5/24/2023 Indus civilization -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

Indus civilization
Indus
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
The recovery and study of the Indus
civilization
Principal sites of the Indus Society and political system
civilization
Craft, technology, and artifacts
civilization, also called Indus valley Language, scripts, weights, and
civilization or Harappan civilization, the measures

earliest known urban culture of the Indian Trade and external contacts

subcontinent. The nuclear dates of the Decline of the urban system and the
end of the Indus civilization
civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE,
though the southern sites may have lasted later
into the 2nd millennium BCE. Among the
world’s three earliest civilizations—the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt—the
Indus civilization was the most extensive.

The recovery and study of the Indus civilization

The civilization was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922
at Mohenjo-daro (Mohenjodaro), near the Indus River in the Sindh (Sind) region. Both sites
are in present-day Pakistan, in Punjab and Sindh provinces, respectively. The ruins of
Mohenjo-daro were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980.

Subsequently, vestiges of the civilization were found as

far apart as Sutkagen Dor in southwestern Balochistan
province, Pakistan, near the shore of the Arabian Sea,
about 300 miles (480 km) west of Karachi; and at Ropar
(or Rupar), in eastern Punjab state, northwestern India, at
Harappa ruins the foot of the Shimla Hills some 1,000 miles (1,600 km)
northeast of Sutkagen Dor. 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)

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River basin, 30 miles (50 km) north of Delhi. It is thus decidedly the most extensive of the
world’s three earliest civilizations, even though Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations both
began somewhat before it.

The Indus civilization is known to have consisted of two

large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than
100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size.
The two cities were each perhaps originally about 1 mile
(1.6 km) square in overall dimensions, and their
Mohenjo-daro outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization,
either in two large states or in a single great empire with
alternative capitals, a practice having analogies in Indian history. It is also possible that
Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by
exceptional floods. The population was estimated to be 23,500–35,000 in Harappa and
35,000–41,250 in Mohenjo-daro. The southern region of the civilization, on the Kathiawar
Peninsula and beyond, appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites.

The Indus civilization apparently evolved from the villages of neighbours or predecessors,
using the Mesopotamian model of irrigated agriculture with sufficient skill to reap the
advantages of the spacious and fertile Indus River valley while controlling the formidable
annual flood that simultaneously fertilizes and destroys. Having obtained a secure foothold on
the plain and mastered its more immediate problems, the new civilization, doubtless with a
well-nourished and increasing population, would find expansion along the flanks of the great
waterways an inevitable sequel. The civilization subsisted primarily by farming, supplemented
by an appreciable but often elusive commerce. Wheat and six-row barley were grown; field
peas, mustard, sesame, and a few date stones have also been found, as well as some of the
earliest known traces of cotton. Domesticated animals included dogs and cats, humped and
shorthorn cattle, domestic fowl, and possibly pigs, camels, and buffalo. The Asian elephant
probably was also domesticated, and its ivory tusks were freely used.

Society and political system

Despite a growing body of archaeological evidence, the social and political structures of the
Indus “state” remain objects of conjecture. The apparent craft specialization and localized
craft groupings at Mohenjo-daro, along with the great divergence in house types and size,
point toward some degree of social stratification. Trade was extensive and apparently well-

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regulated, providing imported raw materials for use at internal production centres, distributing
finished goods throughout the region, and arguably culminating in the establishment of
Harappan “colonies” in both Mesopotamia and Badakhshan. The remarkable uniformity of
weights and measures throughout the Indus lands, as well as the development of such
presumably civic works as the great granaries, implies a strong degree of political and
administrative control over a wide area. Further, the widespread occurrence of inscriptions in
the Harappan script almost certainly indicates the use of a single lingua franca. Nevertheless,
in the absence of inscriptions that can be read and interpreted, it is inevitable that far less is
known of these aspects of the Indus civilization than those of contemporaneous Mesopotamia.

