Harappa Comparative Chronology (1940)

Period	Strata	Date
Late I Late II Late III	Ist to IIIrd	Circa 2750 B.C. to 3050 B.C.
Intermediate I Intermediate II Intermediate III Intermediate IV	IVth to VIIth	Circa 3050 B.C. to 3500 B.C.
Early I	VIIIth	First half of the 4th Millenium B.C.
Late I Late II Late III Late IV Intermediate I Intermediate II	Ist to IVth	Contemporary with the Late Period in Mound F, but the 1st stratum is possibly later still.
Intermediate I Intermediate II Intermediate III Intermediate IV	Vth and Vth	Before Circa 3050 B.C.
Late I Late II	Ist and IInd	Circa 2850 to 3050 B.C.
Intermediate I Intermediate II	IIIrd and IVth	Before Circa 3050 B.C.
Late I Late II	Ist and IInd	Circa 2700 B.C. to 2800 B.C.
Intermediate I	IIIrd	Circa 3250 B.C.
Late I Late II	Ist and IInd	Circa 2000 B.C. to 2500 B.C. (Approximate upper and lower limits between which the two strata may be supposed to have existed at any time. A difference of about 50 years between them should be ample.).

Stratification
"The number of strata varies considerably in different mounds which are not all contemporary with each other. In the present state of our knowledge their dating can hardly be definite. At best it must be rough and provisional, with a fair margin for error when accounting for the upper and lower limits of the culture¹ at Harappa as revealed up till now. On the basis of the evidence regarding the chronology of Mohenjo-daro, which has been so ably discussed Comparative by Sir John Marshall,² I tabulate below the tentative and comparative age of Mounds F, AB, Areas J and G, and of the Cemetery H.

Mound F, so far as the buildings and antiquities of every kind (including the seals) are concerned, is contemporary with the Late and Intermediate Periods of Mohenjo-daro, but from the IVth stratum downwards it contains an increasing proportion of tiny seals and sealings of an archaic type which are peculiar to Harappa and the like of which have not been foimd hitherto at Mohenjo-daro. Ffom the IVth stratum downwards, therefore, this mound may be said to be earlier than Mohenjo-daro.

Mound AB. Strata II to IV are contemporary with the Late Period in Mound F, but the 1st is possibly a bit later. Below the IVth stratum the tiny seals and sealings begin to appear and accordingly the Vth and Vlth strata may be assigned to the latter part of the Intermediate Period in Mound F.

Area G. The first two strata, to judge from the more developed types of pottery as seen in Pis. XLI, b, XLII, a, and LXX, 5-6, 8-12, 14, 16-17, 20, 22-24, and 35-36, appear to be contemporary with the corresponding strata in Mound AB. While some of the pottery found with the multiple burial No. G-289 and the groups of pottery Nos. G15 and G130 forms, as it were, a kind of bridge³ between the pottery from the Cemetery H and that of the Late Period from Mounds F and AB, most of the other finds are absolutely indistinguishable from antiquities of the Late Period in the above two mounds. The fine of demarcation is, therefore, not clearly marked. Between Strata II and III, however, there seems to have been a wide gulf of time, since in the latter stratum tiny seals of archaic type begin to be suddenly met with.

The Cemetery H shows only two strata of occupation which are evidently later than the Late Period of the mounds, but how much later, it is difficult to say. The lateness of the Cemetery is demonstrated by the well-developed forms of pottery found with burials of Strata I and II (Pis. LX and LXI), the more so as sherds of sumlar vessels were found overlying the latest strata of several mounds and also by the distinctly different character of the paintings which mark an abrupt break from the paintings on the non-cemetery types of pottery recovered from the mounds. I do not, however, think that pottery from the Cemetery H is likely to be later than Circa 2000 B.C."

- Madho Sarup Vats, Excavations at Harappa, 1940, pp. 9-10.

^{1. In this accounting the Gupta stratum, which is confined to the highest but only a small portion Of Mound AB, has been left out. See pp. 137-38 infra.↩}
^{2. M. I. C. [Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization], pp. 9-10 and 103-07.↩}
^{3. Cf. PI. LXX, 10, 14, 16 and 20.↩}

Harappa

Photograph

Madho Sarup Vats