The late fourth and early third millennia saw the spread of farming communities into the Indus Basin and eventually as far as the upper Ganges-Yamuna doab: Permanent settlements were established both in areas that had previously only been visited seasonally by pastoralists and in new areas. Some communities shifted their home location from upland to plain, although the pastoral sector still travelled seasonally between regions. This move must reflect the development among highland communities of the technology, knowledge, and confidence to exploit the new environmental zones offered by the Indus Basin and to overcome their limitations. This was part of an enduring process, whereby pastoralists seeking seasonal grazing gained familiarity with new regions that later enabled their kin or other members of the community to move in and colonize these regions with permanent agricultural settlements.
In arid Baluchistan, dry farming was possible only in river valley bottoms, and water conservation was vital for high agricultural productivity. The inhabitants of many settlements built simple dams (bunds and gabarbands) to impound or divert water that flowed off the surrounding higher ground in the spring when the melting of highland snows filled generally dry streams with seasonal torrents. This water could then be used for irrigation later in the year when temperatures rose and the ground became parched. As population increased, this technological expertise aided the settlement of new regions, made necessary by competition for the limited land suitable for farming in the arid highland region. The economic importance of cattle, the dominant domestic animal, also put pressure on arable land because they need to graze or obtain fodder from land suitable for cultivation, unlike sheep and goats, which can find adequate grazing in the scrub vegetation on uncultivated land. It is possible that these economic pressures were increased by climatic factors, since some global data suggest that the fourth millennium was more arid than previous millennia and that this aridity peaked in the period around 3200-3000 BCE.
Settlement in the Indus Basin was attractive because it offered a vast expanse of well-watered fertile land for arable agriculture and even wider expanses for grazing animals. Wild game, fish, and plants offered additional resources, and there were sufficient timber and plentiful mud for construction, as well as fuel for domestic and industrial activities. Unlike other foci of urban development, such as the Euphrates Valley, the Indus Basin and its environs were well-endowed with mineral resources, including flint in the Rohri Hills in Sindh, agate and carnelian in Gujarat, gold dust on the upper Indus, and steatite, copper, and perhaps tin in nearby Rajasthan, as well as the stone and metal ores available in the Indo-Iranian borderlands.
But the region had significant drawbacks too. Mosquitoes could carry malaria, and other fevers were also a feature of life on the plains. The jungle housed not only game such as gazelle and jungle fowl, but also deadly predators and dangerous wild animals, such as tigers, snakes, and the formidable elephant. The instability of the Indus was also a major problem, with the constant threat of floods and changes in the river's course. Existing technology, designed to conserve water, had to be changed and developed to deal with an excess of water.
While this period is called Pre-Harappan by some scholars, the inter-changable terms "Early Indus" or "Early Harappan" are generally preferred, because they reflect this period's cultural continuity with the following Indus civilization.
Regional Groups. The Early Indus period saw greater variety in craft products in settlements than in earlier periods and growing regional diversity, particularly in pottery styles. Differences in the pottery from different areas suggest the existence of regional groups, some of which are linked to groups in Baluchistan, probably reflecting the links between highland and lowland maintained by seasonal transhumant pastoralists. In the period from around 3200 to 2600 BCE, three major traditions seem to have emerged in the greater Indus region, named after important sites: the Amri-Nal, Kot Diji, and Sothi-Siswal traditions (often called phases), respectively in the south, center/north, and east. Another tradition, known as Damb Sadaat, existed in central Baluchistan. Stylistic differences in their pottery and other artifacts distinguish them, but there were also very considerable cultural similarities between groups.
