List the raw materials required for craft production in the Harappan Civilisation and discuss how these might have been obtained.

I. List of the raw materials required for craft production in the Harappan Civilisation:

(i) Stone, (ii) Clay, (iii) Copper, (iv) Tin, (v) Bronze, (vi) Gold, (vii) Faience (a material made of ground sand or silicon mixed with colour and a gum and then fired), (viii) Shell, (ix) Carnelian (a type of a beautiful red colour stone), (x) Jasper, (xi) Crystal, (xii) Steatite, (xiii) Quartz, (xiv) Timber etc

Different ways of obtaining raw material: Soil, wood etc. were the raw materials which were locally available. But stones, fine quality wood, metals etc. were procured from distant places. For this, different methods were used to obtain them and these were:

(i) Establishment of Settlements: Harappan people established their settlements at those places where raw material was easily available. For example shell was easily available in Nageshwar and Balakot. Few other places were also there like Shortughai in Afghanistan. This place was situated near to the source of lapis lazuli. In the same way Lothal for carnelian, Rajasthan and Gujarat were famous for copper.

(ii) Sending Expeditions: Sending expeditions was another policy of obtaining raw material. For example expedition was sent to Khetri region of Rajasthan for copper and to South India for gold. Local communities were contacted through these expeditions. Availability of Harappan evidences in distant places indicates toward these contacts. Evidences found in Khetri region were given the name of Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture by archaeologists. Huge reserves of copper products are found over here. Probably inhabitants of this area used to send copper to Harappan people.