March 30th, 2016

From the air Lothal may seem like a scratch in the fields, but for the people around it, the original excavator S.K. Rao of the site had this to say: "Ravages of nature and man have been responsible for the destruction of brick structures built at the foot of the mound. What little remains is hidden under a thick deposit of silt. It is relevant to record here a local tradition regarding Lothal, which is considered a sacred place for Vanuvatimata, the sea-goddess who is represented by stones placed in a small enclosure of bricks built in the south-east corner of the mound. It is here that a warehouse stood in Harappan times. . . . Before extending the operations to this sector the stones in worship representing the sea-goddess had to be removed against the wishes of the labourers. A few days later there was an accident resulting in injury to some labourers and the death of one of them. Immediately the workers attributed the accident to the sacrilege committed by us in removing the goddess from her original place or worship, and refused to work on the site. They were later satisfied when the goddess was re-installed elsewhere with some ceremony. This incident is particularly mentioned here to show how strong is the tradition of worshipping the sea-goddess of Lothal. It is necessary to note here that the original seat of the goddess was the warehouse-mound over-looking the dock. She is invoked even now to protext the saiors from the dangers of the sea." (S.K. Rao, Lothal, 1979, p. 21)

The image on the top left is of the Harsidhhi Mataji Idol at Rajpipla, Gujarat, where the original Parmara rulers of Rajpipla, Gujarat (about 200 km from Lothal), who migrated from Ujjain and brought her as Kuladevi. another name for Vanuvatimata, the Happy Mother, also known as the Sindhoi Mata or Goddess of Sands, more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsidhhi

https://www.harappa.com/blog/tale-sea-goddess-lothal

Kalibangan

March 28th, 2016

• 1. Kalibangan reconstructed image of the citadel and lower town. Computer illustration: Sushi Misal.

"The site Kalibangan - literally 'black bangles' - derives its name for the dense distribution of the fragments of black bangles which were found at the surface of its mounds. . ." writes Madhu Bala. "Evidence of this period consists of a citadel area over the 1.6 metre-thick early Harappan deposit in KLB-1 (the western mound of the site [Image 1]), a chessboard pattern 'lower city' in KLB-2 (the lower and larger eastern mound), and a mound full of fire altars in a much smaller mound further east (KLB-3).
The citadel complex of KLB-1 is roughly a parallelogram (240 by 120 metres) divided into two equal parts with a partition wall and surrounded by a rampart with bastions and salients. The basil width of the fortification wall is 3-7 metres. The wall is made of mud bricks in a ration of 4:2:1, with mud plaster on both the inner and outer faces. The southern half of the citadel had ceremonial platforms and fire altars.
Fire altars were also built in residences where a room was apparently earmarked for them [Image 2]. The altars were renewed from time to time as the general level of the site became higher.
There were two entrances to the Kalibangan citadel complex, one to the north and the other to the south. The southern entrance has a brick structure about 2.6 metres wide with oblong salients on both sides of the step of the entrance. The northern structure has a mud brick staircase. The northern half of the citadel area complex had a street, and housed the elite. In the southern half fire altars were arranged in a row on top of platforms constructed for this purpose. Stairs provided access to the top, and the ground around the platforms was paved with bricks.
The lower city (KLB-2) was also fortified and laid out in a chessboard pattern, and built of mud bricks of the standard 4:2:1 proportion. The basis shape is that of a parallelogram measuring 235 x 360 metres. The basal width of the fortification wall is 3.5-9 metres. The streets run north - south and east -–west, dividing the area into blocks, and are connected to lanes. There were mud brick rectangular platforms by the side of the roads. Wooden fender posts were intended to ward off damage to street corners. House drains of mud brick and wood discharged into jars in the streets, above the ground. In some areas the streets were paved with terracotta nodules.
The lower city had entrances on the northern and western sides. Each house consisted of six or seven rooms, with a courtyard or a corridor between the rooms. Some rooms were paved with tiles bearing designs.
KLB-3, the isolated easternmost mound, has brought to the surface a row of fire altars, and this find, along with the remains of fire altars in KLB-1 mentioned above is clear evidence that fire altars played a major role in the religious life of the people."
"Interesting evidence regarding cooking practices is revealed by the presence of both underground and overground varieties of mud ovens inside the houses [Image 4]. These ovens closely resemble the present-day tandoors in the region of Rajasthan and Panjab. The underground variety was made with a slight overhang near the mouth, while the overground ovens were given a bridged side opening for feeding fuel and were plastered periodically. The ovens were perhaps used for baking bread, as the Kalibangan residents were mainly wheat eaters. The wheat grains were most likely stored in cylindrical pits lined with lime plaster, which have been discovered at the site."

