...The Indus Valley Civilisation I n 1922, when the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation came to light, it unearthed a new era in the history of India. Though there is no unanimity among historians and archaeologists about the antiquity of this ancient Bronze Age civilisation, a general overall span of 2500-1500 BC is agreed to by most. The Indus Valley Civilisation was the largest cultural zone of the period – it covered a vast 1.3 million square kilometres. It extended from Manda (J&K) in the north to Daimabad (Maharashtra) in the south, and from Suktagendor (Pakistan) in the west to Alamgirpur (Uttar Pradesh) in the east. Again there is no agreement among historians and anthropologists on the issue of the founders of the Indus Valley Civilisation. However, recent research has thrown up some conclusive evidence on this front: the founders were of a mixed stock—proto-Austroloid, Mediterranean, and Mongoloid. Urban civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation was an urban civilisation. The major cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation are as follows: Mohenjodaro (Sindh, Pakistan), Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan), Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Lothal (Gujarat), Chanhudaro (Sindh, Pakistan), Dholavira (Gujarat), Banawali (Haryana), and Surkotada (Gujarat). Common features across cities While there were distinguishing features between cities, they still had some common features. The foremost feature was the systematic town planning on the lines of the...
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...once overlooked mysterious bricks were actually part of a lost civilization. What they uncovered was an ancient civilization that rivaled of the grand ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. They uncovered the remains of large, magnificent, and well planned cities. The ancient civilization of the Indus Valley displayed public works, arts and architecture, and complex religions. The Indus Valley civilization displayed organized public works within the planning and measuring of cities...
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...yLarge Area: Streches across present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan Surroundings: Natural borders consisted of mountains and the Arabian Sea, sheltering the civilization from attack and disease. Water from the river fertalized and irrigated crops. Proximity to the river allowed boats to become a viable transportation option. Agriculture: The development of widespread irrigation systems allowed the indigenous population to provide food for themselves. Wheat and barley were primary crops, however rye, peas, cotton, and rice were also grown. Domestication of animals also served as an important tool for cultivation and as a source of food. Trade The economy depended greatly on trade. Trade was conducted within the civilization as well as with Mesopotamia. Advancement in technology led to carts and early boats that were used as the main method of trade and travel. Caste system with four main classes People were born into social classes that could not be changed. Brahmins (priests and the king) Kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats - rulers) Vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants) Shudras (peasants and serfs) Buildings and Structures Individual buildings for bathing and using the restroom (had an early "sanitation" system) Citadels were used for defense Granaries All houses had access to water and were about the same size Houses had one or two stories Most buildings were made of dry bricks No large monuments or structures ...
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...India, China, and Japan Indus Valley Civilization The Indus Valley Civilization is located in modern day Pakistan and the northwestern portion of India. This civilization has been dated c. 2600-1900 BCE but was not discovered by historians until the 1860s. The textbook depicts Mohenjo-daro, which is in Pakistan, with an aerial shot which was excavated in the 1920s with little to no attention until Sir John Marshall focused on this city as well as a second city, Harappa. The culture has now been compared to that of Mesopotamia and Egypt with numerous structures and subsidiary structures that have been seen to be organized politically and socially. The Great Bath is also seen on page 20 of the textbook which was found during the excavation of Mohenjo-daro with an extremely complex drainage system that is believed to be used by wealthier citizens for bathing. As most major cities in ancient civilizations, the region fed off a major river, the Indus River, which made the soil fertile and allowed the people to trade with nearby Mesopotamia. One of the strangest aspects of the city of Mohenjo-daro is the lack of a temple or monument that gives the city a clear center controlling person or government. The city was filled with rich materials and artifacts such as ivory, lapis, gold, and pottery. Many of the structures were made from baked-brick which also surrounded the Great Bath. The city was one of the largest in the Indus Civilization with approximately 250 acres...
