Basic Issues in Harappan Archaeology: Some Thoughts

Shinde, Vasant; Deshpande, Shweta Sinha; Osada, Toshiko; Uno, Takao

doi:10.5334/aa.06107

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…F. Oldham , 1893R. D. Oldham 1886;Shinde et al 2006;Stein 1942;Valdiya 2002;Wilhelmy 1969;Yash Pal et al 1980;also Flam 1999also Flam , 2013. In northwest India, connections between climate change and river shift have been mooted (e.g., Giosan et al 2012), and it has also been posited that neotectonic processes have been a factor in reshaping hydrology (e.g., Puri and Verma 1998).…”

Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has long been recognized that there is considerable variation in climate, hydrology, and ecology across the extensive area in which Indus settlements are found (e.g., Agrawal and Sood 1982;Joshi 1984;Possehl 1982Possehl , 1992also Chakrabarti 1999:153-160;Shinde et al 2006;Wright 2010:166-170), but the specifics of this diversity and the degree to which it maps onto cultural variation has not been addressed in detail. Environmental factors undoubtedly placed specific constraints on cultural behavior and the choices open to the inhabitants of the various Indus regions, and it is arguable that comprehending the ways in which humans interacted with diverse and potentially changing environments over time and across space is critical for understanding the rise, floruit, and decline of Indus urbanism (cf.…”

Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given these limitations in the evidence, it is perhaps unsurprising that there has been no agreement about the significance of climate and climate change on the Indus Civilization. Some have argued that there is no conclusive evidence to show that there is any difference in annual rainfall patterns between 6000 BP and the present (e.g., Kenoyer , 2008Possehl 1997a), while others have posited climate change as the primary cause for the collapse and/or transformation of the Indus Civilization (e.g., Clift and Plumb 2008:205-210;Giosan et al 2012;Shinde et al 2006;Staubwasser and Weiss 2006). Within the diverse zone occupied by Indus populations, environmental factors related to hydrology were certainly important, and shifting/drying rivers and floods have long been proposed as major culprits.…”

Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptation to Variable Environments, Resilience to Climate Change: InvestigatingLand, Water and Settlementin Indus Northwest India

Petrie¹,

Singh²,

Bates³

et al. 2017

Current Anthropology

111

170

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This paper explores the nature and dynamics of adaptation and resilience in the face of a diverse and varied environmental and ecological context using the case study of South Asia's Indus Civilization (ca. 3000-1300 BC). Most early complex societies developed in regions where the climatic parameters faced by ancient subsistence farmers were varied but rain falls primarily in one season. In contrast, the Indus Civilization developed in a specific environmental context that spanned a very distinct environmental threshold, where winter and summer rainfall systems overlap. There is now evidence to show that this region was directly subject to climate change during the period when the Indus Civilization was at its height (ca. 2500-1900 BC). The Indus Civilization, therefore, provides a unique opportunity to understand how an ancient society coped with diverse and varied ecologies and change in the fundamental environmental parameters. This paper integrates research carried out as part of the Land, Water and Settlement project in northwest India between 2007 and 2014. Although coming from only one of the regions occupied by Indus populations, these data necessitate the reconsideration of several prevailing views about the Indus Civilization as a whole and invigorate discussion about human-environment interactions and their relationship to processes of cultural transformation. Adapting to Variable Environments, Being Resilient to Changing Climates Given the considerable importance of climate, climate change, and human/environment relationships in the present, it is perhaps no surprise that there is ongoing interest in the way that humans caused and/or responded to environmental and ecological change in the past (

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Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Cultural and Environmental Context Of The Indus Civilizamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adaptation to Variable Environments, Resilience to Climate Change: InvestigatingLand, Water and Settlementin Indus Northwest India

Petrie¹,

Singh²,

Bates³

et al. 2017

Current Anthropology

111

170

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many new tool types have also been discovered by us along with the usually known Soanian tools from these Nangal sites situated on the mid-Holocene terraces on the left bank of the Satluj River (which were either not encountered by earlier workers from anywhere or were ignored by them). In addition, the Black & Red Ware potsherds, reported from late mid-Holocene sites elsewhere 44,45 and weathered red ware with coarse fabric (some resembling the pieces of Harappan pottery) have also been found from all the three sites mentioned above.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Soanian Tools in Northwestern Sub-Himalayas are not that Old

Soni¹,

Soni²

2017

AHOAJ

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and in the intermontane dun valleys. 14-16 Most of the workers in India 14,16,17 relied heavily on de Terra and Paterson's work, 1 ultimately resulting in oversimplified and confusing cultural interpretations. 18 A general view was presented that the Early-Soan consisted of heavy duty tools with the dominance of choppers and in the Late-Soan, the occurrence of flakes/flaketools increased and the tools became smaller in size. 1,19,20 The Late-Soan of the Soan valley of north Pakistan is also considered to be belonging to South Asian Middle palaeolithic tradition in typological terms. 21,22 The typochronological distinction between Early and Late-Soan is still not clear because both the tool-types mixed with each other have only been reported in un-datable surface contexts. Doubts about de Terra and Paterson's observations first surfaced only through the works of Gill & Sankalia. 23,24 The stratigraphical context of the Soanian industries as first specified by de Terra & Paterson 1 was severely questioned by later field studies Rendell et al. 10 The Soan River 'terraces' as observed by de Terra and Paterson were proven to be erosional features rather than true river terraces Rendell et al. 10 As a result, Soanian technological evolution de Terra & Paterson 1 is no longer considered to be valid. 10,25,26 There is no evidence of discrete 'Early' or 'Late' Soan entities since the Soanian tools including both large and small types and with varying flake contents have also been found recently even from very young sites. 27-32

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“…The discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization is considered one of the most important archeological findings in the history of the Indian subcontinent (Kenoyer, ; Shinde, Deshpande, Osada, & Uno, ). From at least 2600–1900 B.C., the Indus Valley Civilization controlled what is today Pakistan and northwest India along the Indus River floodplains, and habitations from the civilization are spread over an area double the size of ancient Mesopotamia (Kenoyer, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology Through Computational Linguistics: Inscription Statistics Predict Excavation Sites of Indus Valley Artifacts

Recchia

Louwerse

2015

Cognitive Science

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Computational techniques comparing co-occurrences of city names in texts allow the relative longitudes and latitudes of cities to be estimated algorithmically. However, these techniques have not been applied to estimate the provenance of artifacts with unknown origins. Here, we estimate the geographic origin of artifacts from the Indus Valley Civilization, applying methods commonly used in cognitive science to the Indus script. We show that these methods can accurately predict the relative locations of archeological sites on the basis of artifacts of known provenance, and we further apply these techniques to determine the most probable excavation sites of four sealings of unknown provenance. These findings suggest that inscription statistics reflect historical interactions among locations in the Indus Valley region, and they illustrate how computational methods can help localize inscribed archeological artifacts of unknown origin. The success of this method offers opportunities for the cognitive sciences in general and for computational anthropology specifically.

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Basic Issues in Harappan Archaeology: Some Thoughts

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

Adaptation to Variable Environments, Resilience to Climate Change: InvestigatingLand, Water and Settlementin Indus Northwest India

Adaptation to Variable Environments, Resilience to Climate Change: InvestigatingLand, Water and Settlementin Indus Northwest India

Soanian Tools in Northwestern Sub-Himalayas are not that Old

Archaeology Through Computational Linguistics: Inscription Statistics Predict Excavation Sites of Indus Valley Artifacts

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