Whether, as some suggest, these regional pottery groupings can be identified with ethnic groups is uncertain; taking a broad view of the Indus Basin and adjacent regions, there seem likely to have been a number of contemporary cultures in these regions by the early third millennium, with a variety of ancestries. These included traditional hunter-gatherers (such as the inhabitants of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh) who had no apparent contact with farming communities; hunter-gatherers who had modified their lifestyle to include some animal husbandry, following contact with farming groups, as at Bagor; and other settled hunter-gatherers, such as the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture in the Aravallis Hills. There were settled farmers and pastoralists of hunter-gatherer ancestry, some of whom, such as the Southern Neolithic culture in Karnataka, raised locally domesticated plants and animals; others such as the Ahar-Banas culture in Rajasthan and the Northern Neolithic in Kashmir, had acquired some domesticates from their farming neighbors in the Indus region and adjacent highlands. In the greater Indus region, there were indigenous groups who had been living in closer association with pastoralists or settlers from the northwest since at least the later fourth millennium, when they were represented by settlements such as Padri and Somnath in Gujarat, Jalilpur in Punjab, and Kunal in the Saraswati plains. These groups were integrated to varying degrees with new settlers from the Indo-Iranian borderlands: The three lowland Early Indus traditions reflected this hybrid ancestry. Other farming communities still occupied their ancestral lands in the highlands.
Industry. Though the Early Harappan period was not a time of great innovation, there were many developments in the existing technologies, such as a range of fine pottery and figurines that display great liveliness and imagination. These are often more realistic than in earlier periods and cover a wider range of subject matter, and the human figures are shown in a greater variety of postures. For example, one female figurine from Harappa is standing, holding a bowl, and wearing a skirt; details of her skirt's weave and her jewelry were painted on. Features were not only modeled or shown in paint but also incised or added by applique. The widest range of figurine types was found at the adjacent sites of Mehrgarh VII and Nausharo I. Many depict women, scantily clad but generally lavishly adorned with jewelry and head ornaments or with a variety of hair styles. These are frequently referred to as Mother Goddesses. Some male figures are also known at Mehrgarh, generally wearing turbans. Humped bulls are still the main animal figurines, but now others are also depicted, including ram figurines at Harappa that had holes for wheels. Goddesses and cattle are important in the folk religion of the subcontinent today and in historical times, providing good evidence of cultural continuity; so these models may have had some religious significance.
Wheel-made pottery predominated, although handmade wares were still produced as well. Some pottery was also formed in molds. Pots were fired in updraft kilns but also in open-air bonfire kilns. Two small kilns for firing figurines and terra-cotta bangles were found in the AB mound at Harappa. Terra-cotta bangles found here were decorated with pinched, incised, or painted patterns, and their firing conditions were controlled to produce a red (oxidized) or gray (reduced) color. An increasing number of bangles were also made of marine shell.
Steatite was used now not only for beads and other ornaments but also for seals. The practice of glazing some steatite objects developed further and gave rise to the production of faience. This is attested to in the later Kot Diji levels at Harappa, where microbeads and a variety of larger beads began to be made from frit (ground-up silica and glazing material made into a paste and formed into beads that were then fired).
Copper artifacts were probably becoming more common, since many tools and ornaments have survived. Small objects of gold are found in larger numbers, including pendants, beads, and small gold discs from Harappa that had apparently been sewn onto clothing. Other common artifacts include stone beads, shell and terra-cotta bangles, and stone tools, as well as coiled basketry, known from an impression on a ground surface at Harappa.
Some settlements show signs of specialization in particular crafts or other industrial activities, such as the procurement of raw materials. For example, huge quantities of figurines were produced at Mehrgarh in this period, suggesting mass production. Lewan, a village in the Bannu Basin in northern Baluchistan, specialized in the production of stone tools, including querns, axes, and hammers, which were traded over a wide area. A degree of specialization had begun earlier, for example at Mehrgarh, but it was becoming more pronounced in this period.
Some settlements of this period, including Rehman Dheri in the Gomal Valley and Kalibangan in the Ghaggar (Saraswati) Valley, were surrounded by a substantial wall; in the river valleys these seem likely to have been flood defenses. A large platform was constructed at Mehrgarh, associated with
An Early Harappan figurine found at Harappa. The subject is clothed, which is unusual; she wears a painted skirt and carries a bowl. Painted bangles cover her arms, and she is also wearing a necklace with pendants. Her hair is arranged in a tiered hairstyle tied at the back. (Richard H. Meadow, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
A buttressed wall. Houses were generally of mud brick, often with stone foundations. Within some sites, standardization was already often present in the form of standardized brick sizes; at Harappa these were in the ratio 1:2:4, while at Kalibangan the ratio was 1:2:3.
