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Ancient Indus Valley Civilization Books

144 new and classic books on the ancient Indus civilization, from exhibition catalogues to excavation reports, from the scientific to imaginative fiction for kids and adults.

An Explorer's Guide to Mohen-jo-daro

  • An Explorer's Guide to Mohen-jo-daro book cover
Sheikh Javed Ali Sindhi

While visiting Mohenjo-daro in early 2025, I asked one of the best guides to this vast ancient city, Sheikh Javed Ali Sindhi, whether there was a booklet or guide available. He said no, but that he w… >

The Origins of Agriculture in the Bronze Age Indus Civilization

  • book cover
Jennifer Bates

This is a deeply researched and satisfying book, one that takes on the insightful point made by Marshall: "Great cities with teeming populations like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa could never have come into being save in a country which was capable of producing food on a big scale." >

The Unicorn Expedition

  • book cover
Satyajit Ray

"I saw a herd of unicorns today. I write this in full possession of my sense." So begins the short story The Unicorn Expedition by the great Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. featuring a Professor Shanku story. >

Explorations on the Makran Coast, Pakistan

  • Book cover
George Dales
Carl P. Lipo

This is an unusual book, a combination of two types of work. One is the record of a trip along the Makran coast of Baluchistan when Pakistan was a new country with a fledgling archaeology department splintered from the Archaeological Survey of India. The second is the excavation record at Sutkagen Dor, the westernmost known ancient Indus site. >

Cracking the Egyptian Code

  • Book Cover
Andrew Robinson

If a so‑called Rosetta Stone for the ancient Indus script is ever found—that is to say, a bilingual inscription with Indus characters and those in another known language—it would be a great boon to decipherment efforts. However, people often do not realize how difficult it actually was to decipher the original Rosetta Stone. >

cuneiform

Irving Finkel

How can cuneiform – the ancient writing system used in Mesopotamia during the height of the Indus civilization – help us better understand the Indus writing system? >

Father tongue, mother land

Peggy Mohan

Father tongue, mother land: The Birth of Languages in South Asia is a natural successor to Wanders, Kings, Merchants, taking on perhaps the biggest puzzle in Indian language history: what di… >

Indus Signs and Graffiti Marks of Tamil Nadu

K. Rajan

This volume, sub-titled A Morphological Study represents a significant contribution to the study of ancient Indian scripts and cultural connections. The extensive documentation and classification of Tamil Nadu graffiti alone constitutes a valuable scholarly resource. >

Mesopotamia The Invention of the City

Gwendolyn Leick

Although not about the ancient Indus valley, this groundbreaking examination of ten ancient Mesopotamian cities is rich food for thought about how ancient Indus cities may have developed. >

Wanderers, Kings, Merchants

Peggy Mohan

Peggy Mohan's Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages offers a fascinating linguistic journey through Indian history, examining how migrations, conquests, and cultural exchanges have shaped the languages of the subcontinent. >

Ahimsa : 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization

Devdutt Pattanaik

There is a lot to like about this well-written and engaging set of reflections on ancient Indus life and culture. It does not hesitate to examine its biases: "much of our acceptance of the past is a function of the present," writes the author, and "what I present are not arguments . . . these are not free of my prejudices. So approach this book in the spirit of curiosity, not combat." >

The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connections with Other Scripts

G. R. Hunter

The best guess at what some Indus signs may have meant and sounded like, especially the sequence of fish signs, came in this very first book on the ancient script published by an employee of the Indian Educational Service in 1933. >

Disease and Healing in the Indus Civilisation

Robert Arnott

An absorbing book that brings to the reader in most direct fashion the complexities of living in some of the world's first cities. Dr. Robert Arnott manages to collate the manifold existential challenges inhabitants would have faced and brought them all together for the first time in one place. >

Corpus of Indus Inscriptions [I]

Andreas Fuls

This book, at least 15 years in the making, is a major contribution to the study of the ancient Indus script, the product of diligent research and the careful collection of all known Indus inscriptions into a single database and two volume publication. >

A Catalog of Indus Signs [II]

  • A Catalogue of Indus Signs II
Andreas Fuls

This, the second volume of a comprehensive catalog of Indus signs "lists all Indus inscriptions that are currently available and presents the temporal as well as spatial distribution of inscribed ar… >

Inter-Regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley

  • Inter-Regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley cover
Randall W. Law

This book brought a trove of new information to bear that is slowly making its way into Indus archaeology while its materials analysis techniques are becoming more prevalent and important. >

Urban Cultures of Central Asia from the Bronze Age to the Karakhanids: Learnings and conclusions from new archaeological investigations and discoveries

