Author Description

This is the second, thoroughly revised edition of Shereen Ratnagar's Encounters: The Westerly Trade of the Harappa Civilization. The book explores the scope of the trading contacts of the centres that fell within the "Indus Valley" civilizations. In doing so, it describes the remarkable range of merchandise and the long distances over which luxuries and ordinary goods were transported. In this new edition, Shereen Ratnagar has expanded her scope of study considerably and has included exciting new data recently available from excavations in West Asia. These have helped refine the perspective on trade in this period. Using all this information, the author takes forward her hypothesis of the Harappa Civilization being part of a World System. In this new edition, Shereen Ratnagar also indicates that for understanding Harappa, a chronology based on synchronisms with Meopotamia is important. Finally, the new information also provides a fresh perspective to understanding the decline of the Harappa Civilization.