New Harappan sites are getting discovered all over North India and enhancing our understanding of our history. In 2004, a Harappan site was found in the small town of Bagasara in Gujarat, which dates back to 2500 B.C. This site was found to have a shell making workshop, fortifications, and knives with bone handles. In 2005, the first Harappan burial site was found in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. Other sites include Rapar area of Gujarat’s Kutch district, and Farmana Khas in Haryana.

Excavations in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have revealed one of the largest Harappan sites ever discovered and has pushed back the history of Harappans by about 500 years.

“The site yielded finds of the early Harappan and mature Harappan phase,” said Dr Nath. He said that features like knowledgeof writing, use of wedge-shaped bricks and town planning, earlier thought to be present in the mature phase i.e 2500 BC, were discovered to be present in the early phase i.e 3000 BC. Evidence of well-planned towns were found, he said.

Dr Nath designated two periods in the early Harappan phase — pre-formative and formative. “The pre-formative period yielded circular structures and showed no formal planning. Whereas, the formative period exhibited planned structures. Burnt bricks were much in use during the early Harappan phase,” said Dr Nath.

The mature Harappan phase yielded a granary, with evidence of grain, fire altars and potters kiln. There was evidence of various crafts such as bead- making, bangle making, seal manufacturing, gold making, carpentry and terracotta making, practised by the people. Fish hooks were also discovered, pointing to the fact that the people practised fishing. Mirrors, tops, whistles arrowheads, rattles and tops were found. There is evidence to show that hopscotch was also played. [‘Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site ever found’]

Tags:Rakhigarhi Harappa Haryana Archaeology Ancient+History

Last year, a Neolithic stone shaped like a hand held axe, dating to between 2000 BC – 1500 BC, was found near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu. The interesting thing about this find, besides the age was that the axe had Indus Valley signs on it which was read by Iravatham Mahadevan as Murukan.

Epigraphists attached to the department, Dr S Rajagopal and Dr N Marxia Gandhi, after confirming the suspicions referred it to Mr Iravadham Mahadevan, a researcher on Indus scripts, who concurred with the view that it was a Neolithic find with Harappan symbol etchings. The find got the department excited as it was the first Neolithic tool discovery below the Godavari region (south of Daimadbad, now Maharashtra) and it corroborated with a 1970s concurrence among International Indus Valley researchers that Indus Valley finds pointed to a link with earlier Dravidian culture. Further references led to dating the tool to a period between late Neolithic and pre-Iron age between 2000 BC and 1000 BC. “The granite must have been etched with Iron. Iron age occurred in the Deccan region first,” says Dr Gandhi.[Archaeologists brace for debate on Tamil past]

Mr. Mahadevan also thinks that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu and the Harappans shared the same script and the same language. This word has been seen many times in artifacts found in Harappa. Does this mean that the Indus Valley folks had a link to the Dravidian culture or is there any other theory behind it?

These issues will be discussed in the first International Symposium on Indus Civilisation and Tamil language, to be held in Chennai on today and tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Indus Valley, Harappa, Tamil Nadu, Mayiladuthurai, Sembiyan Kandiyur

ASI to develop Bhattiprolu stupa

The Bhattiprolu maha stupa in Guntur district, one of the few found in India with the Buddhist relic caskets, will be exposed completely by March 2007 for public viewing by scientifically clearing tonnes of soil that has accumulated over a century. The Archaeological Survey of India will begin on Friday scientific clearing of the soil from the remnants of stupa proper and circumbulator, ASI Director and Hyderabad Circle Superintendenting Archaeologist D. Jithendra Das said. Boswell of East India Company in 1870 first excavated the stupa, dating back to 3rd Century BC and surrounding structures to 4th Century BC, where he found one of the ancient towns and stupa. Later in 1892 Alexander Rea fully excavated the stupa and took two caskets with Buddhist Relics along with some sculptured pieces of the stupa dome to the Egmore Museum in Chennai.

The stupa was vandalised during the 18th Century and during the first excavation a proof of existence of the Republican Kingdom of Kubera Raja was found from the inscription. The stupa was constructed in wheel shape like the one found at Ghantasala in Krishna district.

