Distinctive BMAC material, such as stamp seals with geometric, floral, and avian designs, and local products reflecting BMAC designs began to appear in the Indus cities now in decline, and beyond them in the villages and small towns of the Deccan where, for example, sealings with BMAC- style motifs were found at the Ahar-Banas settlement of Gilund. The seals they used, the stone slabs they used for weight and measure purposes and articles of merchandise for import and export are strong pointers to their trade and commerce. Mesopotamian material was found only in coastal settlements, in contrast to Harappan material, known throughout Magan, suggesting that Mesopotamian traders were confined to the coast. Trade and business grew as a result of close inter-action between the town and its sub-urban villages. Both weight and measure was done in the multiples of two, like 2,4, 8,16,32,64 etc. The Harappans cultivated various types of wheat- a little emmer and einkorn, along with three kinds of bread wheat, of which shot wheat (Triticum aestivum sphaerococcum) was the most common in the Mature Harappan period. East of Anshan in the interior of southern Iran were various small polities, notably Shahdad and Tepe Yahya in Kennan, Jiroft in the Halfl Rud Basin, Bampur and other towns in Iranian Baluchistan, and the Helmand culture in Seistan. They knew how to prepare metallic objects after melting the metal. The industrial know-how of the Harappan people was unique. Most of the major settlements were linked by a network of waterways that were navigable for at least part of the year. Magan and the Makran probably belonged during the earlier third millennium (Hili period in Magan) to a cultural interaction sphere in which ideas and small quantities of each regions local materials were exchanged and in which links were created and maintained by fishers exploiting the marine resources of the southern end of the Gulf during the winter months. These crops were to set the pattern for agriculture over much of the subcontinent in later times; although rabi crops have continued to dominate in the northwest, and in many regions both rabi and kharif crops are grown. Adapt in trade, the Harappan people exported wheat, maize, other crops and cotton goods. In historical times, tokens bearing an official seal were used as passes in a system controlling road traffic. By the early second millennium, however, rice was certainly being grown in the eastern Indus region. In Swat rice appears at Ghaligai before 2000 BC as grain impressions in sherds of Late Kot Diji pottery. This seems to have ebbed and flowed. Coastal settlements took advantage of marine resources such as shellfish, which provided not only food but also shells, an important resource for making ornaments. These lay on routes running mainly east-west through the Iranian plateau, but a route to the seacoast around modem Minab and Bandar Abbas, opposite the northern tip of Oman, connected them with the sea. Uniformity in weight and measures. Metal tools played an important part in Harappan Industry, such as stone carving and carpentry, and were also used in preference to traditional stone tools for some purposes. Water could be obtained from wells and springs in some cases, but by the early third millennium, if not before, the inhabitants of the region also developed small-scale dams (bunds and gabarbands) to retain some of the water that flowed in seasonal streams and small rivers (nais) after the rains. The Harappans enjoyed good trading relations with a number of other cultures of other cultures on their borders. At Rojdi, about a quarter of the plant food came from wild sources; more than a dozen species of wild plants were utilized at Harappa; and the balance between wild and domestic plant foods was likely to have been regionally and locally variable. Little Harappan material is known from Iranian sites, and the few objects found could have been acquired by trade with third parties such as Magan and Elam. Combs, ear-rings and ornaments were also made from ivory.

