Indus Age: The Beginnings

This volume, Indus Age: The Beginnings, sets the stage for the Mature Harappan Civilization. Part one presents the theory, and philosophy of the series, as well as some definitional and technical information, such as radiocarbon dates, and comments on physical anthropology. This is followed by the story of the discovery of the Harappan civilization. Part two starts in the early nineteenth century when the city of Harappa was visited by antiquarians with no knowledge of the older history of Pakistan or India. The story is told of the leadership of the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, Sir John Mashall. New biographical and historical material, some of it from the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, is presented. The reinvigoration of the Archaeological Survey of India under the guidance of Sir Mortimer Wheeler brings the story of discovery to a close with the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Part three is a detailed discussion of cultural geography, which offers a regional perspective on the Greater Indus area using the concept of a "Domain". Part four is a culture history of the peoples of the Indus age from the beginnings of food production and domestication of plants and animals to the threshold of civilization in the region. Indus Age: The Beginnings is the second of four books written by Dr. Gregory L. Possehl. The first to be published was Indus Age: The Writing System. The others will be Indus Age: The Mature Harappan and Indus Age: The Transformation. Taken together they will form a comprehensive overview of the ancient cities of the Indus, from the beginnings of village farming communities through the transformation or eclipse of the civilization.