CH-1 BRICKS, BEADS AND BONES

ASSIGNMENT-PART-1
Q1.Why is the Harappan Civilization called Harappan Culture?
Ans. HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION:
The Indus valley civilisation is also called the Harappan culture.
1.Archaeologists use the term “culture” for a group of objects, distinctive in
style, that are usually found together within a specific geographical area and
period of time. In the case of the Harappan culture, these distinctive objects
include seals, beads, weights, stone blades and even baked bricks.
2. These objects were found from areas as far apart as Afghanistan, Jammu,
Baluchistan (Pakistan) and Gujarat (Map 1). Named after Harappa, the first site
where this unique culture was discovered (p. 6), the civilisation is dated
between c. 2600 and 1900 BCE.
3.There were earlier and later cultures, often called Early Harappan and Late
Harappan, in the same area. The Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the
Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from these cultures.
Q2. Explain the Subsistence Strategies.
Ans. SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES
1. Mature Harappan culture developed in some of the areas occupied by
the Early Harappan cultures. These cultures also shared certain common
elements including subsistence strategies.
2. The Harappans ate a wide range of plant and animal products, including
fish. Archaeologists have been able to reconstruct dietary practices from
finds of charred grains and seeds. These are studied by archaeo-
botanists, who are specialists in ancient plant remains.
3. Grains found at Harappan sites include wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea
and sesame. Millets are found from sites in Gujarat. Finds of rice are
relatively rare
4. . Animal bones found at Harappan sites include those of cattle, sheep,
goat, buffalo and pig. Studies done by archaeo-zoologists or
zooarchaeologists indicate that these animals were domesticated. Bones
of wild species such as boar, deer and gharial are also found.
 5. We do not know whether the Harappans hunted these animals
themselves or obtained meat from other hunting communities. Bones of
fish and fowl are also found.
6. Agricultural Technologies-Representations on seals and terracotta
sculpture indicate that the bull was known, and archaeologists
extrapolate from this that oxen were used for ploughing. Moreover,
terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in Cholistan
and at Banawali (Haryana).
7. Archaeologists have also found evidence of a ploughed field at
Kalibangan (Rajasthan), associated with Early Harappan levels (see p.
20). The field had two sets of furrows at right angles to each other,
suggesting that two different crops were grown together.
Q3. Give the description of Mohenjodaro-a planned urban centre.
Ans. Mohenjodaro-A Planned Urban Centre
1. The settlement is divided into two sections, one smaller but higher and
the other much larger but lower. Archaeologists designate these as the
Citadel and the Lower Town respectively. The Citadel owes its height to
the fact that buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms. It was
walled, which meant that it was physically separated from the Lower
Town.
2. The Lower Town was also walled. Several buildings were built on
platforms, which served as foundations. It has been calculated that if
one labourer moved roughly a cubic metre of earth daily, just to put the
foundations in place it would have required four million person-days, in
other words, mobilising labour on a very large scale.
3. So it seems that the settlement was first planned and then implemented
accordingly. Other signs of planning include bricks, which, whether sun-
dried or baked, were of a standardised ratio, where the length and
breadth were four times and twice the height respectively. Such bricks
were used at all Harappan settlements.
4. Laying out drains- One of the most distinctive features of Harappan cities
was the carefully planned drainage system. If you look at the plan of the
Lower Town you will notice that roads and streets were laid out along an
approximate “grid” pattern, intersecting at right angles. It seems that
streets with drains were laid out first and then houses built along them.
 If domestic waste water had to flow into the street drains, every house
needed to have at least one wall along a street.
5. Domestic architecture- The Lower Town at Mohenjodaro provides
examples of residential buildings. Many were centred on a courtyard,
with rooms on all sides. The courtyard was probably the centre of
activities such as cooking and weaving, particularly during hot and dry
weather.
Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks, with drains
connected through the wall to the street drains. Some houses have
remains of staircases to reach a second storey or the roof. Many houses
had wells, often in a room that could be reached from the outside and
perhaps used by passers-by. Scholars have estimated that the total
number of wells in Mohenjodaro was about 700.
6. The Citadel- It is on the Citadel that we find evidence of structures that
were probably used for special public purposes. These include the
warehouse – a massive structure of which the lower brick portions
remain, while the upper portions, probably of wood, decayed long ago –
and the Great Bath.
