Glossary

ACACIA Acacia spp, a shrubby tree that thrives in drier regions of northern South Asia and has many uses.

AGADE Capital of the Akkadian empire. Ships from Meluhha were said to dock at its quays.

AHAR-BANAS CULTURE A Chalcolithic culture in Rajasthan, contemporary with the Harappan civilization but probably not directly in contact with it.

AKKAD The northern part of Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia).

AKKADIAN EMPIRE The first state uniting the lands of southern Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad), founded by Sargon of Akkad in 2334 BCE and enduring until 2193 BCE.

ALLAHDINO A small (1.4-hectare) but highly organized settlement in Sindh, probably concerned with textile production and the distribution network.

ALUM A white mineral, aluminium potassium sulphate, used as a mordant to stabilize some dyes.

AMAZONITE A type of pale blue-green stone used for making beads and possibly coming from Karnataka or the Himalayas.

AMRI A settlement in Sindh occupied in the Early Harappan period. It was destroyed by burning in the Transition period before being rebuilt in the Mature Harappan period.

AMRI-NAL PHASE The Early Indus period in Sindh and southern Baluchistan, named after Amri in Sindh and Nal in the adjacent mountains.

AMU DARYA A river in southern Central Asia and northern Afghanistan, also known as the Oxus.

ANATOLIA Asiatic Turkey.

ANTELOPE Antelope hunted in the Indus region included blackbuck, fourhorned antelope or chausingha, and nilgai.

ARAVALLIS A range of hills running south of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, an important source of minerals, particularly copper.

ARD A primitive form of plow that cut through the soil, breaking it up and creating a furrow, but not turning the soil.

ARTHASHASTRA A text in which Kautilya, minister to the first Mauryan emperor, Chandragupta, gave advice to his king on statecraft. In its practical but ruthless suggestions, it has been compared to Machiavelli's The Prince.

ARYANS See Indo-Aryans.

ASSYRIA Northern Mesopotamia.

AUSTRO-ASIATIC A language family now comprising the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia and the Munda languages, spoken by a small number of tribal people in India. Munda was probably more widely spoken in antiquity, and there may have been another branch, currently known as Para-Munda, now extinct but possibly spoken by at least some Harappans.

403

AVESTA The sacred books of the early Iranians, comprising the Older Avesta and the Younger Avesta.

BABYLONIA Southern Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad).

BACKSTRAP LOOM A loom in which the warp threads are tied to a rod at one end, with their other ends attached to the weaver's waist. The rod can be fastened to a post or tree or held in tension by the weaver's feet. Very easy to use and portable, it has the disadvantage that only narrow strips of cloth can be woven on it.

BACTRIA A region in northern Afghanistan between the Amu-Darya and the Hindu Kush.

BACTRIA-MARGIANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX See BMAC.

BACTRIAN CAMEL The two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus), domesticated in southern Central Asia during the third millennium, when it was present at Shahr-i Sokhta. It was probably brought into South Asia by BMAC traders and raiders in the early second millennium, when it was present at Pirak.

BADAKSHAN A district of northern Afghanistan including the Kokcha gorge, source of lapis lazuli in antiquity.

BAGASRA See Gola Dhoro.

BAGOR A campsite near the Arawalli Hills, occupied from around 5000 BCE onward by hunter-gatherers, who also raised domestic animals. In the second period, from around 2800 BCE, a few copper tools were in use there.

BAHAWALPUR The western part of the lost Saraswati system, along the dry beds of the Hakra-Ghaggar River.

BAJRA Pearl or bulrush millet (Pennisetum typhoides), introduced from Africa during the early second millennium.

BALAKOT A small (2.8-hectare) town in eastern Makran concerned mainly with fishing and shell bangle making.

BALATHAL A major settlement of the Ahar-Banas culture.

BALUCHISTAN The mountainous region to the west of the Indus Valley, which forms the eastern end of the Iranian plateau.

BANAWALI A 16-hectare town in the eastern region.

BANYAN The Indian fig (Ficus indica), famous for its aerial roots. It was venerated in South Asia probably from early times.

BARASINGHA The swamp deer, Cervus duvauceli.

BARU GRASS Sorghum halepensis, a tall grass with a tough tubular stem that grows in Gujarat and is used for constructing small seaworthy craft resembling reed boats.

BAT A clay disc seated on the potter's wheel, on which the pot was thrown. The bat was then lifted off with the vessel on it, minimizing the risk of damaging the vessel when removing it from the wheel.

BER See Jujube.

BET DWARKA A Post-Harappan port established in Saurashtra after the sea level fell around 2000 BCE.

BITUMEN Natural asphalt, used particularly as an adhesive and a waterproofing material.

BLACKBUCK An antelope (Antelope cervicapra).

BLACK COTTON SOILS Volcanic lava soils found in the Deccan, Kutch, Saurashtra, and some parts of mainland Gujarat, on which cotton is often grown. They are fertile and water retentive. Their tendency to crack during the dry season causes a certain amount of mixing of the upper soil layers; they are therefore said to be self-plowing.

