The First Peoples of India Indus Valley Civilizations

An Ancient Discovery In 1922, archaeologists made an exciting discovery, the remains of an ancient city from a previously unknown civilization. They named this city Harappa. Shortly thereafter, and with help from local guides, they found another city from the same civilization. They called this one Mohenjo-Daro, which means “Mound of the Dead Men”. Since that time, archeologists have found over 1400 cities from this same civilization. We now call this the Indus Valley Civilization, since the cities have mostly been found in the Indus Valley. The Indus River is one of the world's longest, and winds from the mountains in northern India through India and Pakistan until it reaches the ocean.

Even with all the discoveries, we still know very little about the people who lived in the ancient Indus Valley civilization. We do know that the civilization lasted about 1000 years from about 2500 BCE until about 1500 BCE. We know that they built large cities with straight streets and brick houses. We have found artifacts that suggest many other activities as well. There is no question at this point that this was a very advanced civilization. How advanced is still under investigation.

Life in Harappa: What We Do Know In the ancient Indus Valley civilizations, archaeologists have found ruins that show the houses were very similar. Some had two or three rooms that might serve as bedrooms, but the houses were remarkably alike in size and design. What archaeologists have not found is a palace-size residence in any Indus Valley city. That is very unusual for an ancient civilization. It would appear that if a city had a king or a leader, this leader lived like everyone else. Like the houses, each town was remarkably similar. At first, archaeologists thought there were only a few towns. But the Indus River has moved over time. Once archaeologists gained permission to explore along the old riverbed, they found the ruins of many hundreds of towns, all very similar in construction. This was a very large civilization.

Clothing and Fun From what we can tell from scraps of paintings, both men and women wore robes in various colors. Women wore earrings and necklaces, and it appears that they even used lipstick. We don't know much about what they did for entertainment. One small figure has been found that looks like a dancer. Whether they danced for enjoyment, or just to honor their gods, we do not know. Small figures of animals have also been found. Were these statues to honor the gods or just kids’ toys? We don't know the answer to that, either. Archeologists have found things that appear to be toys such as whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which could slide down a string.

Food and Transportation The people of the Indus Valley grew a variety of crops, some of which were barley, peas, wheat, dates, and melons. They also grew cotton and raised sheep, pigs, and cattle. Each town had its own central storage building for holding grain. Archeologists believe that the people of the Indus Valley used camels and elephants to get around, and had wheeled carts pulled by oxen for transporting goods. They also believe that these people had sailboats, which used a single mast and sail. For a long time, archaeologists believed that the Sumer civilization of ancient Mesopotamia invented the sailboat and the wheel. But it is possible that these and other inventions credited to the ancient Mesopotamians were actually invented by the ancient people who lived in the Indus Valley.

Writing and Pottery Archeologists are still not able to decipher the pictographs that they used in place of writing. Similar pictographs are found in many of the towns, so archeologists believe that these people all had a common language. Seals, with this pictographic script on it, have also been found in archeological sites in Mesopotamia. It seems very likely that these two civilization areas knew each other. The Indus Valley people created high quality pottery of graceful designs. They also made very small statues of clay, bronze and silver. In addition archeologists have found bowls made of brass and silver and many glass beads. Since silver and brass are not found in the Indus Valley, they had to bring it in from somewhere else.

Questions about the Harappans How did they manage to build cities with straight streets and a sewer and water system? When these ancient people tore down a city and rebuilt, the rebuilt city was not built as well as the one before it. Did they lose their building and design skills, or did they just not care as much? Around 1500 BCE, the Indus Valley civilization simply went away. Where did they go? What happened to them? Let’s watch a video about the decline of their civilization. http://mocomi.com/harappan-civilization/