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. Opinions are divided whether the Kulli material and settlements represent a separate culture or merely a highland regional subculture of the Indus civilization. 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. In all, these earthenware of Harappa was eulogy on the Harappan potters workmanship. Their seals reveal the images of tiger, bear, rhino etc. Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) was domesticated in South India during the same period and is known from Late Harappan Hulas. In most cases, the earthenware were painted with pictures of comb, tooth, creepers, leaves, cowrie and small circles. The presence of traded Indus material, such as the cache of nine hundred agate and carnelian beads at Burzahom, reflects the importance to the Harappans of Himalayan timber, exploited over a broad front.

The coastal Harappans came to play a major role in seafaring in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Kutch, to the north of Saurashtra, was an island in the Indus period. It was situated on higher ground, from which the water could run down to the fields. Such sealings could serve to identify packaged goods as the property of the state or of a particular individual or as deriving from a particular place. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Most likely, these woven dresses were items of export to outside word. In western Sindh, Lake Manchar flooded an enormous area during the inundation, and the retreating floodwaters left fertile ground highly suitable for cultivation. <> Coastal settlements took advantage of marine resources such as shellfish, which provided not only food but also shells, an important resource for making ornaments. Around the early second millennium, however, major new crops were added that required spring or summer sows and autumn harvesting- kharif cultivation. Gold from Kashmir and copper and tin from Rajasthan were also brought over here. About one year in four brings abnormally high or low quantities of water; the river floods unevenly, depending on where it breaks its banks; and it changes its course frequently. 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. Kalibangan gives us the idea about their agriculture. Harappan artifacts such as beads, terracotta cakes, and toy carts might have been acquired haphazardly in individual transactions, when, for example, pastoralists from this region migrated to the plains during the winter, but the presence of an Indus weight in the Late Kot Diji settlement of Gumla shows that this trade was organized.

Finds of Harappan material in the settlements of adjacent foraging, fishing, or farming cultures reveal the extent of their trading links. The immaculate dressing revealed from their images and seals speaks volumes on their expertise knowledge in weaving. One of the features of the Indus civilization that most struck early researchers was its apparent uniformity- The material found in sites throughout the Indus realms seemed entirely uniform, with no regional or chronological variation. Even lizards were caught and eaten. Small quantities of Harappan material in the Quetta Valley show that a limited amount of interaction occurred with the people of what had earlier been the Damb Sadaat region. Melons were cultivated at Shahr-i Sokhta in adjacent Seistan and probably by the Harappans. Elm, also growing at high altitudes, was used for construction at Harappa. Hunting and Gathering of Forest Resources: The fanning communities of the Indus and neighboring regions had always continued to exploit some wild resources alongside those derived from arable agriculture and pastoralism, and it seems that this practice increased and broadened in the Mature Harappan period. Trade and business grew as a result of close inter-action between the town and its sub-urban villages. rice, maize, cotton and various vegetables in their fields. Towns in the Indo-Iranian borderlands and Early Indus settlements in the river plains were active participants in this trade network. Another route may have led west from the Aravallis to Kot Diji and thence to Mohenjo-daro. 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. The Harappan people were dependent on agriculture as the primary source of living. Gold from Karnataka in south India has a natural admixture of silver, and so the electrum objects known from the Indus civilization may indicate that gold from there was being imported and worked by the Harappans.

The weight and measure was done with stone- slabs of varying sizes. In some cases, for example at Early Indus Diwana on the upper Hab River, a dam was designed to impound water, which could be released or channeled onto fields as required. Uniformity in weight and measures. 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. Islands off the western shore also offered opportunities for settlement. It was among the cultivated plants at the Late Harappan site of Hulas where both wild and cultivated indica rice were identified. During the Mature Harappan period, when the Harappans dominated the Makran coastal region, the volume of this Iran-Magan trade became negligible. No metallic money. During the early second millennium, a number of plants of African origin appeared in Gujarat and were incorporated into the range of crops grown by the local Harappans. Animals were taken at certain times of year to graze on the expanses of seasonal pastures in Gujarat and Punjab and in the uplands of Baluchistan. Personal seals could also have been used by individuals to establish their identity in private transactions. This is unique to the earthenware of Lothal. To some extent hunting was a by-product of agriculture, birds and herbivores being killed to protect crops and predators to protect livestock, but game could also be a valuable addition to the diet. Things produced by them were sufficient to meet the domestic demand and the craze for those in foreign markets as well. Content Guidelines 2. Some of the raw materials required by the Harappans could be obtained from neighboring areas. In the east the forests also held sal trees. They did not know the use of iron. Marine conditions bring an abundance of fish into Arabian coastal waters during the late summer and winter, making this the main fishing season. Through trade and commerce they, too, were able to establish contacts with others inside India and outside. Today this is around 8,000 hectares in extent.

While many goods probably moved within private transactions, pastoralists may also have been entrusted with the carriage of official consignments of goods by representatives of those in authority. 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. Tin was not used in the post-Harappan period when this eastern region was a focus of settlement, and in the first millennium BC tin was imported. Local transport was on foot or by bullock cart. Stone-slabs used as weights and of varying weights have been recovered to indicate their use. 16 was the unit of measurement (16, 64, 160, 320 etc.). Bead making factory existed in Chanhudaro and Lothal. In a high proportion of cases, however, transactions are on a reciprocal basis, in which each party feels that they profit by the transaction, though the goods exchanged may seem to the outsider quite unequal in their value- glass beads for gold, for example. They occupied large walled settlements generally situated on bluffs, which often had an elevated area with monumental platforms that may have served some religious purpose. For example, Umm-an-Nar pottery has been found in Bahrain. The surrounding waters yielded not only fish but also oysters from which fish-eyes (pearls) and mother-of-pearl could be obtained. 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. Rice husks and phytoliths have also been found in pottery and bricks at Harappa. There from was conducted export, whether inland or foreign. The archaeological evidence for Indus agriculture is extremely patchy. One sherd of Indus pottery from Mohenjodaro bears a scratched picture of such a device, a simple T- shaped arrangement of an upright and a horizontal pole, with a bucket on one side and a counterweight on the other. Whatever their precise use, the very existence of a system of weights standardized through the Indus region implies official control and the regulation of the movement of commodities. This was therefore the time of year when contacts across the Gulf of Oman would have been at their peak, and this would have been the time when fishers and traders crossed between the Indus region and the lands of Arabia and the Gulf, especially the Oman peninsula. Prominent among the Harappan earthenware is a cylindrical and perforated pot, used for extracting cheese from curd as per Mortimer wheelers inference. The floods in the Indus inundated the fields and left a fertile silt-cover on the fields after the flood water receded. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This must reflect a resumption of links between the Iranian plateau and South Asia across the passes of Baluchistan, making use of pack and draft animals. Rice, probably wild, is known from Early Harappan Balu in Haryana and Kunal. This seems to have ebbed and flowed. In the fourth millennium (Uruk period), the Sumerians turned their attentions northward, trading with northern Mesopotamia and Anatolia. 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. It is highly probable that the Indus weights, like those of Mesopotamia, were used by those in authority in regulating the issue and receipt of goods and in measuring the quantities of goods received in taxation or issued in official payment. Mesopotamia, a major consumer of raw materials from the Iranian plateau and beyond, shifted most of its interest to new sources and suppliers in the Gulf, and communications between the Indus region and Seistan ceased. The ordinary people sported ornaments made of bones, copper, earthenware and conch-shells. These have been studied by Naomi Miller, who has established that they are unlikely to reflect rice cultivation.

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. Most Harappan farming settlements in Gujarat were located in Saurashtra.