Indus Valley Harappa Mohenjo-Daro Invaders Harappans and Aryans Indus Valley Harappa Mohenjo-Daro Invaders

Harappa and neighbors c. 2000 BCE

Comparative Timeline

Indus Valley The Harappan culture existed along the Indus River. It was named after the city of Harappa. It and Mohenjo-Daro were important centers of the Indus valley civilization. Harappan civilization was at its height from 2300-1700 BCE. It was forgotten until the British rediscovered it in the 1800s while building railroads.

Harappan Culture At Its Height 2300-1700 BCE By 2300 BCE, Harappans were living in large cities. Six cities have been discovered, including: Harappa and Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan. In total, over 1500 cities and settlements have been found and 70 excavated. Harappans mastered irrigation to increase crop production. They also learned to make large mud brick structures.

Harappan Culture At Its Height 2300-1700 BCE

Harappan Culture At Its Height 2300-1700 BCE Mohenjo Daro : aerial view

Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro This is the oldest public bath discovered! 2,000 years before the Romans built public baths, the Harappan people were building them!

Wells Private wells were rebuilt over many generations for large households and neighborhoods. This well in Mohenjo Daro stands like a chimney because all of the surrounding earth has been removed by excavation.

Bathrooms This is a bathroom in a home. Don’t ask me how to use it!

Language The Harappan people used a pictographic script. While we can interpret some symbols, nobody has yet found a “Rosetta Stone” for Harappan writing. In addition to the pictographs, seals and amulets often contain pictures of animals. These animals may have been worshipped as sacred creatures (sounds sort of Egyptian-ish, doesn’t it?).

Some Common Pictographs

Seals Can you guess why this seal is called the “unicorn seal”? Clay seals: note the Harappan writing.

Trade – they traded with lots of people, especially jewelry

And more trade

Economy Harappans used cubical weights. These weights were found in recent excavations at Harappa. They may have been used for trade and possibly for collecting taxes.

Economy-Agriculture Earth walls were built to control the river's annual flooding. Crops grown included wheat, barley, peas, melons, and sesame. The Harappans were the first to cultivate cotton for the production of cloth. Several animals were domesticated including: The elephant, which was used for its ivory. The water buffalo, which was used for plowing and pulling carts.

Burial Bodies were placed inside a wooden coffin (which later decayed) and entombed in a rectangular pit surrounded with burial offerings in pottery vessels. Egyptian, anyone?

Burial Burial of woman and infant, Harappa. The infant was buried in a small pit beneath the legs of the mother.

Collapse of Harappan Civilization Archaeologists have offered 4 explanations for the collapse of Harappan civilization. They are ecological factors: Intense flooding, which could have ruined irrigation systems and farmland. Decrease in precipitation over a number of years (drought). The monsoons may have stopped for a while. The Indo-Aryans invaded about the same time food was disappearing. Forests and farmland eroded – shades of Kush!

Speaking of Indo-Aryans . . . The Indo-Aryans were lighter-skinned invaders from the north. They spoke a European language related to ancient Greek and Latin. The Harappans were called Dravidians, and they were darker-skinned. The descendants of both groups are still in India today.

Possible route of the Indo-Aryan invasions

The Early Indo-Aryans Pastoral economy: sheep, goats, horses, cattle Vegetarianism was not widespread until many centuries later. Religious and Literary works: The Vedas Sanskrit: sacred tongue. Not a written language, at first; all stories, songs, teachings were oral. Four Vedas, most important: Rig Veda “Veda” means “knowledge.” They were finally written down in a form of Sanskrit about 500 BCE.

The Indo-Aryans, cont. The villages and kingdoms constantly fought each other. They were led by war chiefs and kings. Sometimes, they would be allies, but they usually fought each other as happily as they fought other people.

Indo-Aryans and Hindus The Aryans gave rise to Hindu society. But they were different: Cows: they ate them. Classes: they had them, but they were not the castes we are going to learn about. Priests, or religious leaders, were subordinate to the nobility. This would change later.