Craft, technology, and artifacts

Excavations of Indus cities have produced much
evidence of artistic activity. Such finds are important
because they provide insights into the minds, lives, and
religious beliefs of their creators. Stone sculpture is
extremely rare, and much of it is quite crude. The total
Indus statue repertoire cannot compare to the work done in
Mesopotamia during the same periods. The figures are
apparently all intended as images for worship. Such figures include seated men, recumbent
composite animals, or—in unique instances (from Harappa)—a standing nude male and a
dancing figure. The finest pieces are of excellent quality. There is also a small but notable
repertoire of cast-bronze figures, including several fragments and complete examples of
dancing girls, small chariots, carts, and animals. The technical excellence of the bronzes
suggests a highly developed art, but the number of examples is still small. They appear to be
Indian workmanship rather than imports.

The popular art of the Harappans was in the form of terra-cotta figurines. The majority are of
standing females, often heavily laden with jewelry, but standing males—some with beard and
horns—are also present. It has been generally agreed that these figures are largely deities
(perhaps a Great Mother and a Great God), but some small figures of mothers with children or
of domestic activities are probably toys. There are varieties of terra-cotta animals, carts, and
toys—such as monkeys pierced to climb a string and cattle that nod their heads. Painted
pottery is the only evidence that there was a tradition of painting. Much of the work is
executed with boldness and delicacy of feeling, but the restrictions of the art do not leave
much scope for creativity.
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Perhaps the best-known artifacts of the Indus civilization

are a number of small seals. The seals were generally cut
from steatite (soapstone) and were carved in intaglio or
incised with a copper burin (cutting tool). The great
majority of seals show a humpless “unicorn” or bull in
Indus civilization: seals profile, while others show the Indian humped bull,
elephant, bison, rhinoceros, or tiger. The animal
frequently stands before a ritual object, variously identified as a standard, a manger, or even an
incense burner. A considerable number of the seals contain scenes of obvious mythological or
religious significance. The interpretation of these seals is, however, often highly problematic.
The seals were certainly more widely diffused than other artistic artifacts and show a much
higher level of workmanship. Probably they functioned as amulets, as well as more-practical
devices to identify merchandise.

Copper and bronze were the principal metals used for making tools and implements. These
include flat oblong axes, chisels, knives, spears, arrowheads (of a kind that was evidently
exported to neighbouring hunting tribes), small saws, and razors. All these could be made by
simple casting, chiseling, and hammering. Bronze is less common than copper, and it is
notably rarer in the lower levels. Four main varieties of metal have been found: crude copper
lumps in the state in which they left the smelting furnace; refined copper, containing trace
elements of arsenic and antimony; an alloy of copper with 2 to 5 percent of arsenic; and
bronze with a tin alloy, often of as much as 11 to 13 percent. The copper and bronze vessels of
the Harappans are among their finest products, formed by hammering sheets of metal. Casting
of copper and bronze was understood, and figurines of men and animals were made by the
lost-wax process. These too are technically outstanding, though the overall level of copper-
bronze technology is not considered to have reached the level attained in Mesopotamia.

Other metals used were gold, silver, and lead. The latter was employed occasionally for
making small vases and such objects as plumb bobs. Silver is relatively more common than
gold, and more than a few vessels are known, generally in forms similar to copper and bronze
examples. Gold is by no means common and was generally reserved for such small objects as
beads, pendants, and brooches.

Other special crafts include the manufacture of faience (earthenware decorated with coloured
glazes)—for making beads, amulets, sealings, and small vessels—and the working of stone for
bead manufacture and for seals. Beads were made from a variety of substances, but the
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carnelians are particularly noteworthy. They include several varieties of etched carnelian and
long barrel beads made with extraordinary skill and accuracy. Shell and ivory were also
worked and were used for beads, inlays, combs, bracelets, and the like.

The pottery of the Indus cities has all the marks of mass production. A substantial proportion
is thrown on the wheel (probably the same kind of footwheel that is still found in the Indus
region and to the west to this day, as distinguished from the Indian spun wheel common
throughout the remaining parts of the subcontinent). The majority of the pottery is competent
plain ware, well formed and fired but lacking in aesthetic appeal. A substantial portion of the
pottery has a red slip and is painted with black decoration. Larger pots were probably built up
on a turntable. Among the painted designs, conventionalized vegetable patterns are common,
and the elaborate geometric designs of the painted pottery of Balochistan give way to simpler
motifs, such as intersecting circles or a scale pattern. Birds, animals, fish, and more interesting
scenes are comparatively rare. Of the vessel forms, a shallow platter on a tall stand (known as
the offering stand) is noteworthy, as is a tall cylindrical vessel perforated with small holes over
its entire length and often open at top and bottom. The function of this latter vessel remains a
mystery.