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...Although the the indus valley civilization, also known as harappan civilization, was known for its very well planned irrigation system and town planning. Another part of its culture was found in its art. A veriaty of terracotta and metal toys have been excivated. They include animals with movable heads, wheeled birds, monkeys and a whole lot of other little toys. A large number of female figurines were made using terracotta. These figurines are beaded with heavy headgear and ornaments. Most of them had thin waists, broad hips and big breasts. The nose is pinched, the mouth is a slit and clay pellets were used to indicate eyes. In contrast is the sleek and slender limbed ‘Dancing Girl’ in bronze, just 10.5 cms high. Said a surprised John Marshall in the following quotation: When I first saw it I found it difficult to belive they were pre historic. it seemed to so completely to upset all established ideas about early art. Modelling such as this was unknown to the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece. The technique use to make this sculpture is called the ‘lost wax method’. This is a technique in whichthe desired form is modelled in clay and then this is coated in wax. This is then covered with an outer layer of clay, with one or more apertures piercing it. Molten bronze is the poured through the apertures and the wax evaporates, allowing the bronze...
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...large well and bathing platforms are remains of Harappa's final phase of occupation from 2200 to 1900 BC. | Location | Sahiwal District, Punjab, Pakistan | Periods | Harappan 1 to Harappan 5 | Cultures | Indus Valley Civilization | Harappa (pronounced [ɦəɽəppaː]; Urdu: ہڑپّہ; Punjabi: ہڑپّہ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, eastern Pakistan, about 24 km (15 mi) west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River. The current village of Harappa is 6 km (3.7 mi) from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a railway station left from the period of British Raj, it is today just a small crossroads town of population 15,000. The site of the ancient city contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization, centered in Sindh and the Punjab.[1] The city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied over 100 hectares (250 acres) at its greatest extent during the Mature Harappan phase (2600–1900 BC), which is considered large for its time.[2][3] Per archaeological convention of naming a previously unknown civilization by its first excavated site, the Indus Valley Civilization is also called the Harappan Civilization. The ancient city of Harappa was heavily damaged under the British rule, when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast in the making of the Lahore-Multan Railroad. In 2005, a controversial amusement...
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...overview The Indus Valley civilization was an ancient civilization located in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus Valley is contemporary with the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The civilization is famous for its large and well-planned cities. Over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found. Most of these are small, but amongst them are some of the largest cities of their time, especially Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Geography The Indus Valley civilization covered most of what is today Pakistan and the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. Settlements which were closely related to the core civilization - and may have been colonies of it - have been found in Afghanistan and central Asia. The huge Indus river system waters a rich agricultural landscape. The Indus plain is surrounded by high mountains, desert and ocean, and at that time dense forest to the east. Well-planned Cities The early phase of the civilization lasted from circa 3300 BC until 2800 BC. This saw farming settlements grow into large and sophisticated urban centres. The quality of municipal town planning indicates that these communities were controlled by efficient governments. These clearly placed a high priority on accessibility to water. Modern scholars tend to see in this the influence of a religion which places a string emphasis on ritual washing - much like modern Hinduism. Hygiene was also important to the inhabitants...
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...was the ancient era known as the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization, and then the invasion and settlement of the Aryans along the Ganges River plain. The Ganges and Indus Rivers are known as the mother and father of India. Other rivers traverse the land, which has a lot of desert regions, the mighty Himalayan Mountains, and the torrid and humid south where spices lured traders. Yearly monsoons interrupt the dry weather with its hot humidity. Today the countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh are separated from the state of India, but in the past there were an integral part of the culture. Many languages have served to separate the Indians, but Hinduism has been an uniting religious and cultural force in additional to the impact of Buddhism, Janism, and later Islam. Just recently India surpassed China as the most populated country in the world. Ancient India spans a vast period 2500 b.c.e.-250 b.c.e. Archaeology, ancient texts, and artifacts are being used to reconstruct the lives of women. “The earliest materials found by archaeological excavations suggest the worship of goddesses. The earliest recorded religious texts (ca. 1500 b.c.e.) call on the life-giving power of goddesses to give life and to nurture and sustain it.” p. 36 from Vivante. After the Aryan invasion and the development of Hinduism and then Buddhism, India’s extant written texts add greatly to our knowledge. Centered on the Indus River valley, the oldest known civilization in India ranged from ca. 2500-1500...
