Early Harappan The development of these farming communities ultimately led to the accretion of larger settlements from the later 4th millennium. Some of the most important discoveries in the Ravi Phase relate to writing.
The earliest examples of the Indus script date from around BC, placing the origins of writing in South Asia at approximately the same time as those of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri. Kot Diji Harappan 2 represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with the citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life.
Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River. This distinctive, regional culture which emerged is called Early or Pre-Harappan. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making.
Villagers had, by this time, domesticated numerous crops, including peas , sesame seeds, dates and cotton , as well as a wide range of domestic animals, including the water buffalo. Thus far, six such urban centers have been discovered, including: Harappa, Mohenjo Daro and Dicki in Pakistan, along with Gonorreala, Dokalingam and Mangalore in India.
In total, over cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Ghaggar-Florence River and its tributaries. Also during the Harappa phase, a faience and steatite bead production workshop blossomed, identified by several layers of faience slag—leftover material from the production of the glassy ceramic known as faience—chert blades, lumps of sawn steatite, bone tools, terracotta cakes and large masses of vitrified faience slag.
Also discovered in the workshop were an abundant number of broken and complete tablets and beads, many with incised scripts. During the Localization period, all of the major cities including Harappa began to lose their power.
This was likely a result of shifting river patterns that made the abandonment of many cities necessary. People migrated out of the cities on the river banks and up into smaller cities the higher reaches of the Indus, Gujarat and Ganga-Yamuna valleys. In addition to large-scale de-urbanization, the Late Harappan period was also characterized by a shift to drought-resistant small-grained millets and an increase in interpersonal violence.
The reasons for these changes may be attributed to climate change: there was a decline in the predictability of the seasonal monsoon during this period. Earlier scholars have suggested catastrophic flood or disease, trade decline, and a now-discredited "Aryan invasion. Harappan food economy was based on a combination of agriculture, pastoralism, and fishing and hunting.
Harappans farmed domesticated wheat and barley , pulses and millets , sesame, peas , chickpeas, and other vegetables. Animal husbandry included humped Bos indicus and non-humped Bos bubalis cattle and, to a lesser degree, sheep and goats.
The people hunted elephant, rhinoceros, water buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and wild ass. Trade for raw materials began as early as the Ravi phase, including marine resources, wood, stone, and metal from the coastal regions, as well as neighboring regions in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the Himalayas.
Trade networks and migration of people into and out of Harappa were established by then as well, but the city truly became cosmopolitan during the Integration era. Unlike Mesopotamia's royal burials there are no huge monuments or obvious rulers in any of the burials, although there is some evidence for some differential elite access to luxury goods. Some of the skeletons also show injuries, suggesting that interpersonal violence was a fact of life for some of the city's residents, but not all.
Part of the population had less access to elite goods and a higher risk of violence. Over 25 field seasons have occurred since the first excavations. Mark Kenoyer. An excellent source for information about Harappa with lots of photographs comes from the highly recommended at Harappa. Selected Sources:. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.
Create a personalised content profile. Over time, three major theories have developed concerning Harappan governance or system of rule. The first is that there was a single state encompassing all the communities of the civilization, given the similarity in artifacts, the evidence of planned settlements, the standardized ratio of brick size, and the apparent establishment of settlements near sources of raw material.
The second theory posits that there was no single ruler, but a number of them representing each of the urban centers, including Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and other communities. Finally, experts have theorized that the Indus Valley Civilization had no rulers as we understand them, with everyone enjoying equal status. The Indus River Valley Civilization, also known as Harappan, included its own advanced technology, economy, and culture. It was located in modern-day India and Pakistan, and covered an area as large as Western Europe.
The people of the Indus Valley, also known as Harappan Harappa was the first city in the region found by archaeologists , achieved many notable advances in technology, including great accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass. Harappans were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures that conformed to a successive scale.
The smallest division, approximately 1. It stands as the smallest division ever recorded on a Bronze Age scale. Another indication of an advanced measurement system is the fact that the bricks used to build Indus cities were uniform in size. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage developed and used in cities throughout the region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East, and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.
Harappans were thought to have been proficient in seal carving, the cutting of patterns into the bottom face of a seal, and used distinctive seals for the identification of property and to stamp clay on trade goods. Seals have been one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in Indus Valley cities, decorated with animal figures, such as elephants, tigers, and water buffalos. Harappans also developed new techniques in metallurgy—the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin—and performed intricate handicraft using products made of the semi-precious gemstone, Carnelian.
Terracotta works also included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. In addition to figurines, the Indus River Valley people are believed to have created necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments. It is still unknown whether these figurines have religious significance. The Harappan Civilization may have been the first to use wheeled transport, in the form of bullock carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today. It also appears they built boats and watercraft—a claim supported by archaeological discoveries of a massive, dredged canal, and what is regarded as a docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal.
The docks and canal in the ancient city of Lothal, located in modern India: Archaeological evidence suggests that the Indus River Valley Civilization constructed boats and may have participated in an extensive maritime trade network.
Trade focused on importing raw materials to be used in Harappan city workshops, including minerals from Iran and Afghanistan, lead and copper from other parts of India, jade from China, and cedar wood floated down rivers from the Himalayas and Kashmir.
Other trade goods included terracotta pots, gold, silver, metals, beads, flints for making tools, seashells, pearls, and colored gem stones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise. There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations. Harappan seals and jewelry have been found at archaeological sites in regions of Mesopotamia, which includes most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria. Long-distance sea trade over bodies of water, such as the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, may have become feasible with the development of plank watercraft that was equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.
During the Early Harappan period about BCE , cultural similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, and ornaments document caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.
Harappans are believed to have used Indus Script, a language consisting of symbols. A collection of written texts on clay and stone tablets unearthed at Harappa, which have been carbon dated BCE, contain trident-shaped, plant-like markings.
As many as distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals, small tablets, ceramic pots, and more than a dozen other materials. Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which are very small. The longest on a single surface, which is less than 1 inch or 2. The characters are largely pictorial, but include many abstract signs that do not appear to have changed over time.
The inscriptions are thought to have been primarily written from right to left, but it is unclear whether this script constitutes a complete language.
At TED , he explained how he was enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language. The Harappan religion remains a topic of speculation.
It has been widely suggested that the Harappans worshipped a mother goddess who symbolized fertility. In contrast to Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization seems to have lacked any temples or palaces that would give clear evidence of religious rites or specific deities.
Some Indus Valley seals show a swastika symbol, which was included in later Indian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Many Indus Valley seals also include the forms of animals, with some depicting them being carried in processions, while others showing chimeric creations, leading scholars to speculate about the role of animals in Indus Valley religions.
One seal from Mohenjo-daro shows a half-human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger. This may be a reference to the Sumerian myth of a monster created by Aruru, the Sumerian earth and fertility goddess, to fight Gilgamesh, the hero of an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem.
This is a further suggestion of international trade in Harappan culture.
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