An Indus Scale
Chapter 5 from Sudeshna Guha's bestselling A History of India Through 75 Objects (2022), includes a little-known object described as a ‘measure of length’ by Ernest Mackay.
Chapter 5 from Sudeshna Guha's bestselling A History of India Through 75 Objects (2022), includes a little-known object described as a ‘measure of length’ by Ernest Mackay.
The author, who has been working in the larger region for decades exploring the long history of human habitation and industry going back tens of thousands of years, turns his attention to the geographic changes in the Indus delta region through the Bronze Age and what recent work shows us were the curious "islands" that once existed in lower Sindh (Dholavira, in Gujarat, is another example of such a later settlement).
Rao Bahadur Kashinath Narayan Dikshit (1889-1946) was at the helm of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as Director-General during a pivotal time in history, just as tremendous changes taking place across the globe and in his homeland. His tenure as Director-General (1937-1944) corresponded with the years preceding the war, through the war years and just prior to Independence.
A recent VOX Unexplainable podcast featuring Prof. Rajesh Rao (University of Washington, Seattle) offers a broad overview of ancient Indus script research and where we are today.
This nearly 400 page illustrated volume by Dr. Amendra Nath from 2014 covers three seasons of excavations (1997-2000), and is "drawn on the lines of the Wheeler Committee Report-1965." As the start of a record about this extensive, important major ancient Indus site, it is invaluable.
"The reconstruction of Puabi fully adorned provides insights into the fabric that lay beneath the sumptuous ornaments. The queen’s spectacular accessories, though important, have diverted our attention away from the cloth that lay beneath the eye-catching ornaments, which deteriorated (or de-materialized) long ago and so has been mostly invisible to us in the present day."