Ancient Indus Valley Civilization Articles

353 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.

Urban Palaeoethnobotany at Harappa

Front page of article "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

An image of several (sketched) Harappan artifacts (fishhook, fish motif, etc.)

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

Diagram for cattle bones from Nausharo

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ongar Revisited

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.

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