An exceptional collection by a wide variety of archaeologists that speak to discoveries in the past decades in Central Asia and what they may imply for cultural development in the wider region, including the ancient Indus area. >

The Forgotten an Approach on Harappan Toy Artefacts

Elke Rogersdotter

A wide-ranging analysis of toys and their possible role in ancient Indus civilization through a close look at finds from Bagasra, Gujarat. Using social theory, microarchaeology, recent research in other civilizations, and a sophisticated approach to the question of "toys" in archaeology, the author offers one of the few deep dives into a kind of object that is found in great quantities across many ancient Indus sites. >

Excavations at Rakigarhi [1997-98 to 1999-2000]

Amarendra Nath

This nearly 400 page illustrated volume by Dr. Amendra Nath from 2014 covers three seasons of excavations (1997-2000), and is "drawn on the lines of the Wheeler Committee Report-1965." As the start of a record about this extensive, important major ancient Indus site, it is invaluable. >

ADI A Story of Indus Valley Civilization

Jitu Mishra

Adi is an engaging children's story that covers the journey of a young boy, Adi, son of a copper merchant in Nausharo to Mohenjo-daro with his father sometime during the height of the ancient Indus civilization. >

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Books by Author (151)
  • Abraham, Shinu Anna
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  • Ajithprasad, P.
  • Albinia, Alice
  • Allchin, Bridget
  • Allchin, F. R.
  • Allchin, Raymond
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  • Anand, Mulk Raj
  • Arnott, Robert
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  • Balakrishnan, R.
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  • Bates, Jennifer
  • Biagi, Paolo
  • Bibby, Geoffrey
  • Brown, Dale M.
  • Burke, R. E. J.
  • Cattani, Maurizio
  • Caubet, Annie F
  • Chakrabarti, Dilip K.
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  • Clark, Sharri R.
  • Coningham, Robin
  • Cortesi, Elisa
  • Costello, Sarah Kielt
  • Crawford, Harriet E. W.
  • Dales, George
  • Danino, Michel
  • Dave, Vasant
  • Dennell, Robin
  • Dikshit, K. N.
  • Dupree, Louis
  • Education, Wildgoose
  • Education, Wildgoose
  • Erdosy, George
  • Fairservis, Walter Ashlin
  • Finkel, Irving
  • Franke, Ute
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  • Fuls, Andreas
  • Geographic, National
  • Gerry, John P.
  • Ghani, Faras
  • Gopinath, Sujata
  • Graeber, David
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  • Harappa.com,
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  • Kennedy, Kenneth, Dr. A. R.
  • Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark
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  • Khan, Ahmed Nabi
  • Khan, F. A.
  • Kirkpatrick, Naida
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  • Lahiri, Nayanjot
  • Lal, B. B.
  • Laursen, Steffen Terp
  • Law, Randall W.
  • Leick, Gwendolyn
  • Lipo, Carl P.
  • Mackay, Ernest J. H.
  • Mahadevan, Iravatham
  • Mail, Daily
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  • Marshall, John
  • Masson, Charles
  • McIntosh, Jane
  • Meadow, Richard H.
  • Mery, Sophie
  • Mishra, Jitu
  • Mohan, Peggy
  • Mohenjodaro, National Fund for
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  • Nath, Amarendra
  • Nemet-Najat, Karen Rhea
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  • Rao, Rajesh P.N.
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  • Ratnagar, Shereen
  • Ray, Satyajit
  • Rice, Michael
  • Rizvi, Uzma
  • Robinson, Andrew
  • Rogersdotter, Elke
  • Sali, S. A.
  • Sanghur, Aziz
  • Schug, Gwen Robbins
  • Scott, James C.
  • Shah, Sayid Ghulam Mustafa
  • Shuter, Jane
  • Sindhi, Sheikh Javed Ali
  • Sinha, D. K.
  • Sivanatham, R.
  • Spodek, Howard
  • Srinivasan, Doris Meth
  • Steinkeller, Piotr
  • System, Abhishek Ganguli Learning
  • Sywnnerton, Charles
  • Talpur, Parveen
  • Tarar, Mustansar Hussain
  • Taylor, Jonathan
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  • Tripathi, Amish
  • Uesugi, Akinori
  • Urban, Gunter
  • Vats, M. S.
  • Walimbe, Subhas R.
  • Weber, Stephen A.
  • Wells, Bryan K.
  • Wengrow, David
  • Wheeler, Mortimer
  • Wood, Michael
  • Wright, Rita P.
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  • Young, Ruth
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