BMAC The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, which occupied northern Afghanistan in the late third and early second millennia BCE, and colonized Seistan. Its people were in contact with the Late Harappan and other Chalcolithic cultures of northern South Asia.

BOLAS A weapon, used particularly in the ancient Americas, for catching animals. It consisted of one or several lengths of rope to which stone balls were attached, and was thrown to entangle an animal's legs, bringing it down. It has been suggested that the Harappan perforated balls, which are usually called mace heads, may have been part of such a device.

BRAHMI The alphabetic script developed in the later first millennium BCE from a West Semitic script, ancestral to all later Indian scripts.

BRAHUI An isolated Dravidian language spoken in southern Baluchistan.

BREAD WHEAT Free-threshing wheats suitable for making bread because of their high gluten content: T. aestivum vulgare, clubwheat (T. aestivum com-pactum), and shot wheat (T. aestivum sphaerococcum), the latter being the variety most used in South Asia.

BRISTLEY FOXTAIL MILLET A small millet (Setaria verticillata), probably cultivated in Mature Harappan Saurashtra.

BROOMCORN MILLET Common or broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), probably introduced from the Namazga area, possibly via Shortugai, though it was not certainly cultivated in Harappan times.

BROWNTOP MILLET A native millet (Brachiaria ramosa), cultivated in Mature Harappan Saurashtra.

BUND A small dam or wall, usually constructed of earth and rocks, built to retain water, generally for irrigation. The gabarbands of Baluchistan, which may have been built from pre-Indus times onward, sometimes involved a stepped series of small L-shaped platforms, the long side stretching out into the stream to divert a portion of the water and suspended alluvium on to a small field in the base of the L.

BURIN A sharp instrument, usually a flint blade, with an angled cutting edge, typically used for engraving.

BURUSHASKI A language isolate, spoken in the Western Karakoram region of the Himalayas.

BURZAHOM A settlement of the Northern Neolithic culture.

CAMBAY TECHNIQUE A method of working stone by inverse indirect percussion, peculiar to South Asia and particularly used by beadmakers. The object to be knapped was held against a sharp point embedded in the ground and was hit with a soft hammer, detaching a flake.

CAMEL See Bactrian Camel; Dromedary.

CARNELIAN Also known as sard, a distinctive red stone favored by the Harappans for making beads. Naturally occurring carnelian is rare. To produce it artificially, yellow chalcedony containing iron oxide was repeatedly heated to alter its color. This could produce a range of shades from orange to deep red.

CEMETERY H The cemetery associated with the Late Harappan period at Harappa. The lower level shows continuity of local practices, while there are marked changes in the upper level.

CEMETERY H CULTURE The culture of the Late Harappan period in the Punjab and areas to its north and east, named after the later cemetery at Harappa.

CEMETERY R-37 The cemetery at Harappa belonging to the Mature Indus period.

CHAGAI HILLS A mineral-rich area in western Baluchistan exploited particularly by the people of Seistan.

CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA A great emperor (ca. 320-292 BCE), founder of the Mauryan dynasty, who united most of the subcontinent.

CHANHU-DARO A small (4.7-hectare) town located on the Indus River about halfway between Mohenjo-daro and the sea. Certain features, such as its baked brick architecture and heavy involvement in industrial activities, including the manufacture of some very specialist products such as long car-nelian beads, make the town seem like an industrial and administrative satellite of Mohenjo-daro. Like the latter, it was probably founded in the context of communications along the Indus River highway.

CHANK A shellfish (Turbinella pyrum). Chank shells were mainly used for making bangles, but also libation vessels and trumpets.

CHAUSINGHA The four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornus).

CHAUTANG See Drishadvati.

CHINKARA The Indian gazelle (Gazella bennetti).

CHITAL The spotted deer (Axis axis).

CHLORITE A form of steatite, used particularly to manufacture fine bowls that were widely circulated during the third and early second millennia. The serie ancienne bowls were manufactured at Tepe Yahya and probably at Jiroft on the Iranian plateau, and at Tarut in the Gulf. These are also known as the Intercultural Style of vessels because they enjoyed a very wide distribution. Later styles were mainly manufactured in Oman.

CHOLISTAN The region in which the western part of the lost Saraswati system lies.

CIRE PERDUE Also known as lost-wax casting, a technique for casting metal (mainly copper or bronze) objects in complex shapes. A full-scale model of a desired object is made in wax, then coated in clay and fired. The wax runs out, leaving a mold in which the metal object is cast. Usually the mold is smashed to remove the object.

COPPER HOARDS Hoards of very distinctive copper artifacts, including an-tenna-hilted swords, found in the Ganges-Yamuna doab and Rajasthan. It took archaeologists many decades to discover the evidence that linked these hoards with the makers of OCP (Ochre-Colored Pottery) and to establish that the culture they represented dated to the earlier second millennium.

CORVEE Days of labor performed as a duty to the state, the religious authorities, or other official bodies, as a form of tax. Although unpaid, corvee was often recompensed by the issue of rations.

COTTON Used for making thread by the end of period I at Mehrgarh (sixth millennium BCE), cotton (Gossypium arboreum) was domesticated in the subcontinent and probably cultivated as a perennial shrub.

