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Ornaments.
This collection of gold and agate ornaments includes objects
found at bothMohenjo-daro and Harappa. At the top are fillets of
hammered gold that would
have been worn around the forehead.
The other ornaments include bangles, chokers, long pendant
necklaces, rings,earrings, conical hair ornaments, and broaches.
Such ornaments were never buried
with the dead, but were passed on from one generation to the
next. These
ornaments were hidden under the floors in the homes of wealthy
merchants or
goldsmiths.
FOOD
Even before Harappa there was the settlement of Mehrgarh,
located in modern Pakistan, on the way toIndus from Quetta. It was
dated to 6000 BCE. Barley and wheat were found there. And also
dates
and ber. At later settlements, dated to 4000-3000 BCE, new
varieties of barley and wheat were found.
Oats too make an appearance about that time. The settlers at
Mehrgarh were pastoral and there were
numerous remains of goats and sheep. The sites of the Indus
valley civilization are many and therefore
we have a lot more information about them. Circa 200 BCE, at
Harappa and Mohenjodaro, we find
barley and wheat, but also what looks like a. There are vessels
which were clearly used for boiling, and
there are large hearths for firing, which could have been used
to make bread. Smaller hearths like
today'standoors are also found.So the basics of a Harappan meal
may not have been very different from
what your grandparents ate. A tell-tale sign of cooking is
charred remains of sesame (til) and mustard
(rai). Other interesting food items are peas, melon seeds and
pomegranates. Bananas are also indicatedin the artwork. There are a
variety of meats: beef (cow and buffalo), mutton, turtles and
tortoises, gharials (the Indus river had lots of these
crocodiles), river and sea fish. Fowl are quite rare,
perhaps they were not eaten regularly but reared for ceremonial
purposes or even for cock-fighting.
The Harappan site of Banawali in Rajasthan has only wheat.
Barley is not found. On the other hand,
Lothal in Gujarat has rice. Surkotada in Kachchh (Gujarat) has
ragiand kangni(Italian millet). Kalibangan
in Haryana has barley and chickpeas (chana dal). It also has the
earliest evidence of a ploughed field.
HARRAPAN CLOTHING
Textiles are rarely preserved and Harappan figurines are usually
unclothed, so there is
not much evidence of Harappan clothing. Small fragments of cloth
preserved in the
corrosion products of metal objects show that the Harappans wove
a range of grades of
cotton cloth. Flax was grown and may have been used for fibres
(alternatively it was
grown for its oilseed). Native Indian species of silkworm may
have been utilised for silk
(inferior to Chinese silk), as they were a little later in South
Asia. It is not known
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whether the Harappans raised woolly sheep, but their trade with
Mesopotamia probably
brought them abundant supplies of Mesopotamian woolen textiles.
The Harappans also
probably continued the earlier tradition of making clothing from
leather. Dyeing
facilities indicate that cotton cloth was probably dyed a range
of colours, although there
is only one surviving fragment of coloured cloth, dyed red with
madder; it is likely that
indigo and turmeric were also used as dyes.
RECREATION:
Amusements and Recreation: The Indus Valley people liked more of
indoor games than
outdoor amusements. They were fond of gambling and playing dice.
Dancing and
singing were considered great arts. Boys played with toys made
of terracotta, while
girls played with dolls.
SEALS:
Indus Seals and the Indus Civilization Script
The Indus Valley people had some knowledge of the art of
writing, though in a rudimentary way. No
regular documents on stone or baked clay tablets have been found
but the numerous seals,
representing unicorns and bulls and other objects give us the
idea that the people had a language of
their own. About 6,000 representations of glyph strings have
been discovered at Indus sites, mostly on
square or rectangular seals like the ones in this photo
essay.
AGRICULTURE:
Agriculture: Agriculture was the main occupation of the Indus
Valley people. Crops
such as wheat, barley, peas and bananas were raised. In the
olden days, there was
enough rain in that region and occasional floods brought a great
deal of fertile soil to
the area. People used to plough the land with wooden
ploughshares drawn by men and
oxen. From the existence of granaries it is concluded that there
were surplus food-
grains.
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