Landscapes of Urbanization and De-Urbanization: A Large-Scale Approach to Investigating the Indus Civilization’s Settlement Distributions in Northwest India

Survey data play a fundamental role in studies of social complexity. Integrating the results from multiple projects into large-scale analyses encourages the reconsideration of existing interpretations. This approach is essential to understanding changes in the Indus Civilization’s settlement distributions (ca. 2600–1600 b.c.), which shift from numerous small-scale settlements and a small number of larger urban centers to a de-nucleated pattern of settlement. This paper examines the interpretation that northwest India’s settlement density increased as Indus cities declined by developing an integrated site location database and using this pilot database to conduct large-scale geographical information systems (GIS) analyses. It finds that settlement density in northwestern India may have increased in particular areas after ca. 1900 b.c., and that the resulting landscape of de-urbanization may have emerged at the expense of other processes. Investigating the Indus Civilization’s landscapes has the potential to reveal broader dynamics of social complexity across extensive and varied environments.     

The Indus Valley Tradition of Pakistan and western India

Over the last several decades new sets of information have provided a more detailed understanding of the rise and character of the Indus Civilization as well as its decline and decentralization. This article begins with a summary of the major historical developments in the archaeology of the Indus Valley Tradition and a definition of terms found in the literature. A general discussion of the environmental setting and certain preconditions for the rise of urban and state-level society is followed by a summary of the major aspects of the Harappan Phase of the Indus Valley Tradition. This summary includes discussions of settlement patterns, subsistence, architecture, trade and exchange, specialized crafts, language, religion, and social organization. The Localization Era or decentralization of the urban centers is also addressed.     

Revisiting Settlement Contemporaneity and Exploring Stability and Instability: Case Studies from the Indus Civilization

ABSTRACT

“Map overestimation,” or “the contemporaneity problem,” derives from the assumption that settlements identified during surface surveys were occupied throughout individual periods. Inductive and simulation analysis have been used to ascertain the degree of contemporaneity in surface survey data sets, as variation in settlement location is critical for understanding population density and demography, which inform social, economic and political interpretations. This paper revisits the inductive approach to interrogating survey data developed by W. M. Sumner and the simulation model approach developed by R. E. Dewar to explore the survey data from two regions within South Asia’s Indus civilization. This analysis demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. It also highlights the variability in settlement systems in different areas within the Indus civilization and shows that consideration of stability and instability within settlement systems is an important factor when considering dynamics of resilience and sustainability.     

Anaemia in the Ancient Indus Valley

The Harappan, or Indus Valley, civilization is considered by many to be among the earliest and most developed of ancient civilizations, with features such as a highly specialized and functionally integrated economy, centralized bureaucratic institutions and a large population base. Two of 29 crania recovered during the most recent cemetery excavations at Harappa display cranial lesions of porotic hyperostosis, suggestive of chronic anaemia. No lesions consistent with the effects of genetic anaemias were exhibited by any of the 92 individuals for which postcranial remains were preserved, however, suggesting that an acquired iron deficiency is the most likely diagnosis. This low prevalence of anaemia may be linked to a good nutritional base in a diverse ecological setting, and few gastrointestinal and other infections due to high standards of personal and community hygiene. A genetic anaemia may be responsible for an apparent higher frequency of porotic hyperostosis at Mohenjo-Daro, a Harappan site that is located in a different environmental zone, but the small samples available for these and other South Asian sites render these conclusions tentative. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 7 : 115–123 (1997) No. of Figures: 2. No. of Tables: 1. No. of References: 57.     

中国出土的蚀花肉红石髓珠研究

蚀花肉红石髓珠起源于公元前三千纪的印度河文明,该类饰物及其制造技术在欧亚大陆传播。中国出土蚀花肉红石髓珠可分四型,通过将它们与国外的材料比对,可探究它们的不同来源及传播途径。中国出土的玻璃仿制品及蚀花肉红石髓珠对中国蜻蜓眼式玻璃珠的制造产生了影响。     

Civilization and Barbarism: When Barbarism Builds Cities

Around the mid-nineteenth century, D. F. Sarmiento introduced in Argentine literature the duality of “civilization and barbarism,” assuming that it was, at that time, an inescapable model in the analysis of society. Early in the 1880s, when the “conquest of the desert” came to an end and conflicts between city inhabitants and their urbanistic and “civilizing” urban plannings, vis-à-vis the rural populations that assumedly resisted change, worsened, the model acquired a new meaning. Taking one particular case of analysis, the foundation of the city of La Plata in lands owned by the Estancia Iraola, this paper uses archaeology to explore the limitations and falsehoods of such duality, jointly with the assumption of a simplistic relation of determinism between an environment and a particular human group.     

