Ancient Indus questions answered by Randall Law. Dr. Randall William Law II, University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been studying the natural resources and networks spawned by the need for resources in Indus cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. He has numerous articles on this website.
Are there any structural remains in any of the Harappan sites to point to a marketplace or shop where goods were bought and sold? What do scholars have to say about the market system in those days, apart from the well-known theory of goods being stored in a storehouse and taken by boats for trade?
Massimo Vidale
Prof. J. M. Kenoyer, who has recently investigated the Granary at Harappa, is the best person to answer these questions. My impression is that the evidence for the "Granaries" identification is quite flimsy; the type of dig made in the past, simply, was not accurate enough for such an identification, and the various theories so far proposed are pure conjectures. One of these is that the large compartmented building of Harappa was a weaving plant; I like the idea, but at present it is just another guess.
