Beginnings and how Harappans lived

Historians divide the human past into three parts. Pre-history is the time before people could write, so we learn about it only from material remains (tools, bones, pots). Proto-history is a time when people did write, but we cannot read their writing, so we still depend mainly on material remains. History is the time for which we have both material remains and writings we can read.

The Harappan civilisation belongs to proto-history: the Harappans wrote, but their script has not been deciphered. So archaeologists rebuild their story from bricks, beads, bones, seals and pots.

It began long after people first learnt to farm (in the subcontinent, at Mehrgarh in the north-west, around 8000 BCE). The civilisation spans about 6000 to 1300 BCE, in three phases: Early (formative), Mature (the urban phase, 2600-1900 BCE) and Late Harappan. Its sites spread from Afghanistan and Baluchistan to Gujarat, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

What did they eat? Archaeo-botanists (specialists in ancient plant remains) have found grains: wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame, millets, and, less often, rice. Animal bones show they ate cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo and pig, as well as fish and wild animals.

How did they farm? Terracotta models of ploughs, and seals showing bulls, suggest they ploughed with oxen. At Kalibangan, a ploughed field was found with two sets of furrows crossing each other, so two crops could be grown together. Water came from canals (traces at Shortughai, in Afghanistan), wells, and reservoirs (at Dholavira).