In western Sindh, Lake Manchar flooded an enormous area during the inundation, and the retreating floodwaters left fertile ground highly suitable for cultivation. One such place was Bushehr where a pass cut through the mountains by the Shapur River allowed a route to be established linking Anshan to the coast via Shiraz, but this was probably little used in the third millennium. One foot was equal to almost 37.6 centimeters. If the Harappans had the knowledge and skill to use these monsoon winds, they may have sailed directly between Gujarat and the Oman coast in the winter; the settlement of Ras al-Hadd, where Harappan material, including a seal and an ivory comb, has been found, is today the natural landfall for ships using the monsoon winds. Also found are different seals and stone-slabs as weights and measure. Since hunter-gatherers had a mobile way of life, exploiting regions that could not support agriculture, they could provide the desirable products of jungle and desert that were otherwise difficult or impossible for settled groups to obtain, such as honey, wax, ivory, resin, wild silk, and plant fibers for making cord. Most Harappan farming settlements in Gujarat were located in Saurashtra. They gres wheat, barley, rai, peas, seasamum, mustard, rice (only Lothal), cotton , dates, melon etc. At the time of the Indus civilization, this relationship was in its infancy but was nevertheless becoming an established pattern. Shells, used particularly as the main material for making bangles, were gathered in large quantities on the Makran and Gujarat coasts. Sumer had developed writing during the late fourth millennium and by 2500 BC was creating copious records of economic transactions, legal documents, political statements, letters, and literature, so a considerable amount of information survives on Mesopotamian involvement in Gulf trade. Other fruits that may have been grown or collected locally include caper, mango, and sugarcane, and adjacent regions may also have supplied fruits, vegetables, and nuts, including cucumbers, pistachios, almonds, and walnuts, all known from sites farther west; walnuts have also been recovered from Hulas, along with the fruit of the pipal tree (Ficus religiosa). For all practical purposes, agriculture was the principal means of sustenance for the Harappan people. The second millennium, therefore, although it did not see the complete abandonment of sea trade, saw a reversion to the earlier communications network operating between the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and its western neighbours, the Iranian plateau and southern Central Asia. At the head of the Gulf lay Mesopotamia. The volume of these goods produced was quite out of proportion to the needs of the towns modest resident population and the inhabitants of its hinterland. Elam, the major state in the southwest of the Iranian plateau, had access to the sea at the head of the Gulf via the navigable River Karun but developed its main trade networks overland. Making of metal pots, weaving, metallic works and such other artifacts reveal their enviable artistry. The trade network probably operated along a riverine route, particularly through Kalibangan, located some 250 kilometers to the north of Ganeshwar along the Kantali River, which was tributary to the Drishadvati in antiquity. Barley was more important than wheat at some sites, including the Indus outpost at Shortugai on the Amu Darya and the Baluchi site of Miri Qalat. endobj The Indus town of Lothal in Saurashtra lay on the border between the agricultural lands of the Indus civilization and the sparsely inhabited north Gujarat plain, home to hunter-gatherer groups, and was not far from the sea. Ebony was available in the forests of the Western Ghats but has not been found in Harappan sites, though it may be referred to in Mesopotamian texts as an import from the Indus (sulum meluhhi, black wood of Meluhha, alternatively identified as rosewood). Patches of deeper sediment reflected the unpredictable distribution of channels cut by the rivers floodwaters. Two major routes traversed the Iranian plateau between east and west- One (later a part of the famous Silk Road) ran north of the desert interior and crossed the Zagros Mountains through the Diyala Valley to reach Assyria and Babylenia; the other ran to the south of the desert, passing through Anshan to Elam and from there into southern Mesopotamia. Disclaimer Copyright. These included green gram (Vigna radiata) and black gram (Vigna mungo), which were grown at a number of Mature Harappan sites and at contemporary Balathal in Rajasthan. The button-shaped seals of Lothal are similar to the ones of the Persian gulf region. Abundant ragi was reported at Rojdi during the earlier part of the Mature Harappan period, from about 2500 BC onward, as well as possible ragi phytoliths in bricks and sherds at Harappa, but its presence this early is unlikely. Jujube (ber, Zizyphus jujuba), an edible red berry, was known at Mehrgarh from the earliest period, though it was probably gathered rather than cultivated; this may also have been true of its later use. Teak vessels had a life expectancy of many decades, possibly as much as eighty years. Kalibangan gives us the idea about their agriculture. These continued in use into the early second millennium. A clay model from Lothal represents a boat with a mast, attachments for a sail, and a steering oar. Groundwater, rivers, lakes, streams, and especially floodwaters sufficed. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. Given below is a detailed account of their industry. Rice husks and phytoliths have also been found in pottery and bricks at Harappa. During the fifth millennium (Ubaid period), characteristic Ubaid pottery is known right through the Gulf, from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to Qatar and UAE. In the later third millennium, however, a major shift in trading patterns occurred. These made them prosperous and opened for them the avenues of a comfortable life. Instead of being submerged they adapted their self-sufficient lifestyle, moving gradually into mutually beneficial interdependence with settled communities. During the rainy season, when a huge area surrounding Lake Manchar is submerged by floods, modern inhabitants of the region abandon their homes on its shores and take to houseboats, or they live year round on houseboats, a way of life that may have existed in Indus times. The independent city-states of Sumer and Akkad were united into a single state by Sargon of Akkad between 2334 and 2316 BC. Before sharing your knowledge on this site, please read the following pages: 1. They were busy in manufacturing many articles and each of their handiworks reveals an exquisite artistry. At Rojdi in Gujarat, barley was very poorly represented in the extensive collection of botanical remains and was not cultivated after period A (2500-2200 BC), and in the Kachi plain bread wheat was more important than barley.

