Cultures in contact
TRADING ENCOUNTERS — From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age: Shereen Ratnagar; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 695.
THE LAST 60 years have witnessed a plethora of research publications on the Indus Valley Civilisation. More often than not these bring about newer discoveries with newer details of discovered archaeological features.
The interpretations, however, do not go beyond discussions about inter-regional similarities or differences. Issues regarding functioning of the administration or civic system or for that matter the process of decline of the civilisation do not show any variance from what had been described during the early part of the last century.
Shereen Ratnagar is possibly one of the few Harappan scholars from India who has tried to examine some of these often-quoted issues in fuller details. Her last book entitled The End of the Great Harappan Tradition is one such example. This book is another example of a similar kind coming from her. A rather long introduction delineates a number of issues, which are encompassed within the theme of "Trade Encounter".
The first chapter wherein various cultures in contact are delineated at length follows this. This not only provides a clearer understanding of the geographical layout of the various cultural areas between the Euphrates and the Indus but also helps one to appreciate the internal processes operating in the contiguous regions. The chapter ends with an interesting discussion about what could be actually the area referred to as Meluhha in the Mesopotamian trade accounts.
This is followed by a chapter on individual items of trade and another on mechanism of trade and finally another chapter follows wherein discussion and interpretation of the data has been given.
Items that were traded are mostly reconstructed from cuneiform writing tablets. The author scans all available sources and documents these references for each of the items that was traded both out of Euphrates as also from the East towards Euphrates.
Although archaeologically one cannot demonstrate the perishable material, if any, when one talks about trade, it appears that the bulk of the goods that travelled from Mesopotamia eastwards are food stuffs and textiles while possibly copper and timber moved westward.
The bitumen occurring in Kirkuk and Mosul in northern Mesopotamia seems to have been another interesting item of trade, which has seldom been given much importance in earlier literature. It seems that at places like Abu Gir and Masjid-I-Suleiman as much as 10 litres of bitumen seeps out in a day. No wonder that such natural secretions were in high demand especially if one has to caulk boats.
Mobility of finished craft products has often been used in Harappan pre-history to demonstrate trade. It is interesting that while vessels of oriental alabaster are found in big number at Sahr-I-sokta, these seem to show absolutely no mobility. On the other hand, dark stones like Diorite seem to have been specially mined at Oman for trading with Sumeria during both Akkad and post- Akkadian period. The other objects of trade have been gold, silver, lead, tin, shells, talc, ivory and precious stones.
There are even evidences of red ochre having been mined and also traded. Another enigmatic object of relatively appreciable frequency found spread over the entire area from Akkad to Harappa is the monkey figurines. Many believe that live rhesus monkeys might also have been brought to these western ports along with peacocks and ivory from the Indus Valley centres.
These figurines (actually another lists 23 such sites) might have, in course of time, taken a symbolic meaning in their early civilisations. It is not a mere coincidence, therefore, that the term used for monkey in Hebrew (Koph) seems to be so close to the word "Kapi" in Sanskrit. Likewise, the old Tamil word "Takai" for peacock seem to compare with "Tuki" in Hebrew. One can certainly assume these similarities as indicative of human contact over the entire region from early times.
The mechanisms of trade, i.e. mode of transport, storage, and dispatch, handling of the goods, keeping of accounts, and weights and measures are the other issues discussed in the next chapter. A major part of long distance movement between Magan, Dilmun and Mesopotamia, it seems, was over sea.
There is some other long distance transport, like between Kullis and Harappans where the author believes that even pack animals might have been used. Transport by cart or by river was possibly used only for short distances.
In the final analysis, the author ably argues how the two riverine civilisations were interacting and how for both Oman with its rich copper deposits started becoming important.
In the sequel the author argues that trade encounters need not necessarily be divorced from political factors and hence is a vibrant indicator of the rise and fall of civilisations. This book is a must for anybody who wants to understand Harappa as a dynamic socio-economic process and not merely as layers and pits yielding antiquities or structural details.
D. K. BHATTACHARYA
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