Ancient Indus Civilization Blog

Ernest Mackay writes (1938) "As far as we can tell at present, this street appears to be the second most important thoroughfare of the city; for although it is longer than the street that crosses it at right angles, coming presumably from the east gate of the city, the latter [First Street] is undoubtedly wider-along it, the grass-covered road to the camp now runs between the HR and VS Areas." The fourth image shows the layers of excavation on this street, looking into the past. MackKay continues "the general impression that they make upon the eye and mind is that the masonry [stonework] i… >

Sir Mortimer Wheeler noted that "Harappa has produced a hint of an antecedent culture... " The so-called Ravi Phase, an early phase of Indus culture (c. 3300-2800 BCE), elaborated by discoveries in the late 1990's by HARP (the Harappa Archaeological Research Project led by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Richard H. Meadow and Rita P. Wright) suggests that even before the the full ancient Indus civilization phase at Harappa, raw materials such as agate, lapis lazuli, steatite, marine shell and copper were transformed into ornaments and tools for local trade. For more see Around the Indus in 90 Slide… >

Today an unusual and spectacular exhibition opens at the National Museum of Oriental Art (MNAO) 'Giuseppe Tucci' in Rome, Italy. Living Symbols presents a group of painted protohistoric objects from the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, illegally excavated in Balochistan and seized in 2005 by the Italian police. Although much about their provenance is lost, they are apparently from the little know Nal Buthi and Kulli cultures that preceded (Nal) and accompanied (Kulli) the height of Indus culture. They use of the zebu bull, pipal tree, tiger and other major motifs familiar to us from Harappa and Mo… >

"At their best, it would be no exaggeration to describe them as little masterpieces of controlled realism, with a monumental strength in one sense out of all proportion to their size and in another entirely related to it," wrote Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Seal with Two-Horned Zebu Bull and Inscription, ca. 2000 BCE. As Mark Kenoyer writes "The majestic zebu bull, with its heavy dewlap and wide curving horns is perhaps the most impressive motif found on the Indus seals. Generally carved on large seals with relatively short inscriptions, the zebu motif is found almost exclusively at the largest c… >

Although there are fewer male than female figurines to be found at Indus sites, these terracotta males from Harappa give some sense of the principles underlying their representations. Shari Clark writes: "After many decades of research, the Indus Civilization is still something of an enigma -- an ancient civilization with a writing system that still awaits convincing decipherment, monumental architecture whose function still eludes us, no monumental art, a puzzling decline, and little evidence of the identity of its direct descendants. In a civilization extending over an area so vast, we expe… >

Sir Mortimer Wheeler's famous trench at Harappa in 1946 and today, when it has been filled in once again. Wheeler writes of the incision he orchestrated: "The monsoon-cutting was filled with mud-bricks, which were carried up in bricks and mud to form an anti-flood 'bolster'' or bund, spreading protectively beyond the outer foot of a great defensive wall 45 feet wide at the base and tapering upwards. The main bulk of the wall was of mud-brick but there was an external revetment of baked brick four feet wide as preserved. The back of the mud-brick wall was at first vertical, but insecurity quic… >

Was this an ancient Mohenjo-daro restaurant? Sir Mortimer Wheeler writes "Of another kind is a building fronting upon one of the main streets, 'First Street', in VR Area [Mohenjo-daro]. Its outside dimensions are 87 by 64.5 feet, but within that considerable framework are included not only residential quarters around the courtyard but also, towards the street, industrial or commercial premises of some note: in particular, three rooms neatly paved with bricks on edge, one room with five conical pits or holes sunk in the floor and lined with wedge-shaped bricks, apparently to hold the pointed b… >

Image A:Two female figurines nursing infants found at Harappa. The female figurine usually holds the infant's head to her breast with one or both arms encircling the infant. LEFT: The female figurine usually holds the infant's head to her breast with one or both arms encircling the infant. The infants being nursed by female figurines are usually very schematically represented by a bent and pinched roll of clay with or without applied eyes. RIGHT: The head, body, and legs of the infant are usually pressed against the female’s breast and torso with the l… >

One of the most detailed reconstructions of an ancient Indus gateway, this one on Mound E at Harappa. The reconstruction was drawn by Chris Sloan, based on the work done by the Harappa Archaeological Research Project. J.M. Kenoyer writes: "A series of side rooms were also excavated along the eastern edge of the gateway in 1995. The latest phase of construction also included a large east-west oriented doorway leading through the eastern edge of the gateway. This doorway appears to have constructed with wooden beams with a threshold embedded in the baked brick structure.The size of these beams … >

Why was this shell bangle workshop suddenly abandoned in Gola Dhoro, Gujarat? Great wealth was left behind. Archaeologist Kuldeep Bhan writes: "One of the most important craft activities pursued with great vigor at the site was the production of shell bangles from Turbinella pyrum. One of the fascinating discoveries associated with this craft was the recovery of a rectangular mud brick structure measuring approximately 5.60 x 3.20m with an adjoining chamber, situated on the northwestern periphery inside the fortification. Within this structure three large heaps of shell resting against the we… >

How old are ancient Indus cities? Excavations at Harappa show activity going back to approximately 3500 BCE, as do excavations at Mohenjo-daro. Neither site has been fully excavated, however. Attempts to go deep at Mohenjo-daro failed. As Sir Mortimer Wheeler wrote, "The lower level of excavations at Mohenjo-daro have never been reached by excavation due to difficulties of a high water-table. The two photographs illustrate an attempt made with pumps in 1950 to reach the lower levels and the subsequent flooding which happened overnight." (Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond, p. 73). R… >

The dating of the ancient Indus civilization was actually done through a Letter to the Editor of the Illustrated London News by Professor A.H. Sayce on September 27, 1924. This was the issue right after Marshall's sensational article on the discovery of the mysterious new cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro seven days earlier. Sayce recognized the seals as identical to those he had found in Sumer at layers from around 2300 BCE. With one letter to the editor, India's history had just been pushed back 2,000 years in Western eyes. Nayanjot Lahiri's book Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus … >

Two magnificent wide shell bangles, each made from a single conch shell (Turbinella pyrum) found at Harappa. "The use of marine shell in the manufacture of ornaments and ritual objects provides one of the most striking examples of the continuity between the Indus cities and later cultures in South Asia. Along the coastal regions of Makran, Kutch and Gujarat, the conch shell or Turbinella pyrum was collected throughout the period following the decline of Indus cities. Later, with the rise of cities in the northern sub-continent this marine shell became common at inland sites in the Gangetic re… >

None of the many proposed decipherments of the ancient Indus script by many different scholars since the late 1920's is widely accepted. But there are good ideas, and many of them are from Iravatham Mahadevan in Chennai, India's most important scholar of the Indus script. Here he proposes readings of some the most common Indus signs, including the three "functionaries," part of a set of signs, one of which combines the terminal "jar" sign, the most frequent Indus sign, for which Mahadevan also proposes a reading. Mahadevan has been studying the Indus script since he put together the first con… >

An exceptional and controversial recent find in a private collection is analyzed by a leading Italian archaeologist in a fully illustrated complete online volume with possible implications for understanding ancient Indus culture. Massimo Vidale writes: "In Autumn 2009, I was invited by a private collector to see an artefact that was mentioned as unique and very complex, and reportedly belonged to the cultural sphere of the Indus civilization. I do not have professional links with the antique market and the world of private collectors, but the descriptions I had of the find were so puzzling th… >