#harappa

Secrets of the Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization, flourishing around 7000 to 600 BCE, is one of the world’s oldest yet least understood ancient cultures. Though older than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was only discovered in 1829. Scholars now recognize that many early “firsts” of civilization likely originated here in modern-day India.

Unlike other ancient civilizations with deciphered writings, the Indus Script remains undeciphered, leaving much of their society a mystery. Our knowledge relies on excavated ruins and artifacts, particularly from major sites like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, which housed tens of thousands of people at their peak.

Key Facts

The civilization thrived from about 7000 to 600 BCE.

Also called the Harappan or Indus-Sarasvati Civilization.

Rediscovered in 1829, long after Egyptian and Mesopotamian sites.

The Indus Script remains undeciphered, unlike hieroglyphs or cuneiform.

Major cities included Harappa and Mohenjo-daro with populations of 40,000-50,000.

Artifacts and architecture provide main clues about their daily life and culture.

Historical Context

This civilization existed contemporaneously with early Egypt and Mesopotamia but was identified much later. It covered regions of what is now Pakistan and northwest India, developing advanced urban planning, drainage, and craftmanship well before many other cultures.

Historical Significance

The Indus Valley Civilization challenges earlier assumptions about the “first” complex societies. It reveals an advanced, urban culture with sophisticated cities predating many known ancient civilizations. Its undeciphered script continues to puzzle historians and archaeologists, keeping its full story just out of reach, but its material legacy influences understanding of South Asian history.

The most famous event during this period is, of course, the building of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. They were the culmination of a series of early pyramids starting in the 2600s BC: the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara; the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur (an early failure at a flat-sided pyramid, where the slope had to be adjusted partway up); the Red Pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur; and finally the Pyramids of Giza in the 2500s BC. No later pyramids built rival the Pyramids of Giza in size, possibly because of the immense cost. The mid-2000s BC, around the 2700s BC or 2600s BC, are also when Egyptian hieroglyphics were developed into a full system of writing, and the first Egyptian mummies are from the late 3000s BC or early 2000s BC. So this is when Ancient Egypt as we know it really takes shape, and the Old Kingdom of Egypt begins early in this period.

A lot of promotional material for Stonehenge will claim that it is “older than the Pyramids of Giza”, which is only true by the most generous definition: as of around 2950 BC there was a large circular ditch surrounding a circle of pits that probably held wooden pillars, but the stones were not yet in place. However, the stone circle at Avebury in England was made around 2550 BC, as the centre of a large sacred landscape incorporating earthworks and burial mounds. In the Orkney Islands of Scotland, the megalithic monument of Maes Howe, the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the village of Skara Brae also date from the first half of the 2000s BC.

Egypt’s pyramids were not the first ones in the world. As mentioned last week, the Caral-Supe civilization on the Peruvian coast had pyramids starting in the 3000s BC. The principal city of Caral was established at some point before 2600 BC and had 6 pyramids in its town centre, surrounded by sunken courts. Unlike those of Egypt, the pyramids of Caral were not made of cut stone blocks, but were built by stacking bags filled with smaller rocks. The largest one was wider at its base (152m x 137m) than the Pyramid of Menkaure (the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza; 108m x 108m), but not nearly as tall (18m to the Pyramid of Menkaure’s 65m). There were numerous towns or cities in the Caral-Supe region – some sources give 17, others 25. Not all of these were necessarily a unitary state, and there has been considerable debate about whether the coastal fishing regions or the interior cotton-growing ones were the economically dominant ones. At one site, Upaca, there are the remains of stone warehouses that have been theorized as a place for storing large amounts of textiles.

Mesopotamia in this period remained ruled by city-states, and there was a shift from rule by priestly hierarchies to rule by kings. Kings began as military leaders chosen for a temporary period, in response to increasing border conflicts between cities due to population growth and need for agricultural land. These military leaders became hereditary, and then consolidated the powers of both priests and kings by taking on religious roles. If Gilgamesh was a historical figure, he was probably king of the city-state of Uruk at some point during this period.

