Archaeologists at the major Indus Valley site of Rakhigarhi have announced the discovery of a specialized administrative wing dedicated to the oversight of industrial-scale ceramics. The find centers on a collection of over 80 terracotta tablets that appear to be detailed kiln-firing logs, recording the dates, wood consumption, and peak heat durations for various batches of standardized Harappan pottery and terracotta pipes.
This 'Master of the Royal Kiln-Schedules' archive provides the first concrete evidence of a centralized industrial hierarchy responsible for coordinating the massive quantities of fuel required for city-wide infrastructure. The presence of specific numerical tally marks alongside Harappan glyphs suggests a highly sophisticated system of resource management and quality control that ensured the uniformity of the civilization’s signature red-on-black ware.