Ancient Indus Valley Civilization Articles

Some 7,000 years before the Indus civilization, there were flourishing communities in the area explains Dr. Biagi of Foscari Univerisity in Venice, Italy. >

The resemblance between an inscribed terracotta dish from approximately 100 BCE and a three-sided tablet found in Harappa. >

A proposed Indus sign reading of Muruku on a stone axe found in South India. >

Iravatham Mahadevan explores a set of ancient Indus signs that he believes are related to agriculture using comparisons to signs in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. >

In a tour-de-force of interpretation, Iravatham Mahadevan attempts to interpret two of the most common ancient Indus signs using parallels from old Tamil. >

In this paper, historical records about the Sidis and their own oral traditions will be critically examined to gain new perspectives on their complex history, begin­ning with their origins in Africa and with a special focus on their role in the agate bead industry. >

The first section focuses on theoretical issues, the definition of terms and various interpretive biases regarding "ritual" artifacts in the prehistoric period, while the second half examines the important "ritual" artifacts of the Upper Palaeolithic hunter~gatherer populations in South Asia and discuss future directions for research. >

The Mesolithic sites discovered during recent surveys carried out by the ‘Joint Rohri Hills Project’ (Biagi & Shaikh 1994) in the Thari District of Upper Sindh. >

Highlights of excavations of the Ravi and Kot Diji levels at Harappa which illustrate the emergence of complex crafts and trade, with a special emphasis on interaction with Central Asia. It also presents the excavations and experimental studies on the production of faience and steatite tablets. >

The large number and great vari­ety of stone beads on the Bead TImeline make their origins and manufacture of special interest. Two factors define the process: the characteristics of the raw material being used; and the effort that a beadmaker wishes to expend. >

In an ongoing attempt to understand how the now vanished people of the Indus culture ordered their society and to determine the sources of political, economic, military and ideological (religious) power in this remarkably extensive and urbanized state, the authors draw clues from the miscellaneous material they dig up and from the layout and architecture of the cities and settlements that were excavated. >