(Kalibangan: Its Period and Antiquities, p. 34, 39, 40-41 in Indus Civilization Sites in India New Discoveriesedited by Dilip Chakrabarti, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 2004).

1. Kalibangan reconstructed image of the citadel and lower town. Computer illustration: Sushi Misal.
2. Kalibangan: Harappan fire altars.
3. Kalibangan gold objects, early Harappan period.
4. Kalibangan KLB-1: two ovens.

All photographs courtesy The Archaeological Survey of India.

https://www.harappa.com/blog/kalibangan

The 3 L Area Mohenjodaro Statues

February 22nd, 2016

• 1 The Seated Nobleman of L-Area 
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The 3 L-Area Mohenjo-daro Statues: The Seated Nobleman, The Stern Male, The Unknown Woman.
"In January 1927, Mackay began working in L-Area, ca. 28 meters south of the Stupa on the Mound of the Great Bath. He uncovered the so-called 'Assembly Hall' and other architectural remains that are not well understood, even today. He also found three pieces of limestone sculpture: a seated torso (L-950), a reasonably well-preserved bust (L-898) and a very poor, abraded head, possibly of a woman (L-127)." (Indus Age, p. 78)
1. The Seated Nobleman of L-Area as it was excavated. "Seated male figure with head missing (45, 46). On the back of the figure, the hair style can be partially reconstructed by a wide swath of hair and a braided lock of hair or ribbon hanging along the right side of the back. A cloak is draped over the edge of the left shoulder and covers the folded legs and lower body, leaving the right shoulder and chest bare. The left arm is clasping the left knee and the hand is visible peeking out from underneath the cloak. The right hand is resting on the right knee which is folded beneath the body." (Gregory Possehl, Indus Age: The Beginnings, p. 78)." (Plate 2.29 in the book, facing p. 92.)
2. Male Statue . "[The Seated Nobleman was] found above pavement in N.E. corner of Chamber 75 in L-Area. (its datum was 2.5 feet below datum.) Late Period. Material, veined grey alabaster. The figure, which is 11.5 inches high, is obviously that of a male and is dressed in a thin kilt-like garment fastened round the waist. (It is not clear how Mr. Mackay infers the existence of this kilt beneath the outer garment.–[ED.].) Another garment or shawl of thin material is worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm, and appears to hang down over the kilt. The left knee of the figure is raised, but there is nothing to indicate the position of the right foot beneath it. The sculptor, and not subsequent weathering, is responsible for this lack of detail. The left arm is carried around the side of the left knee, so that the hand clasps the front of the knee. This hand is only roughly indicated, and the sculptor evidently was not clear how it should be arranged. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that the same man carved both the arms and hands, for the right arm, though of rough workmanship, shows some power of modeling, whereas the left arm and hand are positively shapeless. (It should not be forgotten that the left arm is hidden beneath the mantle or shawl, while the right arm is bare. It is not to be expected, therefore, that there should be much definition in the modeling of the left arm. Probably the mantle itself was painted, and this would have made a great difference to the apparent uncouthness of the lower part of the figure.) A squarish projection at the back of the head is evidently intended to represent a knot of hair. It is, however, unfinished and shows the chisel marks of the preliminary dressing. There is somewhat more finish about what may be a rope of hair hanging down the back." (John Marshall, Mohenjo-daro, Plate C, 1-3 (L 950), pp. 358-9)
3. The Stern Man of L Area, Mohenjo-daro, L 898. The Lady of L Area, Mohenjo-daro, L 127. [Figures]
4. Chamber 7, L Area where L 950 Male Statue was found
5. Yellow limestone head. [Stern Man of L Area] "Found 2 feet below the surface of the ground in Chamber 77 of L-Area (Its datum level is minus 2.3 feet.) It belongs to the late period. Material, yellow limestone.
This head, which is 7.75 inches high, may present either a male or females, as there is no beard; but the hair is gathered up in a knot at the back of the head in a similar way to the obviously male figure shown in illustration no. 6. This may have been the customary fashion for hair-dressing for me–a fashion which still survives in many parts of India at the present day. A cord of fillet worn round the head serves to keep the know of hair at the back of the head in place.
The arrangement of the hair knot is curious. Two oblique depressions, which run from the right to left across its uppoer portion, apparently mark off three separate twists of hair. A number of vertical lines on the lower portion of the knot suggest strands of hair lying close together." (Marshall, Mohenjo-daro, Plate XCIX, 7-9 (L 898), p. 358)

