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Archaeology Theory and Methods: Harappan Civilization. Archaeology is defined as the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains by the Oxford dictionary. In simple terms archaeology is the study of ancient and human past using material remains, like the artefacts and ecofacts. The artefacts are defined as the object made by human being, typically one of culture or historical interest1. To study the past, one needs to excavate the sites to find the artefacts. An archaeological site is any place where physical remains of past human activities exist2. A site can be as small as some stone tools with the human skeletons or as large as the Indus valley civilisation. These sites are broadly classified under two categories. The first ones are, based on the archaeological culture such as proto-historic, historic and pre-historic. The prehistoric archaeology is the study of past before the historical records began. The artefacts found here are mostly the stone tools including spear points, arrowheads, knives, stone axes etc. The Stone Age and the hunter- gathers are the examples of the pre-historic sites. It begins with the human behaviour of manufacturing the stone tools and ends with the fully modern human hunting and gathering socities3.The Protohistoric archaeology refers to the study of regions or periods using the archaeological methods where only a partial or very limited historic record is available4. The late Iron Age and the roman periods may be considered as Protohistoric sites. The historic archaeology refers to the study of the people with a written record. The second one are based on the function of the sites, such as habitation sites, burial sites, mound sites, underwater sites, kill sites, ceremonial sites, trading sites and quarry sites. These sites are the main evidences which help us understand the past better. The habitation site are generally associated with variety of other sites such as, burial site, ceremonial site and trading site which come under the category of permanent settlement. The permanent settlement began when hunting and gathering was replaced by farming. The habitation sites are the site which has evidence of any human domestic activity. These sites include the Minoan civilisation, the Indus valley civilisation, the civilisations in Egypt, etc. These sites are commonly found and are very importantly as it shows how the people lived, carried out their activities, the social, economic and political culture. The most common artefacts found here are pottery, ornaments and the

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architectural of that place, seals and many more artefacts which showed the lifestyle of the people there. Usually these sites are large, depending on the duration of the occupation and the resources available. The religious and social customs of the settlement determine the burial procedures. The sites where the artefacts like burial goods, personal belongings of the carcass are found are the burial sites. These are considered to be the best sites. These sites can give information about the social customs and beliefs of the people. Most of the societies in the past were concerned with afterlife. These people had elaborated rituals and procedures for the funerals. The burial places also showed the ideologies of the people. In some societies the dead were buried in isolated shallow graves within settlements in cemeteries while in some they were buried in cemeteries away from the settlement areas. The ceremonial sites are usually a part of habitation sites. These sites usually depict the religious system in the civilisation. The priest rule or the kingship or the priest king or the chiefdoms had a major role. The Mesopotamian “ziggurat” which is the pyramidal stepped temple towers that are found in the middle of the cities, which are the perfect example for the ceremonial sites5. Kill sites are most common in the tribes, even today. The huntergatherers tend to gather around a large mammal and live there temporarily for several days. They camp at the site of their kill to butcher the meat. This site can be identified by the stone tools found near the carcass and the marks of the tools on the bones of the animal. These sites are usually found in east of Africa. Quarry sites are where the raw material stone or the metal ore was mined for using building material or tools. The quarry site gives us the information about the technology which was used by the people that time and the mining techniques on the basis of the artefacts left behind. Gebel Manzal el-seyl is a quarry site in Egypt. Brook Run, located in the piedmont region of northern Virginia in a grove of cedar trees near the Rapidan River contains important evidence of rock quarrying.

