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4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

archaeologymag.com

11–20 of 62 posts

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#11
paper: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10359

also: >the material record offers indirect evidence for distributed authority. Indus seals, small stone stamps that likely facilitated exchange and credit, were found primarily in private residences at Mohenjo-daro rather than in temples or central administrative buildings.

Speculative, of course. But cool data & approach. And it doesn't have to prove anything, except that it's plausible there are other ways to structure societies, that can have different results.

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#13
"Trade practices show a similar pattern. Indus seals, used for business and administration, turned up in common homes across the city. Archaeologists did not find evidence showing rulers controlled access to these objects. Standardized weights and measures spread throughout the region as well, helping create consistent trade practices."

I've done a lot of reading on this particular subject and I think the "stateless utopia" conclusion so many researchers seem to be fishing for (Graeber etc) is more nonsensical than they let on. They didn't have monumental temples or palaces, that seems to be it.

Yet there is tons of documentary evidence "Meluhha" was engaged in a pretty sophisticated scale of commodity production (artisanal carnelian beads) and export trade with Dilmun and Sumer. Their standardized weight system was used for this trade, and they're found elsewhere in large numbers as the article says. They even had expats living in Sumer who were noted as translators (of the Indus valley seals??) This trade is where a lot of their obvious wealth probably came from, since they'd have copious silver revenue from Dilmun.

"Archaeologists did not find evidence showing rulers controlled access to these objects."

Like really, think about it. These weights were very precise. And they had to be, because "weight" was basically equivalent to "money." So there had to be a standard, and that standard had to be enforced when the weights were produced. And the weights had to remain trustworthy as they were distributed elsewhere for use in the trade. Someone was obviously "in charge" lol

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put away your tears. Amidst all the chaos India is doing remarkably well. If it can maintain its current growth rate for another 15-20 years it’s going to be a behemoth. They’ve been able to keep it going for 10-12 years so far so no reason to think that might not happen. The amount of infrastructure being built right now is incredible. Thousands of miles of roads and railways per year, hundreds of new airports, many…

That's what I've been hearing for the last decade or two but so far I haven't seen a huge change, especially compared to China.

Where do you live? The city I live in was connected to the next city via a two lane road. Now it's a 6 lane expressway way with service roads on either side.

The infrastructure between cities, including roads and airports has been drastically improved in the last ten years.

The cities themselves are not improving at the same pace. Corruption, especially in the money making states like MH and KA, is still rampant.

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#15
This could also be a story of technological progress. A thought experiment - imagine you, an archaeologist, recovered the remains of our civilization, from roughly 1925 to 2025, but the only surviving artifact was televisions. You know that televisions are valuable - initially only wealthy families had them - so you used them as a proxy for riches and plotted the Gini coefficient using just the size, quality, resolution, color depth, etc. You could conclude that our society became less unequal over that period, because you miss that technology dramatically compressed the distribution of this resource and that household wealth was freed up to put to other purposes.

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#17
post #13

"Trade practices show a similar pattern. Indus seals, used for business and administration, turned up in common homes across the city. Archaeologists did not find evidence showing rulers controlled access to these objects. Standardized weights and measures spread throughout the region as well, helping create consistent trade practices." I've done a lot of reading on this particular subject and I think the "stateless…

A: Weights had to remain trustworthy as they were distributed elsewhere for use in the trade.

B: Someone was obviously "in charge" lol

B can imply A, but A does not imply B.

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

#18
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what a weird comment. did you make this account to sway the conversation from the actual article?

[flagged]

"Teetering on the brink of nuclear war"

Sorry to be rude, but what exactly are you smoking?

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