ARTIFACTS

Salient features of Harappan crafts and craft production include the standardization, organized mass production, and widespread distribution of many artifact types. Jewelry, particularly bangles and beads, probably played an important role in identifying the social persona of individuals, so shellworking and beadmaking were major industries. While the Harappans often employed the same precious materials as their contemporaries, such as gold, they also placed a high value on artificially produced materials, such as faience, and on objects displaying the artisan's skill and virtuosity, such as long carnelian beads.

Ceramics

Workshops. Kiln bases, pieces of kiln lining, and scatters of misfired sherds are generally the only remaining evidence of pottery manufacture. However, one potter's workshop, a small structure with several rooms, was discovered in Nausharo at the foot of the wall surrounding the northern mound. Pots made there were stacked on shelves to dry; they and some tools were left in place when the workshop was suddenly abandoned. A later building, constructed over the earlier debris, was also a potter's workshop and included an area where the pottery was fired in a bonfire kiln. Sherds from misfired pots were used to surface the lane outside the workshop. Only some of the types of pottery used in the settlement were made in this workshop.

In the northwest corner of mound E at Harappa, there was a pottery-making area where several kilns were found. Tools such as bone spatulas and stone blades used in shaping the pottery and red ochre for painting the vessels lay scattered around them. Waste material deposited in a pit included a broken bat (clay disc) used when throwing pottery. This area produced a restricted range of vessels; terra-cotta cakes were made in another industrial area, on mound ET.

A number of kilns were found at Mohenjo-daro, in the HR, VS, and Moneer areas. All belong to the late period of occupation in the city; their location, on occasion, in former streets shows they were associated with the period of urban decay. It is probable that during the Mature Harappan period, pottery production took place away from the city center. This was the case at Kalibangan, where pottery waste was found in the unwalled area south of citadel.

A ceramic factory area was uncovered at Lal Shah, about a kilometer from Mehrgarh. This contained at least seven updraft kilns, and other debris from pottery manufacture, including stands and sherds used for smoothing the surfaces when finishing pots.

Clays. Fine textured clays for making pottery were available throughout the alluvial plains, and other suitable clays could be had in other areas; for example, there was excellent ball clay in Saurashtra, including near Kuntasi.

A variety of clays might be used to make different fabrics or for different sections of a vessel, as at Balakot, or this variation might be achieved by using different tempers, as at Mohenjo-daro. A considerable range of tempers was used, including organic material such as cow dung or straw, minerals such as sand, mica, or lime, and other materials such as grog. The clay was carefully levigated and was sieved when making fine wares.

Manufacture. Some pots were modeled by hand by coiling or were built up from slabs, but many were made partially or entirely on a potter's wheel. Although no wheels survive, as they were probably of wood, it is likely that they were similar to those used in the region today. These consist of a turntable, on which the clay is thrown, attached by an axle to a lower flywheel, which is set in a pit and turned with the foot. The wheel could be turned at different speeds, depending on the operations being undertaken, such as throwing on a fast wheel or trimming a vessel on a wheel turned slowly. A conical lump of clay with a depression in the top found at Nausharo had probably been set on the wheel to begin throwing when the workshop was suddenly abandoned. Often a bat was used; this was fastened to the turntable or firmly seated over it. The vessel was thrown on this, allowing it to be removed without the disturbance of cutting it from the wheel. This was particularly useful when a vessel was being constructed in several pieces. Simpler vessels were often cut from the wheel with a string on completion, and a number might be thrown from the same lump of clay in quick succession, a form of mass production for utilitarian wares. The lower part of some vessels was thrown in a mold, allowing vessels to be made in standardized sizes. A few flat-based

A revetment wall abutting the “granary” at Harappa illustrates both the arrangement of bricks in alternating courses of headers and stretchers, and the characteristic massiveness of Harappan walls, which were at least two bricks thick and generally more. (Ute Franke-Vogt)

Molds, in different sizes, have been found at Nausharo and pieces of others at Mohenjo-daro and Balakot. The mold was attached to the wheel with chocks under the rim or with clay.

The wheel was used again to turn a vessel while removing excess clay or scraping it to make selected parts thinner. Tools found in the workshop at Nausharo included flint blades used to shape the vessel and terra-cotta scrapers. A wooden paddle and a stone or pottery anvil were used to create rounded bases on leather-hard pottery; rubbing stones found at Harappa and a pottery dabber from Nageshwar may have been such anvils.

Special wares included more complex shapes that required a high level of skill to produce, for example, the large storage jars. Their basal portion was thrown on the wheel, and the central portion was built up using slabs or coils of clay. These vessels were then turned on the wheel to trim the sides and shape the rim. After forming, cords were wrapped around them to ensure they kept their shape while drying.

