Indus Valley Civilisation: A Visual History

The Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilisation flourished from about 2600 to 1900 BC across a million square kilometres of modern Pakistan and north-west India, larger than Egypt and Mesopotamia combined. Its cities, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi, had grid streets, brick houses with bathrooms, covered drains, granaries and great baths, and standardised weights and bricks across the whole region. Its short seal inscriptions remain undeciphered. It traded with Mesopotamia via Oman. Around 1900 BC the cities declined, probably through the shifting of rivers and a weakening monsoon, and the population dispersed into villages.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Estimated populations of major Indus cities

Timeline of the Indus Valley Civilisation

1. 3,300 BC
   Early Harappan phase
2. 2,600 BC
   Mature cities emerge
3. 2,500 BC
   Mohenjo-daro at its height
4. 2,300 BC
   Trade with Mesopotamia recordedThe 'Meluhha' of Akkadian texts.
5. 1,900 BC
   Decline of the cities
6. 1,300 BC
   Late Harappan cultures fade

Discovery

Bricks from Harappa were used as railway ballast by British engineers in the 1850s. Excavations by John Marshall's team in the 1920s revealed a civilisation unknown to any tradition, contemporary with Sumer. Over 1,000 settlements are now known along the Indus and the dried-up Ghaggar-Hakra river, from the Afghan border to Gujarat.

The cities

Mohenjo-daro had perhaps 40,000 people, streets laid out on a grid, houses of baked brick with wells and bathrooms draining into covered street sewers, and a raised citadel with the Great Bath. Weights follow a binary-decimal system, bricks are a standard 1:2:4 ratio everywhere, and seals with unicorns, bulls and script were used to mark goods. There are no palaces, no royal tombs, no temples that can be identified and very few weapons; how the society was governed is unknown.

Decline

From about 1900 BC the cities were abandoned or shrank, drains stopped being maintained, writing and seals disappeared. Older theories of Aryan invasion have given way to climate: the monsoon weakened, the Ghaggar-Hakra dried and the Indus shifted, undermining agriculture and trade. Late Harappan cultures continued in the Punjab and Gujarat, and elements such as bathing culture, weights and perhaps yoga postures may have passed into later Indian civilisation.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Sumer (4,500 BC to 1,900 BC)
• Akkadian Empire (2,334 BC to 2,154 BC)
• Old Kingdom of Egypt (2,686 BC to 2,181 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)
• Neo-Sumerian Empire (Ur III) (2,112 BC to 2,004 BC)

8 surprising things about the Indus Valley Civilisation

1. The Indus civilisation covered more area than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia put together.
2. Mohenjo-daro's sewers were more advanced than those of most European cities before the nineteenth century.
3. The Indus script has resisted decipherment for a century; some scholars argue it is not writing at all.
4. The 'Dancing Girl' bronze from Mohenjo-daro, 10 cm tall, is one of the earliest lost-wax castings.
5. The Indus people bred zebu cattle and grew cotton, the earliest known cotton textiles in the world.
6. Sumerian texts refer to trade with 'Meluhha', almost certainly the Indus, for carnelian, ivory and timber.
7. The name Mohenjo-daro means 'mound of the dead' in Sindhi; its original name is unknown.
8. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, 12 by 7 metres, is the earliest known public water tank.

Sources

• Indus civilization Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Indus Valley Civilisation Wikipedia
• Indus Valley Civilization World History Encyclopedia
• Andrew Robinson, The Indus: Lost Civilizations (2015) Reaktion Books

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