Seals

Articles on seals, cylinders, and their inscriptions from the ancient Harappan or Indus Valley Civilization.

Finding Harappan seal carvers: An operational sequence approach to identifying people in the past

Adam S. Green
Recently published research describes how engravings on Harappan stamp seals allow the identification of particular artisans in the past. He explains how 3D optical microscopy can be used on these engravings to reconstruct how past production events were undertaken by different individual carvers.

The westward transmission of Indus Valley sealing technology: origin and development of the ‘Gulf Type’ seal and other administrative technologies in Early Dilmun, c.2100–2000 BC

Steffen Terp Laursen
A very interesting and informative article that starts bringing the adjacent ancient state of Dilmun on the Arabian Gulf (many of the finds have been in present day Bahrain) to light, and what must have been a very rich trade and cultural relationship with ancient Indus cities.

Early Developments of Art, Symbol and Technology in the Indus Valley Tradition

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
Archaeologists studying the emergence of early civilizations often focus on finely crafted art objects in order to understand the aspects of economic, socio-political and religious organization. The importance of such objects is increased when studying early societies for which there are no written records, such as the Indus Valley civilization.

The Organization of Indus Unicorn Seal Production. A Multi-faceted Investigation of Technology, Skill, and Style

Gregg M. Jamison
Although much about Indus seals remains unknown, the steady application of rigorous, detailed analysis of a kind that earlier excavators could hardly dream of is slowly yielding clues and insights into the organization of work and craft in Indus cities.

Looking beneath the Veneer Thoughts about Environmental and Cultural Diversity in the Indus Civilization

Cameron A. Petrie
"The recognition of variation and diversity [in the ancient Indus civilization] has encouraged a gradual, though not universally accepted, shift toward the interpretation that certain categories of Indus material acted as ‘a veneer… overlying diverse local and regional cultural expressions'," write the authors.

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