7. Great Bath-
a. The Great Bath was a large rectangular tank in a courtyard
surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.
b. There were two flights of steps on the north and south leading into
the tank, which was made watertight by setting bricks on edge and
using a mortar of gypsum.
c. There were rooms on three sides, in one of which was a large well.
Water from the tank flowed into a huge drain.
d. Across a lane to the north lay a smaller building with eight
bathrooms, four on each side of a corridor, with drains from each
bathroom connecting to a drain that ran along the corridor.
e. The uniqueness of the structure, as well as the context in which it
was found (the Citadel, with several distinctive buildings), has led
scholars to suggest that it was meant for some kind of a special ritual
bath.
Q4. How would you identify the social differences that existed in the early
society of Harappan Civilisation? Discuss.
Ans. SOCIAL DIFFERENCES-
1.BURIALS-
a. At burials in Harappan sites the dead were generally laid in pits.
Sometimes, there were differences in the way the burial pit was made – in
some instances, the hollowed-out spaces were lined with bricks.
b. Some graves contain pottery and ornaments, perhaps indicating a belief
that these could be used in the afterlife.
c. Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women. In fact, in
the excavations at the cemetery in Harappa in the mid-1980s, an ornament
consisting of three shell rings, a jasper (a kind of semi-precious stone) bead
and hundreds of micro beads was found near the skull of a male.
d. some instances the dead were buried with copper mirrors. But on the
whole, it appears that the Harappans did not believe in burying precious
things with the dead.
2.LOOKING FOR LUXURIES-
a. The first category includes objects of daily use made fairly easily out of
ordinary materials such as stone or clay. These include querns, pottery,
needles, flesh-rubbers (body scrubbers), etc., and are usually found
distributed throughout settlements.
b. Archaeologists assume objects were luxuries if they are rare or made
from costly, non-local materials or with complicated technologies. Thus,
little pots of faience (a material made of ground sand or silica mixed with
colour and a gum and then fired) were probably considered precious
because they were difficult to make.
c. The situation becomes more complicated when we find what seem to be
articles of dailyuse, such as spindle whorls made of rare materials such as
faience.
Q5. Give an account of the Craft Production in the Harappan Civilization.
Ans. CRAFT PRODUCTION-
1. CHANHUDARO-This is a tiny settlement (less than 7 hectares) as
compared to Mohenjodaro (125 hectares), almost exclusively devoted to
craft production, including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working,
seal-making and weight-making.
2. The variety of materials used to make beads is remarkable: stones like
carnelian (of a beautiful red colour), jasper, crystal, quartz and steatite;
metals like copper, bronze and gold; and shell, faience and terracotta or
burnt clay.
3. Some beads were made of two or more stones, cemented together,
some of stone with gold caps. The shapes were numerous – disc shaped,
cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped, segmented. Some were decorated
by incising or painting, and some had designs etched onto them.
4. Techniques for making beads differed according to the material.
Steatite, a very soft stone, was easily worked. Some beads were
moulded out of a paste made with steatite powder. This permitted
making a variety of shapes, unlike the geometrical forms made out of
harder stones. How the steatite micro bead was made remains a puzzle
for archaeologists studying ancient technology.
5. Archaeologists’ experiments have revealed that the 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 more recently at Dholavira.
6. Nageshwar and Balakot, both settlements are near the coast. These
were specialised centres for making shell objects – including bangles,
ladles and inlay – which were taken to other settlements. Similarly, it is
likely that finished products (such as beads) from Chanhudaro and Lothal
were taken to the large urban centres such as Mohenjodaro and
Harappa.
7. Identifying Centres of Production-
a. In order to identify centres of craft production, archaeologists usually
look for the following: raw material such as stone nodules, whole
shells, copper ore; tools; unfinished objects; rejects and waste
material.
b. In fact, waste is one of the best indicators of craft work. For instance,
if shell or stone is cut to make objects, then pieces of these materials
will be discarded as waste at the place of production.
c. Sometimes, larger waste pieces were used up to make smaller
objects, but minuscule bits were usually left in the work area. These
traces suggest that apart from small, specialised centres, craft
production was also undertaken in large cities such as Mohenjodaro
and Harappa.