Contacts between farmers and hunter-gatherer communities are attested from early times when hunter-gatherers at settlements such as Bagor in Rajasthan and Loteshwar in Gujarat acquired domestic sheep and goats by trading or raiding, perhaps as early as the sixth millennium BCE. The spread first of pastoral groups and later of farmers into the Indus plains and beyond into Gujarat and the Indo-Gangetic divide brought farmers and hunter-gatherers into closer contact, and in many areas this led to acculturation. For example, hunter-gatherer communities in Saurashtra in the late fourth millennium began to make pottery that was distinct from the Kechi Beg wares of the contemporary inhabitants of Baluchistan, adopting the technology but inventing their own styles; this phenomenon is paralleled in other parts of the world, for example, in Europe, when hunter-gatherers and farmers came into close contact. Later this region had several different styles of Harappan pottery (Sindhi and Sorath), but its inhabitants were no longer pursuing a hunter-gatherer way of life. However, in some other regions, such as the adjacent north Gujarat plain, farming settlements did not become established and here hunter-gatherers continued their established way of life, often moving with the seasons to exploit the resources of different econiches.
In most parts of the world, the development of farming ultimately spelled the end of hunting and gathering as a way of life, due to competition for land and the destruction of the parts of the environment on which hunter-gatherers depended. This was not the case in the Indian subcontinent, where hunter-gatherer groups have continued to exist up to the present day. Instead of being
Submerged, they adapted their self-sufficient lifestyle, moving gradually into mutually beneficial interdependence with settled communities. Since hunter-gatherers had a mobile way of life, exploiting regions that could not support agriculture, they could provide the desirable products of jungle and desert that were otherwise difficult or impossible for settled groups to obtain, such as honey, wax, ivory, resin, wild silk, and plant fibers for making cord. Agate and other gemstones for making beads may also have been obtained by hunter-gatherers. They could also act as carriers, transmitting the commodities of one settled region to the inhabitants of another; in exchange they could receive both foodstuffs, such as grain, and goods whose manufacture was beyond their own technological capabilities, such as copper knives. At the time of the Indus civilization, this relationship was in its infancy but was nevertheless becoming an established pattern.
For example, the site of Langnaj in north Gujarat was a hunter-gatherer camp that was occupied over a long period. At the time of the Indus civilization, the bones that were excavated there show that meat from hunted wild animals was being supplemented by that from domestic animals. Similarly, Harappan steatite and dentalium beads, copper knives, and pottery were present alongside the foragers' own repertoire of stone tools.
At Bagor, farther to the east, people living by hunting, gathering, and herding began to make pottery after 2800 BCE. They acquired manufactured goods from groups settled in neighboring regions as well as technological knowledge: They had copper objects probably made in the Aravallis to their northwest, and from the greater Indus region beyond they acquired Harappan beads of banded agate and carnelian and Harappan-style copper arrowheads; their pottery loosely copied that of the Ahar-Banas and Kayatha cultures to their southwest.
The extent to which hunter-gatherers were integrated into Harappan society probably varied regionally. In some areas, such as Saurashtra, hunter-gatherers may have been occupational specialists comparable with transhumant pastoral-ists or the people who gathered and worked marine shells, and were probably regarded as members of Harappan society. Such foragers are difficult to identify or distinguish archaeologically from other Harappans. In contrast, in other areas, such as the north Gujarat plain, hunter-gatherers were culturally distinct and were among the many groups with whom the Harappans traded.
