Industrial Activity

In most Harappan settlements there is some evidence of industry, both in individual houses and in areas of more concentrated activity. At Harappa, there were industrial quarters on the west side of mound E, in its center, and to the right of the southern gateway in mound ET. In mound F, near the river, there were circular working floors of baked bricks with central depressions that had once held wooden basins or mortars, each enclosed in a small building. Workshops are known from many parts of the Lower Town at Mohenjo-daro. Concentrations of debris from a range of industries, found along the eastern and southern periphery of the mound, reflect the existence of craft quarters; though the debris derives mainly from erosion and the dumping of rubbish, some industrial installations were located in situ in these areas.

One of the most impressive workshops was the beadmaking factory at Chanhu-daro, which included a furnace. Industrial quarters made up most of the limited excavated areas at this settlement and a major part of the towns of

A series of working platforms made of concentric circles of bricks, originally inside buildings, were uncovered in Mound F at Harappa. Material associated with one suggests that indigo dye was prepared here. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)

Kuntasi and Lothal. It is possible there were roofed open-air workshops around the periphery of mound II at Chanhu-daro.

The majority of craft activities located in the towns and cities of the Mature Harappan period were light industry: making beads and faience and working in shell, stone, antler, bone, wood, metal, and steatite. Industries that created noxious fumes or other offensive by-products have seldom been located within the walled settlements; in most cases, the examples of such industries that have been found have either belonged to the period of urban decay or have been located in suburban areas, on the periphery of the residential area or in specialist industrial sites. For example, the malodorous activity of cleaning out shells took place on a separate suburban mound to the east of Mohenjo-daro's Lower Town; copper smelting may also have been undertaken there.