Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization 1st Edition

by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer (Author)

15 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0195779400

ISBN-10: 0195779401

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This lavishly illustrated book presents a coherent and fascinating account of the Indus Valley civilization that will appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike. Kenoyer draws on the latest archaeological information from Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Dholavira, and other major sites as well as
on his considerable knowledge of South Asian societies and ancient technologies. He addresses such enduring topics as the nature and role of the Indus writing system, the Indus religino as evidenced through sculpture and architecture, the political organization of Indus city-states, long-distance
trade and the importance of merchants in Indus society, and the daily life of the diverse inhabitants of the cities, towns, and villages of the region.

Gregory L. Possehl
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Andrew Robinson
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Hourly History
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Gregory L. Possehl
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Kenoyer's discussion of the Indus Valley script is balanced and unspeculative. Because of his even-handed approach , Kenoyer suceeds very well in his objectives of providing an introductory text on the Indus Valley civilisation. The overall quality of the illustrations is very high, and the relatively low cost of the book should ensure a wide readership. - Richard Fynes - International Journal of Punjab Studies (UK)

About the Author

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Associate Professor in Anthropology, teaches archaeology and ancient technology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (October 8, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195779401
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195779400
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.68 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.9 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #129 in Pakistan History
- #924 in India History
- #1,994 in Archaeology (Books)

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Mayuresh Kelkar

An excellent summary

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 29, 2000

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The author faithfully documents his archeolgoical findings over the last three decades. The book is easy to read and has many excellent pictures. Dr. Kenoyer categorically states that the decline of this ancient civilization was due to natural causes and not because of destruction by invading nomads. Some of the seals such as the "Proto-Shiva," and the Swastika are very intriguing and may ultimately establish a firm link between the Indus civilization and the present day Hinduism. A lot of research still needs to be done, but this book is the first step in acknowlegding the true antiquity of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization.

20 people found this helpful

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RaoT

Rich and well-balanced narrative on the Indus Valley Cities

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 27, 2014

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This is one of the best books on Anthropology that i ever read. Prof Kenoyer's writing style is very engaging and makes the narrative as an informative detective story. I couldn't keep the book down until i completed reading it page to page. The well-balanced content comes from the author's experience growing up on the subcontinent, and his ability to relate contemporary culture with the past.

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Alison

Good Reference.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2012

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Kenoyer gives excellent coverage of a civilization, whose writing we have yet to decipher, based on the physical evidence. Good stuff!

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Thoughtful

Indus Valley

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 18, 2006

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This was an excellent, informative and well-written book about a civilization which is largely unknown.

One person found this helpful

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John David Ebert

Dull, Slow, Plodding and Boring

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 1, 2006

By contrast with Gregory Possehl's similar work The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Kenoyer's book is incredibly bland. It reads like a textbook, with dry, wooden sentences loaded with typos that Oxford's editorial staff were apparently too busy to bother correcting. One can almost envision Kenoyer in front of a classroom with a sonorous, non-inflective voice reciting Indus history as though he were reading aloud from an airline safety guidebook. But, these quibbles aside, Kenoyer's book is otherwise quite bad.

For instance, it is not very well organized. Never does Kenoyer bother, as Possehl does, to give us a description of what a single Indus city was like. Instead, he recites a monologue of generalizations, pointing out that the Indus peoples had this kind of pottery and that kind of beadmaking technology. We cannot distinguish one site from another and consequently, the reader walks away feeling that the whole society was incredibly homogenous. And this is not true, for the character of a small industrial site like Chanhu-daro--gritty with dust and noxious smoke from its kilns, kilns which were not allowed in the urban precincts of the bigger cities until their late, decadent periods--should be distinguished from a metropolis like Harappa or Mohenjo-daro or a backward farming community like Rodji.

Then there is the question of origins. Kenoyer is one of those scholars who believes--unfortunately, as does Possehl--that agriculture had an indigenous origin in the Indus valley. Such an argument is difficult to maintain in light of the fact that, at the earliest site at which agriculture first appears, Mehrgarh (c. 7000 b.c.), the houses are multi-roomed rectangular mud brick dwellings with hearths located in the corners of the rooms and with rooftop entry into the granaries. But, as Jacques Cauvin has pointed out, most of these characteristics originated in the Near East during the Pre Pottery Neolithic A and B in the region of the Upper Euphrates near Mureybet. For there, at the site of Mureybet, we find the invention of rectangular, multi-roomed houses and granaries. Mud brick first appears at about the same time at Jericho, while rooftop entry is a Near Eastern characteristic found at sites like Asikli Hoyuk, Catal Hoyuk and Umm Dabahgiyah. Hearths located in the corners of rooms, moreover, was a particular characteristic of Near Eastern sites along the Upper Euphrates and in the region of the Taurus mountains. Wheat, furthermore, was one of the crops that the people of Mehrgarh were already farming, yet wheat is not native to Baluchistan, although it is native to the Near East. And neither, apparently, was the particular species of goat which the Mehrgarhians had domesticated which, according to Jane MacIntosh, had its origins in western Asia.

