Indus Valley Culture

https://www.harappa.com/slideshows/embodying-indus-life

Important article by Michel Danino on the debate about "ashva": the meaning and presence of horses in Vedic India. https://www.academia.edu//Demilitarizing_the_Rigveda_A_Scr

https://www.theweek.in//how-climate-change-led-to-the-fall

An interesting story... Quoting Gregory L. Possehl "Some Years Ago, while perusing the great Assyriologist A. Leo Oppenheims Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, I found a reference to the personal cylinder seal of a translator of the Meluhhan language. His name was Shu-ilishu and he lived in Mesopotamia during the Late Akkadian period (ca. 2020 BC, according to the new, low chronology).... I was interested in this man because Meluhha is widely believed to have been the Indus Civilization of the Greater Indus Valley in India and Pakistan (ca. 25001900 BC)the focus of my own research. Based on cuneiform documents from Mesopotamia we know that there was at least one Meluhhan village in Akkad at that time, with people called Son of Meluhha living there. Therefore, to find evidence of an officials translator was no surprise, though it is nifty when archaeology can document this sort of thing." For more, please click the link: https://www.penn.museum//expedi/shu-ilishus-cylinder-seal/

- Skanda fighting the Asuras - According to the Mahabharata Book 13 Anusasana Parva, and the Skanda Purana, Skanda fought many fierce asuras, three of them being brothers, there are various versions: - In one version the demon Surapadma changed himself into a mango tree in order escape Skanda, but Skanda split the tree in half with his lance, resulting in two half trunks and... mysteriously also two birds: the rooster and the peacock....Continue reading

Considering the remarks in this article about Brahui: "2.1.6. Taking up his (Mahadevans) foremost assumption on Brahui, it is obvious that Mahadevan had not even once done a basic check of the words of Brahui to ascertain their Dravidian connection. There are only a few words in Brahui resembling Tamil and they are limited to relationships, like amma and ay for mother, aba for father, nan for we and nee for you. On the contrary Brahui has many Sanskrit and Hindi words prese...nt in corrupt form. But they seem to be more like Pli than Tamil or Sanskrit, for, many words of Pli sound like corrupt Sanskrit words." I am sure members want to comment on this, no matter what, please stay courteous... https://www.academia.edu//Harappan_was_Vedic_but_Tamil_was

Finally a YouTube video version of my "Out of India Migration Hypothesis" (OIT). https://youtu.be/jps0UJYxxRE A, so to speak, a popularizing coarse brush-stroke representation of my published peer-reviewed paper: "OUT OF INDIA - BY LAND OR BY SEA? A Paradigm Shift in Ancient Migration Theories, 2019, New Delhi".... The paper is available on academia dot edu. lts copious DNA tables show the first evidence I found that lead to my conclusions. You can find the link to this paper in the videos description.

https://swarajyamag.com//an-inter-disciplinary-approach-so

https://www.rit.edu//new-mathematical-method-shows-how-cli

https://www.facebook.com/AncientPakistan.pk/videos/479742892659550/ Note: To all those who commented to this post about the name of the "Ancient Pakistan" Facebook page...... Of course I get what you mean... but please, lets focus on the video itself and set political sensitivities aside... even if a border runs through the lands of the Harappan Culture, a civilization that was in those ancient days so unified. Let me just underline that the ancient civilization in the Sapta Sindhu alluvial plains was, as per archaeological convention, officially named after Harappa (considered to be a type site of this culture), the first location where this ancient culture and civilisation was discovered and excavated. For some reason the appellations "Indus Valley Culture" and "Indus Valley Civilization" also stuck, probably because its geographic location was internationally more recognizable. There are many reasonable suggestions to rename this culture, eg. "Sarasvati Culture" or "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation".

https://www.facebook.com/24752074845/posts/10158531893219846/

https://m.facebook.com//a.125078484855614/257927828237345/

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=257928051570656&id=125073704856092

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2_kiloyear_event?wprov=sfla1