Neighbors to the South
Rajasthan and the Deccan. The Harappans enjoyed good trading relations with a number of other cultures on their borders. Of particular importance was their trade with the people of the Aravallis, the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar culture, who gained much of their livelihood from fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Khetri region of the Aravalli Hills is one of the richest sources of copper in the subcontinent. Often the copper ore occurs in association with arsenic: When smelted, arsenical copper ore produces a useful natural alloy that is harder than pure copper. These hills also yielded steatite, used for the majority of Indus seals. Other minerals occurring there include turquoise, sodalite (a
Mineral resembling lapis lazuli), zinc, gold, silver, and lead, though there is no evidence that these were extracted there during the Indus period. Tin deposits are known in the Khetri belt, particularly in the Tusham Hills in Haryana, at the northeast end of the Khetri belt, not far south of the eastern region of the Harappan civilization. However, although a number of Harappan metal artifacts were made of bronze (tin-copper alloy), the majority were of copper or copper-arsenic alloy. Tin was not used in the post-Harappan period when this eastern region was a focus of settlement, and in the first millennium BCE tin was imported. All these data suggest that this local source of tin was not known in ancient times.
The Harappans made very extensive use of copper. Many ordinary tools were made of copper, and they were widely distributed, indicating that the Harappans had access to large quantities of copper, in contrast, for example, to the people of Mesopotamia. What proportion of this copper came from the Aravalli sources is unclear. A number of factors makes it difficult to identify the source of metal ores used by any culture; these include the variation in trace element concentrations within ore bodies, and the practice of melting down old objects for reuse, thereby potentially mixing metal from different sources. Spectrographic analysis has shown that artifacts at many Harappan sites, including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, contained nickel and arsenic. However, these are present in both the Aravalli copper ores and those of Oman, an area with which the Harappans also traded. It is likely that the Harappans used copper from a number of sources, of which the Aravallis may have been the most important.
As early as the Early Indus period, a trading relationship had developed between the Indus farmers and the people of the Aravallis, who had been exploiting the region's copper since the late fourth millennium. The Jodhpura-Ganeshwar people seem to have mined and smelted the copper ore themselves and to have exchanged the smelted copper with Harappans who traveled to the region to trade. In return, the people of the Aravallis obtained manufactured goods and other Indus produce, probably including objects made from the copper they had previously supplied, since Harappan arrowheads were found at Kulhadeka-Johad near Ganeshwar in the Khetri mine area and at Jodhpura. The trade network probably operated along a riverine route, particularly through Kalibangan, located some 250 kilometers to the north of Ganeshwar along the Kantali River, which was tributary to the Drishadvati in antiquity. In the Early Indus period when copper artifacts were relatively rare, Kalibangan had an unusually large number (fifty), including characteristic Jodhpura-Ganeshwar arrowheads. Kalibangan was therefore probably engaged in the importation of copper and copper artifacts from the Aravallis from the Early Indus period onward. In the Mature Harappan period, the route through Kalibangan (which has yielded twelve hundred Harappan copper objects) was probably used to bring copper to Harappa. Rakhigarhi, Mitathal, and Banawali to the northwest of Ganeshwar may also have been involved in the importing of copper in the Mature Harappan period. Another route may have led west from the Aravallis to Kot Diji and thence to Mohenjo-daro.
Given the volume of Aravalli copper used by the Indus civilization, the trade must have been substantial and well organized. Not enough work has been done in the region, however, to give a picture either of how this trade operated or of the mining and smelting activities of the Jodhpura-Ganeshwar people.
The Ahar-Banas culture to the southwest of the Aravallis had relatively little connection with the Harappans. Exchange networks had introduced wheat and barley to this region, and these were grown alongside local crops. Six Harappan beads were discovered at Ahar; while these might be evidence of direct communications between Ahar-Banas and the Harappans, it is more probable that the beads were acquired at one remove, through exchange with hunter-gatherers or with other cultures that traded with the Harappans.
The Kayatha culture farther to the south, however, may well have had trading links with the Harappans of Gujarat to their west. Tin and gold occur in the region, though it is not known whether these were exploited. The region also contains sources of the agate and carnelian prized by the Harappans, who may have come there in person to obtain the stones or who may have acquired them by trading with the Kayatha culture. The latter obtained beads made of these materials from the Harappans.
