precious metal : The Indus Valley Civilizations part 1

In the majority of Neolithic India, as in most parts of the world at that time, people fashioned jewelry out of seeds, feathers, berries, flowers, bones and shells. But in the north of India, in the Indus valley cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappan, men and women were already wearing jewelry made of gold, silver, copper and set with precious metal and semi-precious gemstones.

The Indus valley civilization, preceding the Vedic, existed from 3000 B.C. to 1500 B.C., and was built in and amongst the fertile lands of what is known today as Pakistan. The Neolithic Indus valley people like others, domesticated animals and harvested crops of cotton, sesame and barley. Contrary to the belief that India only possessed an agricultural economy in this period, evidence has been found at the Indus cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappan, showing the people as having been sophisticated urbanites whose cities were bastions to art and culture.

The brick cities, acting as focal points for a kind of centralized state, towered high above the Indus plains and were established along important trade routes that connected the ‘Far East’ with the ‘Near East’. They were visible for large distances, a landmark to the prosperity of their rulers, inhabited by generations of merchant classes, skilled artisans, farmers and sea-faring adventurers engaged in extensive trading.

Proof of the Indus people’s impact on Neolithic trade was found when archaeologists excavating Mohenjo-daro and Harappan found engraved seals written in cuneiform, the world’s first written language whose origins lay in Mesopotamia in the Near East. The seals, describing the contents of sacks, were used to close bundles of merchandise as cord marks on the reverse side testify. Other similar seals were found in ports on the Persian Gulf near modern Bahrain, and amongst Mesopotamian sites at the city of Ur.

The seals originating from the Indus sites described cargos of textiles, and luxury goods such as semi precious gemstones, ivory, carnelian beads, pearls, mother of pearl and jade sent to Persia and Mesopotamia in exchange for gold, silver, tin, copper, lapis lazuli and turquoise. Bitumen from Mesopotamia, where it occured naturally, was also imported and used as the binding glue in mother of pearl inlay in precious metal items of jewelry and ornamentation. These products and their seals found in various Indus archeological sites bare testament to the presence of foreign traders living amongst the Indus people.

By David-John Turner