CROCODILE See Gharial; Mugger.

CYLINDER SEAL A cylinder, usually of stone inscribed with a design and written text that could be endlessly reproduced by rolling it across wet clay. Cylinder seals were the characteristic product of Mesopotamia, contrasting with the square stamp seals of the Indus.

DAIMABAD A Chalcolithic settlement in Maharashtra, where there is evidence for the presence of Late Harappan people, probably from Gujarat.

DAIMABAD HOARD Four bronze sculptures accidentally discovered near Daimabad. They have been attributed to the Harappans or their descendants, but there is no stylistic or technological evidence to support this identification, and no contextual data to support this period attribution.

DAMB SADAAT A settlement in central Baluchistan that gives its name to an Early Harappan culture related to Kot Diji.

DANCING-GIRL A famous bronze statuette discovered by Mackay at Mohenjo-daro depicting a naked girl in a loose-limbed and provocative pose. This stance led to her being known as the Dancing-girl (nautch-girl), though she is not dancing but standing.

DEER Deer hunted by the Harappans included Kashmir stag, hog deer, chital, barasingha, and sambhar.

DEODAR The Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), a tree that grows in the mountains of the northwest, at elevations above 1,200 meters. Its aromatic wood is extensively used in the construction of buildings and boats and for making coffins.

DHAND A lake created or enlarged by seasonal rainfall or flooding. Dhands include seasonal lakes in the Thar Desert, most of which become saline as their waters evaporate; lakes in Sindh and the Indo-Gangetic doab, forming after the inundation in parts of old levees and in dried-up or abandoned river beds; and pools and lakes in depressions forming after the inundation or the monsoon, including the Nal Lake in Gujarat, but also Lake Manchar and other perennial lakes that expand and contract annually.

DHOLAVIRA The Harappan city in Gujarat, founded in the Early Harappan period and occupied for more than a millennium, though it declined in the Late Harappan period and was eventually abandoned. It is best known for its signboard, its remarkable citadel, and its impressive water tanks.

DHOLE The ferocious cuon or red dog (Cuon alpinus), native to peninsular India and as far north as Kashmir.

DILMUN The name by which Bahrain and adjacent areas were known to the Mesopotamians in the third millennium; it also referred to Failaka in the early second. Dilmun was an important entrepot, trading with Mesopotamia, Magan (Oman), and the Harappans.

DK AREA A residential area in the northeast of Mohenjo-daro's Lower Town, excavated by K. N. Dikshit from 1924.

DOAB The area between two rivers, a term used particularly of the land between the Ganges and the Yamuna, but also more generally. The areas between the rivers of the Punjab are also named doabs, of which the Sindh-Sagar doab between the Indus and the Jhelum is the largest.

DRAVIDIAN The language family to which belong the languages of South India and a few in other parts of the subcontinent. It is possible that some Harappans spoke a Dravidian language.

DRISHADVATI The modern Chautang River, one of the main rivers contributing its waters to the Saraswati system in the Harappan period when what is now the Yamuna flowed in its bed. Later the Yamuna changed its course, leaving the Drishadvati/Chautang as a small river with only seasonal flow along much of its course.

DROMEDARY The one-humped Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) was domesticated in Arabia sometime during the second or possibly third millennium, probably for its milk; its use for riding came later, around 1000 BCE.

DURGA The principal Hindu goddess, consort of the god Shiva. In Hindu mythology, she rides a tiger and slays the buffalo demon Mahishasura. Among her many roles is Mother Goddess.

EARLY HARAPPAN The period preceding the Harappan civilization, circa 3200-2600 BCE, also known as Early Indus. It comprises four regional traditions: Amri-Nal, Kot-Diji, Sothi-Siswal, and Damb Sadaat.

EARLY INDUS See Early Harappan.

EASTERN NARA A branch of the Indus flowing parallel to the Indus to its east.

ELAM The region to the east of Babylonia, in southwestern Iran, comprising both highland and lowland zones.

ELAMITE A language spoken by the people of southwestern Iran, the inhabitants of Elam; it possibly shared a common ancestor with Dravidian, Proto-Elamo-Dravidian.

ELECTRUM A natural alloy of gold and silver.

“ERNESTITE” A very hard stone, made by heating a rare type of fine-grained mottled metamorphic rock that contained titanium oxide. This was employed by the Harappans to make bits for the microdrills used to perforate beads of hard stone and in particular the exceptionally long carnelian beads. This stone has been named after Ernest Mackay, who made a detailed study of bead production, based on material from his excavations at Chanhu-daro.

ESHNUNNA A city on the Diyala in northeast Babylonia.

“ETCHED” CARNELIAN BEADS Beads made of carnelian bearing a design that falsely appears to have been etched. In fact, the design was created by bleaching the surface, which weakened the bleached areas, causing them eventually to erode away.

EYE-BEAD A bead made generally from patterned stone, such as banded agate, cut so as to create concentric circles or ovals on the surface, resembling an eye. Imitations of these were also made of other materials, such as painted terra-cotta.

