Burials

Few cemeteries have been discovered and only the one at Harappa has been extensively excavated; so there is at present only limited evidence from which to investigate status differentiation in burials. Harappans seem generally to have buried their dead wearing jewelry, but rarely with grave goods except for pottery. The number of vessels and the richness of the personal ornaments probably reflected an individual's status. Their jewelry indicates the high status of two men buried at Harappa. The few women who were interred with a copper mirror may also have been from the elite. Occasionally individuals were buried with other objects, such as a shell ladle or an animal or human figurine. People were never accompanied by seals or tools, perhaps indicating that their official role in life was not considered relevant in the next world.

While some individuals were placed in the grave directly on the ground surface, others were separated from it by a layer of pottery or clay, or their grave was lined with bricks. In a few cases traces have been found of a shroud, a wooden coffin, or sometimes both. One coffin was made of rosewood with a deodar lid; this contained a woman buried with thirty-seven pots. A burial of an elderly man at Kalibangan, in a brick-lined grave, was accompanied by more than seventy pots, some in a layer separating him from the ground surface. It is likely that individuals accorded these additional features were of a higher status, although there are other possible explanations, for example, related to religious beliefs.

The number of people buried in the known cemeteries represents only a fraction of the population. For example, at Kalibangan the cemetery contained the graves of fewer than ninety people, while the town itself accommodated somewhere around a thousand. It is therefore possible that only one section of society was buried, other members of the community being treated in some other way.

All the cemeteries that have been located lie outside the settlements. In contrast, toward the end of the Indus civilization when civic standards were breaking down, burials of a very different nature were made in the heart of Mohenjo-daro. Corpses were disposed of higgledy-piggledy in abandoned streets or empty houses: These are Wheeler's famous "massacre" victims. However, the bones bear witness to violence only in two cases, and in both the injuries predated death by several months. The largest group comprises thirteen adults and a child, found in a house of the HR-B area. Their bodies were placed or thrown there separately at different times, and associated finds show that they were wearing small amounts of jewelry. Two other groups were found—one of six individuals in the VS area and one of nine in the DK-G area—and there was also a single body in a street in the HR-A area. An ivory comb and a pair of elephants' tusks were found with one group, showing that grave offerings were sometimes made. The absence of animal damage to the bones implies that the bodies were deliberately covered with earth. If, as is likely, they were victims of disease, they may have been placed in deserted areas because they posed a health or ritual risk. Rather different were two people from the final period of the city's occupation who apparently died as they attempted to crawl up a stair from a well in the DK-G area: perhaps victims of disease or starvation who died a lonely death unnoticed by others.

Much has been made of the absence of royal burials from the archaeological record of the Harappans. While royal burials are among the best-known remains from a number of ancient societies, it is worth emphasizing how small a proportion of all the royal burials ever made have actually survived and been discovered. Many were robbed or looted in antiquity. The seclusion of the royal dead in a special place distant from settlements, a practice adopted by many societies, can be a major contributor to the failure to discover such graves. Nor need status necessarily be reflected in the elaboration of disposal, as is exemplified by the Saudi King Fa'ad's simple burial in an unmarked grave in 2005 (CE).