Archaeological studies of prehistoric social organization often focus on data in which differences and similarities between people, such as gender, social status, ethnicity, occupation, or cultural or religious affiliation, may be reflected, providing clues to the ordering of society. These include housing and the organization of settlements; personal appearance and access to valued objects and materials; funerary practices; and health and diet. Other clues to the nature of societies may lie in the organization of trade and craft production and the mobilization of labor for large-scale enterprises. Some of these avenues of inquiry are opened up by data from the Harappan civilization while for others there is little to go on.
Elites are generally thought to have had preferential access to both luxuries and basic productive resources. The population of the Harappan realms seems to have been well within the carrying capacity of the region, and their standard of living (reflected in housing, nutrition, and artifacts) seems generally to have been good. However, the Harappan elite may be expected to have had greater access to objects or materials of value, defined in terms of their expense of acquisition or manufacture, which would been used to display their status, for example when worn as jewelry; they may also have had closer access to the gods, which in the Harappan realms may have meant taking greater precautions to preserve ritual purity.
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246 THE ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY Personal Appearance
Many, if not indeed all, societies use features of personal appearance to make statements and to provide information about individuals and social groups. It should, therefore, be possible to glean some information about Indus social organization by examining variations in clothing, hairstyles, and personal ornaments. The many figurines supply much information on personal appearance, particularly that of women, and other clues come from the array of ornaments found on skeletons in burials. These data suggest some status differentiation among individuals, but not a markedly stratified society.
Jewelry. By analogy with other societies, the quantity and quality of jewelry worn may have indicated status. The Harappans' attitude to materials that were highly valued by their contemporaries was unusual. They made little use themselves of the lapis lazuli and turquoise that they obtained, with considerable effort, for export. Gold seems to have been valued no more highly than silver. Ivory was used like bone, for everyday objects. The Harappans mainly placed a high value on skill, on the investment of labor, and on the transformation of materials, creating such valuables as exceptionally long carnelian beads, steatite microbeads, and objects of faience and stoneware.
Bangles are an important element in traditional Indian female dress, offering symbolic protection, their types reflecting such things as membership of particular communities or marital status. Men may also wear bangles, the best-known example being the Sikh kara. Figurines and sculptures, such as the famous dancing girl, show that bangles were a common item of Harappan dress. Finds from burials confirm this: Women usually wore a number of bangles, either on both arms or on just the left, narrow ones around the wrist, and wider ones above the elbow.
The different materials from which these were made and their technological sophistication probably reflect status differentials in Harappan society. The majority were handmade of terra-cotta: These were probably for everyday wear, like the ubiquitous glass bangles worn today. Some were plain, others decorated with painted or incised designs. Some were made of finer clays. Less common but also widespread were shell bangles. Large sturdy bangles that could be worn even by women engaged in heavy manual work were known from many settlements but not in the graves at Harappa, where all the bangles found with women were of shell. These were a far more fragile type, thin kidneyshaped rings, a shape imitated in fine bangles made of faience. White or blue-green faience was also used for simple ring bangles decorated with chevrons. Other bangles were made of a copper or bronze rod bent round into a slightly open circle, while a few were manufactured from silver or from hammered gold sheet. Since faience, copper, silver, and gold bangles were far less common than those of terra-cotta or shell, their wearers are likely to have been members of the elite. Some of the latter also wore finger or toe rings of silver wire or copper.
The figurines show that women wore a great variety of jewelry, which might include ear ornaments, pendants, or anklets. Some had an ornament hanging over the forehead. A cylindrical or truncated conical amulet of black stone, or
A burial of a woman at Harappa. She is wearing shell bangles on her left arm, which was typical for women at the time. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Less commonly of serpentine, faience, or steatite, was worn by women buried at Harappa, suspended round the neck, and these amulets are common at other sites. Given their numbers, this may have been an ornament worn by women to indicate that they were married, like a number of the pieces of jewelry worn by Indian women today. Men were less frequently buried with jewelry: Among those at Harappa, one wore a shell bangle and a hair ornament of beads, steatite microbeads, and shell rings, while another had a necklace of three hundred and forty steatite beads and other jewelry using seven beads of gold, copper, and stone, including an onyx eye bead (a bead decorated with concentric circles or ovals that resemble the human eye). Male figurines were also generally unadorned, though a few had a neck ornament; in contrast, depictions of deities of either sex wore bangles the entire length of their arms and sometimes had enormous necklaces.
