Ancient Indus Civilization Blog

345 posts, also carried on our Facebook page, about the ancient Indus Valley civilization, including important news, research and occasional visits to museums with ancient Indus artifacts.
Jun 13, 2017
"The most important crafts were in the fields of textiles, ceramic manufacturing, stone carving, household artefacts such as razors, bowls, cups, vases and spindles, and the production of jewelry, statuettes, figurines and children's toys, some of which were mechanical in function."
Jun 8, 2017
An excellent article in Frontline just out on Rajasthan excavations 2017, lots of exciting stuff, 27 images, 6 pages, including a copper tablet with a long inscription.
Jun 5, 2017
The image is published in a blog entry by Alessandro Ceccarelli of the Two Rains Project at the University of Cambridge, source of some of the most interesting recent research on the agriculture and demise of the ancient Indus civilization.
May 27, 2017
Just as we turn to more of the publications about discoveries about ancient Dilmun, another find on an island near Bahrain, with Indus pottery fragments, and a Gulf-type seal that reiterates how important trade relationships by sea were with this area.
Drainage
May 26, 2017
The drainage system was one of the most remarkable features of the Mature Harappan city. All the streets and lanes across neighbourhoods in Mohenjo-daro had drains. In addition there was also provision for managing wastewater inside the houses with vertical pipes in the walls that led to chutes opening on to the street.
May 23, 2017
A very interesting paper by Steffen Terp Laursen, an expert on Dilmun, or the civilization in Bahrain contemporaneous with the ancient Indus civilization, suggests that the round, so-called [Arabian] "Gulf seal", often found with Indus signs and creatures like
May 18, 2017
"I have a feeling that people do not 'discover lost civilizations'; but rather that, when the time is ripe, lost civilizations reveal themselves, using for the purpose whatever resources and people are to hand."
May 14, 2017
In 1933, Ernest Mackay wrote about his meeting with a craftsman named Sahebdino in Sehwan (Sindh) who showed him how to etch carnelian.
Apr 27, 2017
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer writes of this stunning figurine: "We also see the bun hairstyle on the miniature bronze sculpture of a male spear-thrower or dancer. Traces of eyes and nose are present. The hair is arranged in a bun on the back of the head . . ."
Apr 20, 2017
One of the finest ancient Indus painted jars ever found, excavated at Chanhu-daro during the 1935-36 season led by Ernest MacKay, who wrote that "a circle motif takes a prominent place, and in vessels of this kind, about half the painted area is usually occupied by this pattern."
Apr 17, 2017
"The clearest example of the disregard with which gravediggers treated recent burials is the example of burials 194a and 194b. This burial is of a young woman and her infant, along with 32 pottery vessels that were carefully arranged along the edges of the burial pit . . .."
Apr 6, 2017
Four thousand years in the making, a free Indus script font package in scalable vector graphics for use in Word and other programs is now available. Over 1,800 signs represent the best Indus concordance by the longtime scholar Dr. Asko Parpola, engineered by the National Fund for Mohenjodaro.
Apr 1, 2017
Monkey from Chanhuyin Jo Daro [Chanhudaro] "Pet monkeys were also probably a common sight in the bazaars or neighborhood markets," writes Mark Kenoyer.
Mar 25, 2017
"Following these criteria, at least one Harappan toponym can be isolated with a fair amount of confidence. Altogether 70 Indus insciptions have been recovered from Chanhujo-daro. Eleven of them contain the sign [shown], which is not known from any of the other thousands of Indus inscriptions found at other sites," writes Asko Parpola.
Mar 21, 2017
In the coming months we will feature posts on the site known as Chanhudaro, in Nawabshah, Sindh. This is one of the most interesting and highly-sophisticated "small towns" of the ancient Indus Valley. Since 2015, a French-Pakistani joint archaeological mission has started excavating the site.

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