Southern India. Whether the Harappans traveled farther south is unknown. South India has one of the world's largest gold reefs, as well as precious and semiprecious stones such as amethyst, beryl, and amazonite. Gold from Karnataka in south India has a natural admixture of silver, and so the electrum objects known from the Indus civilization may indicate that gold from there was being imported and worked by the Harappans. South Indian Neolithic gold and Deccan amethyst may have been exploited and traded, ultimately reaching the Indus through exchange networks; there is no evidence of direct contacts between this region and the Indus. However, communications of some sort, operating through the regions between the northwest and southern India, are suggested by a number of data: the appearance of sheep and goats in South India during the later third millennium; a surface find of a Mesopotamian cylinder seal at Maski, near the Hutti gold reef (known to have been exploited in early times, since gold is present at Neolithic sites such as Piklihal, Maski, and Kodekal); the discovery of a Harappan bronze chisel at Piklihal; and the recent discovery of a stone axe inscribed with four signs in the Indus script from Mayiladuthurai in Tamilnadu. Hunter-gatherers were probably involved in the chain of communications. It is possible, though unlikely, that the Harappans themselves traveled to Karnataka to exploit its gold and minerals.
Neighbors to the North and West
The mountainous regions to the north and west of the Indus realms, the Indo-Iranian borderlands and the Himalayas, were rich in resources useful to the Harappans: notably timber, metal ores, and other minerals. The Indo-Iranian borderlands had been culturally integrated with the Indus Basin during the Early Harappan and preceding periods, but major changes had occurred with
The cultural unification of the Indus civilization. Many earlier settlements were abandoned. The Kot Diji areas of the northern borderlands developed their own separate Late Kot Diji culture, though they continued to trade with the Harappans. Harappan artifacts such as beads, terra-cotta cakes, and toy carts might have been acquired haphazardly in individual transactions, when, for example, pastoralists from this region migrated to the plains during the winter, but the presence of an Indus weight in the Late Kot Diji settlement of Gumla shows that this trade was organized. Harappan pottery was present in some settlements such as Periano Ghundai, Rana Ghundai, and Sur Jangal: Often the Harappan material was concentrated in a small part of the settlement. Very little Mature Harappan material was found in the town of Rehman Dheri, the major settlement of the region, but it was common in the small site of Hisham Dheri immediately to its north, perhaps suggesting the latter might have been a caravanserai or trading settlement where Harappan traders came to conduct local business.
Among the important resources of this region was salt, from the Salt Range where a Late Kot Diji settlement is known at Musakhel. The Salt Range also had copper ore and gypsum. Farther north in Swat, where the important Late Kot Diji settlement of Sarai Khola was located, there was alabaster; this could also have been obtained farther south, from the western Bugti Hills.
To the east of the Late Kot Diji culture area, in Kashmir, there were settlements of the Northern Neolithic culture, such as Gufkral and Burzahom. In the early third millennium, these sites had been in contact with settlements in the northern borderlands and the Indus plains, and these contacts continued. The presence of traded Indus material, such as the cache of nine hundred agate and carnelian beads at Burzahom, reflects the importance to the Harappans of Himalayan timber, exploited over a broad front. The Harappans may also have obtained minerals from this area, including gold, silver, lead, copper, steatite, agate, and amazonite, and possibly jade from Khotan in China, a material obtained and used by the Kashmir people themselves.
Kulli. In contrast to the northern borderlands, southern Baluchistan, home to what is known as the Kulli culture, remained closely linked with the Indus civilization. Opinions are divided whether the Kulli material and settlements represent a separate culture or merely a highland regional subculture of the Indus civilization. Indus seals and weights have been found in several Kulli settlements, confirming the close economic and cultural relationship between the Indus civilization and the Kulli region.
