Harappa

[ghazi52]

South Asian Cooking



Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
Ledge shouldered terra cotta cooking pots with low neck and flaring rim. One vessel has red slip on the neck and rim, while the other is fired grey-black. A small black fired bowl is seen in the foreground. Period III, Harappan, 2300-2200 B. C.

Although many South Asian restaurants advertise a wide variety of "curries," in traditional Indian cooking no one dish is referred to by this word. Curry is the anglicization of the common Hindustani word tarkiiri,, meaning "green vegetable." Cooked vegetables (and some times even meat) are occasionally called tarkari, but this word never appears on an Indian menu. Rather you will find an array of terms that indicate the types of vegetable or meat used and the method of their preparation, such as gobi bhaji (sauteed cauliflower), subzi ka salan(vegetable stew), makhni murgh (buttery chicken), tandoori ran(roast leg of lamb), or baingan bart a (mashed eggplant). No single cooking tradition can be claimed characteristic of South Asia in general; rather the various traditions should be discussed in terms of regions and ethnic communities. Although the major cultural and religious traditions that have influenced the development of these regional styles are usually traceable only to the Hindu/Vedic Period (600 B.C. to 1300 C.E.), it should not be forgotten that it was the Neolithic peoples in India who originally domesticated livestock animals and the staple grains still used today. The similarity in the shapes of cooking vessels from the Indus Civilization (2500-1700 B.C.E.) to those used in traditional Indian kitchens today suggests that wheat and rice dishes as well as stews and vegetables may have been prepared in much the same manner as they are now.



The Wheel in Indus Times

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  Cart in the Indus valley today
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• It is hard to underestimate the importance of the wheel to ancient Indus civilization. All indications are that it was an indigenous development, pursued in flat agricultural areas, and probably preceded that other great wheel - pardon the pun - of change, the potter's wheel. "Discoveries [in the past 20 years] suggest that the earliest wheeled carts of the Indus valley developed in the core areas of the alluvial plain," writes Mark Kenoyer in his comprehensive, fascinating Wheeled Vehicles of the Indus Valley Civilization from the book Wheel and Wagon - Origins of an Innovation. He adds "The long continuity in cart designs of the Indus Valley and the fact that many different types of bullock cart continue to be used even today in Pakistan and India indicate that the original styles of cart were quite effective and that the early designers were able to produce a form that came to be improved upon only with the introduction of ball-bearing axles and rubber tires." He adds that "the quest for Indo-Aryan horse drawn chariots with spoked wheels in the mid- second millennium BC has also overshadowed the obvious evidence of both heavy and light wheeled vehicles pulled by bullocks that were discovered at sites such as Mohenjo--Daro, Harappa and Chanhu-daro over 1000 years earlier than the evidence for horse drawn chariots."

The article makes you think about how the principle of rotation altered the world, much as the train transformed Europe in 19th century. "Needless to say, the use of a bullock cart would have dramatically changed the amount of stone, mud brick or wood that could be carried for short distances across the plain. It is not unlikely that the increasing need for these commodities and the need for human transport may have been an important stimulus for the invention and development of specific types of wheeled carts that were introduced in the next major phase at the site," writes Kenoyer. One can only imagine the many efficiencies that would have been created in the nexus between village and city, the transport of people of all ages and in all conditions across ever longer distances, the increased flow of knowledge and practices from one place to another.
"I will focus on the early use and gradual development of wheeled vehicles at the site of Harappa, Pakistan, in order to better understand the role of carts in this process of urban development."

Ox- or water buffalo-drawn cart with driver from Harappa.

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  Ox- or water buffalo-drawn cart with driver

• https://www.harappa.com/blog/wheel-indus-times#slide-2-field_image_blog-3658

3. Toy carts, Nausharo

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  Terra cotta toy carts from the Harappan period site of Nausharo in Baluchistan.

4. Indus Wheel types

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  Indus Wheel typesI

 

[ghazi52]

Amri - A Pre-Harappan Site in Sindh

By Nadine Zubair August 26th, 2016

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  Site of Amri, Sindh
  
  
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    Amri
  
  
  
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    Amri phase pottery
    
    
    
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      Interaction Networks of the Harappan Phase
      

The film Mohenjo Daro opens in the remote village of Amri, where Sarman (Hrithik Roshan) and his friends wrestle a large crocodile in a riverine gorge. Amri is shown as a remote farming village from where the villagers travel to Mohenjodaro as it offers a bigger market for their wares. In this post we shine a light on the archaeological evidence from the ancient site of Amri, which lies on the western bank of the Indus, about 160 km south of Mohenjodaro.

The archaeological importance of Amri was demonstrated in 1929 by the excavations of N.G.Majumdar, who discovered there, for the first time, a settlement of pre-Harappan date and culture that was underlying a Harappan one. These excavations however, were on a small scale and the account that was published was of a summary character. It was the work of Jean-Marie Casal and his colleagues over three seasons between 1959 and 1962 that established the nature of this pre-Harappan culture and how it was replaced.

Casal's excavation revealed four successive periods of occupation. The first of these is the 'Amrian', which relates to other pre-Harappan sites in the region as well. Amri is the type-site of this early cultural assemblage. In this phase, houses were of mud-brick. Pottery, copper and bronze fragments were also recovered. Phase II shows an increasing component of Harappan materials alongside the Amrian. Period III belongs to the Harappan, giving evidence of early, transitional, and late sub-phases, into a final 'Jhukar' sub-phase. The final phase, Period IV, is not well represented, but it produced the coarse grey ware comparable to the sites of the 'Jhangar' complex.