FABRIC A term used when describing pottery in the finished state, referring to the material of which it is made and reflecting details of its composition, structure, surface treatment, hardness, color, texture, and other physical features.

FIELD SURVEY A method of archaeological exploration that involves, among other things, the systematic traversing of a large area, collecting material from the surface to obtain information on the archaeological material that lies beneath, an exercise known as fieldwalking. Field survey also includes reconnaissance techniques such as aerial photography.

FINGER MILLET See Ragi.

FIRE ALTAR A rectangular clay-lined pit containing a clay stele, filled with ash, charcoal, and often terra-cotta cakes. In some cases there are associated animal bones suggesting that these were involved in a sacrificial ritual. The stele is thought perhaps to represent a lingam.

GABARBAND See Bund.

GANDHARA GRAVE COMPLEX A second-millennium culture in Swat, with a range of distinctive funerary practices and material reflecting both local and intrusive cultural features, including the presence of horses.

GANESHWAR A settlement of the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture.

GANGES The holy river of India, which rises in the Himalayas and flows south and east to a great delta in the Bay of Bengal.

GANGES-YAMUNA DOAB The area between the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.

GAUR The Indian bison (Bibos gaurus), native to peninsular India but probably found as far north as Gujurat and possibly the Indus Valley in Harappan times. It may be among the animals depicted in Indus figurines and seals, or these figures may represent humpless cattle (Bos taurus).

GHAGGAR A river, now dry, located in India, and formerly part of the western course of the lost Saraswati; known as the Hakra in Pakistan.

GHARIAL The fish-eating crocodile (Gavialus gangeticus), common in the Indus, a dangerous beast that can grow up to 6 meters (19 feet) long.

GILUND A major settlement of the Ahar-Banas culture.

GOLA DHORO (Bagasra) A small (1.92-hectare), unwalled town in Gujarat with a walled citadel; it seems to have been a center for trade and industry.

GROG Finely crushed potsherds, used as a temper in making pottery.

GRUNT A species of marine fish (Pomadasys hasta) whose bones are numerous in the Harappan coastal settlement of Balakot.

GUFKRAL A settlement of the Northern Neolithic culture.

GUJARAT The region southeast of Sindh, comprising Kutch, Saurashtra, and the North Gujarat plain to their east, as well as the smaller region of South Gujarat.

HAKRA A river, now dry, in Pakistani territory, formerly part of the western course of the lost Saraswati; known as the Ghaggar in India.

HAKRA PERIOD The period circa 3800-3200 BCE when people from Baluchistan began settling in the Indus region.

HARAPPA Situated on the River Ravi in the Punjab, Harappa was one of the two first cities of the Indus to be discovered and the source of much that is known about the civilization, though many parts of the city were badly damaged by brick robbing. Occupation at the site began in the fourth millennium and continued till around 1300 BCE. See also Mound AB; Mound E/ET; Mound F.

HARP The joint American-Pakistani Harappa Archaeological Research Project, begun in 1986.

HELMAND CULTURE The third-millennium culture on the Helmand and Argandab Rivers and the large Hamun-i Helmand lake in Seistan. The culture depended on irrigation agriculture and trade. Its main settlement was the city of Shahr-i Sokhta.

HOG DEER Axis porcinus.

HR AREA A residential area in the west of Mohenjo-daro's Lower Town, excavated by H. Hargreaves from 1925.

HYACINTH BEAN An East African pulse (Lablab purpureus), introduced in the early second millennium BCE.

INDIGO A plant (Indigofera tinctoria) from whose leaves a blue dye is extracted. It is known from Rojdi.

INDO-ARYAN An Indo-European language, descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian.

INDO-ARYANS The speakers of Indo-Aryan who entered the subcontinent during the second millennium BCE.

INDO-EUROPEAN The large and widespread language family to which Indo-Aryan belongs.

INDO-GANGETIC DIVIDE The area between the catchment basins of the Indus and Ganges Rivers.

INDO-IRANIAN The branch of the Indo-European language family that comprises the Iranian, Nuristani, and Indo-Aryan languages. These shared a common ancestor in Proto-Indo-Iranian, from which Old Iranian and Old Indo-Aryan diverged during the second millennium BCE.

INTERCULTURAL STYLE See Chlorite.

ISMEO The Italian Istituto Medio e Estremo Oriente.

JAJMANI SYSTEM A traditional Indian redistributive mechanism, related to the caste system, in which all members of the community have reciprocal obligations to provide the products of their labors and certain services to others with whom they have a formalized relationship. Payment for these goods and services is made in kind at regulated intervals, often in the context of special occasions such as religious festivals.

JALILPUR A fishing settlement in the Ravi Valley occupied during the Hakra and Early Harappan periods.

JHUKAR A town in Sindh, occupied from the Early Harappan period to the period of decline, in the early second millennium, to which it gives its name.

JHUKAR CULTURE The Late Harappan culture in Sindh and adjacent areas, marked by severe urban decline leading to the abandonment of many settlements.

JIROFT A recently discovered third-millennium state in the Halil River valley in southeast Iran.