6. Female head. [Lady of L Area] "Found just below the first pavement of Chamber 100 in L Area. Late Period. This is the badly weathered head of a statue in grey limestone, now 5.7 inches high. It apparently represents a female, for there is no beard, and the hair, which is slightly curly, hangs down the back of the head. The eye beneath the receding brows are long and narrow and the original inlay of the right eye, which is made of a whiter stone than the head, is still in place.
The nose, unfortunately, is missing and the mouth too weathered for us to discern its original shape. That there was once a necklace is suggested by the presence of two holes on each side of the neck, just in front of the hair. The ears are very primitive and a deep ear-hole is drilled in each. (These holes, which are found in all these heads, seem intended for the attachment of some ornament in the middle of the ear and perhaps explain why the ears themselves are left without structural definition.) It is unfortunate that this head is in such a bad state of preservation." (Marshall, Mohenjo-daro, Plate XCIX, 1-3 (L 127), p. 358) 
https://www.harappa.com/blog/3-l-area-mohenjodaro-statues
• Surkotada, Gujarat

March 8th, 2016

"Almost all the [Harappan] pottery shapes were in conformity with the material available at other Harappan sites.""The entrances in the southern and southeastern sides in the citadel and residential annexe respectively are just simply openings of moderate dimensions without any architectural embellishment.""At Surkotada, throughout, a compact citadel and residential annexe complex has been found, but no city complex has been unearthed."

Jagat Pati Joshi, Excavation at Surkotada and Exploration in Kutch, Archaeological Survey of India, 1990, pp. 14-18.
1. Surkotada: reconstructed image of the citadel and lower town. Computer illustration: Sushil Misal. Civilization in India: New Discoveries, Ed. Dilip K. Chakrabarti, p. 12. Computer Illustration by Sushil Mithal.
2. Distant View of the excavated remains from south. Joshi, Surkotada, Pl. VI.
3. Surkotada: stone structure in mound. Photograph DPA/Milind A. Ketkar.
4. Rampart of Successive Periods (Outer). Joshi, Surkotada, Pl. VIII.

https://www.harappa.com/blog/surkotada-gujarat

The Chimaera March 7th, 2015

"The Harappan chimaera was composed of body parts derived from different animals, as well as humans and other fantastic beings of the Indus imagination." Dennys Frenez and Massimo Vidale's article Harappan Chimaeras as ‘Symbolic Hypertexts’. Some Thoughts on Plato, Chimaera and the Indus Civilization is a truly fascinating paper on composite Indus creatures.
See also The Chimaera Revisited.

https://www.harappa.com/blog/chimaera

The Chimaera: Revisited

November 24th, 2013

Further to the discussion of chimeras, among the first unicorn seals found by John Marshall at Mohenjo-daro in the 1920's was this one. He wrote: "The animal most often represented on the seals is the apparently single-horned beast ... There is a possibility, I think, that the artist intended to represent one horn behind the other. In other animals, however, the two horns are shown quite distinctly. In some respects the body of this beast, which is always a male, resembles that of an antelope of heavy build, such as the eland or oryx, and in others that of an ox. The long tuffed tail may belong to either class. The horn is sometimes smooth ... sometimes it has transverse ridges. In the latter case, the possibility of the creature being an ox is ruled out. The long pointed ears are also characteristic of the antelope. Perhaps we have here a fabulous animal which is a composite of the ox and antelope. And yet to the casual eye there is nothing fantastic about it, as about some of the other animals represented on seals; nor does it in any way resemble the unicorn of heraldry, which is made up of different parts of a number of animals, though it must be noted that the traditional unicorn was supposed to have originated in India" (Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and The Indus Civilization, Vol. II., p. 382). https://www.harappa.com/content/chimaera-revisited 

Growing in a Foreign World: For a History of the "Meluha Villages" in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millenium BCE