The article states that the Harappan / Sarasvati / Indus Valley Civilization ended when the Meghalayan megadrought began. "The best evidence of the eventa sudden, global megadrought, (a drought that lasts two decades or longer)can be found in chemical signatures in a stalagmite in a cave in the Indian state of Meghalaya; hence the name." "Some of the civilizations [...] were severely impacted by the megadrought include Egypts Old Kingdom and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopota...mia, which both collapsed, as well as the Indus Valley of modern-day Pakistan and India, where large cities like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa were abandoned around this time." https://api.nationalgeographic.com//news-meghalayan-holoce

This is a repost of the most "liked" post ever on this page...: - What did words like "Aryan" and "arya" originally stand for? - Did it always mean "noble" or so? (See important footnote. *) ...Continue reading

- From Mountain Hills to River Valleys - According to my research, the Harappan Civilisation or Culture, developed after a very little recognized culture in South Asia... a culture of cave dwelling people with their own specific characteristics living in the medium and lower reaches of the Himalayan and Baluchistan mountain ranges. This culture began about 15,000 years ago during the Younger Dryas Glacial Period.... Over time, in a sequential and overlapping manner, these people transitioned from being: (a) cave dwelling and jungle inhabiting hunter/gatherers in the Himalayan/Baluchistan hill regions, to (b) agrarians or "people of the land", to (c) urbanites or "people of the city", whose earliest traceable origins were found in, what is now the Mehrgarh (near Quetta) region in Baluchistan and (d) who from there descended into the Sapta Sindhava (Indus) Valley. Over time, from approximately 13,000 years ago, a major segment of them, because of droughts, famine and tribal feuds, descended in small groups from the foothills and plateaus of Baluchistan, where they up to then had practiced food gathering (e.g. root vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts), hunting, tool making, agriculture, silviculture, primitive cattle breeding and clay crafts, and where they started to experiment with urbanization. While they spread themselves along the river banks, valleys and lakes of the "Seven Rivers Valley, they majorly increased their urban, river and lake developments by means of novel experimentation. While expanding their agricultural settlements and developing novel river and lake navigational skills and methods, including fishing, they began forming an urban lifestyle with new social, domestic, industrial, marketing, communication skills, etc., gradually abandoning their former hunter-gatherer lifestyle AND their tribal feuding. Escaping feuds and famine, these new inhabitants of the Sapta Sindhava Valley began to live a typically non-bellicose, peaceful lifestyle, adapting their hunting and gathering practices to the expansive watery, flood-prone river valleys with their different landscapes as well as fauna and flora -- different edible plants than they were accustomed to, and a different wildlife consisting of elephants, gharials, river/lake snakes, rhinoceros, tigers, peacocks, cattle, fish, etc. Fish indeed... They invented a new skill and manner of fishing using their newly invented reedboats. They also invented the wheeled vehicle, which they never had when they still lived in the mountainous jungle. What I just described were the "ARYA" culture people or Aryans.

In relation to my "Over-sea IVC Migration out of Sindh into Coastal Europe" theory, notice especially the use of the word "chai" (cha) in the coastal regions of Egypt (the Suez Channel), Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, south-west Portugal (Cadiz), Basque country...

What does "Harappan" mean? Originally (and still) the term "Harappan" in archaeological and historical literature referred to the social, artistic, urban, villa...ge and functional culture that was for the first time -- in 1921 -- found, recognized and identified at the excavation site of current Harappa. "[Sir John] Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats began excavating Harappa in 1921, finding buildings and artefacts indicative of an ancient civilisation. These were soon complemented by discoveries at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, Ernest J. H. Mackay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944." ~ Wikipedia That name "Harrapan Culture" stuck in such a manner that it now identifies all the archaeological finds in the Sapta Sindhavah Valley and even some sites beyond. More popular though is the name Indus Valley Culture or Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus Valley Civilisation or Culture - IVC for short - is also known as the "Sarasvati culture", the "Sarasvati Civilisation", the "Indus-Sarasvati Civilisation" or the "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation". By the way, some archaeologist stress that the word "Civilization" more specifically applies to the urbanized civil period of the Indus Valley Culture. In any case, the ancient people from Mohenjo-daro, Rakhigarhi, Harappa Bhiranna and all other Indus Valley sites are all Harappans according to archaeologists, while those from, for example, ancient Mehrgarh in Balochistan are Pre-Harappan. Those from, say, Sinauli are contemporaneous with Harappans or Post- Harappan. Please refer to the charts.

