The ancient Indus : urbanism, economy, and society / Rita P. Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-383) and index.

List of figures, tables, and boxes -- Acknowledgments -- Long-Forgotten Civilization: -- Civilization rediscovered -- Reconstructing a long-forgotten civilization -- Perspectives on civilizations -- Theoretical perspective -- Indus Civilization: chronologies of Indus antecedents, coalescence, decline, and transformations -- Rethinking perspectives on the Indus civilization -- Geographical And Environmental Settings: -- Factors to consider in assessing differences between past and present -- Geography and climate today: -- Geographical setting -- Climate -- Climate change before, during, and after peak periods of settlement -- Indus in the past-documenting landscape and river system dynamics -- Upper and lower Indus -- Ghaggar-Hakra -- Ganges-Yamuna -- New solutions and perspectives on climate change -- Conclusions -- From Foraging To Farming And Pastoralism: -- From hunting and gathering to farming -- Focus on Mehrgarh-the choice of a site and the establishment of a chronology -- First Village (7000-4000 B C): -- Subsistence -- Architecture -- Burial patterns -- Material culture and technology -- External contacts -- Summary-Period I/II -- Villages At The Crossroads (4000-3200 B C): -- Subsistence -- Architecture -- Burial patterns -- Material culture and technology -- External contacts -- Summary-Period III -- Mosaic Of Villages And Towns (3200-2500 B C): -- Subsistence -- Architecture -- Burial patterns -- Material culture and technology -- External contacts -- Summary-Period IV/VII -- Settling Down: the domestication of plants and animals, the development of a village farming community into a sizable town, and expanded interaction -- Era Of Expansion And Transformation: -- Age of emerging polities -- Upper Indus-Harappa excavations and the pre-urban period -- Upper Indus-Ravi phase -- Upper Indus-early Harappan/Kot Diji phase -- Upper Indus regional surveys near Harappa -- Ghaggar-Hakra-Cholistan survey: -- Ghaggar-Hakra plains-Hakra phase -- Ghaggar-Hakra plains-early Harappan/Kot Diji phase -- Ghaggar-Hakra settlements in Northwest India -- Expansion of settlements in the Upper Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra plains -- Lower Indus Valley: -- Lower Indus Valley-Hakra and Kot Diji phases -- Lower Indus Valley-Amri phase -- Expansion of settlement in the Lower Indus -- Beyond the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra plains-Baluchistan -- Pre-urban ecological and settlement diversity -- Urbanism And States: Cities, Regions, And Edge Zones: -- Indus cities and states-the first urban climax -- Indus cities: -- City plans and physical layouts -- Nonresidential structures -- Public works -- Walls and separated sectors (neighborhoods) city plans and physical layouts summarized-nonresidential structures, public works, walls, and neighborhoods -- City and countryside: -- Upper Indus and Beas regional surveys near Harappa -- Ghaggar-Hakra Plain-Cholistan regional surveys -- Ghaggar-Hakra Plain-northwest India -- Lower Indus regional surveys interpreting the evidence for Indus cities, city-states, and regional surveys -- Urbanism at its margins, gateway towns and edge zones -- Uniformity and diversity-cities, regions and edge zones -- Agropastoral And Craft-Producing Economies I-Intensification And Specialization: -- Craft production: -- Craft production and intensification -- Craft production and specialization-resource availability and selection, technical skills, and specialized production -- Ceramic production -- Stoneware bangle production -- Seal production -- Intensification and specialization of craft production -- Agropastoral Production: -- Agriculture and intensification -- Specialization of cropping patterns and regional diversity -- Pastoralism and intensification -- Pastoralism-specialization and regional diversity continued use of wild plants and animals- foraging and fishing -- Specialization and intensification of the Agropastoral and craft-producing economy.

