballast (The material that supports the train tracks)
• Looted burnt mudbrick from Harappan sites to use for ballast (Harappa, Mohenjo-­Daro)
• Harappan seals were found in 1912
• Excavated in the 1920s by archaeologists: Sir John Hubert Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats

Question 4

Harappa civilization

Answer 4

• Harappa civilization emerges in the Indus Valley of Pakistan and India
• Indus river source is in Tibet in the Himalayas then descends onto the semiarid Indus plain
• The Indus river lays down rich silt in the annual floods (keeps the land fertile)
• Hot dry summers, cold winters
• Farmers depended on seasonal rivers and streams for irrigation
• The annual flooding has buried some sites with more than 10 m of silt

Question 5

Indus Valley

Answer 5

• Indus floods between June and September
• Settlements were built above the highest flood level
• The floodplain is a desert environment and farmers built a system of irrigation canals to water their fields
• Unlike the Nile & Euphrates rivers, the Indus river has a major system of tributaries
• Saraswati river was another ancient river that disappeared 4000 BC
• Settlements were spread out along the rivers and tributaries
• The floodplain has no minerals or metals (need to trade with surrounding mountain areas) but it was more forested in the past and has sources of clay and rich agriculture

Question 6

Mehrgarh: 7000 -­2600 BC

Answer 6

Mehrgarh (in modern state of Pakistan) is the earliest Neolithic site in the northwest Indian subcontinent

• Site is important because it is located near the Bolan Pass, a trade route between the Indus Valley and what is now Afghanistan
• Wheat, barley, sheep, goat, domesticated local zebu cattle
• Eventually add chickpea, lentil and sesame
• Within 1000 years the people lived in substantial mud-­brick houses with 4 internal divisions laid out in a defined orientation
• worked local copper ore
• People were buried in brick lined tombs with bitumen-­lined baskets (absence of pottery), bone & stone tools, bangles, turquoise & shell beads, & ornaments of lapiz lazuli, limestone, sandstone
• Oldest known lost-­wax technique for casting copper in form of a wheel-­shaped amulet
• Some animal sacrifices

Question 7

6000-­5500 BC

Answer 7

• Pottery introduced
• Zebu are domesticated
• Possibly earliest evidence of cotton in the world
• figurines of females and animals (oldest figurines in South Asia) placed in graves

Question 8

Mehrgarh dentistry

Answer 8

Proto-­dentistry

• Evidence that bead making skills were used on nine individual’s teeth (molars)
• Archaeologists found 11 molars in skeletons in the cemetery that showed clear drilling marks
• No filling
• But individuals survived as there were wear marks over the drilling marks!
• Probably used flint drill bit (used in beads)

Question 9

Mehrgarh Surplus & Craft

Answer 9

Archaeologists have found communal buildings for grain storage

• Crafts include faience beads, more detailed female figurines, & the first button seals, and buttons
• Updraft kilns & large pit kilns for pottery
• After 3500 BC the community broke up into small densely packed units connected by irrigation canals
• Site was abandoned by 2600 BC when major Harappan cities emerged

Question 10

Harappan Civilization

Answer 10

• Harappa is a Bronze Age civilization
• Harappan civilization develops in 3 phases
• Populations increase in the Early Harappan (3300-­2600 BC)
• foundations of cities
• The Mature Harappan is the peak (2600-­1900 BC)
• The Late Harappan 1900-­1300 BC decline

Question 11

Early Harappan 3300-­2600 BC

Answer 11

5500-­3300 BC pre-­Harappan sites are established on floodplain

• Potters-­wheel used in cities by 3500 BC
• In Early Harappa the population increased and settlements on the floodplain were mainly villages and towns and at least 5 substantial cities were emerging
• Many of these settlements were intentionally burned (possibly over competition for land) as the large the cities formed ~2600 BC
• Larger settlements have fired-­brick walls around the settlement to protect from flooding

Question 12

Mature Harappa 2600 -­1900 BC

Answer 12

• Indus Civilization lasts only a few centuries
• The rise of cities in the Indus valley is thought to have been sudden
• Possibly brought about by trade or warfare but no evidence of armies
• Wheeled carts were important in trade & they are independently invented about the time of the rise of urban centers
• Sumerians dramatically increased trade with the Indus Valley in this period
• Previously, Sumerians traded for exotics across the Iranian plateau by foot
• 2600 BC Sumerians began to trade by boat via Dilmun and Magan (Persian Gulf) and Meluha (oils, furniture, gold, carnelian) (Indus Valley)

