INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Indus Valley
• The Indus River is located
in Pakistan. Find it on the
map. It was along this
river that a civilization
developed around 2,500
BCE. It is called the
Indus Valley Civilization.
Two major cities of this
civilization were Harappa
and Mohenjo-Daro.
Location on Map
Timeline
Early Harappan-Ravi Phase
3300-2800 BC
 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.
 Domesticated crops included peas, sesame seeds,
dates and cotton.
 Domestic animals also used, such as the water
buffalo.
 Mud brick for building.
Earliest Phase-Ravi (3300-2800
B.C.)
Middle Harappan-Integration Era
2600-1900 BC
 By 2500 BCE, communities had been turned into
urban centers (integration).
 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 1052 cities and settlements have
been found, mainly in the general region of
the Ghaggar-Florence River and its tributaries.
 Irrigation used to increase crop production and
mud brick structures.
Indus Valley-Integration Era
Late Harappan-Cemetery H
1700-1300 BC
 Cremation of human remains. The bones were
stored in painted pottery burial urns. This is
completely different to the Indus civilization
where bodies were buried in wooden coffins.
 Reddish pottery, painted in black with antelopes,
peacocks etc., sun or star motifs, with different
surface treatments to the earlier period.
 Expansion of settlements into the east.
 Rice became a main crop.
 Apparent breakdown of the widespread trade of
the Indus civilization, with materials such as
marine shells no longer used.
 Continued use of mud brick for building.
Indus Valley-Cemetery H (1700-1300
BC)
 Origin
• In 1856, British colonial officials in India were
putting rail tracks
• the first major excavations did not take place
until the 1920s
• Initially, many archaeologists thought they had
found ruins of the ancient MAURYA empire
• Before the excavation of these HARAPPAN cities,
scholars thought that Indian civilization had begun
in the GANGES
• The discovery of ancient HARAPPAN cities
unsettled that conception and moved the timeline
back another 1500 years
 Geography
• Its origins seem to lie in a
settlement named Mehrgarh
• foothills of a mountain
pass in modern-day
Baluchistan in western
Pakistan
• Rich soil from silt
– Continuous supply
– Farming grains and
surpluses
 GEOLOGY
The Indus River Valley civilization was located in a
small area of land in what is now Pakistan and India.
Aside from being on the banks of the large Indus
river, the Indus Valley civilization was surrounded
by forests, desert, and ocean, making it a very fertile
land
CLIMATE
The monsoon rains (July to September) provide the rest
of the flow. The climate of the Indus valley ranges
from that of the dry semidesert areas of Sindh and
Punjab provinces to the severe high
mountain climate of Kohistan, Hunza, Gilgit, Ladakh,
and western Tibe
 Religion, language, and
culture
• Little is known about Harappan religion and language
• Language Had writing system of 300 symbols, but
scientists cannot decipher it
• written texts on clay and stone tablets unearthed at
Harappa carbon dated 3300-3200 BCE
• appear to be written from right to left.
 Development phases

The Indus Valley Civilization is often separated into

three phases:
 the Early HARAPPAN Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE
 the Mature HARAPPAN Phase from 2600 to 1900
BCE
 the Late HARAPPAN Phase from 1900 to 1300 BCE
Early Civilizations in the Indus River Valley

The named derives

from one of the two
discovered cities -
Harappa and Mohenjo
Daro ("Mound of the
Dead“)
Early
settlements
date to 7000 BC
 Major cities

• Mohenjo-daro is thought
to have been built in the
twenty- sixth century BCE
• one of the most
sophisticated cities of the
period, with advanced
engineering and urban
planning.
Mohenjo-daro : aerial view
Mohenjo-daro view of the “Citadel”
 Indus or Harappan Civilization
• Public wells supplied water, and
bathrooms used an advanced drainage
system.
• A chute system took household trash to
public garbage bins.
• The careful structure of these cities
showed that this civilization had a well-
organized government.
• More than 700 fresh water wells found
 Mysterious
signifiers
• Examples of the multitude of
Harrapan clay seals whose
meaning(s) still elude us
 Innovation and exchange

