Were There Commercial Communications between Prehistoric Harappans and African Populations?

Kenneth A R Kennedy,Gregory L Possehl

doi:10.4236/aa.2012.24020

Abstract

This paper is an historical and scientific evaluation of Western archaeologists’ theories concerning ancient population movements and commercial contacts between the prehistoric Harappans and African populations during the Indus Age (2500-1900 BC). In this context the human skeletal remains and artifacts from Harappa and Mohenjodaro are relevant. An urnburial from the Indus river site of Chanhudaro has an important bearing upon this subject. The scientific aspect of this study is the provision of hitherto unascertained data to palaeoanthropologists anaylsing the skeletal and dental biology of prehistoric populations of South Asia.

Highlights

Chanhu-daro is an archaeological site of the Indus Civilization (2500-1900 BC) situated in the lower Indus valley of Pakistan near the east bank of the river and some 643.6 km from Mohenjo-daro
Mackay (1932), the cranium was sent to the American biological anthropologists, Drs T
Further implications involving the skull and its archaeological associations pertain to economic trade contacts between the Indus valley within the “Middle Asian Interaction Sphere” and Africa, e.g. millets and sorghum, crops encountered in prehistoric archaeological contexts in these parts of the world

Summary

Introduction

Chanhu-daro is an archaeological site of the Indus Civilization (2500-1900 BC) situated in the lower Indus valley of Pakistan near the east bank of the river and some 643.6 km from Mohenjo-daro. After the excavation it was a sent to Professor Wilton Krogman, who, at the Laboratory of Anatomy at Western Reserve University ( Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, cleared the specimen of its soil matrix, noting the absence of a mandible and vertebrae He concluded that these parts had been separated from the cranium prior to its deposition in the jar, and that “a sufficient period of time between death and interment (of the skull) had elapsed to permit the complete disassociation of the skull from a vertebral column and upper jaw from lower jaw” (Figure 3) (Krogman & Sassaman, 1943). What is unique at Chanhu-daro is not the practice of jar (urn, pot) containing portions of human skeletal remains, as this occurs at other pre-, post, and Mature Harappan sites It is the disposition of a single cranium in a jar that is unexpected. The soft tissues could have been macerated by placing the relatively fresh cranium in boiling water, or otherwise processed, and this vestige of this individual was kept by its “owner” along with the bronze/copper artifacts and sea shell (Figure 4)

Anatomical Observations

Morphometric Analysis Figures Methodology

Morphological Data

Economic Trade Contacts

Conclusion