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...ANCIENT INDIAN CIVILIZATION INTRODUCTION In the 1920s, a huge discovery in South Asia proved that Egypt and Mesopotamia were not the only "early civilizations." In the vast Indus River plains (located in what is today Pakistan and western India), under layers of land and mounds of dirt, archaeologists discovered the remains of a 4,600 year-old city. A thriving, urban civilization had existed at the same time as Egyptian and Mesopotamian states — in an area twice each of their sizes. The Indian civilization is one of the most ancient civilizations of the world. It is known as the Sindhu civilization or the Indus Valley civilization or the Aryan civilization. Sometimes it is also referred to as the Vedic civilization. The Aryans kindled the light of this civilization on the banks of the river Sindhu (Indus) in the Northern India, thousands of years ago. Later, they helped spread it across some other parts of the country. The historians can not ascertain the precise period when this great civilization flourished. The scholars differ on the period of its development. Even the origin of the Aryan race has been debatable. Some historians believe that the Aryans migrated from the North Central Asia and settled in India. Some other historians contend that the Aryans have been the natives of India. In the opinion of “Lokmanya Tilak” and other Indian scholars, the Aryan civilization is 4000 to 8000 years old. The Indus Valley Civilization which flourished from about 2600 BCE to...
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...INDUS CIVILIZATION Indus civilization, also called Indus valley civilization or Harappa civilization, the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. It was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-Daro (Mohenjo-Daro), near the Indus River in the Sindh (Sind) region, now both in Pakistan. Subsequently, vestiges of the civilization were found as far apart as Sutkagen Dor, near the shore of the Arabian Sea 300 miles (480 km) west of Karachi, also in Pakistan, and Rupnagar, in India, at the foot of the Shimla Hills 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the northeast. Later exploration established its existence southward down the west coast of India as far as the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Karachi, and as far east as the Yamuna (Jumna) River basin, 30 miles (50 km) north of Delhi. It is thus decidedly the most extensive of the world’s three earliest civilizations; the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which began somewhat before it. The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) located in the western region of South Asia, and spread over what is now Pakistan, northwest India, and eastern Afghanistan. Flourishing in the Indus River basin, the civilization extended east into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the upper reaches Ganges-Yamuna Doab, it extended west to the Makran coast of Baluchistan and north to northeastern...
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...Sneha Negandhi 1 Archaeology Theory and Methods: Harappan Civilization. Archaeology is defined as the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains by the Oxford dictionary. In simple terms archaeology is the study of ancient and human past using material remains, like the artefacts and ecofacts. The artefacts are defined as the object made by human being, typically one of culture or historical interest1. To study the past, one needs to excavate the sites to find the artefacts. An archaeological site is any place where physical remains of past human activities exist2. A site can be as small as some stone tools with the human skeletons or as large as the Indus valley civilisation. These sites are broadly classified under two categories. The first ones are, based on the archaeological culture such as proto-historic, historic and pre-historic. The prehistoric archaeology is the study of past before the historical records began. The artefacts found here are mostly the stone tools including spear points, arrowheads, knives, stone axes etc. The Stone Age and the hunter- gathers are the examples of the pre-historic sites. It begins with the human behaviour of manufacturing the stone tools and ends with the fully modern human hunting and gathering socities3.The Protohistoric archaeology refers to the study of regions or periods using the archaeological methods where only a partial or very limited historic...
