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the
INDUS VALLEY Civilization |
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At its height, the Indus Valley Civilization
maintained extensive trade networks with other ancient civilizations |
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An overview of part of the sites of Moenjo-daro
and Harappa, showing the complexity of their organization |
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What was once thought to be a "Granary"
or a "Great Bath" at Moenjo-daro was perhaps more probably a "Great Hall" |
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What exactly is going on here? And what
about the tiger-battling goddess (?) on the back of this Harappan tablet? |
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A famous seal from Moenjo-daro showing what
might (or might not) be a "sacrifice" |
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A seal from Moenjo-daro depicting what has
been called a "three-faced yogi"-- but on a closer look, that isn't very
persuasive |
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An oddly seated figure surrounded by wild
beasts has been called (a thousand years early) a "proto-Shiva"; but there
are many problems |
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By comparing a number of seals (and avoiding
anachronisms), can we begin to glimpse some standard figures in a pan-Indus-Valley
mythology? |
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The most common single animal on Indus Valley
seals is the mythical "unicorn." Is that a feeding dish of some kind, or
is is meant to catch the blood when his throat is slit? |
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Terra cotta statues of women are extremely
common. Many of them are elaborately adorned with jewelry, and some have
remarkable headdresses. |
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But the famous "Dancing Girl" remains a
solitary classic. Her elegance is unsurpassed; she looks like a fashion
model and has the hauteur to go with it. |
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He is called the "Priest King," and he certainly
looks the part. But of course, we don't know. He might just have been a
rich merchant who intimidated the sculptor. And even his *indigenousness*
has been doubted. |
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The swastika symbol so prominent in later
India also occasionally appears-- as it does in early civilizations elsewhere
in the world too |
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Archaeologists point out that modern carts
in Sindh look very much like these. On the other hand, how many ways are
there to build a simple two-wheeled wooden cart? |
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In Gujarat, the port of Lothan has been
excavated; excavations are now proceeding at the important urban center
of Dholavira |
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What was once an obscure academic subject
nowadays often makes headlines, since the "Hindutva" movement has been
seeking to give India a religiously-slanted vision of its past. This issue
of Frontline (Oct. 13, 2000) contains scholarly replies to some
of the many current religiously-motivated attempts to identify the Vedic
people with the Indus Valley civilization |
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And about that Indus Valley "script"-- the
latest argument is that it's not a script at all, but a set of symbols
like those on airport signs: see *Steve
Farmer's download page*. A good place to start is his *overview
slide show*. |
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