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The ancient site of Harappa, now in Pakistan is one of the largest city of the Indus valley civilisation dating back to 2550-1900 BC, it has been the focus of research in archaeology excavation and scientific research for over 88 years. It was discovered in the March or April 1829, by a man known as Charles Masson who visited the huge mound adjacent to the modern village of Harappa6. The archaeologists found curious seals with unfamiliar scripts. The details were first published in 1853 and then in 1886. The site was of 4 kilometres in circuit and the height of the mound was about 12 to 18 meters7. In 1920 sir John Marshall instructed his colleague in the ASI, Rai Bhadur Daya Ram Sahani, to conduct excavation at Harappa8. Due to the brick robbing, much of the architecture of the Harappan city was destroyed. The Harappan bricks were used in building the nearby village of 500 inhabitants9. The only way of understanding the Harappan culture is with the help of the architecture and the material culture like the artefacts, since the script is still not deciphered. The evidence of the artefacts like pottery, ornaments, terracotta figures, the tools and the architecture proved that Harappa was a habitation site. The sophisticated and advanced urban architecture was evident in the Harappan sites. The town planning was extremely well done with hygiene as its utmost priority. The streets of Harappa were perfectly well designed. The town had almost 40,000 inhabitants living. Many harappan towns shared the same layout. This city was divided into two sections. One section is known as the acropolis, which was located on artificially raised mound, while the other section was located on ground level. The acropolis contained the important buildings of the city such as the assembly hall, the administrative structures, the religious structures etc. In the lower sections of the city there were the houses of the inhabitants. The interesting thing found here is that no division of the society is reflected in the layout of the cities. Large buildings, market areas and small houses all of them were in the same neighbourhood. With the help of this archaeologists interpreted that there was no hierarchy. The houses were built with the standardised baked bricks, even mud bricks and mud construction of building houses was evident. For drains, lining of the wells, bathing platforms and husking floors, here where the durability of the bricks was important, backed bricks were used. Most of the houses had their own well, drains and bathrooms. Some of the houses of the elite class had multiple stories and paved floors. The brick stairway was used to provide access to the upper floors. There were bathrooms at the first floor as well. The clay pipes connected the bathrooms to the

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underground sewer system that ran throughout the city. The city was surrounded by walls, needed for protection from both humans and animals and the periodic floods. The famous structure of the Harappa city is the ‘Great Granary’ has both mud as well as baked bricks used while they were building it. The artefacts which were used in the day to day life of the people in the Harappan cities help us in interpretation of the past. The excavations yield a rich collection of artefacts of bronze and terracotta The archaeologists have discovered thousands of seals with beautiful figures of animals, various types of pottery, terracotta and bronze statues of women and men. The statues of the women are usually naked, but with elaborate head dresses. The ornaments of gold were also found. There were many beautiful statues found, which were also used as toys. Tools of stone, copper and bronze were found. The numerous terracotta figures, which were found in most of the places, showed that there may have had religious significance of those figures. The pottery found here was usually small. The discovery of Harappan cities and the whole Indus valley civilisation shattered the belief that India had been inhabitant only by primitive savages before the nomadic tribes brought their culture to the subcontinent. This discovery of the world’s early civilisation has been a boon in archaeology. Archaeologists are still working in the Indus valley civilisation and discovering new cities and trying to decipher the Indus script.

References 1 oxford dictionary 2 www.saa.org 3 http://www.greatarchaeology.com 4 http://www.greatarchaeology.com 5 http://www.britannica.com 6 Possehl, Gregory. The Indus civilisation A contemporary Perspective. Lanham: Alta Mira press,2003.print.pg 10

Sneha Negandhi 5 7 Possehl, Gregory. The Indus civilisation A contemporary Perspective. Lanham: Alta Mira press,2003.print. pg 10 8 Possehl, Gregory. The Indus civilisation A contemporary Perspective. Lanham: Alta Mira press,2003.print.pg 11 9 Parpola, Asko. Deciphering the Indus Script. Australia: University of Cambridge, 2000.pg 5

Bibliography http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ http://www.britannica.com http://ancienthistory.about.com http://www.in.gov http://www.saa.org http://www.archaeologywordsmith.com http://library.thinkquest.org/C006203/cgibin/stories.cgi?article=town_planning§ion=history/indus&frame=parent http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/staff/resources/background/bg23/worksheet.html http://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html http://www.jstor.org/stable/124951?seq=5&Search=yes&searchText=harappa&list=hide&searchUri =%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dharappa%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3Dharap pan%2Bcivilisation%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=141 5&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null http://www.ignca.nic.in/nl002308.htm http://www.monash.vic.gov.au/history/c-glossary.htm