Pedestaled vessels were also specialist products. These were made in two or three pieces. The flared base could be made in a mold or included in the making of the stem, which was thrown either freehand or round a central mold. This and the bowl or dish were separately thrown and left to dry to leather-hard before being assembled. The upper end of the pedestal and the base of the dish or bowl might be marked with a few short lines before semiliquid clay was applied to the one and soft clay to the other and the two parts joined. A thin coil of clay was then thrown around the join. Alternatively, the two parts might be brought together immediately after they were thrown; in this case an additional coil of clay was unnecessary but the top of the pedestal would broaden out.

Completed pottery was left to dry, like the twenty-five vessels abandoned on shelves at Nausharo. When it was leather-hard, it could be decorated in various ways. Some pots were returned to the wheel where horizontal grooves or combed lines were cut into the surface. Others were impressed with the edge of shells or with a pointed stick. Some were fluted or ribbed with the fingers. The inside of many pedestaled bowls was decorated with a series of concentric circles impressed with the end of a reed. A tiny central mark reveals that these circles were drawn first with compasses. Many vessels were coated in a red slip and some were burnished; both treatments reduced the vessel's porosity. Only a few types of pot had slip applied to the interior, including some large storage jars that were coated in a black slip inside and out. Some vessels, especially cooking pots, were partially coated with a sandy, gritty clay, which gave protection when the pot was heated on the fire. One particularly fine specialist ware, Reserved Slip ware, was coated first with a black and then a gray slip. The latter was then selectively removed to create combed patterns exposing the black surface beneath.

When the vessels were completely dry, they might be painted, usually with black made from a mixture of iron and manganese oxides or red from red ochre; occasionally white or very occasionally yellow, blue, or green was also used. Horizontal lines were applied while turning the piece on the wheel to create decorative zones within which, on some vessels, patterns were laid out using a grid. Plant and animal designs were included on many early painted vessels but these were rare later.

Firing. Pots might be fired in a simple bonfire kiln: these are still used in the subcontinent and had been for millennia by Harappan period. Fuel, such as cow dung, reeds, brushwood, or straw, was spread in a shallow pit or over sloping open ground, and the pots were stacked above it, in layers, facing in any direction except completely upright or upside down. Sherds were used to support unstable pots where necessary. To protect them during firing, particularly fragile pieces were placed inside a lidded jar (sagger), which was sealed with a mixture of straw and clay; some were found in the potter's workshop at Nausharo. Prefiring graffiti were perhaps used to identify vessels made by different potters when several shared a bonfire firing.

The pottery stack was covered with sherds and a layer of dust and ash, then more fuel, and finally a layer of clay spread over the top to seal in the bonfire, with the mouth of a broken jar set in the top to provide a smoke hole; others set around the edges enabled air to be drawn in and circulate inside the stack. At Nausharo, terra-cotta cakes may also have been used to cover the stack or protect its edges. After lighting, the bonfire kiln would be left for about eight to ten days: one to three days for the firing and about a week for the pots to cool. A small bonfire kiln site was associated with the pottery workshop at Nausharo, and it is possible that most pottery was fired in this way.

Other types of kilns are also known, however, perhaps reserved for firing small quantities of fine wares and other specialist products such as stoneware bangles since these allowed the firing conditions to be controlled. This was important, for example, in firing painted pottery. First the pottery was fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. Then the firing was completed in a reducing atmosphere by closing the air vents; this fixed the black color of the paint by sintering the pigment. Finally, the air vents were reopened to restore an oxidizing atmosphere in which the unpainted portions of the pottery returned to red.

The majority of kilns were of the updraft type, in which the round or oval clay-lined fire chamber was at the bottom, either constructed in a pit lined with clay or built of bricks and enclosed in an earthen bank. The pots were stacked on a perforated platform supported above the fire chamber on a pillar or tongue of bricks. A temporary domed roof was constructed over this for each firing and removed afterward; kilns were sometimes used and renewed over centuries. A funnel-shaped stoke hole at one side allowed the temperature of the kiln to be maintained by adding fuel and controlling the air flow. Terracotta baffles were used to prevent heat loss. Additional flues might be present on the other side to ensure that the air circulated fully causing the fuel to burn evenly throughout the kiln. Examples have been excavated at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal, Lal Shah, Balakot, and Nageshwar. At other sites including Kalibangan, debris such as vitrified bricks or clay, ash, and sherds of misfired pottery (wasters) suggests the presence of kilns.

Pottery Types. Harappan pottery ranged from plain everyday pots, usually of a thick sturdy ware, to fine painted vessels. Generally Harappan pots were made of plain reddish orange ware, but a few types were black; painted examples were decorated in the contrasting color. A few early pots from Mohenjo-daro were of a grayish ware, and other wares are known from Gujarat, where they probably derive from earlier local pottery such as Padri ware.

