Ancient Indus Questions & Answers

What in your view are the most exciting, significant or illuminating insights gained? What avenues would you like to explore in future asssuming absolutely no practical or financial constraints whatsoever? Submitted by Paul Toth and Gharial Abramnova from school student questions

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

Submitted by Manzoor

Jane McIntosh
I don't think that there was a single cause of the Indus civilization's end; rather it was the cumulative effect of a number of factors:

Submitted by Gharial Abramnova from school student questions

Harappan Civilisation is often characterised (for example by the Director of the British Museum on a Radio 4 series) or even idealised as peaceful and without warfare or conquest, (in comparison with all other First Civilisations) with its cities linked across vast regions and unified (variously) by trade and/or religion. Rulers have even been said to be priests or a theocracy. These interpretations are often presented as facts in books or articles for general consumption.

Why were there (terracotta) balls on the Citadel wall in Mohenjo-Daro? Have any more statues been found or anything like a temple? Have you found out any more information on the Indus leaders or their names? Submitted by Gharial Abramnova from school student questions

What is known about the food habits of the Indus Valley people? Have any cooking utensils/equipment, charred remains of food or agricultural implements been found? Wheat kind of bread was their staple, perhaps baked in ovens or cooked over fire? Did they grow lentils - one of the key elements of sub-continental food? Submitted by Colleen

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

It is known that some of Indus Seals found in Mesotopamia. Are those seals found in a single city or variety of Sumer cities? Is there any known another example for 2000 kms distance of a trade network in Bronze Age? Submitted by Taner Tas

What and how much is known about it?

Or ever two distinct artifacts with the same sets of fingerprints on them? Is there anyone studying indus valley artifacts with this approach and is there anything we can tell from it? Submitted by Ezb

Jane McIntosh
I am not aware of any studies specifically dealing with fingerprints on Harappan pottery. Kenoyer notes that some of the Ravi-period (pre-Harappan) beads at Harappa were decorated with finger marks.

The people of the Indus valley seem to have exported many more goods than they seem to have imported. Moreover, imported items like silver (found mainly in Harappa and Mohenjodaro) did not seem to have been distributed beyond the main cities suggesting that there was little demand for the goods in the smaller centres. Does this suggest that, if, as has been suggested, the Indus people took the initiative for the trade, this was a centralised effort that profited only the cities? Submitted by Apoorva Bhandari

I would like to know if the valley was green and fertile at that time... and if the cultivation of sugar cane, a highly aggressive culture, and the use of timber to construct led to environmental degradation of the area which then became dry and hostile.

The Elamites are said to be Tamilians and so are the Indus Valley people. Were the people of common ethnic origin? Further the word Dravidians is supposed be derived from the word Tamilian? Is this true? Submitted by Anil. Editor’s note: In general, could you please explain the distinction between ethnicity and language and the extent to which they can be expected to overlap.

I have a question to Dr Iravatham Mahadevan. Do festivals like PONGAL (TN) or ONAM (Kerala) carry some of those aspects from Indus Valley memory? Because they are not rooted in Religion and origins are obscured from known memory. Submitted by Prakash

Iravatham Mahadevan
The Harappans would have celebrated some festivals. There are seals and sealings showing religious sacrifices, processions etc. but there is no evidence to connect them with the South Indian festival you mention.

"I'd like the experts to confirm or refute that the Indus Valley civilization was a matriarchy following the scientific definition given by Heide Goettner-Abendroth in Modern Matriarchal Studies: Definitions, Scope and Topicality." Asked by Sede Decana Método DeRose and Luciano

The seal fragment H98-3505/8347-105 is number H-1676 A in CISI-3 appearing on pages 235 (B+W) and 365 (Color) in Parpola, Asko, B.M. Pande, and Pitteri Koskikallio (2010) Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions, Volume 3: New material, untraced objects, and collections outside India and Pakistan, Part 1: Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

Richard Meadow

I would like to draw some comments about the nature of the transformation that took place after 1800 BC, the spread of the Harappan culture over different parts of the subcontinent and their linkages with some of the Megalithic cultures of South India, non-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures and Vedic cultures. Submittted by Narottam Vinit