Technorati Tags: Guntur, Bhattiprolu, Stupa, Buddhist, Archaeological Survey of India, Alexander Rea, Kubera Raja

Metallurgy in ancient India was advanced

Prof Anatharaman, also former director of Institute of Technology (IT-BHU) and presently Chancellor of Ashram Atmadeep (Gurgaon) said that recent historical studies and scientific researches have thrown considerable new light on the status of metal extraction and working in Indian sub-continent during the ancient period (1700BC to 1000 AD). 

He said that the world-famous ancient Damascus Swords had its origin in India.

“The Damascus Swords were fabricated from Ultra-high Carbon Steel, known commercially as Wootz, was produced in South India particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh around 400 BC,” he said.

“Fabrication of the Iron Pillar, seven-ton heavy and seven meter tall at Delhi known for its amazing corrosion resistance despite exposure to the Sun, wind, dust and rain in the open for more than 16 centuries is another metallurgical marvel of ancient India,” he added.

Dr K Krishnan of Archaeology and Ancient History Department at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Vadodara) delivered a lecture on ‘Ceramic Technology: Its Beginning and Advancements in The Indian Sub-Continent.’ He said that ceramic technology develops with the emergence of the first agricultural communities, designated by the cultural phase ‘Neolithic’, which had a wide distribution in the sub-continent in space and time.”

See Also: Wootz

Tags: Wootz Damascus Swords Ancient India Iron Pillar Neolithic

Legacy of Harappan tech all pervasive even today

THE RECENT findings of glass beads proved that people of Harappan civilization had knowledge of glass. And, recent findings of Mesolithic tools in the excavation of Harappa also showed that the civilization had existed there before 10,000 BC, said Prof Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, from University of Wisconsin, Madison USA.

Delivering his lecture on ‘Harappan Technology and Its Legacy’, Dr DP Agrawal, director of Lok Vigyan Kendra Almora, said the legacy of the Harappan technology was all pervasive even today, for example the house plans, the technology of making carts, modern boats in Sindh, hydraulics, various motifs, the shapes of pots and platters and even ornaments seem to continue to this day.

Dr RS Bisht, former joint director general, Archaeological Survey of India, delivered his lecture on ‘Application of Science and Technology For Urban Planning, Architecture and Water Structures and their Management by the Harappans at Dholavira’. “Dholavira made a tremendous contribution towards the better understanding of the Indus civilization and the status of science and technology by its builders,” he said.

See Also: Parallel rural civilization to Harappa,  Were Harappans the Vedic people?, Earliest example of Vaastu,  Harappans = Vedic People ?

The Acorn recently had a post on the divergence of Persian and Indian cultures over values suggesting that Persians went for morals while Indians went for might. He quotes Rajesh Kochhar’s observations on the similarities between Avesta,  the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism and Rig Veda. In this context it will be useful to see the relation between Avesta, Avestan, Rig-Veda, and dates of all of them.

The Backstory

In 1786, Sir William Jones, a British judge in Calcutta noticed that there were striking similarities in the vocabulary  and grammar of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic and Gothic. This discovery resulted in the creation of a new field called comparative linguistics which led scholars to believe that all these languages were derived from a pre-Indo-European language which had its origins somewhere in Northern Europe, Central Asia, Southern Russia or basically anywhere-but-India.

According to Romila Thapar, Indo-European speakers had central Asia as their habitat and gradually over many centuries they branched out in search of fresh pastures. According to her, it is these central Asian migrants who wrote the  Avesta in Iran and Rig-Veda in India. According to Thapar there is an argument that people who migrated to India were dissidents of the Old Iranian, hence you find a significant reversal of meaning in concepts common to both Avesta and Rig-Veda.

Continue reading “Avesta and Rig Veda” →

Indian Express: To bring to surface Dwarka’s past, ASI to dig in deep & in the deeps

IT has long beckoned pilgrims and researchers alike, and is believed to have been a thriving port once. Now, to bring submerged Dwarka’s past to the surface, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and an Indian Navy team are planning to not only go down into the ocean’s deeps, but also dig along the shore and land. The excavation operations, which were launched at a site opposite Dwarkadheesh Temple on Monday, are the first on such magnitude undertaken by the ASI at the site.

