The Indus valley seals: a method for their study
Date
1977
Authors
Lovatt, Elizabeth Dickerman
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Abstract
This thesis presents a met hod for t the study of the Indus Valley seals and illustrates the method through limited application. The method, drawing on principles from several disciplines, is designed to determine what light may be shed on the Indus civilization through study of the seals. Application of the method demonstrates its possible usefulness in supporting certain theories about the Indus Valley civilization, refuting other theories, and offering still others as possibilities for further investigation.
The first two steps are preparatory. In the first step seals are studied as an artifact and their characteristics and development in three civilizations contemporary with the Indus civilization--Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Minoan Crete--are analyzed to provide material for comparison. The second step consists of gaining knowledge about the character of the Indus civilization.
The following three steps consist of categorizing and analyzing one corpus of seals-- those published in E. J. H. Mackay, Further Excavations at Mohenjo- daro--to determine their characteristics and to ascertain whether any patterns of evolution or change can be detected, studying certain categories of seals, and studying selected individual seals. The method is generally broad in scope iii while the final step, depending primarily on visual analysis, demands close attention to detail.
The pattern which emerges indicates a preference for one material, two seal types, and two classifications of iconography, though there is some experimentation at all times. No methodical development can be detected. Instead, tendency to uniformity without rigid enforcement appears to have existed.
The study of groups of seals results in support for several current theories about the character of the Indus civilization. Among these are the theory of a two-class social system, the absence of a religious or secular ruler, and the existence of foreign trade relations.
The study of individual seal s, based on analysis of style and content with a search for correspondences with contemporary civilizations, serves to refute one theory, based on a single seal, that Minoan Crete borrowed her cultural ideas from the Indus Valley. The study of individual seals is also the basis of the suggestion that the literate class of the Indus Valley may have derived from Africa.