• Indus River Valley Civilization achieved great

accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring
length and mass
• Fire-baked bricks (charcoal , gypsum)
• baths and sewage structures
• standardized weights and measures.
• the world's first known urban sanitation systems
( breaking glasses)
• Harappans are known for seal
carving
• Bronze Age society
• a vast maritime
• the first to use wheeled transport
• Harappans also engaged in
shellworking
• networks of exchange
 Farming and Trade
• Most Indus Valley people were farmers
• First to cultivate cotton and weave into cloth
• Area close to Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf so
easily reach Sumer. Contact caused system of
writing to be born
• Cuneiform shows no relationship to Sumer
• Traded cotton, grain, copper, pearls, and ivory
INVENTIONS

Harappan farmers grew crops in irrigated

fields and raised livestock

Ceramic sculpture of a small cart

with vases and tools pulled by
oxen, from Mohenjo-daro
 Government
• Well organized, powerful leaders, possibly priest-
kings, made sure all had steady supply of food
• Buildings suggest government planners
• Had to have mathematical skills to put together
 Society
 dominated by priests
 from the fortified palaces and
temples
 power base: fertility
 deities: male and female, both
nude
 bull worship
 ARCHITECTURE
• The cities are build on numerous
mounds (elevated grounds)
• Advanced architecture
― Impressive dockyards
― Graineries
― Warehouses
• Walled city (protection from
flood water)
• Well planned streets
• Proper sanitation and drainage
system
• Baked brick houses
• Well built bathrooms
• Wells throughout the city
• Remarkable similarity of
architecture all over the civilization
• No large monumental structures
 Cities
 very densely populated
 houses: two to three stories
 every house is laid out the same
 Major cities….
• Harappa was believed to have been home to
as many as 23,500 residents
• sculpted houses with flat roofs made of red
sand and clay
• The city spread over 150 hectares—370
acres
• fortified administrative and religious
centers of the same type used in Mohenjo-
daro.
 Monumental Architecture

 very-large scale building

 walled cites, with fortified
citadels
 always on the same scale
 palaces, temples
 large grain storage facilities
near temples
 a theocracy ?
 planned economy
 BUILDING MATERIALS
• There is a remarkable uniformity
in selection of construction
materials and techniques.
• Most common materials were
mud bricks, bricks and reeds.
• Average size of brick was in ratio
of 1:2:4
7x14x28 cm
(for houses)
10x20x40
cm(for city
walls)
 Indus Valley Culture Ends
• Harappan Decline
– Signs of decline begin around 1750 B.C.E.
– Earthquakes, floods, soil depletion may have
caused decline
– Around 1500 B.C.E., Aryans enter area and
become dominant
Artifacts
 These egg shaped whistles may have been used for music,
a tradition that is still present in rural areas of Pakistan and
India.
Ornaments
 This collection of gold and agate ornaments (see
next slide) includes objects found at both
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
 At the top are fillets of hammered gold that would
have been worn around the forehead.
 The other ornaments include bangles, chokers,
long pendant necklaces, rings, earrings, conical
hair ornaments, and broaches.
 These ornaments were never buried with the
dead, but were passed on from one generation to
the next.
 These ornaments were hidden under the floors in
the homes of wealthy merchants or goldsmiths.
Ornaments
 This collection of gold and agate ornaments (see
next slide) includes objects found at both
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
 At the top are fillets of hammered gold that would
have been worn around the forehead.
 The other ornaments include bangles, chokers,
long pendant necklaces, rings, earrings, conical
hair ornaments, and broaches.
 These ornaments were never buried with the
dead, but were passed on from one generation to
the next.
 These ornaments were hidden under the floors in
the homes of wealthy merchants or goldsmiths.
Collapseof Harappan
“Civilization”
 The de-urbanization period of the
Harappan Civilization saw the collapse and
disappearance of the urban phenomena
in the South Asia.
 The theme for this period is localization.
 Architectural and ceramic forms changed
along with the loss of writing, planned
settlements, public sanitation,
monumental architecture, seaborne and
exotic trade, seals, and weights.