Oilseeds, spices, fruits and flavour in the Indus Civilisation

The exploitation of plant resources was an important part of the economic and social strategies of the people of the Indus Civilisation (c. 3200-1500 BCE). Research has focused mainly on staples such as cereals and pulses, for understanding these strategies with regards to agricultural systems and reconstructions of diet, with some reference to 'weeds' for crop processing models. Other plants that appear less frequently in the archaeobotanical record have often received variable degrees of attention and interpretation. This paper reviews the primary literature and comments on the frequency with which non-staple food plants appear at Indus sites. It argues that this provides an avenue for Indus archaeobotany to continue its ongoing development of models that move beyond agriculture and diet to think about how people considered these plants as part of their daily life, with caveats regarding taphonomy and culturally-contextual notions of function.