Associations and Ideologies in the Locations of Urban Craft Production at Harappa, Pakistan (Indus Civilization)

Abstract

A number of factors can affect spatial associations among production areas for different crafts. Surprisingly, survey and excavation of craft production areas from the Harappan Phase (2600-1900 calibrated B.C.) at the Indus urban site of Harappa have revealed no evidence that production locations were related to control by nonproducers. Instead, the distributional groupings of craft production areas were at least partially related to similarities in manufacturing processes. The three craft categories were extractive-reductive crafts such as lithic-and shell-working, pyrotechnologically transformative crafts such as metal and pottery production, and bridging crafts like talc/steatite and faience production that have both reductive and high heating stages. The patterns of association may relate to knowledge relationships between the producers or to requirements of manufacturing. Other factors in production location may have been Harappan views of what constituted distinct crafts, the value of the goods produced, and the likely consumers. A further factor, hinted at by the location of production areas on the various mounds of Harappa, may have been Indus ideological beliefs about civic structure and the proper placement of manufacturing within city centers.

Natural Processes and Anthropogenic Activity in the Indus River Sedimentary Environment in Pakistan: A Critical Review

“…Recent evidence suggests that climatic change forced the Harappas to relocate far from the Indus floodplains [59]. Beginning about 2500 BCE, a change in temperature and weather patterns over the Indus valley progressively reduced summer monsoonal rainfall, making cultivation near Harappa towns difficult or impossible [64,65]. Although the inconsistency of summer monsoons made cultivation challenging along the Indus, moisture and rain arrived more frequently in the foothills, since winter storms from the Mediterranean reaching the Himalayas brought rain and nourished little streams on the Pakistan side [50].…”

Human–animal–environment dynamics and formation of pastoralism in the southern Tibetan Plateau during the Middle–Late Holocene

“…The wheat–barley–pea combination and the round-bottomed pottery basins discovered at Qugong (~3.5 ka) in the central STP (Tang, 2014; Gao et al, 2021), and the cowrie shells from Karuo (Tang, 2014) in the SETP were most likely from northern South Asia, and the archaeobotanical assemblage including barley, pea, millet, and rice found in Mebrak/Phudzeling (3–2.1 ka) in Nepal illustrates an important trade route connecting the Indian subcontinent with the TP (Knörzer, 2000). Given that domestic sheep and goats appeared in the NW Indian subcontinent comparably early, that is, at Neolithic Mehrgarh (8.3–6 ka), and with caprine husbandry spreading across much of South Asia in the subsequent millennia (Meadow, 1989, 1993, 1996; Thomas, 2002; Miller, 2004; Joglekar et al, 2013; Chase, 2014), the possibility of a southern, sub-Himalayan route of introduction into Tibet must be considered. Evidence for cultural exchange between NW South Asia, Kashmir, and the STP since the late fifth millennium BP (Mughal and Halim, 1972; Huo, 1990; Han, 2012; Cao et al, 2021) underscores the possibility of a livestock transfer.…”

The prehistoric entrepreneur: rethinking the definition

“…Kanesh is not an isolated example of entrepreneurial behavior from 4,000 years ago. At the same time entrepreneurial behavior was prevalent in the Indus Valley (Wright, 2010; Kenoyer, 1997; Miller, 2007) and also in Egypt (Kemp, 2006). The forms of social and political hierarchy of the major Indus Valley urban centers are a mystery, tantalizingly so because the civilization used a written language we have yet to decipher.…”

“…I have reviewed evidence from over 100 archeological sites and other good examples exist, such as several in the Indus Valley (Wright, 2010;Kenoyer, 1997;Miller, 2007), several in Mesoamerica (Feinman and Nicholas, 2010) and one in the Peruvian Highlands (Druc, 2004), which look suspiciously entrepreneurial for three reasons. First, the works of Costin (2001Costin ( , 2005 illuminate how to identify products in the archeological record produced by selfdirected individuals or small groups, rather than individuals or groups directed by an overarching institution or social or political hierarchy.…”