https://www.harappa.com//prehistoric-balochistan-cultural-

https://www.harappa.com//what-relevance-harappan-civilizat

~Pakistan: A Peoples History~ Part III: Mehrgarh - Early Farming, Herding & Proto-Dentistry Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (stone age) site settled by semi-nomadic peo...ple between 7000 BC to 2500 BC. It is noted for being the earliest site of farming, herding and dentistry in Central and South Asia. Mehrgarh is found near Dhadar by the Bolan Pass in Balochistan. Several similarities have been noted in the Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus Valley and suggests evidence of a "cultural continuum". But given the originality of Mehrgarh, it may have had an earlier local background. Mehrgarh consists of 5 distinct periods: Period I (7000 BC-5500 BC) Semi-nomadic people began settling in Mehrgarh during this period. Simple mud buildings with four internal subdivisions were built, which provided homes as well as shelter for animals and stockpiling harvests. Period I shows the earliest evidence of farming in the region, using wheat & barley. It also shows the earliest evidence of herding in the region, using sheep, goats & cattle. Numerous burial graves have been found around Mehrgarh. Often times baskets, tools, beads, bangles, pendants and occasionally animal sacrifices are found in the graves. Ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli and sandstone have also been found. Sea shells from the Makran coast and lapis lazuli from Badakshan shows good contact and trade surrounding regions. A single ground stone axe was discovered in a burial, and several more were obtained from the surface. These ground stone axes are the earliest to come from a stratified context in Central and South Asia. Periods I, II and III are contemporaneous with another stone age site called Kili Gul Mohammed. Period I is also noted for being "aceramic" (without the use of pottery). Archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh made the discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization had knowledge of proto-dentistry from the early Harappan periods. In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of that region. "Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7500 to 9000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture." Period II (5500 BC4800 BC) and Period III (4800 BC3500 BC) Period II and Period III were noted for being ceramic. Evidence of manufacturing activity has been found and more advanced techniques were used. Glazed faience beads were produced and terracotta figurines became more detailed. Figurines of females were decorated with paint and had diverse hairstyles and ornaments. Two flexed burials were found in Period II with a red ochre cover on the body. The amount of burial goods decreased over time, becoming limited to ornaments and with more goods left with burials of females. The first button seals were produced from terracotta and bone and had geometric designs. Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. There is further evidence of long-distance trade in Period II: important as an indication of this is the discovery of several beads of lapis lazuli, once again from Badakshan. Periods II and III are also contemporaneous with an expansion of the settled populations of the borderlands at the western edge of the Indus Valley, including the establishment of settlements like Rana Ghundai, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Sarai Kala, Jalilpur and Ghaligai. Periods IV, V and VI (3500 BC-3000 BC) Evidence suggests during these periods, Mehrgarh began falling in importance and the population began decreasing. Period VII and VIII (2600 BC-2000 BC) Evidence suggests during these periods, Mehrgarh was largely abandoned in favour of the larger and fortified town of Nausharo, located a few kilometers away, By this time the Indus Valley Civilization was in its middle stages of development. Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986, and again from 1997 to 2000. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. According to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus of archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, "discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization [...] There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life." See also: Part II: Stone age Soanian culture Part I: Rawat culture

An interesting, multi faceted treatment of Indian influence in the Central America throughout the ages...