Material Matters: Representation and Materiality of the Harappan Body

In the Indus Civilization (ca. 2600–1900 BC), a society with no readable texts and few larger-scale representations, terracotta figurines were the most common representations of the human body. This paper explores the unique construction of the material representations of bodies and other material culture from Harappa, a major Indus site now in Pakistan. Hand-modeling representations of human bodies from dual clay pieces, sometimes decorated with bone pigments, suggests a focus on the process and ideological rather than practical choices in the materialization of the Harappan human body. For the Harappans, material matters as they engage physically with their world and embody themselves and their worldview.     

21世纪中国考古学的若干特点及发展趋势:从“中华文明探源工程”说起——王巍所长专访

21世纪以来,中国考古学呈现出新的学科特点和发展趋势。中国社会科学院考古研究所王巍所长认为,中国考古学随着自身的发展特别是在以"中华文明探源工程"及其各项阶段性成果的推进与影响下,形成了中国气派和中国特色,正朝着科学化、国际化、社会化、大众化的趋势和方向发展;中国考古学需要与国际考古界加强交流,博采众长,走向世界;作为一级学科的考古学的学科建设应是从文物管理机构到文物考古研究机构所共同担负的责任,需要形成一整套既符合中国实际,又顺应中国考古学发展的二级学科的设置,同时培养能够满足考古学发展需要的人才;公众考古是目前考古学新的发展走向,考古界需要转换意识和机制,培养专业人才,坚持考古的纯洁性和道德规范,以更好地服务社会与遗产保护事业。     

A discriminant analysis of harappan civilization human populations

A series of commonly occurring cranial measurements for Harappan Indian populations was considered. Stepwise discriminant analysis showed that there is morphological divergence between rural and urban populations, as well as within the settlement of Harappa. Also, it seems that the analysis of cranial measurements alone will not confirm the Gandhara Grave Complex as belonging to early Indo-European speakers in India.     

《历史研究》的中国文明观与中国文明起源研究

中国明是汤因比研究比较的非西方明中的重要明形态,他在《历史研究》中多次涉及并作了较为深入的比较研究,提出了自己的看法。汤氏重视研究非西方明重要价值,也有其历史局限。     

Production and Consumption of Copper-base Metals in the Indus Civilization

We review the existing data sets for the production and consumption of copper-base objects at Indus sites, outline a working typology for metal objects, and provide new data from on-going analytical work on the copper assemblage from Harappa. The role of metals in the economic and social networks of the Indus tradition is examined in terms of patterns of use and technological style. We note that Indus metalsmiths apparently relied more on procurement of metal ingots or scrap than on primary ingot production through smelting, which would have affected other aspects of Indus metallurgy. Object production did not involve elaborate forms, but may have involved complex alloying. Finally, we conclude that there is no evidence for elite control of metal production, and that access to metals was relatively widespread.     

史前城址与中原地区中国古代文明中心地位的形成

２０世纪７０年代以来,中国境内史前时代城址陆续被发现,部分并经发掘。综合２０多年的发现,已知这批史前时代城址分别分布在黄河、长江两大流域,总数据不完全统计,达５０座左右。 由早期城址的大批发现及国外考古学理论的陆续被介绍而引发的关于早期城址的功能及其在中国古代文明发展中的地位的讨论十分热烈。本文也拟就这一问题,谈一点一得之见,并着重讨论在各地早期城址大批涌现的历史背景下中原地区中国古代文明中心地位的形成问题,以就教于识者。　　　　　　　　一 黄河流域发现的史前时代城址,仅就其分布地域而言,可以分作…     

