CH 1 :BRICKS BEADS AND BONES - The Societal Sense

Bricks, Beads and Bones — Class 12 History Notes

📖 Key Terms & Concepts

Harappan Civilisation Also called Indus Valley Civilisation. Dated c. 2600–1900 BCE.

Mature Harappan Peak phase (2600–1900 BCE), distinct from Early and Late Harappan.

Culture (arch.) A group of objects, distinctive in style, found together in a specific area and time.

Archaeo-botanist Specialist who studies ancient plant remains (charred grains, seeds).

Zooarchaeologist Specialist who studies animal bones — reveals diet and domestication.

Stratigraphy Study of soil layers in mounds to establish cultural sequence. Lower = older.

Citadel Smaller, higher, walled section of a Harappan city — used for public/ritual purposes.

Lower Town Larger, lower section of a Harappan city — residential area.

Faience Material: ground sand or silica + colour + gum, then fired. Used for beads and pots.

Hoard Objects hidden in containers, found later by archaeologists when owners never retrieved them.

Sealing Clay pressed with a seal, used to secure goods in transit — verified sender identity.

Lapis Lazuli Precious blue stone from Afghanistan — highly valued by Harappans.

Steatite Soft stone used to make seals and beads.

Chert Stone used to make standardised Harappan weights (cubical).

🏙️ Mohenjodaro — City Layout Explained

Layout of a Harappan City

CITADEL

🛁 Great Bath

🏛️ Warehouse

🔒 Walled

LOWER TOWN (Residential)

🏠

Covered street drain (grid pattern)

🏠

Each house: courtyard + bathroom + drain + well

Bricks: Standardised ratio 4 : 2 : 1 (length : breadth : height)

Drainage: Drains laid FIRST, then houses built alongside

Wells: ~700 wells in Mohenjodaro alone

Key Structures

Structure	Location	Key Feature
Great Bath	Citadel	Large rectangular tank, watertight with gypsum mortar — likely ritual bathing
Warehouse	Citadel	Massive storage structure — lower brick portions survive
Residential Houses	Lower Town	Centred on courtyard, no ground-floor windows, own bathroom & drain
Drainage System	Entire city	Grid of covered drains; main channels had removable brick covers for cleaning

📝 Chapter Notes

1. The Civilisation — Basic Facts

Also called Indus Valley Civilisation or Harappan culture.
Named after Harappa — the first site discovered (though Mohenjodaro is better preserved).
Dated: c. 2600 to 1900 BCE.
Sites spread from Afghanistan, Jammu, Baluchistan to Gujarat — vast geographic spread.
Distinctive objects: seals, beads, weights, stone blades, baked bricks.

2. Subsistence Strategies (Food & Farming)

Crops Found

Wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame — identified from charred seeds.
Millets — Gujarat sites only. Rice — relatively rare.

Animals

Domesticated: cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig.
Wild (hunted/traded?): boar, deer, gharial. Also fish and fowl.

Agricultural Technology

Terracotta plough models found at Cholistan and Banawali (Haryana).
Ploughed field at Kalibangan — two furrow sets at right angles → two crops grown together.
Irrigation: Canals at Shortughai (Afghanistan); water reservoirs at Dholavira (Gujarat).
Bulls depicted on seals → oxen likely used for ploughing.

3. Mohenjodaro — Planned Urban Centre

Divided into: Citadel (smaller, higher, walled — west) + Lower Town (larger, lower — east).
Standardised brick ratio everywhere: 4 : 2 : 1.
Roads in grid pattern → drains laid first, then houses.
Every house had bathroom, drain connected to street drain, wells.
~700 wells estimated in Mohenjodaro. No ground-floor windows → privacy.
Great Bath: rectangular, watertight, steps N & S → likely ritual bath.

4. Social Differences

Studied via: (1) Burials — brick-lined vs. simple pits; grave goods. (2) Artefacts — utilitarian vs. luxury.
No large royal tombs (unlike Egypt) — less dramatic inequality.
Luxury items (gold, faience) only in large cities like Mohenjodaro, Harappa.
All gold jewellery found in hoards — was very precious.

5. Craft Production

Chanhudaro (< 7 hectares) — almost entirely devoted to craft: bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making, weight-making.
Bead materials: carnelian, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, copper, bronze, gold, shell, faience, terracotta.
Waste material = best indicator of craft production centres.