Massimo Vidale

Shu-ilishu's Cylinder seal
Above left:Two possible Indus figures on Shu-ilishu's Cylinder seal.
Above top:Shu-ilishu's Cylinder seal showing Indus language interpreter sitting on lap of Mesopotamian figure.
Above bottom: Impression of an Indus-style cylinder seal of unknown Near Eastern origin in the Musee du Louvre, Paris. One of the two anthropomorphic figures carved on this seal wears the horns of water buffalo while sitting on a throne with hoofed legs, surrounded by snakes, fishes and water buffaloes.
A fascinating article that gathers together all facts about Indus settlements and trading with ancient Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE. Conjectures and implications by an Italian archaeologist who is a pioneer in deep multidisciplinary analysis. The connections between these ancient Bronze age civilizations could one day help answer a lot of questions. People moved around a lot more than we think, and interactions between cultures were just as rich as they are today.
A famous Mesopotamian cylinder seal showing , evoking the time of Sargon the Great who boasted that "ships from Meluhha / the ships from Magan / the ships from Dilmun / he made tie-up alongside / the quay of AkkadAn."
Table of Contents
1. Separating facts from conjectures
2. Textual and archaeological evidence
3. Other relevant facts
4. More interpretations and conjectures
5. Towards a new historical picture.
6. Conclusions.
Images courtesy Musee du Louvre, Paris France, the bottom one copyrighted photo by M. Chuzeville for the Departement des antiquites orientales, Musee du Louvre. Artwork by Mohammed Waqas Iqbal.

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Reconstructing the History of Harappan Civilization

Mayank Vahia

Nisha Yadav

Above: Possible Gateway with large brick bastions in foreground, Mohenjo-daro
A detailed analysis of the evolution of Indus Civilization based on a compilation of the latest scientific data by experts. First published in Social Evolution and History, Vol. 10, No. 2, Sept. 2011. ABSTRACT

The Harappan Civilisation (HC) was spread over large parts of western region of the Indian Subcontinent. Its earliest roots can be found from 7000 BC in Mehrgarh but its peak urban period is around 2500 to 1900 BC. It declined completely by 1300 BC. At its peak, it covered more than 30 per cent of the present landmass of the Indian Subcontinent. The entire evidence for it is archaeologi- cal. It is classified as proto-historic since in the absence of deci- phered written records it is not possible to create a detailed scena- rio of its evolution (Possehl 1999). From archaeological data, the timeline of the HC can be discerned, but the archaeological evi- dence of individual regions is not detailed enough to permit a systematic study of the rise and fall of HC (cf. Wright 2010). However, a lot of work has been done to understand other cultures and their evolution.
We compare the knowledge on the evolution of other cultures (Snooks 2002) and evaluate the archaeological and other data available for HC based on ten parameters (Murdock and Provost 1973) to create a possible scenario of the evolution of the Harap- pan Civilization (HC). We show that the pattern of HC can be di- vided into 4 major phases. The first three phases mark an increase in the standard of living triggered by the arrival of a specific orga- nizational change while the fourth phase is marked by a decline due to the failure of the society to solve the problem of increasing needs of the civilization because of the delay in arrival of new technologies.

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https://www.harappa.com/content/reconstructing-history-harappan-civilization

Perspectives from the Indus: Contents of Interaction in the Late Harappan/Post-Urban Period

Rita P. Wright

An examination of region variability, interactions and trade of the Harappan peoples.

 Perspectives from the Indus

Regional Diversity in the Harappan World: The Evidence of the Seals

Marta Ameri

During the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, the Harappan Civilization covered an area of over one million square kilometers in South Asia, from the Afghan highlands to western India. Excavations at large urban sites like Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and Dholavira, as well as at smaller production sites, such as Lothal and Chanhu-daro, have shed much light on this impressive civilization, whose expansion seems to have been based on its extensive trade networks
and shared ideologies. Although the Harappan sites of the Indus Valley and beyond have been the subject of intensive investigation for over 80 years, some aspects of this exceptional culture, particularly the lack of a readable script, have left us with more questions than answers. Because of the difficulty in comprehending a society that spans such a large area—without the help of written texts—studies have tended to focus on small-scale issues, like the local organization of craft production or on overarching cultural trends, such as whether the Harappan Civilization could be considered a state. With the exception of a few studies, regional variations within the system are rarely discussed.

 Download Seal Diversity Ameri 2013

https://www.harappa.com/content/regional-diversity-harappan-world-evidence-seals

Stairways of Mohenjo-daro

August 28th, 2014

Corner of Southern steps of Bath, showing recesses of wooden trades.

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From the southern steps of the Great Bath showing recesses for wooden treads and stairways to platforms of some among the 700 wells in Mohenjo-daro, glimpses of where the ancient Indus people trod every day.

