Indus Valley Civilization - Burial Customs

By Matthew Sabatino, Prachi Vinata Murarka, Prema Shakti

The cultures of the Indus Valley Civilization, commonly known as the Harappan Civilization, are thought to range in existence anywhere from 5500 BCE to 1700 BCE. Some researchers have even dated it back to 7000 BCE! This civilization reached its peak maturity from 2600 BCE to 1600 BCE. Harappan culture is exciting on many levels and there is a lot more research to be done. 

During its peak the Indus Valley is believed to have contained between 1 and 5 million people. It is thought to have formed around the development of indigenous farming communities. Increased population density fueled this culture’s need to innovate. The large cities within the valley were at the cutting edge of cultural evolution. Some of the impressive things about these cities include their sophisticated urban planning, advanced waste water and water delivery systems, extensive metallurgy, beautiful handicrafts, and advanced construction techniques, including used baked bricks.

Until recently, surprisingly little archeology had been done to understand this astounding cradle of human growth. A number of Harappan cemetery sites have been found over the last 100 years and with them, many clues to what this culture was actually like. Due to the remote locations of these cemeteries, only so much research has been done, but what has been found is fascinating. 

Across the Indus Valley, specific individuals, communities, and societies had their own normative methods of burial, suggesting religious and cultural diversity. There were three known types of burial customs within the Indus Valley Civilization; complete burial of intact bodies, full cremation, and partial burials, containing only the bones of the deceased. Post cremation (burial of bones or ashes) was the most common form of burial custom in the Indus Valley. Even so, most cremation urns in Mohenjo-daro (Sindh, Pakistan) did not contain human bone remains, but rather ornaments that were possessed during life, animal bones, ash and charcoal.

Remains found from massacre sites at Mohenjo-daro total to four different locations totaling twenty-six bodies. The majority of the corpses look to have been mummified in the act of death, as opposed to being disposed of later. Little is known about these massacre sites, though they do speak to the conflict that follows any civilization. 

Only a very small portion of the population was actually buried formally in the ground, which would imply that this group of people enjoyed some type of meaningful status. Most of the burial pits we know of in Rakhigarhi (Haryana,India), another Harappan site, were rectangular in shape, with vertically cut sides and flat bottoms. They were generally arranged on the north-south axis with the head to the north. The graves were generally humble in nature, and exotic items, such as inscribed seals or ritual objects have never been found in Harappan-period graves. High ranking individuals, including women, in Rakhigarhi, appeared to be buried wherein the soil had been built up with pots upon which the body was laid. These graves tended to be laid with bricks.

A higher number of votive pots in male graves indicates women were not considered equal to male citizens. Ornaments were found on women of multiple social classes, including necklaces and bangles made of copper, shell, and gemstones. Archeologists currently presume the objects in votive pots were to serve the individuals in the afterlife. In this manner, some burial customs are similar to their contemporary Egyptian civilization.

While there is still much to learn about the Harappan Civilization, the study of its burial rites, rituals and customs has revealed many details about life in this culture. There is quite a range of variations between typical and atypical grave sites, indicating that there is much to be learned. As research continues, one can be optimistic that a clearer picture of how social structures operated and how they evolved over time will emerge.

Sources:

Gregory L. Possehl.  Indus Valley Civilization.  Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.  157-176.

Vasant S. Shinde.  Archaeological and anthropological studies on the Harappan cemetery of Rakhigarhi, India. PLoS One. 2018; 13(2): e0192299. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5821334/#sec001title)