Important HARAPPAN SITES

Harappa
Excavations At The Site Have Led To Following Specific Findings:

• (i) two rows of six granaries with brick platforms; 12 granaries together had the same areas as the Great Granary at Mohenjodaro;
• (ii) evidences of coffin burial and cemetery `H’ culture (two antelopes and the hunter on a potsherd from a cemetery have been discovered.
• (iii) single-room barrack;
• (iv) evidence of direct trade Interaction with Mesopotamia;
• (v) a red sandstone male torso;
• (vi) stone symbols of female genitals.

Mohenjo-Daro
Some of the Specific Findings during the Excavations of Mohanjodaro Include;

• (i) a college, a multi-pillared assembly hall;
• (ii) the Great bath – (the most important public place of the city);
• (iii) a large granary (the largest building of Mohenjo-daro);
• (iv) a piece of woven cotton along with spindle whorls and needles;
• (v) superficial evidence of horse;
• (vi) a pot-stone fragment of Mesopotamian origin;
• (vii) evidence of direct trade contact with Mesopotamia;
• (viii) a bronze dancing girl;
• (ix) evidence of violent death of some of the inhabitants (discovery of human skeletons put together);
• (x) a seal representing Mother Goddess with a plant growing from her womb, and a woman to be sacrificed by a man with a knife in his hand;
• (xi) a bearded man; and
• (xii) a seal with a picture suggesting Pashupati Mahadev.

Kalibangan

• Kalibangan was an important Harappan city. The word Kalibangan means `black bangles’. A ploughed field was the most important discovery of the early excavations. Later excavations at kalibangan made the following specifies discoveries.
• (i) a wooden furrow;
• (ii) seven `fire-alters’ in a row on a platform, suggesting the practice of the cult of sacrifice.
• (iii) remains of massive brick wall around both the citadel and the lower town (the second Harappan site after Lothal to have the lower town also walled).
• (iv) bones of camel;
• (v) a titled floor which bears intersecting design of circles;
• (vi) a human head with long over eyes, thick lower lips, receding forehead and straight pointed nose; and
• (vii) evidences of two types of burials :
• (a) burials a circular grave and
• (b) burials in a rectangular grave.

Lothal

• Lothal was an important trade centre of the Harappan culture, the town planning in Lothal was different from that of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. The city was divided into six sections. Each section was built on a wide platform of unripe bricks. Each platform was separated by a road with width ranging from 12 feed to 20 feed. Excavations at Lothal led to some specific discoveries which include :
• (i) remains of rice husk (the only other Harappan city where the rice husk has been found is Rangpur, near Ahmedabad);
• (ii) an artificial dockyard;
• (iii) evidence of hose from doubtful terracotta figurine;
• (iv) impressions of cloth on some of the seals;
• (v) evidences of direct trade contract with Mesopotamia;
• (vi) houses with entrances on the main street (the houses of all other Harappan cities had side entries).
• (vii) a ship designed on a seal;
• (viii) a terracotta ship;
• (ix) a painting on a jar resembling the story of the cunning fox narrated in the Panchatantra;
• (x) evidence of double burial (burying a male and a female in a single grave).
• (xi) evidence of a games similar to modern day chess; and
• (xii) an instrument for measuring 180⁰, 90⁰ and 45⁰ angles (the instrument points to modern day compass)

Chanhu-Daro

• Excavations at Chandu-daro have revealed three different cultural layers from lowest to the top being Indus culture, the Jhukar culture and the Jhangar culture. The site is specially important for providing evidences about different Harappan factories. These factories produced seals, toys and bone implements. It was  the only Harappan city without a citadel. Some remarkable findings at Chanhu-daro include bronze figures of bullock cart and ekkas; a small pot suggesting an inkwell, footprints of an elephant and a dog chasing a cat.

Alamgirpur

• Alamgirpur is considered the eastern boundary of the Indus culture. Although the cares found here resemble those at other Harappan sites, other findings suggest that Alamgirpur developed during late-Harappan culture. The site is remarkable for providing the impression of cloth on a trough.

Kot-Diji

• Kot Diji is known more as a pre-Harappan site. It gives the impression of a pre-Harappan fortified settlement. Houses were made of stone. The remains of Kot-Diji suggest that the city existed in the first half of the third millennium BC. Excavations at the site suggest that the city was destructed by force

Amri

• Amri also gives evidences of a pre-Harappan settlement. However, it lacks the fortification plan of the pre-Harappan phase. A spectacular feature of Amri is that it gives the impression of existence of transitional culture between pre and post-Harappan culture. Important findings at Amri include the actual remains of rhinoceros; traces of Jhangar culture in late or declining Harappan phase and fire altars.

Ropar

• Ropar is a Harappan site from where remains of pre-Harappan and Harappan cultures have been found. Buildings at Ropar were made mainly of stone and soil. Important findings at the site include pottery, ornaments, copper axes, chert blades, terracotta blades, one inscribed steatite seal with typical Indus pictographs, several burials interred in oval pits, and a rectangular mud-brick chamber. There is also an evidence of burying a dog below the human burial (Though the practice was prevalent in Burzahom in Kashmir it was rate in the Harappan context).

Banawali

• Situated in Hissar district of Haryana, Banawali has provided two phases of culture during its excavations; the pre-Harappan (Phase I) and the Harappan (Phase-II). Though phase II belonged to the Harappan period, chess-board or grid pattern of town planning was not always followed as in other Harappan sites. The roads were neither always straight, nor did they cut at right angels. It also lacked another remarkable feature of the Harappan civilization – a systematic drainage system. A high quality barley has been found in excavations. Other important material remains include ceramics, steatite seal and a few terracotta sealing with typical Indus script.

