Q1.
Harappans had their own standard systems of weight and measurement. This is evident from the meticulously planned settlements and efficient interregional trade practices of the Harappans. They followed a binary multiple (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) system for weighing smaller units and used multiples of ten for larger denominations. Such cubical stone weights have been reported from several sites. Can you imagine how long-distance trade would have been affected had the Harappans not followed a standard system of weights?
Answer
Long-distance trade would have become slow, disputed and small — and probably could not have reached from the Indus to Mesopotamia at all. A standard weight is not a convenience; it is the thing that makes trade between strangers possible.
What the weights themselves show. Fig. 4.20 photographs eight weights: four large ones in the back row — two cut as cubes, two as smooth cylinders — and four small cubes in front. They are made of hard, pale, fine stone, cut with flat faces, and they come in a graded range from big to very small. Two conclusions follow directly from the photograph:
- They were made to a plan, not shaped by eye. Cubes of hard stone with true flat faces take skill and time. Nobody invests that in something meant to be approximate.
- They form a series. The very large and the very small in the same photograph is the visible form of the system the text describes — 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 for small units, multiples of ten for large ones. A trader could weigh a handful of beads and a sack of grain with the same system.
Now imagine the system removed. Take each function away in turn:
| What a standard weight does | What happens without it |
|---|---|
| Lets buyer and seller agree on quantity | Every deal starts with an argument about whose stone is the true one. Trade slows to the speed of negotiation |
| Makes trade possible between strangers | You could only trade with people you already trust — that is, close to home. Long-distance trade is precisely trade between strangers |
| Lets goods be traded through middlemen | A cargo from Harappa to Meluhha's ports and on to Ur passes through many hands. Without a fixed measure, quantity cannot survive the journey; every transfer needs re-weighing and re-arguing |
| Prevents cheating, and lets it be proved | Fraud becomes easy and undetectable. Once cheating cannot be proved, reputations collapse and the trade network with them |
| Allows records and taxation | You cannot record a quantity that has no fixed unit. Storage, redistribution and any levy become impossible to administer |
| Sets value for precious goods | Gold dust, ivory and semiprecious beads are sold by weight. Small errors on valuable goods mean large losses — which is exactly why the tiny weights in Fig. 4.20 exist |
Why the answer is more than a guess. The chapter has already told you what the Harappans traded with Mesopotamia — 'semiprecious stone beads, ivory, timber, gold dust, and probably copper' — and Fig. 4.26 shows that cargo travelling through Magan and Dilmun to Ur and Lagash. Goods of that value, moving that far, through that many hands, are only possible if quantity means the same thing at both ends. The weights are not evidence about the trade; they are part of the machinery that made it work.
Did you know? Because the Harappan script is undeciphered, these weights are one of the few Harappan systems we can still read directly. We cannot read what a Harappan wrote, but we can put their weights on a modern balance and recover the ratios they used. Objects can speak when writing cannot.