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Harappa Excavations 1986-1990 a Multidisciplinary Approach to Third Millennium Urbanism

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Harappa Excavations 1986-1990 a Multidisciplinary Approach to Third Millennium Urbanism Harappa Excavations 1986-1990 A Multidisciplinary Approach to Third Millennium Urbanism Edited by Richard H. Meadow Monographs in World Archaeology No.3 • PREHISTORY PRESS Madison Wisconsin Copyright © 1991 by the Individual Authors. Prehistory Press 7530 Westward Way Madison, Wisconsin 53717-2009 James A. Knight, Publisher Carol J. Bracewell, Managing Editor All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the U.S.A. ISBN 0-9629110-1-1 ISSN 1055-2316 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harappa excavations 1986-1990 : a multidisciplinary approach to third millennium urbanism / edited by Richard H. Meadow. p. em. -- (Monographs in world archaeology, ISSN 1055-2316 : no. 3) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-9629110-1-1 : $33.00 1. Harappa Site (Pakistan) 2. Excavations (Archaeology)­ - Pakistan. I. Meadow, Richard H. II. Series. 05392.2 H3H37 1991 934 -- dc20 91-39504 CIP Cover art: Bowl on Stand H88-1002/192-17 associated with Burial 194a in Harappan Phase Cemetery (see Figure 13.18). 7 Faunal Remains and Urbanism at Harappa Richard H. Meadow Peabody Museum, Harvard University Excavations at the third millennium BC urban site of Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan) have produced a large quantity of mammal bone remains. Two features of this material-bone measurements and density ofbone in excavation units--are considered from the point of view of using aspects of assemblage variability to document faunal exploitation and site formation processes. Measurements of cattle, sheep, and goat bones from Area C on the south side of Mound E are compared with those documented from earlier levels at the site of Mehrgarh and contemporary levels at Nausharo (Baluchistan, Pakistan). The results suggest that different breeds of sheep and cattle may have been kept in the two regions during the Harappan phase. The density of bone deposited in Street NS2355, when considered in combination with the nature of the street deposits and adjoining architecture, permits one to monitor the cycle of urban life in that part of Harappa. It appears that only during Period 2 (or early Period 3A) and late in Period 3B was the street actively maintained or reconstructed. At other times it served as an open sewer, acted as a dump for debris from nearby house­ holds, or fell out ofactive use as a thoroughfare. uring the Indus Valley Tradition fluctuating resource availability as dictated by geographical and tensions created by pressures for both unifor­ cultural factors. While topography, soils, climate, D mity and diversity drove the cultures of the water, and natural vegetation provided possibilities region into and out of phases of integration and for or placed physical constraints on plant and animal regionalization, urbanization and deurbanization husbandry, it was the knowledge of individual (Shaffer 1991). The underlying forces and resulting farmers and herders that dictated how such resources patterns are usually most clearly manifest in aspects of were used. technology, sociopolitical organization, and ideology In a like manner, birds, fish, and terrestrial game as these are reflected in the material culture. might have been available to a population but not Nevertheless, some of the most profound changes used to any great extent. A specific example is during the second half of the third millennium in the provided by the coastal site of Balakot. In the late Greater Indus Valley took place in subsistence prac­ fourth and early third millennium Balakotian levels, tices (Costantini 1981; Jarrige 1985; Meadow 1989a; fish bones and mollusc shells are rare. Clearly the Weber 1990, 1992). population had access to and perhaps some knowl­ A common feature of the Harappan phase (ca. edge of coastal habitats, but did not exploit them as a 2600-2000 BC) in the Indus valley alluvial zone major source of food. In contrast, during the appears to have been an agricultural foundation of Harappan phase at the same site, both fish and winter crops-including principally barley and mollusc remains are plentiful suggesting that those wheat--and domesticated bovids-including cattle, faunas were heavily harvested (Dales 1979, 1986; sheep, and goats (Costantini 1981, 1984, 1990; Meadow Meadow 1979; Belcher, Chapter 8 in this volume).! 