Economy. Evidence for subsistence is scarce from Early Indus sites. Animal bones, where available, show that cattle, sheep, and goat were regularly kept, especially cattle (which made up around 90 percent of the fauna at Jalilpur, for example), along with water buffalo in some Indus Basin settlements, including Kalibangan. Often wild animals were also hunted, including birds, fish, and various kinds of deer. Rehman Dheri is one of the few settlements from which plant material has been recovered: Wheat was the main crop there, though later barley was more important. Wheat and barley were also grown at Kalibangan on the upper Saraswati where a plowed field was uncovered: The field had been plowed in two directions, presumably for raising two crops that matured at different times, a practice known in modern northern India. The plow was probably drawn by bullocks, which were also used to draw carts, known from terra-cotta models at Jalilpur and cart ruts at Harappa. The small settlement of Phang in the Kirthar Range seems to have made use of a gabarband for irrigation, and small-scale irrigation works were probably employed in other highland regions; settlements were also often located to make use of other water sources for raising crops, such as springs, hillwash, and mountain streams.
Burials. Limited evidence of burial practices exists, but in Gujarat two burials at Nagwada may be associated with a "cenotaph" (a pit containing pottery but no bones). This was to be a feature of some of the later Harappan cemeteries too. At Mehrgarh a cemetery of nineteen graves was excavated immediately above the latest period of the settlement: These consisted of small boxes built of mud bricks, containing the remains of infants, generally without grave goods though three beads were recovered. These graves resemble one found at Nal, but in neither site was there datable material associated with the graves, which could be of a later date, though this is thought unlikely at Mehrgarh. In contrast, at Periano Ghundai four cremation burials were found, one in a vessel of Bhoot ware; another cremation was found at Moghul Ghundai, also in the Zhob Valley.
Precursors to Writing. Among the finds from Damb Sadaat phase settlements were a number of stamp seals bearing geometric designs, such as stepped crosses or zigzags, resembling contemporary objects from some Central Asian and Iranian sites such as Shahr-i Sokhta. Several steatite button seals were found in a Kot Diji level at Harappa: these also bore geometric designs, though they differed from the stepped square patterns of the Damb Sadaat tradition. A similar seal had also been found in the Ravi phase at Harappa. A particularly fine example of a button seal from Harappa bore a four-pointed star and five whorls, one inside the star and the others in the corners of the seal. Slight blue-green traces indicate that originally the seal had been glazed. A carved ivory pendant from the early Kot Diji phase at Rehman Dheri was decorated on one face with a pair of deer similar to those in pottery designs and on the other with two scorpions and a frog. Both faces also had a T-shaped sign, and there was also an arrow and a sign like the letter I on the deer side.
At Harappa the Early Indus period saw the continued use of potters' marks, incised on pottery before firing, and of signs used in other contexts. One mold fragment from a later Early Indus deposit bore three signs, probably representing a
Potters’ marks were often incised on the base of pots before firing, perhaps to identify the products of individual potters when large numbers of vessels were fired together in a bonfire kiln. While most of the marks are simple and of a universal nature, a few were later used as signs in the Indus script. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Further stage in the development of the script and perhaps giving the owner's name. Often the signs resemble later signs in the Indus script, and sometimes two such signs are associated in the same order as in the later script. Similar signs or potters' marks occur on pots from Rehman Dheri of this or the Transition period (2600-2500). The impression of a square seal on a circular piece of clay was also found in the Kot Diji phase at Harappa, suggesting that the idea of using a seal as a mark of authority or in an organizational context was now developing. Discovered in a hearth where it had presumably been discarded, it bore several signs and two designs like ladders. Harappa also yielded a broken seal with a design apparently showing an elephant. This seal and the seal impression comprised the two elements of the later Mature Indus seals: an inscription and a design, generally of an animal.
The evolution of a repertoire of local signs and the use of stamp seals seem likely to reflect developments in the organization of society, perhaps relating to a growing need to indicate ownership in a society no longer entirely organized along kinship lines and to allow some control over the movement of commodities. The presence of a cubical stone weight in Kot Dijian Harappa, on the same weight standard as that of the Mature Harappan period, is similarly suggestive of organizational developments.
World History