JOB’S TEARS A millet (Coix lacrima-jobi) with hard white shiny seeds that were used as beads.

JODHPURA-GANESHWAR CULTURE A hunter-fisher-gatherer culture in the Aravalli Hills, who mined and smelted the region's copper ore from the late fourth millennium BCE.

JOWAR Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), an African millet introduced after 2000 BCE and grown in Saurashtra.

JUJUBE Known in South Asia as ber, a tree (Zizyphus jujuba) that grows in Baluchistan and other parts of the northwest. It yields an edible berry, gathered since early times, being known, for example, in the first period at Mehrgarh. Its timber was used by the Harappans; a wooden mortar at Harappa has been identified as jujube wood.

KACHI PLAIN An area protruding into Baluchistan and running north from Sindh, through which flows the Bolan River. The Bolan pass is one of the main routes into the hills of Baluchistan. Mehrgarh, situated on the Bolan River, is the earliest known farming settlement in the subcontinent.

KALIBANGAN A town situated at the confluence of the Saraswati and Drishadvati Rivers.

KASHMIR STAG The hangul, a variety of deer (Cervus affinis hanglu, formerly Cervus elaphus hanglu) whose antlers were used by the Harappans.

KAUTILYA Adviser to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya and author of the Arthashastra.

KAYATHA CULTURE A Chalcolithic farming culture in Madhya Pradesh who traded with the Harappans.

KECHI BEG PERIOD The period 3800-3200 BCE in Baluchistan, contemporary with Hakra on the Indus plains.

KHARIF The wet season, from late May to September, when summer crops such as rice and millet are grown. During this period, heavy rains are brought to many regions of the subcontinent by the prevailing southwest monsoon winds.

KISH An important northern Sumerian city.

KODON Kodon or Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), native to southern India and introduced to the Indus region in the early second millennium.

KOKCHA A river tributary to the Amu Darya; Shortugai was located near the confluence. The Kokcha gorge was probably the main source of lapis in antiquity.

KOT DIJI A settlement of the Early and Mature Harappan periods situated near the important flint source of the Rohri Hills.

KOT DIJI PHASE The most extensive Early Harappan regional culture, occupying an area including northern Baluchistan, Cholistan, and the Punjab. Though it developed into the Mature Harappan civilization on the plains, in the northern borderlands it continued throughout the later third millennium as the Late Kot Diji culture.

KULLI CULTURE A culture in southern Baluchistan contemporary and closely associated with the Harappan civilization.

KUNTASI A small port and industrial town in Saurashtra.

KUTCH The northwest lobe of Gujarat, now divided from the mainland by the marshy Ranns of Kutch, but in Harappan times an island.

LAGASH An important Sumerian city-state, prominent in the period between the Akkadian and Ur III empires.

LANGNAJ A long-lived hunter-gatherer camp in North Gujarat, whose inhabitants probably acquired domestic animals as well as some small manufactured goods from the Harappans.

LAPIS LAZULI A beautiful and highly valued blue stone, mined in Badakhshan in Afghanistan; its supply was controlled by the Harappans in the later third millennium. A stone similar in appearance was available in the Chagai Hills in western Baluchistan.

LATE HARAPPAN PERIOD The Post-urban or Late Harappan period, from around 1900 BCE. It saw the disintegration of the Harappan state and the decay and abandonment of cities and towns. The effects were most marked in Sindh, the Makran, Kutch, and Cholistan. See also Cemetery H Culture; Jhukar Culture.

LATE KOT DIJI See Kot Diji Phase.

LITTLE MILLET An important crop (Panicum sumatrense) in Mature Harappan Saurashtra. It may also have been grown near Harappa. It was superseded by the more productive African millets in the early second millennium.

LINGAM The sacred phallus representing the god Shiva.

LOGOGRAM A sign representing a word. This has the same meaning in different languages but a different spoken form.

LOST WAX CASTING See Cire Perdue.

LOST SARASWATI See Saraswati.

LOTHAL An important trading and manufacturing town in Gujarat, established on the southern Harappan border, at the interface with lands inhabited by hunter-gatherers and rich in gemstones such as agate and carnelian. A brick basin interpreted as a dock may reflect involvement also with the overseas trade network.

LOTESHWAR A hunter-gatherer camp in Gujarat perhaps occupied by the sixth millennium and certainly by the fourth when, as well as hunting game, the inhabitants kept domestic animals acquired from their farming neighbors and made their own styles of pottery.

MADDER A perennial herb (Rubia tinctorum) with lanceolate leaves producing a red pigment used for dyeing linen, wool, cotton, and leather, using alum as a mordant. The hue produced can be varied from brown through red to violet by adding different metals. Its use is attested to at Mohenjo-daro.

MAGAN The name by which the Oman peninsula was known to the Mesopotamians. Its inhabitants mined the substantial deposits of copper ore in its interior and traded with Mesopotamia, Bahrein, the Indus, and probably southern Arabia and East Africa.

MAKRAN The inhospitable coastal region between the Arabian Sea and Baluchistan. Its main attraction is its good anchorages.

