DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

3,2] TRADE WITH BABYLON 59
similarity with Easter Island signs, or Maori signs led to any
decipherment. The records found are brief legends on stamp-seals which,
even if read, could give very little information. One suggestion for the
paucity of records is that the Indus people used palm-leaf for their
documents. There seems to be no long inscription of any sort, 7 and
no bilingual seals. Only one record exists which might possibly be
intermediate between the Indus writing and Asokan Brahmi 8
Thus the
most valuable possibility of collating archaeology with the epigraphs
has been lost.
No urban culture without a class division has been known till the
20th century socialist revolutions. It follows that we shall have to reason
out the class structure (as well as the productive structure) of the Indus
cities directly from the evidence, without the aid of historical writings.
That there was a sharp class division at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro is
clear from the different types of dwellings excavated. In particular,
there were large municipal or temple granaries with which were
associated pounding floors. The wooden mortars whose remains are
found show that grain was husked there. Flour was obviously ground
in each house on the saddle querns found, but not in the huge granary.
The big storage houses are accompanied by mean barrack-like quarters
which could only have been the dwellings of slaves, to judge from parallel
Meso-potamian excavations; temple-slaves would seem indicated for
the Indus cities, as they are by the Mesopotamian tablets. Certainly,
the pottery mass-produced to standard designs on the wheel could not
have been made without an extensive class of potters, whose kilns have
been found — on the outskirts of the city in the earlier period, right
inside the city in the long period of decline. The tools and implements,
some of stone but many excellent specimens of copper and bronze,
show highly specialized techniques. Brick-making and
construction work must have kept many busy, as also servicing the city
in general. We have conclusive evidence for long-distance trade. Indian
copper was taken by sea to the island of Bahrein (Tilmun) for
exchange with commodities brought by a special group of traders. The
patronage in the earlier period was from the great temples like that of
Nammu at Ur, from whose stock the stores were obtained, as well as the
finance.