1. A long forgotten civilization; 2. Geographical and environmental settings; 3. From foraging to farming and pastoralism; 4. An expanded world of peer polities; 5. Urbanism and states: cities, regions and edge zones; 6. Agrarian and craft producing economies - intensification and specialization; 7. Agrarian and craft producing economies - diversification, organization of production, and exchange; 8. The lure of distant lands; 9. Landscapes of order and difference - the cultural construction of space, place and material access; 10. The final days of urbanism and the Indus civilization: decline, transition and transformation.
In this book, Rita P. Wright draws a rich account of the ancient Indus civilisation.
Rita P. Wright is associate professor of anthropology at New York University. A John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, she has conducted archaeological field research in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. She is the editor of Gender and Archaeology and co-editor, with Cathy L. Costin, of Craft and Social Identity.
'Wright provides a comprehensive and compelling account of the
Indus civilization of ancient Pakistan and India. Although she does
not neglect material culture, her focus is on the interconnections
among climate, geography, agriculture, pastoralism, craft
specialization, political economy, internal exchange, trade,
urbanism, and ideology that characterize the Indus civilization and
help explain its origins, maturation, and decline. Highly
recommended.' Choice
'[This] book is a welcome addition to scholarship on the Indus
civilization as it is deals with a broad range of sources and
chronological periods in a well-structured and rigorous manner. It
should not only be on reading lists for courses on South Asian
archaeology but for all courses on early states as it provides an
excellent summary of the current state of Indus research in terms
of data, debates and theory.' Archaeological Review from
Cambridge
'The Ancient Indus, like other books in the Case Studies in Early
Societies series, gives an excellent introduction to an important
exemplar of the archaic state. Wright's accessible account of this
civilization's forms and history ensures the volume's suitability
for graduate and undergraduate courses dealing with South Asian
culture history, comparative analyses of ancient states, and the
varied methods employed in their study.' American Anthropologist
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