The Indus Realms. The early second millennium saw new developments in the Indus region. By 1900 BCE many of the cities were in decline. The cultural (and probably political) unity of the Indus region was breaking down and with it the ability to organize large-scale trade and distribution networks. Imported goods, such as lapis and turquoise and even marine shells, became scarce in Indus sites in the north and east. Beads, made during the Mature Harappan period of many different materials, were now made from a decreased range of materials, including terra-cotta and sometimes copper, and mainly from materials that were locally available. The wide distribution of Rohri flint was replaced by the exploitation of local stone sources: For example, in Gujarat stone blades were now made of local agate, chalcedony, and jasper. Cubical weights were no longer commonly used, although in Gujarat weights of a different form, a truncated sphere, were still in use. The trade-related towns of the Makran were abandoned, as were the Kulli settlements. Gujarat, the gateway between the Indus and world overseas, saw a substantial increase in population but also a great increase in self-sufficiency in the remaining villages and small towns. Lothal, a major trade center in Harappan times, was reduced to a village of mud huts and the "dock" abandoned.
The inhabitants of Gujarat may have continued to trade with the cultures of the Gulf, but it was on a smaller scale and on a less organized basis. In particular, relations with the Oman peninsula are likely to have been unbroken. The Late Harappans of Gujarat seem to have obtained a steady supply of copper, either from Oman or, more probably, from the Aravalli Hills through cultural contacts and trade links that were developing with the cultures of Rajasthan and the Deccan, areas in which the Late Harappans may also have settled in later centuries. In the Late Harappan period, the presence of Lustrous Red ware shows that there were links between the Late Harappans of Gujarat and the Ahar-Banas culture. The introduction of wheat and barley, ragi and bajra, sheep and goats to south India by 1800 BCE reflects the growing communications among the communities of the western side of the subcontinent.
It is possible that sea level changes that had taken effect by around 2000 BCE had caused the coastline to recede along the Makran coast, resulting in the important towns of Sutkagen-dor and Sotka Koh losing their key role in sea trade. Sometime after 1800 BCE, the sea also receded from the port of Kuntasi
A spherical agate weight found in the late levels at Harappa. Since it does not conform to the Harappan weight standards, it was probably used in trade with external partners. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
In Gujarat, reducing the settlement's importance, though the river running near the settlement still gave it some access to the sea. Industrial activity at the site declined at the same time, and the settlement was abandoned after 1700. On the other hand, a new port was established at Bet Dwarka in the northwest tip of Saurashtra, in a locality underwater both today and probably also in the third millennium, but exposed by the falling sea level of the early second millennium. The discovery of an Early Dilmun seal there reflects continued contacts with Dilmun.
In addition to the effects of falling sea level, the coastlines of Kutch and Saurashtra may have been affected by the accumulation of silt deposits from the Indus and other rivers, gradually changing the open waters of the Ranns into salt marshes and pushing the head of the Gulf of Khambat southward. The changing coastline may have been partially responsible for the abandonment of Lothal's role in overseas trade.
The city of Dholavira was apparently abandoned for some decades but was reoccupied around 1850 BCE in a much reduced form, its occupied area comprising the citadel and part of the Middle Town, surrounded by a wall of far lower quality than before. Clearly one of its principal roles, as a channel for
Local produce and communications to the rest of the Indus polity, was no longer applicable, nor was it prospering from overseas trade. Perhaps its period of abandonment related to sea level changes and to the growth of sediment in the Little Rann, making Khadir Island, on which it is located, no longer easily accessible by sea. This was in contrast to the situation in Saurashtra, where there was a marked increase in population and settlement numbers, and settlements such as Rojdi demonstrate increasing affluence, based largely, it would seem, on agricultural prosperity.
Mesopotamia and the Gulf. At the same time, further major changes were taking place at the other end of the erstwhile Gulf trading network. By the mideighteenth century BCE, the great Babylonian King Hammurabi created a new empire. But unlike earlier southern Mesopotamian states, this was centered on Babylon, whose focus of interest lay to the north. The Babylonians were now looking elsewhere for copper, to Anatolia, to southeast Iran, and to the island of Cyprus, while timber now came from the Levant, and other materials flowed in from new sources. Mesopotamia forgot the Indus, though not its products; by the first millennium, the term "Meluhha" meant Ethiopia, from which Mesopotamia imported many of the commodities that it had once received from the Harappans, such as ivory.
The cities of the south declined in importance, along with their seaborne trade. Salinization of the land, the result of centuries of irrigation, was also undermining the prosperity of southern Mesopotamian agriculture. A shadowy kingdom, Sealand, developed south of Hammurabi's realm, at the head of the Gulf. Almost nothing is known of it, but it is unlikely to have had the resources for more than desultry overseas trade. In the same period and probably mainly in consequence of the Mesopotamian situation, the prosperity of Bahrain declined, the major Barbar temple being abandoned and inferior houses constructed in settlements without planning control, while Failaka was drawn more closely into the Mesopotamian cultural area. Dilmun's overseas trade did not cease; Elam, at least, continued to trade with Dilmun. For example, a text from the reign of King Kutir-Nahhunte I (fl.1730) records that Dilmunites delivered 17.5 minas of silver to Susa. By 1700 BCE a number of settlements had been abandoned. It was not until the fifteenth century that the Kassite dynasty revived a major interest in Gulf trade, conquering Dilmun, and by this time things had greatly changed in the Indus region.
Changing Trade Patterns. The last centuries of the third millennium had seen the emergence in northern Afghanistan of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). Over subsequent centuries, it expanded west and south. It took over Shortugai and its region and ended the Indus lapis trade. It also expanded into Seistan, bringing it into the vicinity of the Indus realms. Distinctive BMAC material, such as stamp seals with geometric, floral, and avian designs, and local products reflecting BMAC designs began to appear in the Indus cities, now in decline, and beyond them in the villages and small towns of the Deccan where, for example, sealings with BMAC-style motifs
Were found at the Ahar-Banas settlement of Gilund. The stylistic similarities with BMAC material were particularly marked in Baluchistan and the Kachi plain, where in addition there were camel and horse figurines at Pirak after 1700 BCE. 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.
The second millennium, therefore, although it did not see the complete abandonment of sea trade, saw a reversion to the earlier communications network operating between the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and its western neighbors, the Iranian plateau and southern Central Asia. At the same time, while the Harappans' close integration of the Indus regions was gone, relations were growing and developing between the various communities of the subcontinent.
World History