Carnelian Bead Making Process

1Fire yellowish raw material → turns RED

→

2Chip nodule into rough shape

→

3Finely flake to final form

→

4Grind & polish surface

→

5Drill hole with specialised drill

Specialised drills found at: Chanhudaro • Lothal • Dholavira

6. Procuring Raw Materials

Material	Source	Used At
Lapis Lazuli (blue stone)	Shortughai, Afghanistan	Jewellery & beads
Carnelian	Bharuch, Gujarat	Chanhudaro, Lothal
Steatite	S. Rajasthan, N. Gujarat	Seals, beads
Copper	Khetri, Rajasthan + Oman (sea trade)	Tools, vessels
Gold	South India (expeditions)	Jewellery (hoards)
Shell	Nageshwar, Balakot (coastal)	Bangles, ladles, inlay

Harappan Trade Network

🌊 Mesopotamia Traded with Meluhha (Harappa region)

⟵ sea ⟶

🏺 Dilmun (Bahrain) Used Harappan weight standards

🏔️ Afghanistan Lapis lazuli → Harappa

↕

🏙️ HARAPPAN CITIES Mohenjodaro · Harappa · Lothal

↕

🛢️ Oman (Magan) Copper → Harappa (nickel traces)

⛏️ Khetri, Rajasthan Copper → Harappan cities

🌿 South India Gold → Harappan cities

7. Seals, Script, Weights

🔖

SEALS
Made of steatite. Used to seal bags in trade. Verified sender & tamper-status.

🔤

SCRIPT
375–400 signs. Not alphabetical. Written RIGHT TO LEFT. Still UNDECIPHERED.

⚖️

WEIGHTS
Chert stone. Cubical. No markings. Binary (lower) + decimal (higher) system.

8. Who Ruled? — 3 Theories

Theory	Evidence For	Problem
No rulers — all equal	No royal tombs	Impossible to coordinate such complex activities without authority
Multiple rulers (one per city)	Each city differs somewhat	Uniform bricks & weights across cities suggest some central control
One state (most accepted)	Uniform bricks, weights, planned settlements across huge area	Exact nature of rulership unknown

9. End of the Civilisation (c. 1900–1800 BCE)

Most Mature Harappan sites abandoned by c. 1800 BCE.
Population shifted to Gujarat, Haryana, western UP.
Things that disappeared: weights, seals, script, long-distance trade, craft specialisation.
Probable causes: climatic change, deforestation, floods, river shifts, overuse of land.
Most likely reason: collapse of a unifying Harappan state.
Wheeler's "Aryan invasion" theory — disproved by George Dales (1964).

10. Discovery of the Civilisation

1875

Cunningham (first DG, ASI) notes a Harappan seal — fails to recognise its age.

1921–24

Daya Ram Sahni (Harappa) and Rakhal Das Banerji (Mohenjodaro) find similar seals.

1924

John Marshall announces civilisation to the world — "Marshall left India 3,000 years older."

1944

Wheeler takes over ASI — introduces stratigraphic method, military precision.

Post-1947

India explores own sites: Kalibangan, Lothal, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi discovered.

📌 Remember These Key Facts

First site discovered: Harappa (badly damaged); best preserved: Mohenjodaro
Largest site: Mohenjodaro (125 hectares); craft centre: Chanhudaro (<7 hectares)
Great Bath: Mohenjodaro Citadel | Ploughed field: Kalibangan | Water reservoirs: Dholavira
Script: Undeciphered | Written right to left | 375–400 signs
First professional archaeologist in India: John Marshall
Oman copper link: proven by traces of nickel in both Omani copper and Harappan artefacts
Wheeler's massacre theory disproved by George Dales (1964)

🔍 Answers: In-Text (Discuss) Questions

What evidence do archaeologists use to reconstruct dietary practices?

Archaeologists study charred grains and seeds (by archaeo-botanists) to identify crops. Animal bones (by zooarchaeologists) reveal domesticated and wild animals consumed. Grinding tools like saddle querns show grain processing. Fish and fowl bones indicate other food sources.

Is using present-day analogies to understand ancient artefacts a useful strategy?

Yes — it is useful as a starting point. Objects like saddle querns (still used today) are easily identified. However, it can be misleading for ritual or symbolic objects, where ancient meaning may differ completely from modern use. Mackay's comparison of ancient querns with present-day ones is reasonable.

Which architectural features of Mohenjodaro indicate town planning?

Grid roads (drains laid first, then houses); standardised 4:2:1 bricks across all sites; buildings on raised platforms; every house connected to street drains; the Citadel physically separated from Lower Town — all show systematic, pre-planned urban design.

Modes of disposal of the dead today — do they reflect social differences?

Today: burial, cremation, entombment in tombs. Yes — they reflect social differences. Elaborate funerals, expensive burial plots, and grand tombstones vs. simple graves reflect economic status, religion, and community. Similarly, Harappan brick-lined graves vs. simple pits, and presence/absence of ornaments reflect some social hierarchy.

