"Once considered in all their components, clay sealings can in fact be key objects for understanding several aspects of the socio-economic organisation of the Indus Civilization," writes the author of this important recent paper built on years of work and thinking about the unique Lothal sealing trove he has done so much to help us understand. He continues: "First, they allow to understand the main functions of stamp seals in the Indus society, which has often been questioned. Moreover, they can provide direct information about the Indus storage technologies, including the types of lockers and fasteners used to secure access to rooms and portable containers, as well as about the actual storage facilities. Finally, through comparison and contrast with better-known contexts in Western Asia, they ultimately enable inferences to be drawn about the administrative organisation and bureaucratic procedures implemented at Indus Civilization sites to manage storerooms and goods controlled within a hierarchically centralised organisation."

In short, there is much that can be gleaned from understanding how seals and sealing operated in Indus society. They allow us to hypothetically peel back some of the institutional structures and practices that underpinned a civilization that traded and interacted with its neighbours to the west where seals and sealings were also used.

Dr. Frenez rejects the point made by Maurizio Tossi that ancient Indus seals had a unique function compared to other contemporaneous societies in the region with seals because of the lack of sealings found at Indus sites. This point-of-view was shared by the late Gregory Possehl. Rather Frenez argues, among other points, that the nature of the medium they were impressed upon was too fragile and they were poorly recorded by excavators, recalling MacKay's experience of watching sealings dissolve when washed. He brings up the judgement of one of the world's experts on sealings elsewhere, Enrica Fiandra, who said "she had never seen clay sealings as small, carefully shaped and stamped, and morphologically complex as those from the Indus civilization site of Lothal," (p. 220).

Instead, he argues that they likely functioned as administrative tools for managing storerooms and ensuring accountability, akin to practices in Bronze Age Western Asia (e.g., Arslantepe, Türkiye). Lothal’s 70 fired sealings show intricate impressions from doors, wooden boxes, pottery jars, and cloth/leather bags. This diversity reflects a sophisticated storage infrastructure, including unique Indus-specific containers like reed bundles and wooden cages.They were part according to Frenez of the "Transcultural Administrative Sealing System" used in Western Asia for centralized resource management which he proposes as a framework for understanding Indus practices. Sealings were archived temporarily for accountability before disposal, as seen in Lothal’s burnt warehouse.

There is logic in this perspective– Indus sealings were found and used in western Asia. He also revisits the nature of the apparent warehouse where they were found with its identical sized-rooms to support his arguments. This shifts the interpretive focus from external trade security to internal bureaucratic control and accountability, like in Bronze Age Western Asia, where sealings were used to manage storerooms and authorize access rather than simply to secure goods in transit. The presence of multiple seal impressions on single sealings, and the clustering of sealings in a warehouse context to him indicate a system of shared administrative responsibility and standardized procedures. One can infer from this that Indus Civilization had a complex bureaucratic apparatus, with protocols for archiving and accounting for goods. The seal inscriptions, rather than their iconography, were likely the key bureaucratic elements, possibly recording the names or roles of officials.

The paper has some fine illustrations of sealings, and the author does not simply try to impose a Western Asian model on the sealings from Lothal: "While most of the sealed doors and containers have direct comparisons at contemporaneous sites in Western Asia, the Lothal warehouse cluster also includes impressions of closure devices and containers that appear to be unique to the Indus Civilization, such as wooden cages, containers or packages made from small reeds, and various types of wooden lockers and structural elements," (p. 228). The 89 footnotes also rich in information, making this an indispensable work that attempts to pry open some of the deeper structural and economic networks and practices during the ancient Indus age.

Images: 1. First specimens of clay sealings collected from the 1920s excavations at the Indus Civilization sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan, featuring multiple impressions of different seals and Indus Script signs scratched on the rear after removal from the sealed container/room (after Frenez 2020, cf. Joshi and Parpola 1987: cat. no. M-426; Parpola et al. 2010: cat. no. H-2584).
2. Lothal, India (Period A, 2450–1900 BCE): Clay sealings and seals that stamped them (Frenez 2020, cf. Joshi and Parpola 1987: cat. nos. L-6, L-37, L-208 and L-210).