A manufacturing unit at Chanhudaro bears testimony to it. South India has one of the worlds largest gold reefs, as well as precious and semiprecious stones such as amethyst, beryl, and amazonite. Beads recovered from Chanhudaro, Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal indicate their use in necklaces. These became more developed in the fourth millennium, with a number of trading towns growing up in the Iranian plateau, particularly at nodes in the trade routes, some procuring raw materials, some working local or imported materials, and most reaping the benefits of transit trade. Other minerals occurring there include turquoise, sodalite (a mineral resembling lapis lazuli), zinc, gold, silver, and lead, though there is no evidence that these were extracted there during the Indus period. This link enabled the Harappans to conduct direct commercial relations with Mesopotamia, giving them direct control over the management of their trade rather than depending on intermediaries (as the land traffic had) and thereby improving both their returns on their exports and their ability to control the supply of imports. If the Indus realms were not a united states but a series of smaller polities, the seals might similarly have been used as identifiers by individuals who passed between the polities on the business of trade and resource procurement. So, carts by land and boats and ships by river and sea were the main medium of transport of goods. The primary purpose of the seal was probably to mark ownership of property, but they may have also served as amulets. Bead making factory existed in Chanhudaro and Lothal. They also protected themselves by building forts and high walls to ward off the external enemy. Some, it seems likely, were intended for trade with the hunter-gatherer inhabitants of north Gujarat and the desert regions to the south of the Indus realm. Disclaimer 9. Many earlier settlements were abandoned. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The mid-third millennium saw a radical change in the patterns of trade in the great area from West Asia to the Indus. The economic condition of the Harappan people was quite good. The Khetri region of the Aravalli Hills is one of the richest sources of copper in the subcontinent. Since at least the seventh millennium, the Kachi plain had benefited from its location on a major route through the Bolan pass into the interior of Baluchistan and from there through the Quetta and Kandahar Valleys to Seistan or beyond, through the Khojak pass, to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Seasonal movement was an important part of the pastoral economy in Harappan times, and it seems highly probable that people taking their animals through different parts of the Indus realms would have acted as carriers, moving goods from source to consumer and participating in a complex network of connections among pastoral groups from different regions, enabling the produce of one region to be transported to others. The heavy stone scales of Harappa recovered from the Persian gulf area is another proof of trade-links. A variety of articles were manufactured in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro for purposes of domestic consumption. Though not without its risks, such as storms and perhaps pirates, this was generally an easier and more efficient means of transporting goods, particularly bulky or heavy materials.

These are virtually identical to those of modern farmers of the Indus region. This name probably referred to different areas of the Gulf at different times. Indus seals and weights have been found in several Kulli settlements, confirming the close economic and cultural between the Indus civilization the Kulli region. Several species of Panicum were present at Rojdi, and it is possible that broomcom millet was among them. Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) was domesticated in South India during the same period and is known from Late Harappan Hulas. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Prominent among the Harappan earthenware is a cylindrical and perforated pot, used for extracting cheese from curd as per Mortimer wheelers inference. Ramains of horse at Surkotda and dongs with men in grave at Ropar have been discovered. The Harappans export of timber to Babylonia is of great significance in this context. It also expanded into Seistan, bringing it into the vicinity of the Indus realms. Some were processed locally and distributed either as blanks or as finished objects while others were transported intact to major settlements where they were cleaned and worked. Rakhigarhi, Mitathal, and Banawali to the northwest of Ganeshwar may also have been involved in the importing of copper in the Mature Harappan period. Settlements in the Kulli area (southern Baluchistan) seem invariably to be associated with dams; this area also received some unreliable summer rainfall. Some of these seals had recognizably Harappan sign sequences, but in other cases the inscriptions included some signs or sign combinations unknown in the Indus region, suggesting that they rendered non-Harappan names or words. x*2P w #7T00U04PH20AE#\)T-Z Z Image Guidelines 5. <>/Font<>>>/Parent 2 0 R>> The childrens toys were styled after monkey, mouse, cat, peacock, rabbit, mongoose etc. Stone-slabs used as weights and of varying weights have been recovered to indicate their use. endobj (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
, Director:Brajabandhu Mahanta, MCA, MAHMobile: +91-7008074714WhatsApp: 7008074714Email: sl.brajabandhu@gmail.com, OBJECTIVE IASis Odishas premier Online training institution, which continuously providing helps to Students for Civil Service and SSC Examinations since 2014, Copyright 2020 OBJECTIVE IAS. During the third millennium, a number of indigenous cereals were brought under cultivation by the Indus civilization or by contemporary South Asian cultures. 2 0 obj

