The overall economic organization of the Indus cities can be reconstructed through a study of the distribution of resource areas, sites with specialized production of semifinished goods, and the presence of raw materials, workshops, and finished goods in major settlements. These data reveal a highly stratified economic interaction system. Many of the larger towns and cities were directly connected with external regions and to each other by inter-regional networks. The long-term stability of this system would have been essential for merchants to make profits from raw materials and goods after traveling hundreds of kilometers to the major cities. Cities were connected to towns and villages through regional networks of exchange, and more local networks were used to redistribute food items and essential commodities between a city and its immediate hinterland.
Although no coinage system has been discovered, a highly standardized system of stone weights was used throughout the entire area of the Indus civilization. The base weight may have been two seeds of barley or moong bean, or possibly the wild licorice seed (Abrus precatorius or ‘gunja’), which is red and black and weighs approximately 0.109 g. Indus weights use a combination of both a binary system (doubling in size from 1:2:4:8:16:32:64) and a decimal system of 160, 200, 320, 640, etc. The smallest weight is equal to 8 ‘gunja’ or 0.871 g, and the largest weight at Mohenjo-daro is 10 865 g. Cubical stone weights were probably not used for everyday exchange, but are found primarily in the gateway areas of large cities and may have been used for taxation. Another possible form of accounting or credit may have been the use of inscribed tablets or molded faience tablets that begins around 2450 BC (period 3B) at Harappa and continues through the end of the Harappa phase. Stamp seals with Indus script and distinctive animal motifs were used to mark bundles of goods with clay sealings, and provide conclusive evidence for elite control of trade within the Indus region as well as in long-distance trade. Indus weights, seals, and sealings have been found in the Arabian Gulf and distant Mesopotamia, as well as in Central Asia. Special trade goods produced in the Indus, such as beads, shell objects and figurines have been recorded from Mesopotamian sites, but so far there is no evidence for Mesopotamian produced items in the Indus sites. Trade goods from Mesopotamia may have been perishable materials such as textiles or consumables, or raw materials that were reworked into new forms. The only exotic finished goods found in Indus cities originate in Baluchistan or Afghanistan and include copper and stone tools, cylinder seals, carved stone figurines, stone vessels and ornaments, and possibly some pottery vessels.
World History