"There was a frequent use of new, artificial materials during the Indus Integration Era, or Mature Harappan period (ca. 2600-1900 B.C.E.)," writes Heather Mille...r in the article Issues in the Determination of Ancient Value Systems: The Role of Talc (Steatite) and Faience in the Indus Civilization. "Looking more broadly, this seems a characteristic not only of the Indus, but of many of the Western Asian civilizations of the third and second millennia. It has been suggested for various periods that an increased use of artificial materials was tied to a widening demand for status or luxury goods, with the development of a middle-level elite, a bureaucracy, or a wealthy urban class (e.g. McCray 1998; Moorey 1994: 169; Vidale 2000; Vidale & Miller 2000). These new materials could be employed to create status symbols for such a middle-level class, allowing an extended hierarchy of status in increasingly complex ranked societies." (p. 145) Miller uses her passion for detail (which she traces to Elizabeth During Caspers "fine focus to reveal large social issues") to examine the assumptions contained in the paragraph above, and to peel away at the presumed context and role of what are usually small steatite and faience products in Indus times to determine what we can assume and presume about the role of these goods in social and economic structures. "It is likely, then, that sintered [coalescing a powdered material into a solid or porous mass by means of heating without liquefaction] talcose and siliceous materials were primarily of use in displaying social information, including status differentiation . . .. Furthermore, there are some unusual aspects of Indus luxury materials in comparison to the other early civilizations of Western Asia, including the relative absence of lapis and the prevalence of talc/steatite. . .. With closer study, there are a number of reasons why the development of artificial materials for luxury items may have been encouraged in the Indus" (p. 145). The rich analysis that follows engages with a host of archaeological issues, discusses the idea of imitating higher value, natural goods like gemstones or stone bangles with less expensive, intensely manufactured materials in greater volumes that may have been popular among non-elite classes. A very helpful grid contrasts access to raw materials with "degree of technological elaboration," a relationship that helps situate beads in particular with the effort in designing and manufacturing them with different materials. The discussion also confronts some of the mysteries of Indus society, like the glaring absence of lapis lazuli so highly prized elsewhere and likely exported from Indus cities. There is a detailed discussion of color and glazes, and how specific tastes, possibly unique to Indus people, may have helped determined the crafts that were produced. "Overall, I found throughout my studies of Indus pyrotechnologies that Indus craftspeople were extremely technologically innovative in the creation of new materials," writes Miller (p. 153). The reader too comes away with a a deeper appreciation of these innovations and what they may tell us about the society that spawned them without resorting to simplifications. "For the Indus we have to question all of our usual assumptions about what people valued, and thus what types of objects were elite or valuable" (p. 155), writes Miller, a task she manages admirably in a paper full of insight for scholar and enthusiast alike. Image: Broken faience beads from Harappa. Many broken and some complete faience beads of different colors were recovered in the eroded surface layers of the slope on the south side of Trench 54. Read the Paper at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu//Issues_in_the_Determination_of_A

"What were the limits of the known world to the people that inhabited this region during the long prehistory for which we have evidence? What changes did they a...nd their successors experience? What more can we say about the lure of distant lands?" asks the author in her article Konar Sandal South, Nindowari, and Lakhan Jo daro - Beyond the Limits of a Known World. The article accomplishes a number of things. One is that it again offers evidence that the early Bronze Age world was indeed deeply connected. It seems as if the success of different civilizations was linked, at times, to their interactions with neighbours. Secondly, it suggests that "Kupin," a reference to a westward culture and political actor might refer to the "Kulli" culture known from Nindowari and elsewhere in Balochistan. From Rita Wrights analysis, it may have been a competitor to the ancient Indus polity in the southern Balochistan region, if not elsewhere: "Clearly, the Kulli were an independent group wedged in between the Indus, the coast of the Makran and groups to the west, and the Arabian Peninsula. On the matter of overland trade, there are many routes of travel to Konar Sandal South and from there easy access to gulf waters to the south that lead to crossings at the Straits of Hormuz (Wright 2010: 226, 2002; Pittman 2013). Most likely a political rival of the Harappans, the specifics of the relationship between the Kulli and the Harappans is uncertain, but there is every reason to believe that there were economic and political connections" (p. 31). Thirdly, the paper is one of the few available to say anything about Lakhan Jo Daro, a large ancient Indus site just to the south of the Rohri hills where flint was mined during Indus times (and for hundreds of thousands of years before!). Now occupied by the modern city of Sukkur in Sindh, it has hardly been excavated at all. Still, nuggets of evidence help Wright make her case for interactions between it, the Kulli, and the Halil Rud civilization (Konar Sandal South) near Jiroft in Iran. The site of mass looting not too many years ago which exposed another major Bronze Age culture that traded with the Indus, Kulli and Mesopotamians. It may well be what was called "Marhashi" in Mesopotamian texts, given the peculiar soft stone vessels discovered there and which were once highly prized in Mesopotamia. Wright marshals the evidence clearly and concisely, is clear about open questions and speculation, and "demonstrate[s] that the regions discussed were not isolated and were part of a known world" (p. 33). As ever, ancient people and civilizations surprise us with their many connections; their world was much bigger and richer than we might assume. Images: 1. Indus weight and spherical stones from Lakhan Jo Daro (courtesy of Qasid Mallah and Nilofer Shaikh). 2. Cultures and sites referred to in the article.