The majority of pottery types were found throughout the Harappan realms; although there was some variation in domestic wares, there was great uniformity in more specialized products. Plain pottery included round-based cooking pots with a substantial rim for ease of lifting off the fire; medium-sized storage jars, often with pointed bases to be set in the floor; dishes and bowls for serving food; and beakers and cups to drink from. Specialist wares included fine pedestaled dishes and bowls, which may have been used for making offerings, and lavishly painted S-profile jars. Large black-slipped storage vessels were produced by skilled potters and perhaps only at Harappa. Other characteristic forms included jar stands, perforated jars that may have served as sieves or braziers, and pointed-based goblets, which were very common in the later levels at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. In addition there were a few regional types used alongside standard Harappan wares in some areas, particularly Sothi-Siswal wares in the eastern province and Sorath wares in Saurashtra, which included distinctive stud-handled bowls.

The finer vessels were coated in a red slip and many were painted. In the early Mature Harappan period, the painted designs often included plant and occasionally animal motifs, such as peacocks or pipal leaves, as well as geometric designs, but later painted wares usually bore only the latter. These included various designs using intersecting circles, a distinctive fish scale pattern, and hatched squares or triangles.

Stoneware Bangles. Puzzling vitrified agglomerations of pottery, clay, and bangles found at Mohenjo-daro were subjected to detailed chemical and physical analyses and dissection by M. A. Halim of the Pakistan Department of Archaeology and Massimo Vidale of IsMEO, revealing that the debris resulted from the disastrous misfiring of an elaborate arrangement for firing stoneware bangles.

The stoneware bangles were a sophisticated product. The clay to make them was sieved and well levigated to produce a very fine paste. A thick hollow cylinder was thrown on the wheel and marked off into sections. After a few hours' drying this was cut, using a cord, into individual bangle blanks, which were then left to dry until hard. A central column was fastened to the wheel over which each bangle in turn was placed, allowing its outer part to be trimmed with a stone blade while the wheel revolved. The interior was also trimmed, either by hand or seated in a shallow bowl set on the wheel. The surface of the bangle was burnished with a stone and polished with a cloth. Finally a short inscription was scratched on the side with a burin.

By skillful throwing and careful control the bangles were made to an exact size, 5. 5-6 centimeters internal diameter after firing. The arrangements for

A distinctive Indus pottery type, the perforated jar; this example comes from Harappa. Such jars are usually found inside large bowls, a combination perhaps used as brewing equipment, with the perforated jar, wrapped in cloth, serving as a strainer. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)

Firing were complex. The bangles were usually placed in pairs in small, lidded bowls used as saggers, which were stacked in a column of around five and then coated in chaff-tempered clay. This stack was placed in a large, horizontally ribbed, clay-coated jar. A lid was placed over the jar and also coated in clay to seal it, effectively insulating the bangles from the air during firing. Finally a massive outer cap was placed over the top and impressed with a unicorn seal to ensure that the ensemble could not be tampered with. The sealed vessel was stably set on stacks of terra-cotta bangles in a kiln, which was fired at a high temperature.

The finished bangles were a mottled grayish black, resembling fine-grained metamorphic stone, and broken examples show that they were black right through. This was achieved in part by the reducing firing atmosphere, but the effect may have been enhanced by including some organic material within the nested containers; experiments showed that goat dung produced excellent results. These bangles were produced only at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.

Terra-cottas. Terra-cotta rings were manufactured as the "cheapest" form of the bangles that were ubiquitous in the Indus civilization, and some of these had red-painted decoration. Other objects of terra-cotta included inscribed tablets, floor tiles, triangular cakes, and decorated cones whose function is uncertain. The most intriguing object was a birdcage found at Harappa, a globular vessel with horizontal and vertical slits in its walls, and a slotted terra-cotta door. But apart from pottery the most common objects of fired clay were human and animal figurines.

A unique terra-cotta object found in a late level at Harappa, thought to have been a birdcage. On the other side, not visible in this photograph, is a slot to take a sliding door. The top is missing. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)

The figurines were generally hand-modeled, although in later Mature Harappan times the heads of bull figurines were made in a mold, details, such as horns, being added by hand, along with the bodies. Studies of the female figurines found at Harappa revealed that many were made as separate left-and right-side halves, comprising head, torso, and legs, joined together before details were added; the latter included arms and thickened shoulders and accessories such as necklaces. Many of the features, such as noses, were pinched out by hand, while others, such as eyes and jewelry, were added as blobs and strips of clay.

The fabric of the terra-cottas was the same as that used for making pottery. Some bear slight surviving traces of paint. The vast majority of figurines were solid, but a few large animal figures were made of clay over a core of straw that burned out during firing, leaving a hollow interior. Kilns for firing terracottas were generally smaller than those for pottery; these are known, for example, from Balakot and Allahdino.

