Growing in a Foreign World: For a History of the "Meluha Villages" in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millenium BCE
A fascinating article that gathers together all facts about Indus settlements and trading with ancient Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE.
355 peer-reviewed articles from leading journals about the latest discoveries about the ancient Indus civilization, its antecedents and contemporaries in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, during the Bronze Age 3500-1700 BCE by the world's ancient Indus archaeologists and scholars.
Biological Adaptations and Affinities of Bronze Age Harappans
A bio-archaeological examination of physiological differences among remains from Bronze Age Harappans.
Complementary Approaches to Late Harappan Subsistence: An Example from Oriyo Timbo
Understanding the interplay between subsistence systems and settlement patterns is crucial for interpretation of past economies and culture change. The Late Harappan (1900-1700 BCE) in Gujarat, India, witnessed a significant increase in the number of settlements in the arid regions.
Urban Palaeoethnobotany at Harappa
A broad range of the questions that can be asked of macrobotanical plant remains from an urban site are highlighted, using the site of Harappa as an example. The topics addressed include the uses of domesticated and wild plants, the nature of agricultural and cooking technologies, types of fodder and fuel, and the use of plant products in manufacturing processes.
Fish Resources in an Early Urban Context at Harappa
Fishing is often neglected in studies of urban societies. This is unfortunate as the study of fish can reveal aspects of subsistence, regional trade, access to resources, and social organization. Coastal and inland relationships can be examined by considering marine and riverine species variation.
Faunal Remains and Urbanism at Harappa
Excavations at the third millennium BCE urban site of Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan) have produced a large quantity of mammal bone remains. Two features of this material-bone measurements and density of bone in excavation units are considered from the point of view of using aspects of assemblage variability to document faunal exploitation and site formation processes.
Patterns of Technology and the Organization of Production at Harappa
Following a brief discussion of the regional and inter-regional contexts in which Harappan pottery production took place, focus is placed on recent excavations at Harappa for the purpose of providing an introduction to the project with respect to patterns of technology and the organization of production.
Some Specialized Ceramic Studies at Harappa
A detailed study of ceramic artifacts which augments basic knowledge by delving into the technical aspects of the processes of production used to craft these objects.
Urban Process in the Indus Tradition: A Preliminary Model from Harappa
An examination of the city's settlement remains which changed with the onset of urban growth and development in Harappa.
Pedology and Late Quaternary Environments Surrounding Harappa: A Review and Synthesis
A review and explanation of the regional climate, geology, and environment which historically influenced the life and culture of the Harappan peoples.
"A review and synthesis of pertinent pedological, geological, and paleoenvironmental studies in the vicinity of Harappa (District Sahiwal, Punjab,
A Short History of Archaeological Discovery at Harappa
A short chronological history of archaeological discoveries made at Harappa beginning in 1826 and ending in 1990.
Lime Kilns Ethnobotany Lower Sindh
During the 2010 Italian Archaeological Mission to the area, an evaluation of plants and man in past and present times by looking at the wood fueling of kilns.
Dravidian Proof of the Indus Script via the Rig Veda: A Case Study
An important new paper by one of the foremost figures in Indus script research who takes a popular four sign sequence and offers an interpretation.
Skeletal Paleopathology of Human Remains From Cemetery R37 at Harappa, excavated in 1987 and 1988
Excavations at the archaeological site of Harappa, Pakistan in 1987 and 1988 uncovered the remains of at least 92 individuals (84 adults and 8 juveniles), although only 19 were complete skeletons in primary contexts.
Finds at Chanhu-daro
An article by Dorothy MacKay, wife of Ernest J.H. Mackay, describing excavations in 1935-36 at the ancient Indus manufacturing site of Chanhu-daro, 80 miles south of Mohenjo-daro. This illustrated July 1937 article from the popular US magazine Asia is a nice summary of the finds at this sophisticated ancient Indus site where, among other things, long carnelian beads, toys, seals and weights were made.
New Evidence for Jute (Corchorus capsularis L) in the Indus Civilization
The study of archaeological textiles produced from plant crops in South Asia has advanced significantly in the past decade as a result of archaeo-botanical studies of seed remains and analyses of fibers.
Living Symbols
A spectacular exhibition opened on June 24, 2014 at the National Museum of Oriental Art (MNAO) 'Giuseppe Tucci' in Rome, Italy.
Commodities and Things: The Kulli in Context
A closer look at the mysterious Kulli culture of Balochistan that both pre-dated and was contemporaneous with ancient Indus culture, and apparently was part of an elaborate trading network that stretched west as far as the Jiroft culture in Iran.
Ornament Styles of the Indus Valley Tradition
A brief discussion of the methodologies needed for the study of Indus ornaments is presented along with examples of how Indus artisans combined precious metals, stone beads, shell and faience to form elaborate ornaments.
Ranikot Fort (Jamshoro, Sindh): An AMS Radiocarbon Date from Sann (Eastern) Gate
"The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overturned in the riverbed at Sann (Eastern) Gate, Ranikot, confirms that at least this sector of the fort was built, or repaired, between the beginning of the XVIII and the beginning of XIX century AD, that
Seals and Sculptures of the Indus Cities
An exhibition being held in New York and Madison, Wisconsin, in 1998 on the representational art of the Indus Valley reveals a highly developed artistic tradition with many styles and techniques of production.
Bead Replicas: An Alternative to Antique Bead Collecting
Passed from generation to generation as heirloorns, many beads link the past to the present, and over time, such antique beads gain incredible value because of their historical significance and in some cases, spiritual powers.
Fluvial Landscapes of the Harappan Civilization
A look at climate, river-basin and other geographic factors and their relationship to the possible east-ward evolution of the Indus Valley civilization.
Weights at Chanhu-darho
The famous article on the weights at Chanhi-darho by A.S. Henny, from Ernest J.H. Mackay original excavation reports. Chanhu-daro was an Indus manufacturing town in Sindh excavated by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston starting in 1929.
An Archaeological Survey in the Neighborhood of Thari in the Thar Desert (Sindh, Pakistan)
The discovery of many Mesolithic (roughly 10,000 BCE and afterwards, many thousands of years before the height of the Indus Civilization) sites in the Thar Desert in the 1990s.
Ongar Revisited
The flint (chert) sites in Ongar, SIndh go back to the Paleolithic period, up to 2 million years ago.
Harappa Weights
A statistical analysis of commonly found Indus weights, which seem to be in the ratio, 3000:1600: 300: 200: 150: 60: 32: 16: 8: 4: 2: 1.
Island in the Rann
The geography and land use of the Little Rann of Kutch, a salt marsh area, is discussed as a possible source of raw material in ancient Harappan times.
Harappan Chimaeras as ‘Symbolic Hypertexts’. Some Thoughts on Plato, Chimaera and the Indus Civilization
An analysis and interpretation of the so-called Harappan chimaera, one of the most peculiar and elaborate iconographies of Indus Civilization.
Sensitivity of Indus Script to Site and Type of Object
An important new article compares the occurrence of seals in Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, Kalibangan, Chanhudaro.