This book is an exceptionally detailed summary of the rise and decline of the ancient Indus civilization. As the author notes, ancient Indus cultures are less-well known than those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, for example, because the Indus script still cannot be read, and also because no elaborate tombs, full of massive and expensive grave goods have yet been found in ancient Indus settlements. This book, nonetheless, makes an excellent case that the Indus cultures not only belongs in the group of "great ancient civilizations," but offers exceptional comparative data for cross-cultural studies. Ancient Indus communities may not have had pyramids or ziggurats, but some of these cities included huge platforms made by transporting millions of cubic meters of sand and gravel--an investment of labor comparable to the monumental architecture of Mesopotamia and Egypt, given that the "urbanization" phase was much shorter in the Indus region. Even the specialist in cross-cultural studies of early cultural complexity can learn a great deal from this book. It includes the most recent data on many subjects, ranging from physical anthropological analyses of human remains to the numerous--largely unsuccesful--attempts to reconstruct the ancient national religion (assuming that there was one).
This book is written in straight-forward unadorned prose. There are some editorial and production errors, but these are out-weighed by the accuracy and detail provided about this massive and diverse material culture. The author discusses her theoretical orientation, and it resembles the "holistic" approach taken by Bruce Trigger and many others. Prof. Wright makes a few excursions in the direction of post-modernism and neo-structuralism, such as "imagined landscapes" she envisions (based directly on the data), but the book as a whole is highly empirical. It will make an excellent text for upper-division courses on cross-cultural comparative analyses, and as an introductory text in South Asian studies. For those readers whose knowlege of this topic ends with the works of M. Wheeler(e.g., Prof. Wright points out that there is absolutely no evidence that Aryan invades conquered the Indus civilization), this book will introduce them to our greatly expanded knowledge of the Indus civilization, and its significance to anthropology and archaeology.
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Top reviews from other countries
Ralph Luebbe
Tolle Übersicht des Kenntnisstandes!
Reviewed in Germany on November 25, 2012