Stone

In the pre-Harappan period, metal objects were few in number and their repertoire quite restricted, whereas there were numerous stone tools of many types. In the Harappan period, the reverse was true, metal objects becoming common and the number and variety of stone tools relatively restricted. Nevertheless there were still many objects for which stone was the most appropriate material, such as grindstones, and others, such as drills and cutting tools, that were made both in stone and metal, either to be used on different materials or for use by different sectors of the population. Harappan stone artifacts included edge tools mainly of flint but also of jasper and chalcedony, weights, grindstones, seals, beads, and other small objects.

Hard Stone. Querns were made of granite, basalt, and other volcanic stone, often available as river pebbles. Quartzite or sandstone was used for grinding stone objects. Weights were manufactured mainly of chert, but felspar, chalcedony, carnelian, agate, jasper, and amazonite were also used. Marble, alabaster, and other attractive stones were made into gaming pieces, balls, and other small items, as well as small architectural components such as window grilles. Vessels such as jar stands might also be made out of stone. Small, perforated spherical objects of various sizes have been interpreted in a number of ways: as mace heads, digging stick weights, or bolas components.

Stone was dressed and shaped into artifacts by chipping and hammering with stones, using direct percussion, and finished by grinding and polishing with abrasive stones. Hollowed surfaces and perforations could be made in the same ways or worked with drills and abrasive sand. Sculptures were made by the same methods.

Flint. Pre-Harappan flint tools were generally made of different types of locally available flint. In contrast, those of the Harappans, including the residents of Shortugai in Afghanistan, were made almost exclusively from the brownish gray flint from the Rohri Hills in Sindh. This limestone plateau contains a substantial outcrop of very fine-quality flint that had been quarried since Palaeolithic times. Limestone, used for sculpture and for ring stones, was also available there. Many Harappan quarries were discovered along the plateau edges. These might be sunk more than a meter before a vein of flint was found.

The Indus stoneworkers swept aside the debris of earlier flint knappers to make cleared areas where they sat to work the flint. Debris defining one Harappan working floor comprised more than thirty-five thousand pieces of waste flint. First the flint knapper roughly shaped a suitable nodule using direct percussion with a hammerstone. This initial work generally took place near the quarry from which the flint had been extracted. The roughed-out precore was then worked into a shape suitable for striking blades, using a copper-tipped punch to remove flakes from its sides. Some prepared cores were taken to Harappan settlements such as Mohenjo-daro, where blades could be struck from them, though blades were also manufactured in the Rohri Hills factory site itself. The nearby town of Kot Diji was an important center for flint blade production.

The majority of Indus stone tools were made by using or modifying the long regular blades that were struck from the prepared core, using a copper-tipped tool that was pressed against the top of the core using the weight of the body. Often the core was heated before striking the blades because this enabled longer, smoother blades to be detached. Cores usually yielded several dozen blades before becoming too small. Tiny bullet cores, only about a centimeter in diameter, were made by specialists, and from these cores narrow microblades were struck, around 2-3 millimeters in width.

Most blades were used unmodified as cutting tools or were snapped into smaller segments. A few were used as blanks and shaped into other tools such as borers, scrapers for trimming pottery, and burins for incising shell. Leafshaped arrowheads were made by retouching blade segments, using pressure flaking with a soft hammer.

The Cambay Technique. Inverse indirect percussion may have been used, particularly to make objects with a square section, such as weights, drills, and beads. Known as the Cambay (Khambat) technique, this method of flint knapping is peculiar to South Asia, where it is attested to by the sixteenth century CE; although there is no indubitable proof that it was used in Harappan times, this is probable. The flint core was held against a stake tipped with copper or antler, while it was struck with a soft hammer made of wood, antler, or horn, detaching a long blade. The technique achieved the same results as normal indirect percussion but had the advantage, particularly useful when working small objects such as beads, that one hand was free to hold the object being knapped; in normal indirect percussion, the hands hold the hammer and the punch, so the object being knapped has to be held firm between the knees or feet.

Drills. Many of the drills used to perforate beads were made of phtanite, a type of green chert containing traces of iron oxide. These drills were made on small flakes that were retouched to form approximately square section bars; further chipping and polishing reduced them to tiny cylindrical drill bits with a slight depression in the tip. A few drill bits were made of an extremely hard stone that has been called Ernestite after Ernest Mackay who first identified its use. This was produced artificially by heating a rare type of fine-grained meta-morphic rock containing titanium oxide until a change in its crystalline structure occurred, giving it exceptional hardness. Microdrills in flint were also made. The wear on flint drills suggests that they were not used for beadmaking but on softer materials, such as shell and leather.