Agropastoral And Craft-Producing Economies II-Diversification, Organization Of Production, And Distribution: -- Diversification and the organization of production, distribution, and exchange -- Diversified crafts and the organization of craft production -- Seal production -- Ceramic production -- Stoneware bangle production -- Diversification and organization of production-seals, ceramics, and stoneware bangles -- Diversification of raw materials and finished products-the organization of interregional exchange: -- Chert -- Lapis Lazuli -- Carnelian, Chalcedony, Agate, and Jasper -- Limestone -- Precious metals-copper, gold, lead, silver, and tin -- Shell -- Steatite -- Diversification of craft production, organization, and distribution -- Diversification of land, labor, and the organization of Agropastoral production Diversification of farming-multicropping, plow agriculture, crop processing, fiber crops, and aboricuture -- Diversification of pastoralism-specialized breeds, food and fiber, animal provisioning, mobility, and the organization of production -- Organization of interregional exchange of plant and animal products -- Agropastoral and craft-producing economies-intensification, specialization, diversification, and the organization of production and distribution -- Lure Of Distant Lands: -- Lure of distant lands-Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha -- Mapping the third millennium B C -- Indus and Mesopotamian contact by sea and over land-texts and archaeology -- Indus contact beyond Mesopotamia-by sea and over land: -- Indus contacts along maritime routes -- Indus contacts along overland routes -- Indus and an interconnected third-millennium world -- Landscapes Of Order And Difference-The Cultural Construction Of Space, Place, And Social Difference: -- Landscapes as community identity-Mohenjo-Daro, Dholavira, and Harappa -- Landscapes as social order: -- Space and public works -- Interior spaces and social differences -- Landscapes and memory: -- R37 cemetery and cemetery H at Harappa -- Cemetery at Kalibangan -- Human remains at Mohenjo-Daro -- Death and memory in the Indus -- Community identity, social order, and memory -- Models For Indus Religious Ideologies Direct Historical Analogies And The Study Of Indus Religion: -- Identifying ceremonial places -- Terracotta masks, figurines, and narrative imagery -- New approaches to uncovering Indus ideologies -- Comparative study of early civilizations -- Alternative visions-masks and figurines: -- Terracotta masks -- Terracotta figurines -- Alternative visions-seal and tablet narrative imagery: -- Themes and motifs in Indus narrative imagery -- Decoding Indus narrative -- Cross-cultural comparisons: -- Mesopotamian seal imagery -- Iranian seal imagery -- Rethinking Indus religion and world views, shared vocabularies, modes of presentation and systems of thought -- Indus pantheon, elements of order, and conceptions of power and hierarchy -- Decline And Transformation And The Comparative Study Of Early States: -- Decline and transformation of the Indus -- Causes of a general nature: -- Environmental changes-climate, precipitation, and river courses -- Massacres and Aryan invasions -- Disruptions and changes in intercultural trade -- Shifting regional histories, transformations, and decline-causes of a local nature Upper Indus (cemetery H/late Harappan) -- Lower Indus-late Harappan and Jhukar styles -- Post-urban/late Harappan: the Ghaggar-Hakra (Cholistan and Northwest India) -- Post-urban/late Harappan-Kutch, Gujarat, and Sorath Harappan -- Borderland regions-Afghanistan and Baluchistan (west and southern margins) -- Collapse, transition, or transformation-culture traits and political structure -- Cycles of change or breakdown of society -- Indus civilization in comparative perspective: -- Harappan economy and society -- Indus urbanism and city-states -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Overview: This early civilization was erased from human memory until 1924, when it was rediscovered and announced in the Illustrated London Times. Our understanding of the Indus has been partially advanced by textual sources from Mesopotamia that contains references to Meluhha, a land identified by cuneiform specialists as the Indus, with which the ancient Mesopotamians traded and engaged in battles. In this volume, Rita P. Wright uses both Mesopotamian texts but principally the results of archaeological excavations and surveys to draw a rich account of the Indus civilization's well-planned cities, its sophisticated alterations to the landscape, and the complexities of its agrarian and craft-producing economy. She focuses principally on the social networks established between city and rural communities; farmers, pastoralists, and craft producers; and Indus merchants and traders and the symbolic imagery that the civilization shared with contemporary cultures in Iran, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf region. Broadly comparative, her study emphasizes the interconnected nature of early societies.