The prominence of beadmaking among craft activities indicates that beads played an important role in dress, and this is confirmed by figurines, which are often shown dressed in little else. Many wore neck chokers with pendant beads and single and multiple stranded bead necklaces of graduated lengths, virtually covering their chests. Others wore few or none, such as the models from Nausharo of women grinding grain and kneading dough. The Harap-pans made beads from a great variety of local and imported raw materials, including gold, silver, copper, agate, carnelian, jasper, and other gemstones, steatite, lapis, and shell, as well as manufacturing them from bronze, terracotta, and faience. Patterned stones such as banded agate were particularly prized, especially those that could be cut to show circles like eyes. Imitations of these natural eye beads were also made, in a variety of materials of differing worth: faience, "etched" carnelian, or painted pottery. Value was measured not only by the rarity of the raw material but also by the craftsmanship involved. Microscopic beads of steatite, only a millimeter wide, show extraordinary skill and patience in their manufacture. Necklaces and other jewelry made of thousands of these beads, such as the hair ornament found on a man buried at Harappa, must have been extremely valuable. Similarly skilled and labor-intensive was the production of very long carnelian beads, each of which took around two weeks to make. Cheap imitations of these were made in terracotta, known, for example, from Nausharo.
Hairstyles. Hairstyles may also have demonstrated the social standing of individuals. Female figurines often wear their hair either folded up over a pannier or fan-shaped frame or piled high on the top of their heads. Sometimes flowers or ornaments are worked in. A number are shown wearing a cone on their heads, and a few gold cones have been found at Harappan sites. Others have a simple bun or wear a turban. Elaborate and time-consuming coiffures suggest that the individuals wearing them had leisure and probably servants, suggesting high social status, and this is borne out by the heavy quantities of jewelry worn by such individuals.
Many figures on the seals, probably of both sexes, wear their hair in a long plait. While it is possible some of these figures are ordinary worshippers, ritually coiffed, they may all be deities, since no sculptures or terra-cottas depict people with their hair arranged in this way.
The less common male figurines and rare male statues generally wear their hair in a bun, divided horizontally by a headband, strongly reminiscent of a royal hairstyle in contemporary Sumer. A few gold fillets have been found, at Harappa, at Mohenjo-daro, and in the hoard at Alladino, with holes at the ends for fastening them with a cord. Sometimes Harappan men wore their hair short and combed straight, or covered by a turban. The majority of men were bearded.
Clothing. As well as jewelry, the Harappans wore clothes of cotton, leather, and probably wool, the latter probably imported from Mesopotamia, perhaps only for the elite. Here the artwork is less helpful, since most men and many of the women are depicted naked. The stone sculpture known as the Priest-King wears an elaborately decorated robe, draped to expose his chest and right shoulder. This was possibly a garment worn only by rulers or senior priests. Other, more complete stone statues show that this robe was worn over a garment resembling the modern dhoti, which is wound around the waist and frequently drawn up between the legs to tuck in at the back. The latter may have been common male dress, particularly as figures on seals, possibly of men, sometimes wear a skirt that could be the dhoti in the untucked state. Women appear to have worn a short skirt that covered the thighs and, in some cases, a substantial belt made of strings of beads.
One of the small number of Harappan stone sculptures, this male head shows the typical arrangement of the hair in a double bun, held in place by a thin fillet tied at the back. The pattern of hair on the top of the head suggests that it is braided. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
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