In Kenoyer's final chapter, which concerns the decline of the Indus civilization, he there maintains that the Indo-Aryans did not arrive in India until about 1200 b.c. and had nothing whatsoever to do with the decline of Harappan society. However, by this rather late date, the Indo-Aryans had already long since comfortably ensconced themselves in a number of societies of the ancient Near East. The non-Indo-European peoples known as Kassites, for instance (who received their training in chariotry and horse-riding from the Indo-Europeans) had already begun invading Mesopotamia as early as 1730 b.c., while only a few decades before, the mixture of Indo-Aryan and Semitic peoples known as the Hyksos had gone barreling into Egypt and overthrown its Middle Kingdom. The great palaces of Crete, likewise, had been destroyed by Indo-European peoples at this point. And, furthermore, a number of these Indo-Aryan (or Indo-European) peoples had Sanskrit-speaking elements in their population. The Mitanni, for instance, who had made their appearance on the stage of world history around 1500 b.c. (along with the Hittites) were an Indo Aryan group who worshipped gods right out of the Rig Veda, such as Indra, Mitra, Varuna and the Ashvins. There were even Vedic divinities amongst the non-Indo-European Kassites, such as Surya and the Maruts.

In short, it would be very strange, indeed, to find the Indo-Europeans on the move in all of these other societies by about the eighteenth century b.c. and yet, somehow, relatives of the very same group of people never managed to make it into the Indian subcontinent until 1200 b.c. Very strange, to say the least.

But some scholars have gone so far as to maintain that the Indo-European invasion of India never took place at all and that the Indo-Europeans somehow originated natively on the Indian subcontinet. Kenoyer, fortunately, does not fall into this trap, but his paradigm needs some revising to fit in with this overall picture. Though it is indeed unlikely, as Possehl points out, that the Indo-Europeans had anything to do with the decline of the Indus cities, it is almost certainly untenable to maintain that they were not even present upon the scene of the Harappan cities until 1200 b.c. The frequent references to the Sarasvati river in the Rig Veda--which was in the process of drying up between 1900 and 1200 b.c.--seems to belie this.

And then there is that famous late Harappan sculpture of the Priest King from Mohenjo-daro, found in its late levels at around 2000 b.c. and bearing very striking resemblances to figures depicted on a silver cup found further north amongst the so-called Bactrian-Marghiana Archaeological Complex. These BMAC peoples, as their excavator Viktor Sarianidi points out, may have been Indo-Europeans--perhaps even Vedic Aryans--for he has found fire altars in their temples. This might imply that the charismatically Harappan statue of the Priest King is not Harappan at all, but a portrait of an Indo European foreigner from the BMAC peoples, which would be ironic indeed. And if so, it is worth pointing out that some Indo-Europeans would already be present as members of the Indus population by about 2000 b.c.

In short, Kenoyer's book does not make for good reading. Kenoyer is neither a thinker, nor a good writer, nor even much of an academic, whatever his credentials from Berkeley might be. Alas, one might have expected a better, more informed and informing book from such a heavily credential "scholar."
--John David Ebert, author, "The New Media Invasion."

19 people found this helpful

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Great book....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 9, 2005

This might definitely be a well-researched book.

A Side Note: The only thing is that some portion of the very first statement in this book might be considered misleading. It says, "Fifty years go in 1947, when the countries of Pakistan and India gained independence from Great Britain..." Technically, Pakistan was created and partitioned from India in August 1947. Before the partition, there was no Pakistan. The statement here might be misleading because one, the one who is not so aware of the history of the world, might assume that the country of Pakistan always existed, which is completely incorrect. Pakistan came out on the map only after its separation from India.

7 people found this helpful

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Ahmad Faruqui

Very comprehensive and thought-provoking book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2000

An excellent reference on the subject. It is modern in its approach, and updates a number of previous studies. It makes a number of new observations about the circular objects in Harappa. Perhaps they were not granaries as previously believed, but objects for dyeing textiles. It also suggests that there was another river parallel to the Indus River that has gone underground. One may be able to access this underground river using modern technology, and bring agriculture to areas that are now a desert.
The book should be of interest to archaeologists as well as general readers. Maps and photographs make the story very tangible.

23 people found this helpful

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O Khan

Superb, factual introduction to the ancient Indus Valley.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 1998

Mark Kenoyer is one of the leading experts on the ancient Indus Valley. As Director of the current excavations at the ancient Indus site of Harappa, he has made a number of new discoveries which are greatly expanding our knowledge of this civilization. The books is thorough, well-illustrated, and free of the ideological biases that have so long tainted ancient Indus studies. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the facts. Kenoyer is also one of the few archaeologists who has worked in both Pakistan and India and is able to cover the ancient culture and its relationships to people today in both modern countries.

23 people found this helpful

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Fawkes

Great entry level book to the subject

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 17, 2013

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This is a great book on the subject, particularly if you are fairly uninformed on the subject.
Much of this book's updated view of the Indus Civilization comes from excavation work that the author was partly involved in, and yet this book is not one of those "author imposes his views" books.
It is a nice balanced work that is essentially in line with the archaeological results.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 12, 2017

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A fascinating and informative book.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2016

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Exactly what I expected.

Gautam

Expected a PhD level thesis but this is more of ...

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on October 28, 2016

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Expected a PhD level thesis but this is more of a 200 page catalogue with descriptions. I expected details about how they excavated, what the theories are about the rise and collapse of the civ.

3 people found this helpful

Romil

My purchase of "Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization " from Amazon

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on January 10, 2015

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This is a valuable book on Indus Valley civilization and its contents are considered most authentic on the subject. Received my copy well in time.

One person found this helpful

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