The Ancient Indus

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-521-57219-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 416 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 753 g

Reihe: Case Studies in Early Societies

This early civilisation was erased from human memory until 1924, when it was rediscovered. Our understanding of the Indus has been partially advanced by textual sources from Mesopotamia that contain references to Meluhha, a land identified by cuneiform specialists as the Indus, with which the ancient Mesopotamians traded and engaged in battles. In this volume, Rita P. Wright uses both Mesopotamian texts but principally the results of archaeological excavations and surveys to draw a rich account of the Indus civilisation's well-planned cities, its sophisticated alterations to the landscape, and the complexities of its agrarian and craft-producing economy. She focuses principally on the social networks established between city and rural communities; farmers, pastoralists, and craft producers; and Indus merchants and traders and the symbolic imagery that the civilisation shared with contemporary cultures in Iran, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf region. Her study emphasises the interconnected nature of early societies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wright, Rita. P

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. A long forgotten civilization; 2. Geographical and environmental settings; 3. From foraging to farming and pastoralism; 4. An expanded world of peer polities; 5. Urbanism and states: cities, regions and edge zones; 6. Agrarian and craft producing economies - intensification and specialization; 7. Agrarian and craft producing economies - diversification, organization of production, and exchange; 8. The lure of distant lands; 9. Landscapes of order and difference - the cultural construction of space, place and material access; 10. The final days of urbanism and the Indus civilization: decline, transition and transformation.

Über Autor(innen)

Wright, Rita. P
Rita P. Wright is associate professor of anthropology at New York University. A John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, she has conducted archaeological field research in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. She is the editor of Gender and Archaeology and co-editor, with Cathy L. Costin, of Craft and Social Identity.