Material Matters: Representation and Materiality of the Harappan Body

In the Indus Civilization (ca. 2600–1900 bc), a society with no readable texts and few larger-scale representations, terracotta figurines were the most common representations of the human body. This paper explores the unique construction of the material representations of bodies and other material c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of archaeological method and theory 2009-09, Vol.16 (3), p.231-261
Main Author: Clark, Sharri R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archaeological excavation
Archaeology
Biological pigments
Body
Bones
Ceramics
Clay
Excavations
Figurines
Harappa
Humans
Indus civilization
Material culture
Materialism
Pakistan
Pigments
Social Sciences
Terracotta
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Summary:In the Indus Civilization (ca. 2600–1900 bc), a society with no readable texts and few larger-scale representations, terracotta figurines were the most common representations of the human body. This paper explores the unique construction of the material representations of bodies and other material culture from Harappa, a major Indus site now in Pakistan. Hand-modeling representations of human bodies from dual clay pieces, sometimes decorated with bone pigments, suggests a focus on the process and ideological rather than practical choices in the materialization of the Harappan human body. For the Harappans, material matters as they engage physically with their world and embody themselves and their worldview.
ISSN:1072-5369
1573-7764
DOI:10.1007/s10816-009-9068-x