The people of the Kulli culture, presumably the descendants of the Amri-Nal farmers and pastoralists of the region, seem to have combined pastoralism with sophisticated irrigation agriculture. They occupied large walled settlements generally situated on bluffs, which often had an elevated area with monumental platforms that may have served some religious purpose. Distinctive Kulli material included many figurines of bulls and women, as well as certain forms and decorative motifs in the pottery, such as straightsided canisters and zoomorphic designs. However, many of their pottery
Vessels resembled those of the Harappans, and other characteristic Harappan artifacts, such as model carts, were known in Kulli sites. Conversely, a few Kulli objects were found in Harappan settlements in adjacent regions, such as Nausharo and Lohumjo-daro; these included two steatite boxes at Mohenjo-daro that resemble ones from Mehi.
Several Harappan seals with the unicorn design were found at Nindowari and weights at Mehi and Kinneru, indicating that the Kulli culture was involved in the Harappan trade networks. Southern Baluchistan, and particularly the Sarawan region, was a source of minerals including substantial copper deposits (eastern Las Bela), as well as agate, steatite (Makran and Zhob district), jasper, carnelian (Hab Valley), and chert, the latter probably exploited from the Harappan settlement of Bakkar Buthi. Dates and perhaps other fruit were also probably traded from this region, as they are today.
The Kulli region lay astride the land routes that linked the Harappan settlements of the Makran coast with those of the Kachi plain and Sindh, of particular importance during the summer months when communications by sea were difficult or impossible. A number of towns in the Hab Valley seem to have been related to controlling the access routes between Sindh and the Kulli interior. Since pastoralism played a major part in the Kulli economy, the region's transhumant herders and shepherds, moving down from the hills in the winter, are likely to have acted as carriers for the Harappans.
Since at least the seventh millennium, the Kachi plain had benefited from its location on a major route through the Bolan pass into the interior of Baluchistan and from there through the Quetta and Kandahar Valleys to Seistan or beyond, through the Khojak pass, to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The political changes that accompanied the emergence of the Harappan civilization, however, seem to have closed this route beyond the Quetta Valley. Northwestern Baluchistan, with the important town of Mundigak, became incorporated into the Helmand culture and no longer traded with the Indus region. Small quantities of Harappan material in the Quetta Valley show that a limited amount of interaction occurred with the people of what had earlier been the Damb Sadaat region. Traffic through the Bolan pass would now have come almost exclusively from southern Baluchistan, passing through the Quetta Valley: The use of this route is indicated by the presence of Kulli material in Nausharo in the Kachi plain. Another route from the Kulli area led through the Mula Valley to the plains at Pathani Damb, site of a Mature Harappan town that may have been of considerable size.
Procurement Centers
One of the hallmarks of the Indus civilization was the establishment of outposts beyond the main area of Harappan settlement, designed to control the produce of key regions. These included Manda, Ropar, and Kotla Nihang Khan in the north, located in the Himalayan foothills on the Chenab and Sutlej Rivers, near where each became navigable. These settlements were well placed to control the exploitation and distribution of timber such as pine, ebony, sis-
Soo, and sal from the Himalayan foothills and deodar from higher in the mountains. These were carried downriver to other Harappan regions and also exported overseas. Gold dust may also have been available on the upper Sutlej. Another Harappan settlement in the north was located near Mianwali bordering the Late Kot Diji territory south of the Salt Range and may have been concerned with salt procurement. At the opposite end of the greater Indus region was the outpost of Mehgam on the southern Gujarat mainland, a site linked to the exploitation of gemstones. The most distant (and surprising) outpost was at Shortugai in Afghanistan, discussed later in this chapter.
The Indus town of Lothal in Saurashtra lay on the border between the agricultural lands of the Indus civilization and the sparsely inhabited north Gujarat plain, home to hunter-gatherer groups, and was not far from the sea. A substantial part of this small town was given over to the manufacture of various Indus products such as beads and objects of copper, shell, and ivory. The volume of these goods produced was quite out of proportion to the needs of the town's modest resident population and the inhabitants of its hinterland. The greater part of its products, therefore, must have been made for use elsewhere. Some, it seems likely, were intended for trade with the hunter-gatherer inhabitants of north Gujarat and the desert regions to the south of the Indus realm. Others may have been made for export overseas.
World History