MANCHAR A large lake in Sindh, massively extended annually by the flood-waters of the Indus.

MANDA An outpost settlement on the Chenab River in the Himalayan foothills, probably situated to manage the export of Himalayan timber downriver.

MARGIANA The region of the Murghab River in northern Afghanistan.

MARKHOR A species of wild goat (Capra falconeri falconeri) native to Baluchistan.

MATURE HARAPPAN PERIOD The period circa 2500-1900 BCE when the Indus civilization was at its height.

MATURE INDUS PERIOD See Mature Harappan Period.

MAURYAN EMPIRE The state that unified most of South Asia, founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE. It reached its height under his grandson, Ashoka, and ended in 185 BCE.

MAYSAR A major copper processing center in Oman in the third millennium BCE.

MEGASTHENES A Greek envoy to the court of the Mauryan emperor Chandra-gupta Maurya, whose account of what he saw there is an important source on early Indian history.

MEHRGARH A long-lived settlement in the Kachi plain, founded around 7000 BCE. It is the only early farming site of this antiquity known in South Asia. It was abandoned in favor of Nausharo in the Mature Harappan period.

MELUHHA The name by which the Indus civilization was known to the Mesopotamians.

MESOPOTAMIA The lands watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, now lying mainly in modern Iraq but also including parts of Syria. It was divided into a northern part, Assyria, and a southern, Babylonia, the latter divided into

Akkad in the north and Sumer in the south. It was in Babylonia that civilization emerged in the late fourth millennium.

MIANWALI An outpost settlement located just south of the Salt Range, probably established to manage the supply of salt down the Indus to the Harappan heartlands.

MICROBEADS Tiny steatite beads 1-3 millimeters in diameter.

MILLET A general term for a large number of genera of small-seeded cereals. Some were native to India and were domesticated there; many of these also occurred in Southeast and East Asia. Others were introduced from Africa or Arabia around 2000 BCE. See Bajra; Jowar; Ragi; Kodon; Broomcorn Millet; Foxtail Millet; Bristley Foxtail Millet; Browntop Millet; Little Millet; Job's Tears.

MOHENJO-DARO One of the two great cities of the Indus, first discovered and excavated in the 1920s, situated beside the Indus in Sindh. Among its unique features is the Great Bath. See also Moneer Area; DK Area; HR Area; VS Area.

MONEER AREA A section of Mohenjo-daro's Lower Town (also known as DK-I), excavated by Q. M. Moneer and K. N. Puris in 1933-1938 but unpublished until the area was reinvestigated by the Aachen team in the 1980s. Situated in the southeast of the mound, the Moneer area has proved to be a major industrial quarter of the city.

MORDANT A chemical added to a dye to make it colorfast.

MOUFFLON A wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) found in the high mountains of northern South Asia.

MOUND AB The badly damaged citadel mound at Harappa.

MOUND E/ET The main residential and industrial area excavated at Harappa. Early settlement in mound E expanded to the east to form mound ET.

MOUND F The area between the citadel mound and the river at Harappa. Its architecture included the so-called granary.

MUGGER A freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), native to the rivers of the Indus region and found particularly in slow-moving watercourses such as canals. It grows up to 12 feet (4 meters) long and generally avoids people, though it can be dangerous.

MUNDA A branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Its languages are now spoken only by tribal groups in central India.

MUNDIGAK A town in the Kandahar region of northern Baluchistan, situated at the intersection of a number of important routes. Around 2600 BCE it became incorporated into the Helmand culture.

NAGESHWAR An industrial village in Gujarat where shell was worked.

NAGWADA A village in Gujarat where beadmaking and shellworking took place. Early Harappan burials are also known there.

NAKSHATRA The Indian star calendar, dating back to around 2300 BCE.

NAL A settlement in southern Baluchistan of the early third millennium.

NAL CULTURE See Amri-Nal Phase.

NAMAZGA CULTURE A culture flourishing in southern Turkmenia contemporary with the Harappans. Harappan material has been found at Altyn-depe, one of its principal towns.

NAUSHARO A town in the Kachi plain that flourished through the Early and Mature Harappan periods, superseding Mehrgarh.

NILGAI An antelope (Boselaphus tragocamelus), also known as blue bull.

NORTHERN NEOLITHIC A farming culture in Kashmir contemporary with the Early and Mature Harappans, with whom they traded. There is some evidence suggesting that they also had distant trading links with China.

OCP A culture of the second millennium, in part a successor to the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture, characterized by Ochre-Colored Pottery and also responsible for depositing hoards of copper artifacts. See Copper Hoards.

OLD INDO-ARYAN A descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian, the language of the Rigveda.

ONAGER The wild steppe ass (Equus hemionus), locally known as the khur, native to northwest South Asia, including Gujarat. It is likely that the equids identified at a number of Indus sites were hunted onager, not domestic horse as has often been claimed.

OXUS See Amu Darya.

PADRI A settlement originally of the local inhabitants of Saurashtra, later becoming part of the Harappan civilization.

PARA-MUNDA An extinct language known only from loanwords in the Rigveda. It probably belonged to an extinct branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family and may have been spoken by the Harappans.

