The Indus Civilization

Aspects of Palace Life at Mohenjo-Daro

“…19 The excavations at Harappa more recently found abundant evidence of the use in domestic architecture of post- 'was an imposing building, mostly of wood'. 21 No wonder that the extensive but loosely controlled excavations of the past often neglected and destroyed the faint traces of many important architectural elements. In short, Wheeler was probably right: major architectural elements, partitions and wall joints were frequently missed and the ruins of important constructions may have been easily misinterpreted.…”

“…G. Possehl would rather consider them to be 'places where those citizens of the Indus civilization who were given to use bathing facilities would stay'. 49 Very similar, in spite of their badly damaged ground-plans, are the larger dwellings defined by Sahni 'feeble structures' and labelled in the same Block as XXV-XXIX.…”

Structure, Agency and Commerce in the Ancient Near East

“…What was the nature of trade and exchange that united broad areas throughout the third millennium? There is a considerable literature discussing the archaeological and textual evidence that united Mesopotamia in trade with the regions of the Persian Gulf [which the Mesopotamian texts refer to as Dilmun] (Ratnagar (2004), Potts (1990), with Oman [which the texts refer to as Magan], Crawford (1998);Potts (2000) (Costa & Tosi (1989) ;Stöllner, Slotta andVatandoust (2004, Kaniuth 2007), the Indus Civilization [which the texts refer to as Meluhha] (Ratnagar (2004), Possehl (2002 and with the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex (hereafter BMAC) of Central Asia (Hiebert (1994), Sarianidi (2002), Moorey (1994). The archaeology and textual evidence relating the Iranian Plateau to the above regions is discussed by Kohl (1978), Steinkeller (1983), Potts (1999), andLamberg-Karlovsky (1996).…”

“…There have been numerous studies pertaining to Mesopotamia's commercial relations with the Indus Valley (Ratnagar 2004;Chakrabarti 1990;Possehl 2002, the Persian Gulf (Potts 1990;Cleuziou & Tosi 2007), the Iranian Plateau and Central Asia (T. Potts 1994;Amiet 1986;Curtis 1993), to name but a few. None of these studies address the specificity of agency.…”

“…Their role in trade is well documented in both the textual and archaeological record. Thus, the Indus=Meluhha (Ratnagar 2004;Possehl 2002); Oman=Magan (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007;Potts 2000); Bahrain=Dilmun (Crawford 1998;Potts 1990); southeastern Iran=Marhasi (Steinkeller 1982;, and more controversially the Oxus Civilization (BMAC) of Central Asia=Shimashki(?) (Potts, forthcoming).…”