‘We have begun excavations in a small area, measuring 5×5 opposite Dwarkadheesh temple. This was the only open site available adjacent to the main temple. The excavations near Dwarkadheesh will be followed by similar operations at Gomti Ghat and along the sea shore. Undersea excavation, to be undertaken by the team from Indian Navy, will begin on January 7,’’ said Tripathi. ‘‘The site earmarked for undersea excavation is some 500 km from the ashore. The excavation will be conducted at a depth of 3-15 m. This will be a time-consuming process. Initial results will dictate how much time will be requires for conclusive research,’’ he added.

‘‘The ASI plans to take up research with a different perspective, while keeping in mind earlier findings. Post-excavation, we will involve a range of experts to analyse the findings of our 20-member team,’’ said Tripathi.

See Also: Where is Krishna’s Dwaraka?, More on Dwaraka

From nytimes.com:  An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists

They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.

The Roman ship carrying the artifacts sank off the island of Antikythera around 65 B.C. Some evidence suggests that the ship had sailed from Rhodes. The researchers speculated that Hipparchos, who lived on Rhodes, might have had a hand in designing the device.

The mechanism, presumably used in preparing calendars for seasons of planting and harvesting and fixing religious festivals, had at least 30, possibly 37, hand-cut bronze gear-wheels, the researchers reported. An ingenious pin-and-slot device connecting two gear-wheels induced variations in the representation of lunar motions according to the Hipparchos model of the Moon’s elliptical orbit around Earth.

The functions of the mechanism were determined by the numbers of teeth in the gears. The 53-tooth count of certain gears, the researchers said, was “powerful confirmation of our proposed model of Hipparchos’ lunar theory.”

The detailed imaging revealed more than twice as many inscriptions as had been recognized from earlier examinations. Some of these appeared to relate to planetary as well as lunar motions. Perhaps, the researchers said, the mechanism also had gearings to predict the positions of known planets.

A photo of this device can be seen here

According to the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory folks, Aryans came to India sometime between 1500 – 1200 BCE and then composed the Vedas. In the book In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Georg Fuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley demolish this theory and suggest that the Vedic people were residents of the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

The authors argue that the people of Harappa were Vedic Aryans who had reached India a long time back. Indo-European speakers are now thought to have been present in Anatolia at the beginning of the Neolithic age. Migrations would have happened during the Harappan times as well, but the new immigrants would have found a prominent Sanskrit speaking Vedic people in Harappa. It is possible that the Vedic people walked on the streets of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and even possibly Mehrgarh and they did not come as conquerors or destroyers from outside India, but lived and even built the cities in the Land of Seven Rivers.[Book Review: In Search of the Cradle of Civilization]

A while back Nanditha Krishna also wrote an article suggesting the same. In a recent lecture, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, associate professor in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison agrees with this.

Kenoyer said modern archaeological findings do not support the idea of an Aryan ‘invasion,’ but show that Vedic people were among those who lived in cities such as Mohenjo Daro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab towards the end of the Indus civilization, which stretched between 7,000 BC and 1,900 BC. “These were sophisticated cities with wide roads, gates designed to keep intruders out and where those coming in or going out of the city with goods could be taxed. There was a water supply and proper drains. It was only when the Saraswati dried up and Mohenjo Daro and Harappa became overpopulated because other cities lost their water supply that the cities declined,” said Kenoyer, comparing that period with the fate of cities such as Amritsar and Lahore at the time of Partition. As many as 50,000 people may have lived in Harappa at certain periods and the people of the Indus civilisation formed ethnic groups, said Kenoyer, citing figurines showing seals with symbols such as the buffalo or unicorn to represent different ethnic groups. The unicorn symbol was invented by the Indus people, and spread to Europe centuries later via Mesopotamia and Near East, he said.

There was no single ruler in these cities. We’ve found no palace. Instead, there seems to have been a republic in which a group of elders ruled,” said Kenoyer.

What was earlier believed by archaeologists to be a grain store in Harappa now seems likely to have been a textile weaving centre, and fine cloth from the area was exported far away, he said.[Harappa was like any other metro: US prof]