Potential Steatite Sources for the Indus Civilization
Steatite (soapstone) artifacts have been found at nearly every excavated Harappan period (2600-1900 BC) site and were the primary element used to make seals.
Articles on seals, cylinders, and their inscriptions from the ancient Harappan or Indus Valley Civilization.
Indus Seals and Glyptic Studies: An Overview
A proof of this upcoming survey article by the dean of Indus script scholarship, Asko Parpola, is now available on Academia.edu; it will be published in the highly anticipated Seals and Sealing in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 2018).
Fish Symbolism in Indus Valley Epigraphy and Protohistoric Accounts
The writer, who teaches at CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay in France, has come up with a paper rich in historical and epigraphical associations that complexify and simplify thinking about one of the most important signs on Indus seals, "nearly ten percent of all textual matter."
Early Developments of Art, Symbol and Technology in the Indus Valley Tradition
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 Sincerest Form of Flattery? Terracotta Seals as Evidence of Imitation and Agency in Bronze Age Middle Asia
The Indus civilization is in so many ways a puzzle wrapped in another puzzle. One of the most challenging with respect to seals are the terracotta seals of the adjacent and contemporaneous Ahar Banas culture.
Inscribed Objects from Harappa Excavations 1986-2007
The assemblage of inscribed and incised objects discovered at the site of Harappa during excavations conducted between 1986–2007 by the Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP).
The Organization of Indus Unicorn Seal Production. A Multi-faceted Investigation of Technology, Skill, and Style
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.
Master of Animals and Animal Masters in the Iconography of the Indus Tradition
A brief introduction to the Indus Tradition and then focuses on the range of images relating to human and animal interactions that were used in the greater Indus region.
Looking beneath the Veneer Thoughts about Environmental and Cultural Diversity in the Indus Civilization
"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.
The Tiny Steatite Seals of Harappa
A closer look at the tablets discovered at Harappa during HARPS excavations and the locations where they were discovered at the site.