The early occupation at Amri has been dated between 3600 and 3300 BCE and thus represents a slightly later phase than Balakot. Amri is located close to the west bank of the Indus river but also only some 10 kilometres from the easternmost extension of the Baluchistan uplands. It is in the Dadu district of Sindh, and lies to the south of Mohenjo Daro. The site comprises two main archaeological mounds, A in the east and B in the west.

Amri Phase pottery is a red-buff ware, mainly hand-made, and includes such vessel forms as angular-walled and hemispherical bowls, dish-on-stand (rare), and most commonly S-shaped jars. Black, brown and red paint were applied to the vessel’s surface or to a cream or buff slip or wash in monochrome or bichrome schemes. Decorative schemes emphasized geometric motifs in horizontal bands with frequent use of ‘checkerboard’ and ‘sigma’ motifs (Fig.8). In the later Amri phase ID, motifs become more complicated and involve the use of intersecting circles, ‘fish-scale’ motifs, zoomorphic motifs and the rare use of red slip. Other terracotta objects include beads, bangles, humped cattle figurines, and circular, square and triangular cakes.

Stone tools are similar to other phases except that there was an emphasis on geometric microliths. Only the following additional type objects have been identified: carnelian beads (rare), shell bangles, bone points and bangles, a steatite rod and a copper blade. Certainly ceramic craft specialists were present, but it is difficult now to establish certainly other types of full- or part-time specialists.

In Amri IB, several small, contiguous, rectangular mud-brick houses divided into small rooms were found. Two types of structures were identified in Amri phases IC-D. One type was a large, rectangular mud-brick house with lateral doorways. The other was large rectangular mud-brick structures divided into small units similar to those found in the KGM Phase at Mehrgarh, which may have had a storage function.

Stone was also used in construction but probably as a foundation for mud-brick. Public architectural units (enclosing walls) have been noted only at unexcavated sites.

Hunting and fishing may have been more important in the Amri Phase, though the economy was still based on domesticated plants and animals (especially humped cattle). Some Amri Phase sites seem associated with large shell middens, and at Amri Casal found large quantities of gazelle as well as other wild animals. Fairservis has also noticed a slightly more varied settlement pattern involving two settlement types – dispersed (single or small clusters of houses) and nucleated (larger settlements with multiple structures and units of public architecture). This more varied settlement pattern may reflect the larger economic role of hunting and fishing.

This part of the Indus valley region is poor in mineral and semi-precious stone deposits. The presence of semi-precious stones and metal artefacts in the Amri Phase therefore indicates some interaction with other social groups in the Indus Valley and/or Baluchistan Traditions. Some degree of interaction is also suggested by Amri Phase style pottery in the Balakot Phase and Kot Diji Phase pottery located at Amri. Moreover, the presence of similar script characters on the pottery of all these phases suggests that the communication networks linking these phases involved more than just the simple movement of commodities.

Sources:
Casal, J. M. (1964). Fouilles d'Amri. Paris: C. Klincksieck.
Coningham, R., & Young, R. (2015). The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c. 6500 BCE-200 CE. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Shaffer, J.G., & Thapar, B.K. (1992) "Pre-Indus and Early Indus Cultures of Pakistan and India." In A.H. Dani, V.M.Masson, J. Harmatta, B.N.Puri, G.F.Etemadi, B.A.Litvinskii, G.Zhang Eds. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris: Unesco.

 

[ghazi52]

85 pc conservation work completed at Harappa
February 28th, 2016

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The Punjab Archeology Department has completed 85 per cent conservation work at remains of Harappa site

 

[Indus Pakistan]

@ghazi52 Fantastic stuff and thank you for this thread but please can you just say "Pakistan". If we are afraid of using that name do you think the world will ever use it? Must Pakistan be a tag only to hang uglyness on it, like terrorism, radicalzm, backwardness, lawlessness? We have to make that name shine by hanging positives to it. If we don't nobody else will. And just in case you feel guilty that Pakistan came about in 1947, please don't. In the time this thread is referring to no country on earth existed - neither did that term "South Asia". So any name you use is going to be retrofitted. That being the case what is wrong with 'Pakistan'?

I would have gone for 'Pakistani cooking'. Unless you think 6,000 years ago all this vast region used the same recipes from the internet or may be had McHarappa?

 

[Kabira]

The film Mohenjo Daro opens in the remote village of Amri, where Sarman (Hrithik Roshan) and his friends wrestle a large crocodile in a riverine gorge.

 

[ghazi52]

Skeletal Paleopathology of Human Remains From Cemetery R37 at Harappa, excavated in 1987 and 1988


Nancy Lovell

Typical primary burial in Cemetery R37, with skeleton in extended supine position, head to the north (H87/127a)

Abstract
Excavations at the archaeological site of Harappa, Pakistan in 1987 and 1988 uncovered the remains of at least 92 individuals (84 adults and 8 juveniles), although only 19 were complete skeletons in primary contexts. This report describes the frequencies and expressions of joint disease, trauma, congenital and developmental disorders, hematopoietic disorders, infection and inflammation, metabolic disorders, and neoplasia in these remains and in an additional adult skeleton, excavated in 1967 and displayed in the Harappa Museum. Fourteen of the 20 complete adult skeletons in
primary contexts exhibited pathological lesions on bones. An additional 14 burial features of secondary deposits included remains with pathological lesions. The most common condition was joint disease, which affected 10 individuals, mainly in the spine, followed by trauma, which affected five individuals. Periosteal reactions on long bones, benign osteomas on the cranium, and two possible cases of anomalous development of the skeleton were also noted.

https://www.harappa.com/sites/defau...es of Five Seasons of Research at Harappa.pdf