The stylistic similarities with BMAC material were particularly marked in Baluchistan and the Kachi plain, where in addition there were camel and horse figurines at Pirak after 1700 BC. Things produced by them were sufficient to meet the domestic demand and the craze for those in foreign markets as well. Although there is no evidence of the method of construction, it is possible that they were made of planks stitched together, as are many modern South Asian boats. It was therefore a natural port of call for seafarers sailing through the Gulf who would put in to replenish their stocks of water. Such foragers are difficult to identify or distinguish archaeologically from other Harappans. Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) was common at Mature Harappan Rojdi, Oriyo Timbo, and Babar Kot in Gujarat and present at Harappa around 3000 BC, and browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa) was also grown at Rojdi. They are known to have been made at Harappa and Chanhudaro. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It stretches to a length of 219 metres and is 37 metres wide. The abundant produce of cotton and wool in the Indus region led the people to weave cotton and woolen garments separately or in a mixed way. As early as the Early Indus period, a trading relationship had developed between the Indus farmers and the people of the Aravallis, who had been exploiting the regions copper since the late fourth millennium. One type of dam consisted of small walls built to jut out into the bed of a stream or river so that some of its water was diverted onto the ground behind the wall, depositing fertile silt that formed a small field. Armlets, ear-rings and nose-buds etc. For example, hunter-gatherer communities in Saurashtra in the late fourth millennium began to make pottery that was distinct from the Kechi Beg wares of the contemporary inhabitants of Baluchistan, adopting the technology but inventing their own styles; this phenomenon is paralleled in other parts of the world, for example, in Europe, when hunter-gatherers and farmers came into close contact.

Sumer, its southern region, saw the development in the early third millennium of city- states along the branches of the Euphrates. stream Some involve gift giving in the context of activities involving kin or social partners; these may not require an equivalent return. The history of its cultivation is complex and probably involved a number of different centers of domestication. endobj Very little Mature Harappan material was found in the town of Rehman Dheri, the major settlement of the region, but it was common in the small site of Hisham Dheri immediately to its north, perhaps suggesting the latter might have been a caravanserai or trading settlement where Harappan traders came to conduct local business. In the early third millennium, these sites had been in contact with settlements in the northern borderlands and the Indus plains, and these contacts continued. Copyright 10.

Other country craft include boats made of hollowed logs, and such vessels may also have been used by the Harappans for coastal or river travel and fishing, though only plank-built vessels would have been suitable for carrying any volume of cargo. Opinions are divided whether the Kulli material and settlements represent a separate culture or merely a highland regional subculture of the Indus civilization. The Jodhpura-Ganeshwar people seem to have mined and smelted the copper ore themselves and to have exchanged the smelted copper with Harappans who traveled to the region to trade. Usually made of steatite (soapstone) and hardened by firing, each seal bore an inscription, usually short, and a picture, generally of a single animal, although scenes also occurred. Some consisted simply of a solid wooden platform above the axle, others had an open framework. During the Mature Harappan period, when the Harappans dominated the Makran coastal region, the volume of this Iran-Magan trade became negligible. By the late fourth millennium, the Mesopotamians were trading with a land they called Dilmun. The Indus is navigable from where it enters the plains in Punjab, south of the Salt Range. At this time the people of Dilmun also established a major outpost on the island of Failaka off the southern coast of Mesopotamia. The cultures who bordered the (Arabian/Persian) Gulf had a long history of intercommunity contacts, mainly be sea, going back to the fifth millennium when pottery in the style of Mesopotamian Ubaid wares was distributed as far south as Oman. Although land transport was important, particularly over short distances and between lowland and highland regions, water transport along the rivers and streams would have been easier for long distance transport, particularly of heavy or bulky goods. ftypjpx jpx jp2 rreq - -jp2h ihdr colr jp2cOQ / \ #BpL L KD2D2D. Doors, to houses or storerooms, could similarly be sealed, a practice attested at the Helmand city of Shahr-i Sokhta and in Mesopotamian literary sources, though not known from any Harappan site. Content Guidelines 2. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The floods in the Indus inundated the fields and left a fertile silt-cover on the fields after the flood water receded. Oats seem generally to have been present in early archaeological contexts as a weed of cultivation that invaded stands of wheat and barley, rather than being deliberately cultivated. They also knew the use of sickle and used to cut crops with it. During the early second millennium, two further pulses, of African origin, were added- hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), the latter being grown at Hulas and both appearing in South India after 1800 BC. The fine examples of wells in Indus towns show the high level of Harappan competence in constructing them. Only in the Late Harappan period did farming settlements spread onto the moisture retentive, black cotton soils in other parts of Saurashtra, where kharif crops could be raised, watered by rainfall brought by the summer monsoon. In contrast, in other areas, such as the north Gujarat plain, hunter-gatherers were culturally distinct and were among the many groups with whom the Harappans traded. This is known as rabi cultivation in South Asia. Well developed internal and external trade. Boats were used for trade through rivers and sea. Content Guidelines 2.

