So much archeological reconstruction of a civilization depends on an interplay of physical remains and written records. Forget about Indus writing. We can't decipher it and, besides, we have found no inscriptions of more than 26 characters, so we are left with no long narratives. Possehl, who has excavated Indus cities since the 1960s and written several books on the culture, also lamented the apparently simple Indus burial practices, which deprive archeologists of what is usually a most revealing lode of cultural information. Unlike the elites of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Indus people sent their dead to the afterworld unaccompanied by jewels, furniture, and weapons.
Stuff is kept in circulation with living people.
Excavations at Harappa, Kenoyer said, indicated that some people were buried in wooden coffins with pottery vessels that may have been filled with food. Simple burials seem to fit the one persistent image of Indus society, which is that of a practical people without centralized rulers or kings but with wide-ranging economic interests. Somehow, they introduced millet cultivation from Africa. The texts mention such trade goods as hardwoods, tin or lead, copper, gold, silver shell, pearls, and ivory. In other excavations, archeologists have found distinctive Indus cubical weights, made of chert or agate, and used for measuring goods before a transaction, at many sites of Arabian Sea ports.