Social Organisation And Change In Bronze Age South Asia: A multi-proxy approach to urbanisation, deurbanisation and village life through phytolith and macrobotanical analysis

This thesis explores the agricultural choices made by rural populations of the Indus Civilisation (3200-1300BC) and the subsequent Painted Grey Ware period (1300-500BC) by analysing macrobotanical and phytolith remains from five rural settlements in north-west India. The Indus Civilisation has typically been characterised as a society that underwent a broadly unilinear development, and the evolution of the prevalent subsistence strategies have been explained through the use of relatively simplistic binary models. Cities have often been regarded as the driving force in Indus society, with demands for wheat and barley leading to shifts in village-level agricultural production and organisation during the period of urbanism. The impact of climate change has often been cited as driving a shift after c.2200BC from a winter-based cereal subsistence economy towards more arid-adapted but lower yielding mixed season strategies, leading to the disruption of supply chains and eventually to urban deterioration. The five village-sized settlements investigated here are located in slightly different ecological zones in an arid to semi-arid region, and are situated at varying distances from major urban centres. Each settlement had a range of temporal occupations, allowing for an exploration of the impact of social and climatic change over the span of the Indus Civilisation and assessment of local adaptation to environment and the potential for variation in agricultural choices. Contrary to previous suggestions, a range of multi-cropping strategies were seen from the beginning of occupation at all settlements. A slight trend towards increased proportions of millet, which is viewed as being arid-adapted, was seen over time, but no drastic switch to these crops was noted in the post-urban period. This suggests that the urbanisation and deurbanisation of the Indus Civilisation did not impact agricultural production at these settlements and that the inhabitants were already adapted to a variable and changing environment.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bates, Jennifer

• Indus Civilisation
• phytolith analysis
• macrobotanical analysis

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/bddd9f22-065d-45aa-9bdb-fe50cb969159/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved/

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114593

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/377938