PASUPATI Lord of the Beasts, an epithet of Shiva. While now this refers specifically to cattle, in the past it seems to have referred particularly to wild animals.

PATHANI DAMB A large unexplored settlement in the Kachi plain near the Mula pass.

PHTANITE A hard green chert containing traces of iron oxide employed by the Harappans for the microdrill bits used to perforate beads.

PIPAL The asvattha, or Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa), a tall tree with heart-shaped leaves, which has had a religious significance in South Asia probably from pre-Harappan times.

PIRAK An important settlement founded on the Kachi plain around 1700 BCE.

POSTURBAN HARAPPAN PERIOD See Late Harappan period.

PRADAKSHINA Clockwise circumambulation, a form of worship.

PRASAD Gifts offered to the gods, redistributed to worshippers after they had been sanctified by the gods' use of them.

PRE-HARAPPAN PERIOD An alternative, but less satisfactory, term for the Early Harappan period.

PRIEST-KING The famous stone sculpture from Mohenjo-daro, the broken torso of a robed male.

PRIMARY STATE Also known as a pristine state, one of the small number of states that emerged first in their region and without the influence of prexist-ing states: these are usually listed as Mesopotamia (Sumer), Egypt, the Indus, China, and the civilizations of Mesoamerica and the Andean region.

PROTO-ELAMITE The script briefly used by the Elamites circa 3200-2800 BCE, a period when they were active in the Iranian plateau.

PULSES Also known as legumes; a large range of crops, including various peas, beans, and lentils. The Harappans grew both native species, such as green gram and black gram, and pulses introduced from West Asia and Africa.

PUNJAB The region of five rivers (Jhelum, Ravi, Chenab, Sutlej, and Beas) that are tributaries of the Indus, flowing west from the Himalayas.

QALA’AT AL-BAHRAIN A major trading settlement on Bahrain.

RABI The dry season, from October to late February, during which winter crops such as wheat are grown.

RAGI Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), an African millet introduced during the early second millennium.

RAKHIGARHI A settlement established in the Early Harappan period, which became the city of the eastern region in the Mature Harappan period.

RANNS The Great Rann and Little Rann, an area of seasonally flooded salt flats on the north and east of Kutch. In Indus times these were open water.

RA’S AL-JUNAYZ (Ra's al-Jinz) A fishing village on the south coast of Magan (Oman peninsula), which traded extensively with the Indus civilization.

RAVI PHASE The earliest period of occupation at Harappa, corresponding to the Hakra phase in Cholistan.

REHMAN DHERI An important town in northern Baluchistan during the Early Harappan period.

RIGVEDA The earliest of the collection of sacred texts making up the Vedas, dating from around 1700/1500-1000 BCE.

RING STONE A large stone ring, used as part of a pillar.

ROJDI A prosperous farming settlement in Saurashtra that tripled in size in the Late Harappan period.

ROPAR (Rupar, Rupnagar) An outpost settlement on the Sutlej River in the Himalayan foothills, probably situated to manage the export of Himalayan timber downriver.

ROSEWOOD A tree (Dalbergia latifolia) growing in peninsular India and in parts of the north and west. It yields a hard, fine-grained blackish wood used particularly for making furniture. It was identified at Harappa as the wood from which a coffin had been made.

SAAR An important third-millennium settlement in Dilmun (Bahrain).

SAGGER A lidded ceramic vessel used to contain fragile or particularly fine pieces of pottery during firing, protecting them from direct contact with flames or fuel, which could discolor them or fire them unevenly, and from damage by other vessels in the kiln. Sealed saggers could also be used to fire pieces in a reducing (oxygen-free) environment, generally to create a dark surface color.

SAL A tree (Shorea robusta) that grows in thickets in northeastern regions of the subcontinent and that is used for timber.

SAMBAR A deer (Cervus unicolor).

SANSKRIT The language of the early sacred texts, the Vedas.

SARASWATI A river of great importance in Harappan times, flowing from the Siwalik Hills, either to an inland delta in the Derawar region or, less probably, to the sea. The Saraswati dried up during the second millennium, and the name now belongs only to a small seasonal river.

SARGON OF AKKAD (2334-2279 BCE) Founder of the Akkadian empire.

SAURASHTRA The southern peninsula of Gujarat, also known as Kathiawar. In Harappan times it may have been divided from the mainland by perennial water in the Nal Depression.

SEMITIC LANGUAGES The group of languages spoken by most of the peoples of the Near East, ancient and modern.

SHAHR-I SOKHTA A major town on the Helmand River south of the Hamun-i Helmand in Seistan, founded around 3200 BCE, particularly involved in the lapis trade. By 2400 BCE, Shahr-i Sokhta was a city of about 150 hectares, but it declined from 2200 BCE.

SHIVA One of the principal Hindu deities, associated both with destruction and with fertility.

SHORTUGAI Established 1,000 kilometers from the Harappan heartlands to control the supply of minerals from the Amu Darya-Kokcha Valleys of northern Afghanistan, especially lapis but probably also tin and possibly gold.

