The present paper aims to trace the pyro-technological development of Harappans in the Ghaggar river region, a dried river bed of the ancient river Saraswati that spanned the Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan. In recent years, excavations at the small Harrapan settlements have resulted in the discovery of an abundance of furnaces and kilns at sites such as Binjor (4 MSR), Baror, Tarkhanwala Dera in Rajasthan, Rakhigarhi, Tigrana, Lohari Ragho, and Kunal in Haryana, and raised a question on craft production centres of the Indus Valley Civilization.

This study aims to find out the homogeneous nature of Harappan settlements in the Ghaggar region. Based on earlier published material and current excavation datasets, the present paper is an attempt to hypothesize the potential craft industrial zones of Harappans which might have led the inhabitants of the site to interact with the urban Harappan settlements such as Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan to develop a large-scale internal trade network. The present study will also try to focus on functional aspect of furnaces and the possible by-products, with special emphasis on typological differences between the furnaces and kilns reported from the sites.

To fulfil the aim, a basic comparative analysis between earlier reported furnaces and kilns against the on-site data of furnaces (including ethnographic parallels from the surrounding areas) from the region has been carried out. This was followed by a detailed literature review of the excavated Harappan sites. This case study ultimately focuses on determining the spatial distribution of Harappan sites and the economic rank of this zone, in relation to the Indus Valley civilization.