Surkotada

• Situated in Kutch (Bhuj) district of Gujarat and excavated by J.P. Joshi in 1972, Surkotada was an important fortified Harappan settlement. The site is important particularly because it has provided the first actual remains of horse bones. A cemetery with four pot burials with some human bones has also been found. A grave has been found in association with a big rock, a rare finding of the Harappan culture.

Suktagendor

• Suktagendor, situated in Sindh (Pakistan), was an important coastal town of the Indus civilization. Excavations of Suktagendor have revealed a two-fold division of the township: the Citadel and the Lower City, it is said that Suktagendor was originally a port which later cut off from the sea due to coastal uplift.
• Vests of wheat and barley in April, before the advent of the next flood.
• Grew wheat, barley, rai, peas, sesamum, mustard, rice (in Lothal), cotton, dates, melon, etc. The Indus people were the first to produce cotton.
• In Kalibangan, fields were ploughed with wooden ploughs.
• Domesticated animals on large scale. Besides the cattle, cats and dogs were domesticated. Horse wasn’t in regular use but elephant was Remains of horse at Surkotada and dogs with men in grave at Ropar have been discovered.
• Produced sufficient to feed themselves.
• Food grains were stored in granaries.

Trade and Commerce

• Well-knit external and internal trade. There was no metallic money in circulation and trade was carried through Barter System.
• Weights and measures of accuracy existed in Harappan culture (found at Lothal). The weights were made of limestone, steatite, etc. and were generally cubical in shape.
• 16 was the unit of measurement (16, 64, 160, 320).
• Flint tool-work, shell-work, bangle making, etc were practices. Raw material for these came from different sources: gold from N. Karnataka, Silver and Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan and Iran, copper from Khetri and Baluchistan, etc.   
• Bead making factory existed in Chanhudaro and Lothal. They were items of export.
• A dockyard has been discovered at Lothal. Rangpur, Somnath and Balakot functioned as seaports. Sutkagendor and Sutkakoh functioned as outlets.
• The inland transport was done with bullock carts.
• Every merchant or mercantile family probably had a seal bearing an emblem, often of a religious character, and a name or brief description, on one side. The standard Harappa seal was a square or oblong plaque made of steatite stone. The primary purpose of the seal was probably to mark the ownership of property, but they may have also served as amulets.
• The Mesopotamian records from about 2350 BC onwards refer to trade relations with Meluhha, the ancient name of the Indus region. Harappan seals and other material has been found at Mesopotamia. Also traded with Sumer.

Art and Craft

• The Harappan culture belongs to the Bronze Age.
• Bronze was made by missing tin and copper. Tools were mostly made of copper and bronze. For making bronze, copper was obtained from Khetri in Rajasthan and from Baluchistan, and tin from Afghanistan.
• Cotton fabrics quite common. Woolen in winter.
• Very fond of ornaments (of gold, silver, ivory, copper, bronze, precious stones) and dressing up. Ornaments were worn by both men and women. Women wore heavy bangles in profusion, large necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets, fingure-rings, girdles, nose-studs and anklets. The Harappans were also an expert bead makers.

Harappan Seals

• Potter’s wheel was in use. Their pottery was red or black pottery, Played dice games. Their favourite pastime was Gambling.
• The Harappan’s most notable artistic achievement was their seal gravings, esp, those of animals. The red sandstone torso of a man is particularly impressive for its realism. However, the most impressive of the figurines is perhaps the bronze image of the famous dancing girl (identified as devadasi), found at Mohenjodaro.
• For their children, they made cattle-toys with movable heads, model monkeys which could slide down a string, little toy-carts, and whistles shaped like birds, all of terracotta.

Religious Life

• Main object of worship was the Mother Goddess. But the upper classes preferred a god, nude with two horns, much similar to Pashupati Siva. Represented on the seal is a figure with three horned heads in a yogic posture. He is surrounded by an elephant, a tiger and a rhinoceros, and below his throne is a buffalo. Near his feet are two deer. Pashupatinath represented male deity.
• Phallus (lingam) and yoni worship was also prevalent.
• Many trees (papal), animals (bull), birds (dove, pigeon) and stones were worshipped. Unicorn was also worshipped. However, no temple has been found, through idolatry was practiced.
• At Kalibangan and Lothal fire altars have been found.
• Although no definite proof is available with regard to the disposal of the dead, a broad view is that probably there were three methods of disposing the dead – complete burial, burial after exposure of the body to birds and beasts, and cremation followed by burial of the ashes. The discovery of cinerary urns and jars, goblets or vessels with ashes, bones and charcoal may, however, suggest that during the flourishing period of the Indus Valley culture the third method was generally practiced. In Harappa, there is one place where evidence of coffin burial is there. The people probably believed in ghosts and evil spirits, as amulets were worn.
• Dead bodies were placed in the north-south orientation.    

Script

• The script is not alphabetical but pictographic (about 600 undeciphered pictographs).
• The script has into been deciphered so far, but overlaps of letters show that it was written from right to left in the first line and left to right in the second line. This style is called `Boustrophedon’.

Political Organization

• There is no clear idea of the political organization of the Indus Valley people. Perhaps they were more concerned with commerce and they were possibly ruled by a class of merchants.
• Also, there was an organization like a municipal corporation to look after the civic amenities of the people.

End/Decay

• The Harappan culture lasted for around 1,000 years.
• Invasion of the Aryans, recurrent floods, social breakup of Harappans, Earthquakes, etc, are listed as possible causes.