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the-south-asian.com June / July 2005 |
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June /
July
2005 Real Issues
Lifestyle
Books Between
Heaven and Hell
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Page 5 of 6
Harappan Heritage Culture, Technology, Trade:
The ENIGMA of Harappa: IVC products in SUMER- IRAQ : Indus seals and other artifacts are not clustered in any
meaningful manner. Their existence in this distant region, however, begs the
question as to the means and implication of their transport into / Sumer /
Meso-potamia. Were they exchanged as use-values or commodity–values [luxury
items ]. Were they carried to Sumer /Mesopotamia by long-distance sea-faring
Harappan traders? It is true that there was trade in wood and that
ship-building at Lothal was highly advanced. In later years [AD900 to 1700 ]
it is said that Thatta used to build ships for Egypt. If so, were these
simply free spirited wanderers or members of a strongly commercial
enterprise designed to exploit peripheral regions and bring some sort of
power, wealth, or prestige to their central homelands? Were the Harappans
residing in Sumer solely responsible for the existence of these artifacts in
Mesopotamia? Again, the Indus scholar is faced with many questions, but very
few answers. A Zero SUMERIAN PRESENCE IN THE INDUS It is fascinating to note that essentially no material
remains have been found in an Indus setting with certain Mesopotamian
origin. Why do Indus artifacts appear in Mesopotamia, but not vice-versa?
The best explanation to date is that the Indus peoples traded in perishable
materials, such as 'garments, wool, perfumed oil, and leather products' from
Sumer [Dales 1979]. While to a degree this seems logical, it is unsettling
to rely yet again on 'the accident of archaeology' as an explanation. One
has to wonder why the Harappans would have imported leather items when the
breeding and usage of cattle was central to their entire civilization. Why
travel thousands of miles for something available down the city block/
street? "While there may have been raw materials involved in the
long distance trade between the Indus Valley, the Persian Gulf, Iran, and
Mesopotamia, we see no reason to argue that Harappa or any other sites of
the Indus Civilization were in any way solely or even significantly
dependent on the regions to the west for such raw materials……………………….." [
Nayanjot Lahiri ]. While Lahiri's observations may be true for the
civilization's type site, this does not in any way necessitate their
veracity for the other sites scattered across the approximately 425,000
square miles of the IVC -- much larger than the Sumerian civilization. Exciting work continues at Harappa, and at sites in India
like Dholavira and Rakigarhi; both are near what may be the lost Sarasvati
River, which once ran parallel to the Indus and may have been equally
important. The largest known Indus culture site, Ganweriwala in Pakistan's
Cholistan desert, was only found in the late 1970s and has yet to be
excavated. Above all it is the red-black pottery of those ancient times
that has been revived with all the old motifs of those ancient times. Harappan Potters wheel : The potter’s wheel was a central technology introduced by
the Harappans and the Sumerians at about early Kot Diji Phase [
2800-2600B.C.] . Utensils made in the Ravi Phase were hand made pots.
Towards the end of the Ravi Phase (Period 3300-2800], the potter's wheel
began to be used .Terra-cotta ceramics were fired at high temperatures to
make stoneware bangles using technologies re-invented only centuries later
in China. Harappa Potter – M.Nawaz.
Harappan pottery is currently being made by the local potter
-Mohammed Nawaz. He uses black color from a local stone called "Kali Giri"
and a red ochre color to enhance the color of the clay [ chikni mitti ] and
to paint black Harappa patterns [ motifs of fish, the Peepal tree – Ficus
Religosa] on his red pottery. In 1998 , Nawaz went to Madison , Wisconsin
University to train students for two weeks under the management of Professor
Mark Kenoyer, a leading Harappan archaeologist from University of Wisconsin]
in USA. Nawaz currently makes pottery and exhibits his work in Karachi,
Lahore and Islamabad at Lok Virsa – the folk culture institution. His
pottery is shown here in a few pictures. Horse-playing in Harappa . The wheel based cart was a major contribution of the Harappa
and the Sumerian-Mesopotamian civilizations. The uniqueness of the Indus valley [Harappan- MohenjoDaro]
civilization lies in the fact that the horse (Equus caballus) was absent
from India before around 2000 BC. Even in 1700 BC, when archaeology first
attests its presence in the Indus plains below the Bolan [near Quetta-
Baluchistan] pass. Thus archaeologists such as J.M. Kenoyer , Professor
Ahmed Hasan Dani, and Asko Parpola [ Indus script expert] highlight this
fact when discussing the Aryan Indus invasions from the central Asian areas.
Hence the argument No Horse , no Aryans . – as the horse figures heavily in
Vedic texts. The horse, a steppe animal from the semi-temperate zone, was
not referred to in the Middle East until the end of the third millennium
B.C., when it first shows up in Sumerian as anshe kur (mountain ass) or
anshe.zi.zi (speedy ass). Before horses, the only equids in the Near East
were the donkey and the half-ass (hemione, onager). The nearly un-trainable
hemiones look a bit like horses and can interbreed with them, as can
donkeys. In India, the hemione or khor (Equus hemionus khur) was the only
equid known before the horse; a few specimens still survive in the Rann of
Kutch. However according to B.B.,Lal in his essay "It is time to
Rethink" [Ch. 1.8 from the book So, one is left asking for more data and more excavations to further clear this puzzle. There have even been attempts by the BJP government in rewriting Vedic history by the hoax of one scholar that converted one of the IVC seals of a unicorn into a horse .[ see Frontline magazine site article -- http://www.flonnet.com/fl1720/17200040.htm ] .
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