Richard H. Meadow

Ancient Indus questions answered by Dr. Richard H. Meadow, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and author of Harappa Excavation Reports 1986-1990 and South Asian Archaeology 1989. He has numerous articles on this website, and slideshows like Intro to Around the Indus in 90 Slides 2, Mystery at Mound F, Harappa, Harappa 2000-2001, Harappa Excavations 1995-2001, and the illustrated essays Recent Indus Discoveries and Highlights from Excavations at Harappa 1998-2000 and Early Developments of Art, Symbol, Technology in the Indus Valley Tradition.

Or were there any mediators in Iran (which had a civilization in ancient periods which was located in the southwestern part of fertile cresent region)? As you know, the Rosetta Stone was issued by Ptolemy \/ - which was due to interactions between the Greeks and Egyptians. This interaction started with settling of Ionians and Cretans as per by Herodotus. Could it be that these mediators would have used both the cuneiform and Indus valley script? What are the possibilities of finding a bilingual according to you? Submitted by Arthur Evans

18. Why did the Harappans go to such extraordinary lengths and distance to obtain raw materials such as copper?

Why (as far as I know) was all the chert obtained from the Rohri Hills and distributed everywhere else? What does this tell us about the nature of the Harappan economy and society? Submitted by Gharial Abramnova from school student questions

24. Do we have any evidence of a migration from the Indus to South India?

Iravatham Mahadevan

Richard H. Meadow

If we assume that some migration did take place from Indus valley to South India sometime around 2000 BC or so, then it could have been through the sea. Could it not be possible to get some remnants of ship break or some marine fossils to substantiate this fact? Submitted by Prakash