Ancient Indus Civilization Blog

A really nice and well-written blog entry about the analysis of bones and other material from ancient Dilmun [Bahrain], before we even knew where the civilization lay. >

"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." >

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. >

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. >

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. >

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. >

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 the short-horned bull and standard, developed from ancient Indus seals and representatives moving westward. Later these types of seals followed their own development trajectory and their Indus iconography. The westward transmission of Indus Valley sealing technology: origin and development of the ‘Gulf Type’ seal and other administrati… >

"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." >

In 1933, Ernest Mackay wrote about his meeting with a craftsman named Sahebdino in Sehwan (Sindh) who showed him how to etch carnelian. >

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 . . ." >

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." >

"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 . . .." >

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. >

Monkey from Chanhuyin Jo Daro [Chanhudaro] "Pet monkeys were also probably a common sight in the bazaars or neighborhood markets," writes Mark Kenoyer. "Figurines of monkeys were were made of terracotta or glazed faience depicting one or more monkeys in various amorous of acrobatic poses. All the monkey figurines are of the short-tailed rhesus or macaque species, but the kong-tailed langurs would have been known to the Indus people living in Gujarat and the northern Punjab, because this species is quite common throughout these regions today. The fact that they did not make any figures of t… >

"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. >