Chapter Ten - Understanding Indus Seal-Carving Traditions: A Stylistic and Metric Approach

Summary

Inscribed steatite seals are among the most important components of Indus material assemblages. During the Integration Era of the Harappa phase (2600–1900 BCE) these objects were used to serve a variety of purposes, yet many important questions remain regarding how and where they were made, and how production would have varied within and among different settlements. This study presents a novel method for analyzing the organization of Indus seal production. By combining formal stylistic and metric analyses of various elements of inscribed steatite seals, it is possible to fingerprint groups of seals that would have been carved by different producers working throughout the Indus region. Preliminary results suggest that these techniques are useful for providing new insights into the scale and nature of variation in Indus seal-carving traditions. The methods applied in this study can be employed to analyze seals from other world regions to provide new insights into how production was organized and varied in time and space.