Class 12 NCERT chapter 1 History

     Bricks, Beads and Bones

   The Harappan Civilisation 

Introduction 

• The Harappan seal is possibly the most distinctive artefact of the harappan or Indus valley civilisation .Made of a stone called stealite.
• The Indus valley civilisation is also called the harappan culture 
• in case of harappan culture , these distinctive objects include seals , beads , weights , stone blades and even baked bricks .
• After harappa , the first site where this unique culture was discovered , the civilisation is dated between c. 2600 and 1900 BCE.
• The harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from these cultures.

Beginnings

• There were several archaeological cultures in the region prior to the Mature Harappan.
• These cultures were associated with distinctive pottery, evidence of agriculture and pastoralism, and some crafts.
• Settlements were generally small , and there were virtually no large buildings .

Subsistence strategies

• The 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 .
• 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. 
• Grains found at Harappan sites include wheat, barley , lentil, chickpea and sesame .
• Millets are found from sites in Gujarat .
• Animal bones found at Harappan sites include those of cattle , sheep, goat , buffalo and pig.
• Bones of wild species such as bear , deer and gharial are also found.
• Bones of fish and fowl are also found .

Agriculture technologies 

• Representations on seals and terracotta sculpture indicate that the bull was known , and archaeologists extrapolate from this that oxen were used for ploughing .
• Terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in cholistan and at Banawali (Haryana).
• Traces of canals have been found at the Harappan site of Shortughai in Afghanistan , but no in Punjab or sind 
• It is possible that ancient canals silted up long ago .It is also likely that water drawn from wells was used for irrigation .
• Water reservoirs found in Dholavira (Gujarat ) may hve been to store water for agriculture .

Mohenjodaro A Planned Urban Centre 

• Perhaps the most unique feature of the Harappan civilisation was the development of urban centres.
• Mohenjodaro is the most well - known site , the first site to be discovered was Harappan.
• The settlements 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 
• The lower town was also walled . several building were built on platforms , which served as foundations.
• Once the platforms were in place , all building activity within the city was resricted to a fixed area on the platforms .

Laying out drains 

• The most distinctive features of harappan cities was the carefully planned drainage system .
• The plan of the streets were laid out along an approximate "grid "pattern, interesting at right angles .

Domestic architecture 

• The lower town at Mohenjodaro provides Example : of residential buildings.
• 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.

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 .
• The great bath was a large rectangular tank in a courtyard tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor of on all four sides .
• There were rooms on three sides , in one of which was a large well.
• Water from the tank flowed into a huge drain.

Tracking Social Differnces

Burials

• Archaeologists generally use certain strategies to find out whether there were social or economic differences amongest people living  within a particular culture  
• These include studying burials .
• The massive pyramids of Egypt , some of which were contemporaneous with the harappan civilisation .
• Many of these pyramids were royal burials , where enormous quantities of wealth was buried .
• Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women .

looking for "luxuries "

• Archaeologists  broadly classify as utilitarian and luxuries.
• the first category includes objects of daily use made fairly easily out of ordinary materials such as stone or clay .
• These includes querns , pottery, needles , flesh - rubbers etc ,and are usually found distributed throughout settlements .
• Archaeologists assume objects were luxuries if they are rare or made from costly , non - local materials or with complicated technologies .
• The rare objects made of valuable materials are generally concentrated in large settlements like Mohenjodaro and Harappan and are rarely found in the smaller settlements . 

Finding out about craft Production 

• This is a tiny settlement as compared to Mohenjodaro , almost exclusively devote to craft production , including bead - making shell - cutting , metal - working , seal - marking and weight - making .
• The variety of material used to make beads is remarkable : stones like carnelian , jasper ,crystal , quartz and steatite : metals like copper , bronze and gold : and shell , faience and terracotta or bunt clay .
• Techniques for making beads differed according to the material .
• /this permitted making a variety of shapes , unlike the geometrical forms made out of harder stones .
• Archaeologist experiments have revealed that the red color of carnelian was obtained by firing the yellowish raw material and beads at various stages of production .

Identifying centres of production 

• 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 .
• Waste is one of the best indicators of craft works .
• Craft production was also undertaken in large cities such as Mohenjodaro and Harappan .

