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ARCHAEOLOGY
encyclopedia
Lower town
The arterial street was flanked by a number of shops and
large houses of wealthy merchants. One of the houses had
seven rooms and a verandah. The merchant was engaged in
overseas trade with Sumer as can be judged from a distinct
pottery known as the Reserved Slip Ware of Sumerian origin.
The merchant was wealthy as indicated by gold jewellery and
seven seals found in his house. Close to the merchant’s
house are small shops of shell workers, coppersmiths and
lapidafies. Obviously, the Harappan society was not strati-
fied, and therefore the rich and the poor could live together.
Both enjoyed the same civic amenities.
Warehouse
The warehouse consisting of sixty-four cubical blocks
stood on a massive podium of mud bricks. The superstruc-
ture was made of timber. The cargo was kept duly sealed by
the ruler or his agent for identification and authentification of
the goods. One of the major floods destroyed most of the
Fig : 12— Lothal Ware House
cubical blocks, leaving only twelve of them. By 2000 B.C. the
warehouse shrank in size but its function as a clearing house
continued for more than a hundred years. Sometime in 1900
B.C. there must have been an accidental fire which reduced the
cargo and the timber superstructure to ashes, leaving however
the clay sealings fixed on the packages well preserved due to
baking. These sealings, found in the course of excavation of
the warehouse, have provided valuable evidence for the com-
mercial use of the Indus seals, for they bear clear impression
of the seal on one side and of the packing material, such as
bamboo mats, reeds and woven cloth on the other. Even the
impressions of cords tied into knots can be seen on the seal-
ings, which attest to the commercial use of seals.
Cemetery
The Harappans practised both burial and cremation. The
post-cremation remains including charred bones and ash de-
posited in urns buried in the ground have been exposed in
Harappa (Vats 1942), Mehi (MA SI 43) and Damb Buthi (MA
SI 48). Recently post-cremation burials have been reported
from Dholavira (Bisht. 1992). The cemeteries of Lothal, Kali-
bangan, Ropar and Surkotada contain extended burials of
adults and children. They are oriented north-south with head
to the north. In Dholavira, however they are oriented east-
west. An indication of post-cremation deposits is furnished
by pots with ash and no bones at Lothal as well as Kalibangan.
A very significant type of disposal of the dead at Lothal is the
double burial in Phase III but not in Phases IV and V when
single burial was the order of the day. In two out of three
double burials of Lothal there is a female and a male each
(Chatterjee and Kumar 1963) suggesting immolation of the
wife on the death of the husband... a form of
Sati
which was
given up in the later days at Lothal. There is a reference in the
Satapatha Brahmana,
a Vedic text which indicates only sym-
bolic observance of the
Sati
without allowing the wife to die.
(Vedic Index I).
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