The terracotta art is depiction of life of the common man expressed by common man. Hitherto neglected and relegated to the status of minor objects in archaeological reports, terracottas could be a powerful mode of cultural reconstruction. A serious attempt has been made in the present volume to have a glimpse of life of man during the Harappan period as revealed through the terracottas. To place the terracottas in their proper perspective the ecological back ground of the Indus culture has been discussed in an independent chapter, followed by detailed and upto date account of sites at Early/Pre-Harappan, Mature-Harappan and Late-Harappan levels. The book, thus undertakes to study the Indus culture in a wider frame-work, providing all the information on settlements and their growth pattern during 4th-2nd millennia B.C. in an area expanding over two nations of the Indian sub-continent. The focal theme, however, has never been lost sight of. A large number of terracottas have been brought to light from most of the important excavated Indus sites. The richness is manifested in the numerical profusion, diverse variety as well as beautiful objects of art, Except for the building material, all other objects like figurines, beads, bangles, toys, models of carts, boats, implements like ploughs etc. have been taken into account. The cultural context of terracotta objects, their socio-economic or religious significance to Indus Valley Culture has been highlighted. This study, thus provides an invaluable insight into the life during the Indus Valley culture.

This book discusses climate and dating of the Indus Valley civilization and Sir Mortimer Wheeler summarizes other contributions to the study.

After more than eighty years of international research on the Indus Civilization, this geographically extensive ancient society remains deeply enigmatic. With no known monumental art or deciphered texts, the largest category of representational art recovered from many Indus sites is terracotta figurines. In this detailed research report, archaeologist Sharri R. Clark examines and recontextualizes a rich and diverse corpus of hundreds of figurines from the urban site of Harappa (ca. 3300âe"1700 BC) to reveal new information about Indus ideology and society. The hand-modeled figurinesâe"including anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, fantastic creatures such as unicorns, and special forms with wheels or movable partsâe"served as a medium of communication and exchange that reflects underlying structures of Indus society and cultural change. The author focuses on the figurines as artifacts whose âeoesocial livesâe can be at least partially reconstructed through systematic analysis of stylistic and technological attributes and spatial and temporal contexts. Comparisons with ethnographic data, historic texts, and contemporaneous ancient societies enrich and inform the groundbreaking interpretations. Lavishly illustrated, the volume includes an extensive database on disk.

This work is a revealing study of the enigmatic Indus civilization and how a rich repertoire of archaeological tools is being used to probe its puzzles. The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives takes readers back to a civilization as complex as its contemporaries in Mesopotamia and Egypt, one that covered a far larger region, yet lasted a much briefer time (less than a millennium) and left few visible traces. Researchers have tentatively reconstructed a model of Indus life based on limited material remains and despite its virtually indecipherable written record. This volume describes what is known about the roots of Indus civilization in farming culture, as well as its far-flung trading network, sophisticated crafts and architecture, and surprisingly war-free way of life. Readers will get a glimpse of both a remarkable piece of the past and the extraordinary methods that have brought it back to life.

This interdisciplinary volume is a ‘one-stop location’ for the most up-to-date scholarship on Southern Levantine figurines in the Iron Age. The essays address terracotta figurines attested in the Southern Levant from the Iron Age through the Persian Period (1200–333 BCE). The volume deals with the iconography, typology, and find context of female, male, animal, and furniture figurines and discusses their production, appearance, and provenance, including their identification and religious functions. While giving priority to figurines originating from Phoenicia, Philistia, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine, the volume explores the influences of Egyptian, Anatolian, Mesopotamian, and Mediterranean (particularly Cypriot) iconography on Levantine pictorial material.