Question 13

Meluhans

Answer 13

King Sargon 2350 BC stated that Meluhan ships were moored in his capital

• There is also evidence of Meluhan villages located in Mesopotamia near Ur
• Trade would involve specialized merchants
• Clay seals, carnelian beads from Indus craftsmen are found in Mesopotamian royal burials
• Gold, carnelian, ivory, oils, lapis lazuli, copper, silver from Indus valley traded for cereals, leather, wool from Mesopotamia.
• The Harappans also increased overland trade routes to the Iranian Plateau
• Trade coincides with the first cities in Indus Valley

Question 14

Local trade

Answer 14

•When large cities emerged they relied on exchanging crops from different areas but this broke down over time to a reliance on local
crops

• Initial regional trade redistributed resources from a large area
• Buffer against poor years in some areas

Question 15

Harappan cities

Answer 15

• 1000 communities in 1.3 million km2 and a population of about 1 million (others say 5 million)
• Political organization is believed to have been divided between many small and medium-­sized cities that were dominated by the large cities of Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Rakhigarhi
• Saraswati river valley was dominated by Ganeriwala
• Gujarat was dominated by Dholavira and Saurashtra

Question 16

New political and social order

Answer 16

Harappan cities do not fit theoretical models

• New cities had no temples or palaces
• Harappa and Mohenjo-­daro were occupied by an unpretentious middle class of merchants and officials
• No monuments to the elite, no elite burials (no propaganda)
• Emphasis on modesty, order, cleanliness
• Unknown if settlements were independent city states or if there was a territorial state

Question 17

Mohenjo-­daro

Answer 17

Largest of the Mature Harappan cities

• 40-­80,000 people
• In some cities the builders followed a grid-­like plan that suggests considerable municipal supervision
• The high citadel (12m) in the west end was protected by burnt-­brick fortification with towers

Question 18

Standardized bricks

Answer 18

• Sun-­dried and fired brick used for construction
• Fired brick impermeable to water so used for drains, pools and walls around cities and important buildings
• Standardized size 7x14x28 cm (1:2:4) used in multiple cities suggesting some kind of shared bureaucracy
• Required considerable organization to produce on massive scale and to build fired brick structures

Question 19

Mohenjo-­daro city organization

Answer 19

• Planned streets and alleys
• Major roads were 9 m wide but cross-­streets were half that wide and unpaved
• Houses were built in 4 designs of mud-­brick and were 2-­3 stories tall

Question 20

Wealthier houses

Answer 20

Wealthier homes (merchants, officials) had a central courtyard for receiving guests, food preparation

• Wealthier homes had bathrooms & toilets connected to sewer system
• Also public baths and toilets
• Larger underground drains carefully lined with fired bricks removed waste and there was a water management system with reservoirs

Question 21

Poorer houses

Answer 21

Poorer people may have lived in single-­room tenements or workshops

•The occupants would be labourers although it has been suggested that they could be religious ascetics

Question 22

Public buildings on the citadel

Answer 22

Pillared hall 27 m2 possibly precinct for audiences with rulers, but there is no evidence for a governing structure!

• No shrines
• Religious life around bath – bitumen sealed bricks fed by well
• Pool surrounded by colonnade with steps at both ends
• Possibly for ritual bathing (important in later Indian religions) or a public bath?

Question 23

Harappa

Answer 23

Not an identical plan to Mohenjo-­daro

• Instead a cluster of walled mounds within loosely built-­up areas
• Also has a citadel and lower town in the grid pattern
• But other cities (Dholavira) had different plans
• Suggests that the city-­plan was less pronounced on the edges of the Indus civilization

Question 24

Lothal

Answer 24

• This is a port built in Gulf of Khambhat
• It is the first artificial dockyard
• The port was built at the highest level of the tide and ships are then moved by tides in the river estuary
• Wooden door was put at mouth of the port to hold enough water to keep boats afloat at low tide
• Used burnt brick construction for walls of the harbour

Question 25

Political organization

Answer 25

The structure of the ‘state’ is unknown for the Harappans

•Evidence of some kind of authority is present: large cities, standardized weights and measures, writing, harbour for extensive long distance exchange, sewage systems, citadels, walls, city
planning –all required considerable municipal and extra-­municipal management

• Evidence that the population was made of diverse ethnic groups and languages who shared a cultural style
• Some theorize that leaders of early communities may have been chieftains, priests or kin leaders
• Intermediaries between deities and people
• Or possibly classes and centers formed a decentralized structure

Question 26

Possible rulers

Answer 26

Rulers are anonymous (no palaces, no inscriptions, no propaganda)

• Only exception is a limestone figure from Mohenjodaro
• Bearded man possibly meditating
• Wears embroidered robe
• Uncovered shoulder is sign of reverence during Buddha’s lifetime 1400 years ago
• Only archaeological evidence is possibly merchants/religious leaders with no lavish displays
• Not clear if these were city states or territorial states

Question 27

What do we know?