构筑中国疆域的文明板块类型及其统合模式序说

本文对中国疆域的形成进行了探讨。认为公元前200年—公元1820年,中国原本历史渊源不同、文化传承各异的5大文明板块:大漠游牧文明板块、泛中原农耕文明板块、东北渔猎耕牧文明板块、雪域牧耕文明板块、海上文明板块,经过长时段的相互撞击与攻防,彼此融合与和解,最后融为一体。统合5大文明板块的粘合剂,则是中国固有的人文地理条件与文化传统。     

“汉代文明国际学术研讨会”纪要

在2008年北京奥运会到来之际,为了更好地服务于人文奥运,展现中华民族悠久灿烂的历史文化,由北京市文物局主办,中国社会科学院考古研究所、北京大学考古文博学院、中国秦汉史研究会、北京市文物研究所、首都博物馆等单位协办,北京市大     

关于夏商周文明形成时期农业经济特点的一些思考

黄河流域地区是粟和黍的起源地, 也是夏商周文明的诞生地, 由此导致了夏商周文明的农业基础应该是以粟和黍为主要粮食作物的传统认识, 但事实是否如此是一个值得认真讨论的问题。结合甲骨文的记载, 并通过对该地区自然生态环境背景、农作物的生长习性以及现有的考古资料的综合分析, 本文认为, 黄河流域地区农业经济的发展在夏商周时期出现了新的变化, 粟和黍的主导地位开始受到冲击, 麦类作物已经传入, 稻谷在夏商周文明形成过程中发挥了重要的作用。     

Orinoquia: The Archaeology of the Orinoco River Basin

Orinoquia is one of the most important riverine ecosystems complexes of the world. However, it has been seldom recognized as an ecological or historical entity in general accounts of South American archaeology. This essay reviews systematically and comparatively the archaeology of Orinoquia, by discussing research done from the 1940s onwards in all the areas of the Orinoco Basin: the Andes, the plains or llanos, the Orinoco river proper, the highlands of Guayana, and the Delta. It is proposed that, in the last 20 years, there has been a sustained movement away from a traditional archaeology, concerned mostly with environmental determinism and cultural history, to new and pluralistic models that share, in spite of their diversity, a regional, long-term, and multidisciplinary approach.     

“古蜀文明保护传承暨纪念桂圆桥遗址发现十周年”学术研讨会综述

2019年11月4日至11月5日,由四川省文物考古研究院、什邡市博物馆等单位联合举办的"古蜀文明保护传承暨纪念桂圆桥遗址发现十周年"学术研讨会在四川什邡市召开。近百位专家学者齐聚一堂,以纪念桂圆桥遗址发现十周年为主题,并就古蜀文明的保护传承展开全方位深入讨论,议题涉及桂圆桥遗址及相关古蜀文明遗址的发现、发掘与重要意义、古蜀文明与周边区域的文化交流、聚落考古工作与研究以及科技考古研究等几个方面,成果丰硕。为开展桂圆桥遗址今后的考古工作、研究、保护以及实施"古蜀文明保护传承工程"提供了诸多有益思路和中肯建议。     

The Not So Peaceful Civilization: A Review of Maya War

The first Maya encountered by Europeans in the early sixteenth century were exceedingly warlike, but by the 1940s the earlier Classic Maya (AD 250–1000) were widely perceived as an inordinately peaceful civilization. Today, in sharp contrast, conflict is seen as integral to Maya society throughout its history. This paper defines war, reviews the evidence for it in the Maya archaeological record, and shows how and why our ideas have changed so profoundly. The main emphasis is on the Classic period, with patterns of ethnohistorically documented war serving as a baseline. Topics include the culture history of conflict, strategy and tactics, the scope and range of operations, war and the political economy, and the intense status rivalry war of the eighth and ninth centuries AD that contributed to the collapse of Classic civilization. Unresolved issues such as the motivations for war, its ritual vs. territorial aims, and sociopolitical effects are discussed at length.     

贵阳的远古人类与史前文明

贵阳地处黔中腹地,是全省政治经济文化中心,对贵阳早期历史的探寻,文献记载显然鞭长莫及,近年来通过考古学的发现,逐渐使我们对贵阳早期的人类与文明有了一个初步的了解和认识,将贵阳地区人类社会历史的上限推进到了数万年前。