Pottery

Articles on ceramic production, artisan crafts, pottery and material culture in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization.

Setting the wheels in motion: Re-examining ceramic forming techniques in Indus Civilisation villages in northwest India

Alessandro Ceccarelli
"The discovery of the rotational capabilities of the wheel was one of the most significant human inventions, and wheel-enhanced rotation is now pervasive in the tools and machines that we use in our everyday lives. Importantly, the wheel was a major contributor to a range of developments in craft production technology, perhaps most visibly in the various forms of potter’s rotational devices and wheels."

Painted Indus Script on Ceramics and Steatite: New Insights on Indus Script Calligraphy and Function

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
A careful look at one of the least studied forms of Indus writing. "The painting of script on pottery. Painting script requires a specially prepared brush that could have been the same as that used for decorating pottery, but would have been selected to have the appropriate size and shape for the size of the script being painted."

Pottery Firing Structures (Kilns) of the Indus Civilization During the Third Millennium B.C.

Kiln at Harapaa
Heather M.L. Miller
This paper illustrates the different types of technology that was used for firing pottery and terracotta objects in the greater Indus region in the third milliennium B.C.E. Using excavation data from the Kachi Plain (Mehrgarh, Lal Shah and Naushoro), Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, Miller develops a classification for the range of firing structures and technologies.

Perspectives from the Indus: Contexts of interaction in the Late Harappan/Post-Urban period

Rita P. Wright
Rita P. Wright, an archaeologist with long experience understanding the Indus areas around Harappa (see the Beas Settlement and Land Survey) looks at the complex evidence surrounding the decline of Indus civilization at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium (around 2000 BCE and afterwards).

What Makes a Pot Harappan?

Heidi J. Miller
"When we speak of Harappan material style, we need to include the whole package of raw material, technological know-how as well as shape and pattern," writes Dr. Heidi J. Miller, who goes on to present "a preliminary study of what defines a Harappan phase ceramic assemblage by comparing the assemblages from the sites of Harappa in the Punjab, Mohenjo-daro and the smaller site of Chanhu-daro, both in Sindh, and illustrating what is shared amongst these contemporary occupations."

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