Strategies for procuring materials 

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 .
• Another strategy for procuring raw materials may have been to send expeditions to areas such as the khetri region of rajasthan and south India 

Contact with distant lands 

• Copper was also probably brought from Oman , on the south - eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula .
• Both the Omani copper and Harappan artefacts have traces of nickel suggesting a common origin .
• Mesopotamian texts datable to the third millennium BCE refer to copper coming from a region called magan, perhaps a name for Oman , and interestingly enough copper found at Mesopotamian sites also contains traces of Nickel .
• They mention the products from meluhha : carnelian , lapis lazuli , copper , gold and  varieties of wood .

Seals , Script , Weights 

Seals and sealing

• Seals and sealing were used to facilitate long- distance communication.
• The sealing also conveyed the identity of the sender .

An enigmatic script 

• Harappan seals usually have a line of writing , probably containing the name and litle of the owner .
• Most inscriptions are short , the longest containing about 26 sign .
• The script was written from right to left as some seals show a wider spacing on the right and cramping on the left , as if the engraver began working from the right and then ran out of space .
• The variety of objects on which writing has been found : seals , copper tools , rims of jars , copper and terracotta tablets , jewellery , bone rod

Ancient Authority 

• There are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented in Harappan society  .
• The extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery , seals weight and bricks 

Palaces and kings 

• A large  building found at mohenjodaro was labelled as a palace by archaeologists but no spectacular finds were associated with it .
• A stone statue was labelled and continues to be known as the "priest - kings" . This is because archaeologists were familiar with Mesopotamian history and its " priest - kings " and have found parallels in the Indus region .

The End of the civilisation 

• There is evidence that by c. 1800 BCE most of the Mature Harappan sites in regions such as Cholistan had been abandoned.
• There was an expansion of population into new settlements in Gujarat , Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh  .
• In general , far  fewer materials were used to make far fewer material were used to make far fewer things .
• House construction techniques deteriorated and large public structure were no longer produced , artefacts and settlements indicate a rural way of life in what are called "Late Harappan " or "successor cultures "

Discovering the Harappan civilisation 

Cunningham's confusion 

• When Cunningham , the first director - general of the ASI , began archaeological excavations in the mid 19th century , archaeologists preferred to use the written word as a guide to investigations.
• Cunningham 's main interest was in the archaeology of the early historic and later periods .
• Cunningham also collected, documented and translated inscriptions found during his surveys .
• A Harappan seal was given to Cunningham by an Englishman .

A new old civilisation 

• seals were discovered at harappan by archaeologists such as Daya Ram Sahni in the early decades of the 20th century , in layers that were definitely much older than early historic levels .
• Rakhal Das Banerji found similar seals at mohenjododar, leading to the conjecture that these sites were part of a single archaeological culture .
• In 1924, John Marshall , director - general of the ASI , announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the wold .
• John Marshall's stint as Director - general of the ASI marked a major change in Indian archaeology .

New techniques and questions 

• It was R.E.M. Wheeler , after he took over as director - general of the ASI in 1944 , who rectified this problem  .
• The frontiers of the Harappan civilisation have little or no connection with present - day national boundaries .
• The partition of the subcontinent and the creation of Pakistan , the major sites are now in Pakistani territory.
• In !980 , there  has also been growing international interest in harappan archaeology 

Problems of piecing together the past .

• The Harappan script that help in understanding the ancient civilisation .
• This material could be pottery, tools , ornaments , household objects , etc .

Classifying finds 

• One simple principle of classification is in terms of material , such as stone , clay , metal, bone , ivory , etc
• The second , and more complicated , is in terms of function : archaeologists have to decide whether , for instance , an artefact is a tool or an ornament , or both , or something meant for ritual use .
• The first harappan seal that was found could not be understood till archaeologists had a context in which to place it - both in terms of the cultural sequence in which it was found , and in terms of a comparison with finds in Mesopotamia.

Problems of interpretation 

• Early archaeologists thought that certain objects which seemed unusual or unfamiliar may have had a religious significance .
• These included terracotta figurines of women , heavily jewelled , some with elaborate heat - dresses . these were regarded as mother goddesses .
• Rare stone statuary of men in an almost standardised posture , seated with one hand n the knee - such ad the "priest - king " was also similarly classified .
• These include the great bath and fire altars found at kalibangan and lothal .
• Archaeologists often move from the known to the unknown , that is , from the case of stone querns and pots , it becomes more speculative when we extend it to "religious " symbols. 
• 'The earliest religious text, the Rigveda mentions  a god named Rudra, which is a name used for Shiva in later Puranic traditions.