https://www.livehistoryindia.com//harappan-era-breakthroug

The Sanauli Culture contemporaneous with the Indus Valley Culture

https://www.academia.edu//Genetics_and_the_Aryan_invasion_

https://www.myindiamyglory.com//horses-indigenous-to-indi/

A story by my good friend Alapan Chowdhury: The Reclamation has been published in New Zealands environmental magazine The Anthropozine. The setting of this poem is the Indus-Saraswati valley, where a tribal father is having a conversation with his son while standing on a forested hill overlooking a metropolis, which is experiencing the adverse effects of climate change and spread of infectious disease. https://theanthropozine.org/the-reclamation/

Harappan Gold from the 2000-2001 Excavations: 1. A button or sequin made of thin gold foil with a small interior loop for attachment to clothing. This piece was... found crumpled into a small wad, possibly in preparation for remelting to make a new ornament. 2. Composite gold bead with copper-alloy core or wire on interior. The corroded copper still covers part of the tubular gold bead. 3. A collection of gold beads, three of which (UL, UR, LL) have copper-alloy in their interiors. The corroding copper often breaks the softer gold foil. 4. These two gold bead were originally part of the same ornament. Thin gold foil was placed over the outside of a sandy core around a copper tube. From recently upgraded 90 Slide Show Harappa Excavations 2000-2001 at https://www.harappa.com/slideshows/harappa-2000-2001

An amazing catalogue of female figurines from Neolithic times across the world, in places connected and witness to constantly shifting populations. Beautifully ...illustrated, with focus on Mehrgarh and the Indus Valley pieces which are seen in connection to a long, sophisticated tradition. "The exhibition at the Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation gathers numerous objects testifying to the ongoing representation of the female body with manifest sexual attributes during the Neolithic period, from Sardinia and India to Greece and Ara- bia. The Neolithic revolution was quickly superseded, however, during the fourth millennium, by a new, even more radical revolution the urban revolution and its far-reaching consequences. Thus the worlds first states formed in a succession of civilizations, beginning with Egypt, passing through Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia to reach India, followed shortly thereafter by China and the Americas." The caption for the stunning figurine above is: "Standing Female Statuette, Indus, Balochistan, Mehrgarh VII style (ca. 27002500 BC) Terracotta, H. 15 cm, W. 6 cm Ligabue Collection, Venice (Bibliography: Ligabue, Rossi-Osmida 2006, p. 185). "This terracotta female figurine with a bald head, thin nose, incised eyes and eyebrows, broad shoulders, bent arms, broad hips and straight cylindrical legs is a rare example of a complete item of this category. Heads of this type have been found in numerous sites of Balochistan, in particular in the Kachhi plain at Chhalgarhi, associated with a comparable female fragmentary body, or at Pirak (unstratified). Many were excavated at Mehrgarh in level VII B (ca. 2700 BC), in particular one item attached to a male torso with broad shoulders. A carefully modelled female body found in the same level with a thin wash covering the applied parts was associated with one head of this type. The occurrence of bald-headed figurines calls to mind the funerary figurines from Shahdad, from a group of graves older than those which belong to the late Bronze, and which P. Amiet associates with Presargonic art. There are also striking similarities with some stone sculptures from Mesopotamia in the third millennium, in particular from Tello, Tell Asmar and Mari. Such parallels foresee the links which one will try to establish between the later head of Dabarkot, the king-priest from Mohenjo-daro, the stone heads found in Helmand and at Mundigak. The question of exchange networks obviously associated with phenomena of influences and diffusion from the point of view of symbolism and ideology may explain the emergence of types which, at Mehrgarh, even if they are part of the same craft tradition, are linked with phenomena which can be outlined all over Middle Asia. J.C." The book is available on Amazon, or can be downloaded for free at https://www.academia.edu/39046307/Idols_The_Power_of_Images

Of course all Vikings including the Baltic Finns such as a.o. the Estonians, together with Lithuanians and Latvians, all had Harappan Culture genes...

Sanskrit based Indo-European language words.