Answer 27

• Focus of the society was agriculture and trade
• Irrigation allowed large agricultural surplus
• Probably farmers turned over a large portion of crop to the authority (whatever it might have been) for construction in the city, maintaining sewers, bricks for buildings, trade infrastructure
• However this is controversial

Question 28

Harappan burials

Answer 28

Recent excavation of about 200 burials in Harappa at foot of 2 main city mounds

• No elite burials, oval/rectangular pits sometimes lined with mud bricks or the body was placed in a wooden coffin in an extended position head to north feet to south.
• Burials have very few goods placed with them, only
• ordinary jewelry, a few pots
• exception of one man with a gold necklace
• Some women have a copper mirror (possibly to see into spirit world)
• Strontium isotope analysis of the teeth of 40 individuals indicates that they were immigrants to the city
• Indicates the draw of the city from different parts of the region
• Strong bond held these cities together

Question 29

Writing

Answer 29

• Harappan script remains undeciphered
• Various theories that the language represents ancient Dravidian, but Indian scholars argue it is early Sanskrit
• 400-­450 pictographs (or more)
• Computer analysis indicates symbols are sounds and words
• Symbols deciphered are people’s names and rank and measuring system
• Read right to left (called boustrophedon style)
• Possibly document trade accounts
• Date to 2800 BC but most from Mature Harappa

Question 30

Technology and trade

Answer 30

Cities and other walled settlements were the setting for craft production

• Craftworkers were settled in separate parts of the cities
• Bead makers, copper workers, weavers, potters, stamp seal makers
• Metalworkers cast objects using the lost wax technique

Question 31

Seals

Answer 31

• Carved in soft soapstone
• Depict people, animals
• These may have been religious symbols or tags for goods sent in trade
• It is possible that daily writing was on ola leaves (type of palm), used until recent times
• Soaked, pounded -­ provide smooth surface for daily writing by scratching on surface then wiping with ink-­covered cloth
• Unclear if writing for economic or religious reasons

Question 32

Craft materials

Answer 32

• Local materials (clay)
• Also precious stones and metal through long-­distance exchange

•Uniform style of the Indus Valley is thought to have developed not through centralized control but through intensive exchange over
the lowlands

Question 33

Economy

Answer 33

• System of standardized weights and measures including the ½ oz. weight (common in the region until the 19th century AD)
• Suggests tight control of trade and exchange
• Found as far as Persian Gulf
• Most stone weights in Mohenjo-­daro made of chert & organized into a series
• Smaller ones in jewelers’ shops
• Seals, weights, writing, long-­distance exchange -­-­-­ suggests economic bureaucracy

Question 34

Toys? and games

Answer 34

• Elaborate pottery wheeled cart with oxen -­-­-­ toy?
• Many other types of toys (cattle with a string to make head move, monkeys that go up a stick)!
• Dice invented in Harappa and spread with trade
• Early version of chess

Question 35

Religious beliefs

Answer 35

May have begun with beliefs in a fertility goddess

• One female deity with conspicuous breasts and sexual organs
• Seal from Mohenjo-­daro shows a three headed figure in a yogic position wearing a horned headdress surrounded by wild animals
• Possibly forerunner to Hindu god Shiva: role as Lord of the Beasts

Question 36

Early Hinduism

Answer 36

Many seals depict cattle that may be symbols of shiva

•So possible connections to Hinduism

• Other elements include
• fire altars in homes
• worship with fruit and flowers
• meditation and astronomical knowledge
• Importance of water and bathing

Question 37

Why did Harappan civilization end?

Answer 37

Collapse of trade with Near East –after 2300 BC

• Urban populations decline and disperse and the Indus script stops
• Demise of Saraswati river from tectonic change
• Climatic change to drought conditions in the valley ~2100 BC would disrupt agriculture
• forest clearance for farmland, firing bricks may have caused large scale soil erosion resulting in uncontrolled floodin