"A curious feature of the two stairways leading down into the bath is the presence of a channel 9.25 inches wide and 3.25 inches deep, running parallel with and at the based of the lowest step of each. This channel penetrates into the two sides of each stairway for a distance of 3.5 inches.

At either end of each tread there is a recess of the same width as the tread and 3.25 inches high and deep (Plate XXVI, a [image 1]). Traces of bitumen were found in most of these holes, and wise of the stairways with a bituminous cement. ... That the covering of wood for the steps was conemplation from the first is evidenced by the holes at either end and the channel for timber at the base being part of the original design and not cut later."
(Ernest Mackay, SD Area, in Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, p. 133).

https://www.harappa.com/blog/stairways-mohenjo-daro

The Buffalo Sacrifice

March 21st, 2016

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Asko Parpola writes: "Early Harappan cultures started moving toward the east and south in about 3000 BCE, and later waves of influence in these same directions came from the Indus civilization. That the Harappan water-buffalo cult [Fig. 2, 3] had reached penninsular India by the late Harappan on Chalcolithic times is suggested by the large bronze sculpture of water buffalo [Fig. 4] discovered in 1974 in a hoard at Daimabad, the southernmost Indus site in Maharashtra. Throughout south India, until relatively recently, village goddesses have been worshipped through water-buffalo sacrifices. The goddesses have been associated with a male deity call the "buffalo king," represented by a wooden post or a pillar made of stone, or by the pipal tree (Biardeau 2000).
In the form of worship at Kannapuram, a south India village in Tamil Nadu studied by Brenda Beck (1981), the tree-truck (known as kampam in Tamil, from Sanskrit skambha ("pillar") in front of which the sacrificial buffaloes are decapitated, is said to be the husband of the goddess. At the end of the annual marriage rite, after the last victim has been slaughtered, this trunk is uprooted and the goddess divested of her ornaments like a widow. The pillar and its uprooting correspond to Siva's phallus and its castration. The sacrificial post used to be burned after the divine marriage festival."
Later Parpola continues: "If the buffalo sacrifice is common in south Indian village religion, it is absent from north Indian village religion. The reason is probably the conscious efforts of Vedic Brahmans to eradicate it. Extravagant buffalo sacrifices were at first adopted by the Rigvedic Aryans in the Indus Valley (RV 5,29,7-8 etc.), but thereafter this mode of worship is not heard of. In the later Vedic literature (to Varuna) is mentioned in only a single context, in a list of hundreds of different animals offered as subsidiary victims in the horse sacrifice. It appears that generally speaking , the Brahmins have been fighting against bloody sacrifices from Rigvedic times onwards. In the Rigveda, the cow is called aghnya, "not to be slain," and while the Grhyasutra rules (apparently reflecting the behavioral code of the Atharavavedic India-Aryans) include the slaughter of a cow when a guest of honor is received, a later rule leaves it to the guest to decide whether this is done or the cow is set free. The Brahamana and Srautasutra texts record, even mentioning the names of the Brahmins concerned, how in the Vedic sacrifices human, horse, and other animal victims were successively discontinued, and a final rule says the proscribed victims should be made out of rice and barley paste."
Asko Parpola, The Roots of Hinduism, pp. 175-176, p. 178.
1. Plano convex molded tablet showing an individual spearing a water buffalo with one foot pressing the head down and one arm holding the tip of a horn. A gharial is depicted above the sacrifice scene and a figure seated in yogic position, wearing a horned headdress, looks on. The horned headdress has a branch with three prongs or leaves emerging from the center.
2. A water buffalo, 31cm high and 25 cm long, standing on a platform attached to four solid wheels. One of four bronze scultprues weighing together over 60 kg, found in a hoard at Daimabad, Maharashtra, the southernmost Indus site, and ascribed to the Late Harappan or Chalcolithic period. Photo Asko Parpola.
3. The four-faced "Proto-Shiva" seated on a throne and surrounded by four animals on the seal M-304 (DK 5175, NMI 143) from Mohenjo-daro in the collection of the National Museum of India, New Delhi. Image Courtesy Columbia University
4. Water buffalo on painted pots of the Early Harappan Kot DIji culture. (a) A pot excavated at Kot Diji. After Khan 1965:68, fig. 16. Courtesy DAMGP. (b) A pot imported to the Northern Neolithic site of Burzahom in Kashmir, period II. After Kaw 1989:88, fig. 7. Courtesy ASI.

https://www.harappa.com/blog/buffalo-sacrifice

New Harappan site found in Botad village