Art and Craft of Harappans

This work is a masterpiece on archaeological material related to Harappan sites, belonging to both India and Pakistan. It provides an exclusive documentation of Harappan artifacts and other articles as found in various sites of one of the most ancient civilization of the world. The contents of the material provided herein sprawl from the excavated sites in the north-west South Asia, including mineral sites in the region to script to seals, sealings and tablets and last, but not the least, to different types of objects discovered.

Dr. D. P. Sharma is an Archaeologist, Museologist and Art Historian. He did his M.A. in Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology form Allahabad University and D.Phil on Art and Architecture of Lower Ganga Yamuna Doab Region from University of Allahabad. From 1980 to 1985 he was working as Antiquities Registering Officer at Allahabad and Varanasi regions. During 1983-84 he was awarded Commonwealth scholarship and qualified M.A. in Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. He did. excavation at Sussex (U.K.) and Pincenvent (France) under Dr. Mark Newcomer and Prof. Gourhan. Since 1985-2005 he had been working as Head of Harappan and prehistoric collection of National Museum, New Delhi. In 2005, he became Associate Professor & H.O.D. of Museology in National Museum Institute (Deemed University).

Documentation of the excavated Harappan material is assuming greater importance due to role of multimedia information to the door steps of the user. It was introduced first time in India by Dr. D.P. Sharma in the Harappan gallery of National Museum, New Delhi. B.B. Lal, S.R. Rao, M.J. Kenoyer, G.L. Possehl, D.P. Agarwal, Vasant Shinde, R.S. Bhist, Rajaram, M.K. Dhavalikar, J.P. Joshi, K.N. Dikshit, Rajesh Purohit, V.N. Sanavane, Gautamsen Gupta, Nayanjot Lahiri, Robert Knox, Madhubala, Amrendranath, Kadambini, Sashi Asthana, A.K. Sharma, Madhuri Sharma are doing lot in this direction and they have published several papers and books on Harappan Archaeology. Harappan Civilization was contemporary of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization and Harappan traders were having their colony at Ur in Mesopotamia who were having long distance trade with them. Some Art historians have named Harappan Art as Industrial Art, however, this term is most appropriate for seals, shell jewellery, ivory, copper etc items. We cannot call stone, bronze and terracotta figurines as industrial art as these are basic decorative items of Harappan civilization. According to the author and Jaya Menon, most appropriate term for these items is Minor Arts Crafts of Harappan civilization. S.P. Gupta, B. B. Lal and R.S. Bisht were preparing atlas of Indus Sarasvati civilization.

**Contents and Sample Pages**