SINDH The region of the lower Indus, east of Baluchistan.

SISSOO A tree (Dalbergia sissoo) found both in the Indus Valley and in the surrounding mountains, used as timber for construction, furniture, and tools.

SLOW WHEEL An early device that aided pottery production, also known as the tournette or turntable. This was a flat disc set on a pivot or spindle, which was turned by hand, allowing pottery to be rotated during its manufacture or decoration. It could not, however, be used for throwing pottery; this was only possible with the more sophisticated fast wheel (or potter's wheel), a later invention.

SOTHI-SISWAL PHASE The Early Harappan period in the eastern region. Pottery of the Sothi-Siswal types continued in use throughout the Mature Harappan period and into the Posturban period, a fact that makes it difficult to date sites in this area from surface collected material alone.

SOTKA KOH A town in the Makran, probably a Harappan port. It has not been excavated, but exploration has revealed the remains of many houses and kilns in an unwalled settlement. A possible wall suggests that there was also a fortified settlement.

SPINY MUREX A shellfish (Chicoreus ramosus). Its shells were used by the Harappans mainly to make ladles.

STEATITE Soapstone. It was used by the Harappans particularly for making seals, but also for making inscribed miniature tablets and beads.

STELE A freestanding stone post or pillar.

STONEWARE BANGLES Small, very finely made ceramic bangles imitating mottled stone. The managed conditions of their firing suggest they were official insignia of some kind.

SUKKUR HILLS A limestone outcrop in Sindh, divided from the Rohri Hills by a gorge through which the Indus now flows.

SUMER The southern part of Babylonia, home of the first city-states.

SURKOTADA A fortified Harappan town in Kutch, probably with unwalled suburbs. Early Harappan burials were also found there.

SUSA An ancient city, capital of Elam.

SUTKAGEN-DOR The westernmost Harappan settlement in the Makran, probably a port, important for trade through the Gulf.

SURVEY See Field Survey

SWAT The mountainous region north of Punjab and west of the Indus through which runs the Swat River, later known as Gandhara. The inhabitants of this region had links with those on the Indus plain, but their culture was often very different.

TAMARISK A scrubby tree (Tamarix spp) that can grow on sandy and saline soils and is found in Gujarat and the Indus Valley. Used by the Harappans for fuel, it yields a wood that can also be made into building fixtures such as doors, tools, and other objects.

TANK An artificial pool or cistern created to retain water for irrigation and other purposes, including drinking water.

TEAK A tall tree (Tectona grandis) that grows in Gujarat and in other western regions of the subcontinent. Its oily timber is resistant to fire, termites, and water, making it prized for building ships and furniture.

TEPE YAHYA A town in the Kerman region on the Iranian plateau, a participant in the trade networks, particularly involved in the manufacture of bowls and other goods from the locally abundant chlorite.

TERRA-COTTA CAKES Triangular objects of well baked clay. For a long time their function was a puzzle; it seems now that they were used both for retaining heat in kilns and hearths and for paving.

THAR The Great Indian Desert, which forms the southern boundary of the greater Indus region.

THARPARKAR An area of seasonal grassland linking Sindh with Gujarat.

TIBETO-BURMAN A group of languages spoken in much of the Himalayan region, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family.

TOURNETTE See Slow Wheel

TRISULA The trident associated with the god Shiva.

TURKMENIA The area of Central Asia to the west of the southern half of the Caspian Sea. It was occupied in Harappan times by the Namazga culture.

TURNTABLE See Slow Wheel

UMM-AN-NAR A settlement in Magan (Oman) whose inhabitants lived by fishing and by trading copper ore from the interior with people from Mesopotamia and Dilmun, either in situ or by traveling to those countries. This site gives its name to the local culture of the later third millennium.

UR One of the principal cities of Sumer, a major port in the third millennium.

UR III EMPIRE Established in 2112 BCE, the Ur III empire incorporated Sumer and Akkad and a large area to the east, reaching its peak under Shulgi (2094-2047) and declining under later kings until 2004, when the Elamites sacked Ur.

URIAL The wild sheep (Ovis vignei) native to the Indo-Iranian borderlands and regions to the west and north. It was not ancestral to the domestic Ovis aries.

VEDAS Four books of Indo-Aryan religious texts that are the earliest extant Indian literature. They were transmitted orally by faithful repetition and committed to writing only around 1000 CE. Strict Brahminical tradition dictated that the Vedas be memorized perfectly and transmitted without the slightest change. The oldest book is the Rigveda.

VS AREA A residential area in the southwest of Mohenjo-daro's Lower Town, excavated 1923-1926 by M. S. Vats, who also excavated at Harappa, 19261934.

WATER BUFFALO The wild Bubalus arnee and the domestic Bubalus bubalis were probably both exploited by the Harappans, particularly for their rich milk.

WESTERN NARA A branch of the Indus currently flowing to its west.

ZAGROS A mountain range to the east of Mesopotamia.

ZEBU Bos indicus, the humped cattle of the subcontinent, probably domesticated from the now extinct wild Bos namadicus.

ZIZYPHUS See Jujube.