Are stone artefacts utilitarian or luxury? Can some be both?

Luxury: carnelian/jasper beads (rare, non-local, costly to make). Utilitarian: stone blades (common, functional). Both: steatite spindle whorls — used daily (utilitarian) but made of a special material (somewhat luxurious). Classification depends on material, rarity, and distribution.

Possible routes from Harappan region to Oman, Dilmun, Mesopotamia?

Most likely by sea — along the Arabian Sea coast from ports like Lothal and Sutkagendor, through the Persian Gulf to Dilmun (Bahrain), then Magan (Oman), then on to Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian texts describe Meluhha as "a land of seafarers." Depictions of boats on seals also support sea trade.

Could everybody in Harappan society have been equal?

Probably not. Evidence of inequality: luxury goods concentrated in large cities; Great Bath and Warehouse on a separate Citadel suggest elite authority; large vs. small settlements show differences. However, no grand royal tombs suggest less extreme inequality than Egypt.

What interested Cunningham? What are post-1947 research interests?

Cunningham: Written inscriptions, culturally valuable objects, Buddhist pilgrim route sites, Early Historic period. Post-1947: Site location logic, social differences, gender roles, craft technology, material science analysis, international trade connections, cultural sequence.

✏️ Exercise Answers (100–150 words each)

List food items in Harappan cities. Identify groups who provided them.

Plant foods: Wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame, millets, rice (rare).
Animal foods: Cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig (domesticated); boar, deer, gharial (wild); fish, fowl.
Providers: Farmers (crops), herders/pastoralists (cattle, sheep), hunters or trading communities (wild animals), fishing communities (fish, fowl). Archaeo-botanists study charred seeds; zooarchaeologists study bones to identify these foods.

How do archaeologists trace socio-economic differences? What differences do they notice?

Methods: (1) Burials — brick-lined vs. simple pits; what objects are buried. (2) Artefacts — utilitarian vs. luxury.
Differences noticed: Gold and faience items found only in large cities, never in small settlements. Brick-lined graves vs. simple pits. However, compared to Egypt, differences are modest — no grand royal burials found. This suggests some inequality but not extreme social stratification.

Does the drainage system indicate town planning? Give reasons.

Yes. Evidence: (1) Roads laid in grid pattern first, then drains, then houses — shows pre-planning. (2) Every house had a bathroom connected to street drains. (3) Drains had removable brick covers for cleaning. (4) System extended even to smaller settlements like Lothal. (5) Standardised bricks (4:2:1) used across the entire region show central coordination. This level of system-wide uniformity is impossible without deliberate planning.

List bead materials. Describe how one kind of bead was made.

Materials: Carnelian, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite; copper, bronze, gold; shell, faience, terracotta.
Carnelian bead process: (1) Fire yellowish raw material → becomes red. (2) Chip nodule into rough shape. (3) Finely flake into final form. (4) Grind and polish surface. (5) Drill hole using specialised drills (found at Chanhudaro, Lothal, Dholavira). Each step required skill, making these valuable items.

Describe Fig. 1.30 (Harappan burial) — placement, objects, artefacts, sex?

The body is laid on its back, fully extended in a rectangular pit. Near the head end are several pottery vessels (pots and dishes on pedestals) — possibly containing food/water for the afterlife. No clear jewellery or personal ornaments are visible directly on the body. The sex cannot be definitively determined from this image alone — only detailed analysis of the skeletal structure or associated gender-specific ornaments could confirm it. The pottery grave goods indicate a belief in the afterlife.

📄 Essay Answers (Key Points for ~500 words)

Distinctive features of Mohenjodaro

1. Two-part layout: Citadel (higher, walled, west) + Lower Town (larger, east).
2. Planned drainage: Grid roads; every house connected to covered street drains with removable brick covers.
3. Domestic architecture: Courtyard-centred homes, no ground-floor windows, ~700 wells, each house had a bathroom.
4. Great Bath: Rectangular watertight tank (gypsum mortar) with steps on N & S — likely ritual use.
5. Warehouse: Massive storage structure on Citadel.
6. Standardised bricks: Ratio 4:2:1 used throughout.
7. Scale: 125 hectares — largest known Harappan site.
8. 'Priest-king' statue: Found here, may represent a ruler-priest.

Raw materials for craft production and how they were obtained

Materials: Carnelian, jasper, steatite, crystal, quartz; copper, bronze, gold; shell, faience, clay.
Methods of procurement:
(1) Settlements near sources: Nageshwar/Balakot (shell, coast); Shortughai, Afghanistan (lapis lazuli); Lothal (near carnelian from Bharuch).
(2) Expeditions: Khetri, Rajasthan (copper); south India (gold). Contact with Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture (copper suppliers).
(3) Long-distance sea trade: Copper from Oman (nickel traces match); trade with Mesopotamia (Meluhha in texts).
Transport: Bullock carts; riverine routes along Indus; coastal sea routes.

