Mineralized fibres preserved on a copper bead from a Neolithic Mehrgarh burial were identified as cotton (Gossypium sp.), representing the earliest known evidence of cotton use in the Old World and indicating early exploitation of textile plants alongside food production.
Aceramic Neolithic communities at Mehrgarh (in today’s Balochistan) practiced early mixed farming—cultivating cereals such as wheat and barley and herding sheep, goats, and cattle—forming a key foundation for later Indus-region food production systems.
The Early Harappan (often dated roughly 3300–2600 BCE) marks a shift toward larger, more complex settlements and regional cultural integration—providing the social and economic setting for intensified agricultural production and increasingly varied diets.
Hakra Ware (contemporary with the Ravi phase) is widely associated with Early Harappan communities (often cited ca. 3300–2800 BCE) in parts of the Ghaggar-Hakra and Ravi regions, reflecting village-to-town trajectories that shaped local farming and food traditions.
Radiocarbon-dated archaeobotanical evidence from Indus-period village contexts documents diversified cropping, including millets and winter pulses, with reported absolute dates around 2890–2630 BCE—supporting interpretations of flexible risk-management in food production.
During the Mature Harappan phase (commonly dated about 2600–1900 BCE), large cities and dense settlement networks expanded, implying more organized systems for producing, moving, and preparing food (including cereals, pulses, animal products, and fish) to provision urban populations.
Archaeobotanical research using radiocarbon dating indicates horsegram as part of summer cropping strategies at some Indus-related village sites, with reported dates around 2580–2460 BCE—adding detail to reconstructions of seasonal agricultural scheduling.
Radiocarbon-dated remains indicate that rice was used at certain Indus-era village sites, with reported dates around 2430–2140 BCE; this evidence is important because the timing and pathways of rice adoption in northern South Asia are actively debated.
Organic residue analysis of ceramics from northwest India found lipid signatures consistent with dairy products in a small number of vessels, suggesting that cattle/buffalo dairy processing occurred but was not ubiquitous in the sampled pottery assemblages.
A major brick structure at Harappa traditionally labeled a “granary” has been re-evaluated; the Harappa.com synthesis notes that early excavations did not find strong direct grain-storage evidence, and many scholars interpret the building more cautiously as a large public structure.
After about 1900 BCE, many large Indus cities declined and settlement patterns shifted; this “Late Harappan” period (often framed to about 1300 BCE) is associated with regionalization in material culture and likely changes in how communities produced and accessed food.
By around 1300 BCE (a commonly used conventional endpoint), Late Harappan cultural horizons give way to more localized post-urban traditions across much of the former Indus sphere, marking the end of the period typically bracketed as Indus Valley diet and agricultural production (c. 3300–1300 BCE).
Michael CarricoIndus Valley Diet and Agricultural Production (c. 3300–1300 BCE)