Social Differences in Indus valley civilization

• Rare objects made of valuable materials are generally concentrated in large settlements like Mohenjodaro and Harappa and are rarely found in the smaller settlements. Gold too was rare and precious, all the gold jewellery found at Harappan sites was recovered from hoards

Finding Out About Craft Production

• Chanhudaro was exclusively devoted to craft production, including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making and weight-making
• The variety of materials used to make beads:
  • Stones like carnelian (of red colour), jasper, crystal, quartz and steatite
  • Metals like copper, bronze and gold
  • Shell, faience and terracotta or burnt clay
• Some beads were made of two or more stones, cemented together, some of the stone with gold caps. The shapes were numerous – disc shaped, cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped, segmented
• Techniques for making beads differed according to the material
  • Steatite, a soft stone, was easily worked
  • Some beads were moulded out of a paste made with steatite powder, which permitted making a variety of shapes
• Red colour of carnelian was obtained by firing the yellowish raw material and beads at various stages of production
  • Nodules were chipped into rough shapes, and then finely flaked into the final form
  • Grinding, polishing and drilling completed the process
• Specialised drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and recently at Dholavira. Nageshwar and Balakot were specialised centers for making shell objects, including bangles, ladles and inlay, which were taken to other settlements

Identifying centres of production

• Raw materials such as stone nodules, whole shells, copper ore; tools; unfinished objects; rejects and waste material, are some of the best indicators of Craft work. For instance, if a shell or stone is cut to make objects, then pieces of these materials will be discarded as waste at the place of production
• Larger waste pieces were used up to make smaller objects, but minuscule bits were usually left in the work area. Apart from specialised works, craft production was also undertaken in large cities like Mohenjodaro and Harappa

Strategies for Procuring Materials

• A variety of materials were used for craft production. While some such as clay were locally available, many such as stone, timber and metal had to be procured from outside
• Terracotta toy models of bullock carts suggest that this was one important means of transporting goods and people across land routes. Riverine routes along the Indus and its tributaries, as well as coastal routes were also probably used

Materials from the subcontinent and beyond

• The Harappans procured materials for craft production in various ways
• They established settlements such as Nageshwar and Balakot in areas where shell was available
• Shortughai, in far-off Afghanistan, near the best source of lapis lazuli, a blue stone that was apparently very highly valued
• Lothal was near sources of carnelian (from Bharuch in Gujarat), steatite (from south Rajasthan and north Gujarat) and metal (from Rajasthan)
• Another strategy was to send expeditions to areas such as the Khetri region of Rajasthan (for copper) and South India (for gold)
• These expeditions established communication with local communities
• Finds of Harappan artefacts such as steatite microbeads in these areas are indications of such contact
• There is evidence in the Khetri area for the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture, with its distinctive non-Harappan pottery and an unusual wealth of copper objects
• It is possible that the inhabitants of this region supplied copper to the Harappans

Contact with distant lands

• Copper was probably brought from Oman. Chemical analyses have shown that both the Omani copper and Harappan artefacts have traces of nickel, suggesting a common origin. A large Harappan jar coated with a thick layer of black clay has been found at Omani sites
• Mesopotamian texts datable to the third millennium BCE refer to copper coming from a region called Magan, perhaps a name for Oman

Conclusion

Indus’ civilization, also called Indus valley civilization or Harappan civilization, the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. The nuclear dates of the civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE, though the southern sites may have lasted later into the 2nd millennium BCE. Among the world’s three earliest civilizations—the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt—the Indus civilization was the most extensive.