How do archaeologists reconstruct the past?

1. Excavation & stratigraphy: Uncovering layers — lower layers = older. Wheeler introduced this properly in India (1944).
2. Classification: Objects by material (stone, metal, clay) and function (tool, ornament, ritual).
3. Present-day analogies: Comparing ancient artefacts with modern equivalents — useful for everyday objects, risky for ritual ones.
4. Context: Where found (house, drain, grave, kiln) helps determine use.
5. Specialist analysis: Archaeo-botanists (seeds), zooarchaeologists (bones), chemical analyses (metal origins).
6. Comparative evidence: Harappan seals understood after comparison with Mesopotamian finds.
Challenges: Organic materials decompose; only broken objects discarded; undeciphered script; valuable objects recycled.

Functions performed by rulers in Harappan society

Though no rulers are directly identified, evidence suggests they:
1. Planned cities: Standardised bricks (4:2:1) from Jammu to Gujarat; grid roads and drainage.
2. Mobilised labour: Great Bath + city platforms needed ~4 million person-days — only central authority could organise this.
3. Controlled trade: Standardised weights (chert, cubical) used uniformly; seals regulated long-distance exchange.
4. Managed resources: Strategically located settlements near raw materials; sent expeditions for copper, gold.
5. Maintained craft production: Specialised centres like Chanhudaro; uniform pottery across the region.
Most accepted theory: One state with central authority — the 'priest-king' may represent this figure.

📋 Worksheet — Test Yourself

A. Fill in the Blanks

1. The Harappan civilisation is dated between c. and BCE.

2. The most distinctive artefact of the Harappan civilisation is the .

3. The Great Bath is located in the of Mohenjodaro.

4. Harappan weights were made of a stone called .

5. The Harappan script is written from to .

6. was a major craft production centre, smaller than 7 hectares.

7. The link between Harappan artefacts and Omani copper is proven by traces of .

8. The first Director-General of the ASI was .

9. John Marshall announced the discovery of the civilisation in .

10. Carnelian beads got their red colour by the raw material.

✅ Answer Key — Fill in the Blanks

1. 2600 | 1900 · 2. Seal · 3. Citadel · 4. Chert · 5. Right → Left · 6. Chanhudaro · 7. Nickel · 8. Alexander Cunningham · 9. 1924 · 10. Firing

B. Match the Following

Column A

1. Dholavira

2. Shortughai

3. Chanhudaro

4. Nageshwar

5. Kalibangan

6. Lothal

Column B

a. Lapis lazuli source (Afghanistan)

b. Shell objects production (coastal)

c. Water reservoirs found here

d. Major craft production centre

e. Ploughed field (double furrows)

f. Near carnelian and steatite sources

✅ Answer Key — Match

1 → c · 2 → a · 3 → d · 4 → b · 5 → e · 6 → f

C. True or False

FALSE The Harappan script has been fully deciphered.

FALSE Mohenjodaro was the first site to be discovered. (Harappa was first)

TRUE Harappan bricks had a standardised ratio of 4:2:1 throughout the region.

FALSE Gold was commonly available at all Harappan settlements. (Only found in hoards at large cities)

TRUE The Great Bath was likely used for some kind of ritual bathing.

FALSE Wheeler proved that Aryans caused Harappan decline. (Dales disproved this in 1964)

TRUE Traces of canals for irrigation were found at the Harappan site of Shortughai.

FALSE Chanhudaro was the largest Harappan site. (Mohenjodaro at 125 hectares was largest; Chanhudaro <7 hectares)

D. One-Line Answer Questions

What does stratigraphy mean?

Study of soil layers in mounds to establish the cultural sequence of a site — lower layers are older.

Why is Chanhudaro significant?

It was almost entirely devoted to craft production (bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, etc.) — a specialised industrial town.

What is faience?

A material made of ground sand or silica mixed with colour and gum, then fired — used for precious beads and pots.

Who disproved the theory of massacre at Mohenjodaro?

George Dales (1964) — he showed the skeletons were from different time periods and found no evidence of large-scale destruction or warriors.

What does the existence of standardised weights tell us about Harappan society?

It tells us that trade was regulated by a uniform system — suggesting some central authority or coordination across a vast region.

Class 12 NCERT History · Theme 1: Bricks, Beads and Bones · The Harappan Civilisation
Notes prepared for educational purposes · Rationalised 2023–24