1987, 1989a). Yet the details of subsistence practice as Defining variability in subsistence activities revealed by the plant and animal remains at indi­ between sites and even between phases at the same vidual sites vary considerably depending upon site is not a straightforward task (Meadow 1978a, 89 90 Harappa Excavations 1986-1990: A Multidisciplinary Approach 1989b). Techniques of food preparation, disposal prac­ this volume). While the faunal material from Mehrgarh tices, and depositional events influence the character discussed here has previously been published of the floral and faunal records (flora: e.g., Dennell (Meadow 1981, 1984a, 1984b, 1989b, and specifically 1976; Hillman 1984; fauna: e.g., Gilbert 1979; Meadow Meadow 1992), information on· the fauna from 1980). In addition, the indiosyncrasies of specific Nausharo is presented for the first time. It comprises events as well as day-to-day, season-to-season, and bones and teeth from Harappan phase deposits of year-to-year variability are reflected in the plant and Periods II and III on the southern mound that were animal remains (Wright, Miller, and Redding 1980). excavated during the 1986 and 1987 seasons.3 Some mightargue that our understanding ofpastplant The site of Harappa is located near near the town of and animal exploitation practices is directly related to Sahiwal south of the river Ravi about halfway between our ability to identify and control for su~h biasing Lahore and Multan. The mammal bones considered factors. Another approach is to actively examine the here were excavated during the 1990 season and come variability in the archaeological record and frame ques­ from street and trash deposits excavated in Area Con tions to identify both general trends and specific the southern slope of Mound E that can be assigned variations that can provide insight into the constraints principally to Periods3A and 3B (see Chapters 4 and 13 lying behind individual activities. In this way, floral in this volume, Figure 7.7, and the discussion below). and faunal remains can provide information both on The 5,554 specimens that form the basis of Figure 7.8 subsistence practices and on phenomena beyond the come from the street deposits alone and were identified strictly subsistence sphere. at least to size of animal. These deposits were dry­ With respect to faunal remains, I provide two exam­ sieved through wire screens (ca. 1/4 inch or 64 rom ples here. The first uses the dimensions of sheep, goat, mesh). All materials from the street levels were and cattle bones from the neolithic and chalcolithic analyzed with the exception of some of the bones from levels at Mehrgarh (District Kachi, Baluchistan, Lot 3151 that remain to be studied.4 Pakistan), from the Harappan periods at the nearby Identifications for the Mehrgarh, Nausharo, and site of Nausharo, and from the Harappan phase at Harappa materials were made on the basis of accumu­ Harappa (District Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan) to inves­ lated experience of the analysts, notes compiled over tigate differences in animal husbandry practices the years on osteological differences, and modem through time and between different regions of what is comparative collections some of which were made at now Pakistan. The second example employs data on Mehrgarh and Harappa and are stored at those sites. the abundance of bones in street deposits at Harappa Data was computer coded following the protocol to monitor the cycle of urban life. defined in Meadow (1978b) and manipulated on Macintos~computers using Microsoft@ Excel©. Bone weights were taken to the nearest half-gram on a Materials and Methods metric postal scale. Measurements were made with dial or digital calipers to the nearest 0.1 rom with an The site of Mehrgarh is located in the northern part estimated accuracy of ±1 %. Measurement definitions of the Kachi Plain at the foot of the Bolan Pass in generally follow those of von den Driesch (1976) with eastern Baluchistan. Excavated between 1974 and the exception of the ones for carpals that are defined 1985, it has a more or less continuous series of deposits by Stampfli (1963). that run from the 6000+ BC "aceramic neolithic" Bone measurements are taken to document the size (Mehrgarh Period IA) through the "coarse ware and build of the animals exploited (Boessneck and von neolithic" (MR.IB-IIA) and "fine ware neolithic" den Driesch 1978). Size in animals has two compo­ (MRIIB) into the "chalcolithic" (MRIII, IV, V, and VI) nents: weight and height. Breadth and depth and "early bronze age" (MRVIIA-C) (Jarrige and measurements of appendicular bones reflect the Lechevallier 1979; Jarrige 1981, 1985; Lechevallier and weight supported by each limb of the animal, while Quivron 1981, 1985). lengths especially of the long bones and phalanges are Deposits at the nearby site of Nausharo overlap in correlated with the height of the animal (von den time those of Mehrgarh Period VII and continue Driesch and Boessneck 1974). Some zooarchaeological through the Harappan phase. Thus Mehrgarh Periods studies of animal size change and variability have not VIIA-C are approximately contemporary with dealt with these two types of dimensions separately, Nausharo Periods IA-C. Nausharo Period ID (ca. 2500 primarily because of the small numbers of the measur­ BC) follows
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