A fourth state-level society emerged during this period in South Asia, known as Harappa or the Indus Valley Civilization. Descriptions of Harappa vary widely, and there are claims presenting it as a society out of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” with no ruling class, no warfare, and no religion. This is probably exaggerated. Archaeology shows pre-Harappan cities in the region being burned and then rebuilt with Harappan style architecture, which suggests conquest. Harappan cities were divided into areas with larger homes and substantial public buildings (the “upper town”), including possibly palaces and temples, and lower towns with smaller buildings. And there was significant religious art, including ‘mother goddess’ figurines and fire altars. However, it is true that at present archaeology shows no massive monuments like the pyramids, no tombs indicating vast accumulation of riches by rulers (nor anything identifying specific rulers), no weapons, and no indications of the level of endemic warfare that we see in Mesopotamia in the same era.

And this comparatively greater level of peace and economic equality was combined with a strikingly high level of organization. There was urban planning: cities across the Indus Valley civilization had streets with the same widths, and used bricks with the same dimensions. There were also impressively complete water and sewer systems in the cities, including indoor toilets. There was bronze, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, though due to a shortage of tin, copper was more commonly used and bronze tended to have relatively low tin content. And, also like Egypt and Mesopotamia, there was writing. Thousands of seals show images of animals along with short pieces of what is definitely text, but the shortness of the inscriptions means that archaeologists have not yet been able to decipher what the text is saying. 

The size of the Indus Valley civilization was far more extensive than that of Sumerian city-states; its core was on the Indus River in what is now Pakistan, but it stretched to parts of Afghanistan and to the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Mehrgarh, discussed last week, was within this region and reached a high point during this period: among other things, it had large kilns and produced ceramics on a scale archaeologists describe as “semi-industrialized mass production”.

In China, the Longshan society of the middle Yellow River valley, dating from around 2700 BC, included conflicts between elites from different areas, indicated by the scale of rammed earth walls that were built around the main settlements. It also produced high-quality wheel-made pottery, fired at high temperatures and often glazed black. 

YES!

i was gonna make several essay posts about the indus valley civilization but the drains can start here:

context: this civilization (also known as the harappan civilization) was roughly from the 33rd century bce to the 13th century bce. for reference, alexander the great was born about 3,000 years after the first indus valley settlements were established

i will talk about other absolutely incredible features of this civilization in subsequent posts, but for now: the drains.

anyone who has more than passing knowledge of the indus valley civilization will almost definitely be obsessed with harappan drains. we cannot shut up about them. hold up here’s a picture:

(source)

harappan drains were typically made of gypsum or limestone, and they were lined with burnt bricks which means they were better (or at least more durably) built than most houses, which were mud-bricked. these bricks were of the same ratio (l:b:h :: 4:2:1) throughout the settlement, which covered a whole lot of ground!! as far as we can tell, the civilization extended to about 1.2 million square miles. also, they were COVERED. BEAUTIFULLY. LOOK AT THE ARCH ON THAT THING. THEY HAD MANHOLE COVERS.

anyway. one thing about the indus valley civilization was its incredibly meticulous town planning, which involved first laying down streets with drains and then building houses beside them. these drain streets were at 90 degree angles and were spaced out very evenly, and every house was connected to a drain through smaller drains in bathrooms, which they had!! people didn’t usually have those, but these guys did!! also, all street drains led to a main underground drain that took everything out of the city. man.

also, this incredibly sophisticated drainage system wasn’t relegated to “elite” parts of the settlement (not that we’re sure they had any in the first place, but that’s a story for another time). as far as we can tell, they were built for the convenience (and sanitary use) of ordinary people. these people prioritized healthcare and sanitation. in 33,000 bce.

also, as far as modern archaeology has discerned, harappa was the first civilization to have had a drainage system at all

i’m realising now that this may not sound very impressive, so here are some contemporary systems for comparison: in the mesopotamian civilization, drains were built with the primary purpose of fending off floods, and they formed a very complicated network that often overlapped and was, uh. confusing as shit. in densely populated cities like ur, refuse was often just swept into the street. ancient egypt had a very well-developed system of canals for irrigation, and there was a lovely system of water engineering, but drainage were usually done through sluice gates (they did have bathrooms too, though! they specifically had toilets built over a shaft that lead to a sewer system that flowed into the nile). keep in mind that the drainage systems of both these civilizations did develop far later in the history of the civilization than they did at harappa

A) फतेहपुर सीकरी B) धोलावीरा C) कुलधरा D) हम्पी

कृपया आप अपना उत्तर हमें कमेंट में बताएं!

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