The indus valley

Mature Harappan Period (2500-1900 BC)

• 100+ hectares • The development of the indus civilization does not appear to stem from ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia • Early settlements were small rectangular mud brick houses

Although it cannot be read, what can be inferred about the Indus script on the basis of its characters, how it is used, and where it is found? What are some of the hypotheses to explain the meaning of the animals frequently found on Indus seals? And what might the writing on those seals signify? (Price and Feinman, McIntosh, lecture)

• Animals may be totems or symbols representing specific kin groups

How did rivers affect (a.) the emergence of Indus civilization? (b.) the unique character of its cities (and evidence for a concern with purification)? (c.) its demise? (lecture)

• Avillsions (changes of course, rivers would shift) • Floods • The drying of the ghaggar-hakra (main river) • The river gives and the river takes away

How might what we know about the later caste system, Brahmins, and ritual purity in India help us explain leadership in the Indus culture and the absence of signs of leadership seen in Egypt and Mesopotamia? (McIntosh, lecture)

individuals belong by birth to one of a great variety of hierarchically ordered occupational groups. But unlike the classes of most societies, here there is no scope for movement out of the social position into which one is born, which is determined on the basis of one's performance_ in a former life. The hierarchical ordering of these castes is determined by their degree of ritual purity. Contact with many elements of organic life causes ritual pollution.

Indus script - symbols, themes, characteristics

• Could be found on bangles, square seals, tablets, button seals, steatite rods, signboard • 350-425 unique symbols • Incriptsion were always brief • Writing and mythological sceens used by religious leaders • Motif themes - male in yogic positions, horned headdress • Animals could mean - occupations? Cities? families + personal name (astronomical)

How is Indus civilization and culture different from Mesopotamia and Egypt? Compared to those two ancient states, what is missing from the archaeological record of the Indus cities? What does this suggest about the nature of power in the Indus state? How has this power structure been described by anthropologists? (lecture, Price and Feinman)

• Display not important for elite status • No nice tombs, pyramids or flashy displays

Harappa

• Large town 370 to 620 acres • Populations from 40 to 80,000 • Built with massive mud brick walls and platforms which raised the town • Major structures include a granary, great baths, and a great hall • Similarities to Mohenjo-Daro suggest that the two cities were linked economically and culturally • Not concerned with huge displays of wealth, and anything considered elite was small and could be found in even the modest of areas. • Not concerned with elite burials, only some mud brick graves with few offerings compared to others.

Mohenjo-Daro

• Large town 370 to 620 acres • Populations from 40 to 80,000 • Built with massive mud brick walls and platforms which raised the town • Major structures include a granary, great baths, and a great hall (for sure located at Mohenjo-Daro and was inspired by Harappa) • Blocked streets • Similarities to Harappa suggest that the two cities were linked economically and culturally • Not concerned with huge displays of wealth, and anything considered elite was small and could be found in even the modest of areas. • Not concerned with elite burials, only some mud brick graves with few offerings compared to others. • They had interconnected homes/neighborhoods and street systems • No long inscriptions and none of the text has been deciphered • Declined because of the drying up of the ghaggar-hakkra river and decentralization

Mohenjo Daro priest king

• Leader of the priest hood • Most powerful, wore different clothes

Evidence for centralized power in Indus cities

• Massive construction • Grid pattern • Bhirrana storage silos • Weights and measurements • Indus seals

The great bath

• May have been used for ceremonial purposes • Fed by a well and water proofed • Could be considered the world's first water tank

"Masking ideology" (to hide inequality)

• Set of concepts, beliefs that hide or downplay inequality (ex: obama's non-display of wealth) • Were indus rulers powerful priest kings whose power was was associated with asceticism, ritual purity. • Was the indus civilization a series of independent city states or a unified state( with multiple large cities)? • Pro unified state- uniformity of material culture, unified weights and measures, town layout similarities, seals

Heterarchy

• The relation of elements to one another when they are unranked or when they possess the potential to be ranked in a number of different ways • Applies to individual people or offices the same office can have or lack power or influence in different contexts also, their power may change in response to changing views. • Lack of this is due to no findings of royal portraits or palaces • Everyone is equal

Water in the indus

• They collected rain water inside walls of city • Baths had fresh underground water (sacred) • Dams filled aqueducts around the city

Djolavira

• Three types of water "from" (rivers, rain fall, and wells)

Citadels

• also known as lower town was the eastern part which was large but lower. Baked bricks were laid in interlocking position to make strong walls around each part of the city. In Mohenjo-Daro, the Great Bath was built on the citadel.

Indus long-distance trade: where, what?

• deep sea vessels traveled the Persian Gulf and the, northern and southern Mesopotamia, Iran, and Afghanistan. • Imports were: lapis lazuli (Afghanistan), conch shells (Gujarat: western india), turquoise from (northeastern Iran) carved chlorite bowls (Iranian plateau) and serpentine (central Asia) • Few items found from Mesopotamia because they were most likely perishables