Life in Indus Valley Civilization

Seals and Sealing

• Used to facilitate long distance communication
• Each bag of goods was affixed with some wet clay on which the seal was pressed
• If the bag reached with seal intact, that meant it wasn’t tampered
• Fixing additionally passed on the personality of the sender

An Enigmatic Script

• Harappan seals generally have writing lines on them which contain the title and name of the owner
• Those who cannot read were conveyed a meaning by the motif (generally an animal)
• The longest inscription contains about 26 signs, but most of the inscriptions are small. The script was not evidently alphabetical (where each sign stands for a vowel or a consonant) though it remains undeciphered to date
• It has many signs between 375 and 400

Weights

• The precise system of pressure, usually made of a stone called chert which are generally cubical, with no marking were controlled in exchanges
• The higher denominations accompanied  the decimal system, which the lower denominations of pressure were binary (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc., up to 12,800)
• Weighing beads and jewellery were probably done by smaller weights
• Metal scale-pans have also been found

Ancient Authority

• The extraordinary consistency  of Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery seals, weights and bricks which were of uniform size all over the region, are examples of indications of compounded decisions being taken and implemented in Harappan society

Palaces and kings

• No  striking signs were associated with the large building found at Mohenjodaro which was marked as a palace by the archaeologists
• A stone statue was labelled the “priest-king”. This is on the grounds that archaeologists knew about Mesopotamian history and its “priest-kings” and have found parallels in the Indus region
• A few archaeologists accept that Harappan culture had no rulers, and that everyone enjoyed equal status
• Others feel there was no single ruler but several, that Mohenjodaro, Harappa and others had separate rulers
• Notwithstanding similarities in antiquities, the proof for arranged settlements, and the normalized ratio of brick size hint towards a single state

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