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...Ancient India The civilizations of the Indus River Valley were a very unique group for a number of reasons. As with most ancient civilizations, the social, political and economic systems were guided by religious beliefs. For ancient Indians; however, religious practice literally dictated most levels of social organization and political direction. Also, the same basic religious beliefs are still practiced today, giving researchers a deep understanding of this religious tradition. Another unique aspect of ancient India is the nature of its ruins. There are a number of urban centers that appear to be abandoned, yet not destroyed. The intact nature of these sites creates an intriguing picture of an advanced society set in the ancient world; with nuance and details usually lost to time still available for study. One of the earliest cities of ancient India is Mohenjo-Daro. Located on the Western edge of the subcontinent, Mohenjo-Daro was a walled city built along the Indus River, which was typical of the time. It was a particularly large city, with approximately 50,000 residents. For purposes of illustrating the social structure and lifestyle of early Indians, it serves as the perfect example. Constructed of mud and bricks, the city had two distinct areas; the citadel and the city proper. The citadel served as a meeting area for military operations and as a hide out for citizens during attacks. Its location on a hill, high above the town proper suggests both its importance...
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...Harappan Civilization (also known as Indus Valley Civilization) Submitted By: Sharad Thakran 1919 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Discovery and history of excavation 3. Chronology 4. Geography 5. Early Harappan 6. Mature Harappan a. Cities b. Authority and governance c. Technology d. Arts and crafts e. Trade and transportation f. Subsistence g. Writing system h. Religion 7. Collapse and Late Harappan 8. Legacy 9. Historical context and linguistic affiliation Introduction The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India (see map). Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilizations of the Old World, and of the three the most widespread. It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, one of the major rivers of Asia, and the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which once coursed through northwest India and eastern Pakistan. At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large...
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...Greek and Indian art has the same similarities and difference. Greek sculptors were particularly concerned with proportion, poise, and the idealized perfection of the human body, and their figures in stone and bronze have become some of the most recognizable pieces of art ever produced by any civilization. Indian Sculpture of India has its roots from the planet’s oldest Indus Valley Civilization to globally celebrated modern sculpture art influenced by colonial culture. Magnificence, spirituality, mysticism and elegance define sculpture of India. The very brilliance and finesse of Indian sculpture murmurs the tales of the most civilized history while demonstrating the eroticism and spirituality, the mysticism and passion of Indian art form. Even though they lived far away and had different beliefs, their depicted the same topics: Gods and goddesses, animals, royalty, myths, everyday life, and sports. In sculpture, Greeks mostly used stone, and Indians used a variety of materials. Their paintings were also very similar. Architecture was quite different. Greek architecture used the golden ratio, and their buildings were usually made of marble. They used Doric and Ionic columns to hold the roof of the building up. Indian buildings had elaborate designs carved in them, like people dancing, or gods and goddess. Theater was performed a lot in Greece, but not as much in India. Plays in India and Greece were usually about myths. Masks were a must in theater. In India, masks...
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...word urban is used to describe a place with high human population density and many built environment features compared to other areas surrounding it while geography is the study of the physical and human or social environments of the Earth. Therefore Urban Geography is concerned with the relations among people, and between people and their environments, in cities and towns across countries in the world (Northam, 1979). Early Urban civilizations Civilizations can be defined as a complex way of life that started as people began to develop urban settlements. The early civilization developed after 3000 BCE, when the rise of agriculture allowed people to have food and economic stability. The rise of agriculture made the agricultural population to advance beyond village life and they could no longer practice farming. The first civilization was witnessed in Mesopotamia now called Iraq and then in Egypt. Civilizations mostly thrived in the Indus Valley by 2500 BCE, in China by 1500 BCE and in Central America, what is now Mexico, by 1200 BCE. Civilizations thereafter developed on every continent except Antarctica (Redman, 1978). Cities Cities can be either merchant cities, primate cities or industrial cities. A merchant is a businessperson who mainly trades in commodities produced by others in an aim of making profit. Merchant cities existed even in the early years where warehouses of prominent and wealthy merchants ‘tobacco lords’ were built. They mainly prospered in shipping of tobacco...
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