It is a tragedy that no scale has yet been discovered from any site. All Rights Reserved, OPSC OAS Prelims 2021: 15 Mock Tests || Rs 1359/-, OPSC OAS Prelims 2021-22: Classes and Test Series || Rs 6699/-, OPSC OAS Prelims 2021-22 Test Series (Module-1) || Rs 3699/-, OPSC OAS Mains 2021-22: History Optional Comprehensive Course || Rs 8699/-, Types of Biotechnology and its applications, Disadvantages and benefits of Depreciation of Rupee against Dollar and Global Situation, Marine and Air Pollution Situation in India, Why are sharp stones put on the railway track? Wheat and barley were the staple cereals of rabi cultivation. South Indian Neolithic gold and Deccan amethyst may have been exploited and traded, ultimately reaching the Indus through exchange networks; there is no evidence of direct contacts between this region and the Indus. Contacts between farmers and hunter-gatherer communities are attested from early times when hunter-gatherers at settlements such as Bagor in Rajasthan and Loteshwar in Gujarat acquired domestic sheep and goats by trading or raiding, perhaps as early as the sixth millennium BC. The Salt Range also had copper ore and gypsum. Archaeological remains of the region reveal a variety of agricultural equipments used by them. The circular floor was used for harvesting, as the Harappan granary would reveal. A major source of minerals, including copper, alabaster, steatite, diorite, and aragonite, lay in the Chagai Hills of western Baluchistan, equally accessible to the cultures of the Indo- Iranian borderlands and those of Seistan. A town was established on the coast at Qalaat al-Bahrain, where there was a good natural harbour. These included Manda, Ropar, and Kotia Nihang Khan in the north, located in the Himalayan foothills on the Chenab and Sutlej Rivers, near where each became navigable. Around 2300 BC, Elam was conquered by Sargon of Akkad and remained largely in the orbit of the southern Mesopotamian states until 2004 BC, when the Elamites sacked Ur. Many earthen toy-carts for children have been found. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. A building with seven narrow rooms in this settlement may have been a warehouse for storing goods for trade and commodities received in trade. One of the hallmarks of the Indus civilization was the establishment of outposts beyond the main area of Harappan settlement, designed to control the produce of key regions. It was among the cultivated plants at the Late Harappan site of Hulas where both wild and cultivated indica rice were identified. Around the early second millennium, however, major new crops were added that required spring or summer sows and autumn harvesting- kharif cultivation. Among the important resources of this region was salt, from the Salt Range where a Late Kot Diji settlement is known at Musakhel. Often individual workshops concentrated on producing a particular type of shell artifact or on working a particular variety of shell. For purposes of war and hunting they used bows and arrows, axe and lance prepared by them. Coastal fishing communities were probably regularly in contact with those in adjacent areas and across the mouth of the Gulf, and those of the Arabian Sea coast of Oman may also have been in contact with others along Arabias southern coasts. Canal irrigation is attested to at Shortugai, the Indus outpost in northern Afghanistan at the confluence of the Amu Darya and Kokcha Rivers- A canal has been traced that drew off water from the Kokcha. To a large extent, the people of the Indus realms would have been self-sufficient in food (although the larger towns and the cities would have needed to draw foodstuffs from their hinterland to support their large populations, which included large numbers of non-farming citizens). Islands off the western shore also offered opportunities for settlement. All these data suggest that this local source of tin was not known in ancient times. They did not know the use of iron.