Although little has survived, very great interest attaches to the fragments of cotton textiles
recovered at Mohenjo-daro. These provide the earliest evidence of a crop and industry for
which India has long been famous. It is assumed that the raw cotton must have been brought in
bales to the cities to be spun, woven, and perhaps dyed, as the presence of dyers’ vats would
seem to indicate.

Stone, although largely absent from the great alluvial plain of the Indus, played a major role in
Harappan material culture. Scattered sources, mostly on the periphery, were exploited as major
factory sites. Thus, the stone blades found in great numbers at Mohenjo-daro originated in the
flint quarries at Sukkur, where they were probably struck in quantity from prepared cores.

Language, scripts, weights, and measures

The maintenance of so extensive a set of relations as those implicit in the size and uniformity
of the Harappan state and the extent of trade contacts must have called for a well-developed
means of communication. The Harappan script has long defied attempts to read it, and
therefore the language remains unknown. Relatively recent analyses of the order of the signs
on the inscriptions have led several scholars to the view that the language is not of the Indo-

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European family, nor is it close to Sumerian, Hurrian, or Elamite. If it is related to any modern
language family, it appears to be the Dravidian, presently spoken throughout the southern part
of the Indian peninsula; an isolated member of this group, the Brahui language, is spoken in
western Pakistan, an area closer to those regions of Harappan culture. The script, which was
written from right to left, is known from the 2,000-odd short inscriptions so far recovered,
ranging from single characters to inscriptions of about 20 characters. There are more than 500
signs, many appearing to be compounds of two or more other signs, but it is not yet clear
whether these signs are ideographic, logographic, or other. Numerous studies of the
inscriptions have been made during the past decades, including those by a Russian team under
Yury Valentinovich Knorozov and a Finnish group led by Asko Parpola. Despite various
claims to have read the script, there is still no general agreement.

The Harappans also employed regular systems of weights and measures. An early analysis of a
fair number of the well-formed chert cuboid weights suggested that they followed a binary
system for the lower denominations—1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64—and a decimal system for the
larger weights—160, 200, 320, 640, 1,600, 3,200, 6,400, 8,000, and 12,800—with the unit of
weight being calculated as 0.8565 gram (0.0302 ounce). However, a more recent analysis,
which included additional weights from the small settlement excavated at Lothal, suggests a
rather different system, with weights belonging to two series. In both series the underlying
principle was decimal, with each decimal number multiplied and divided by two, giving for
the main series ratios of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500(?). This suggests
that there is still much work to be done to understand the full complexity of the weight system.
Several scales of measurement were found in the excavations. One was a decimal scale of 1.32
inches (3.35 cm) rising probably to 13.2 inches (33.5 cm), apparently corresponding to the
“foot” that was widespread in western Asia; another is a bronze rod marked in lengths of
0.367 inch (0.93 cm), apparently half a digit of a “cubit” of 20.7 inches (52.6 cm), also
widespread in western Asia and Egypt. Measurements from some of the structures show that
these units were accurately applied in practice.

It has also been suggested that certain curious objects may have been accurately made optical
squares with which surveyors might offset right angles. In view of the accuracy of so much of
the architectural work, this theory appears quite plausible.

Trade and external contacts

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It has been seen above that the area covered by the Indus civilization had a remarkably
uniform level of material culture. This suggests a closely knit and integrated administration
and implies internal trade within the state. Evidence of the actual exportation of objects is not
always easy to find, but the wide diffusion of chert blades made of the characteristic Sukkur
stone and the enormous scale of the factory at the Sukkur site strongly suggest trade. Other
items also appear to indicate trade, such as the almost identical bronze carts discovered at
Chanhu-daro and Harappa, for which a common origin must be postulated.

The wide range of crafts and special materials employed must also have caused the
establishment of economic relations with peoples living outside the Harappan state. Such trade
may be considered to be of two kinds: first, the obtaining of raw materials and other goods
from the village communities or forest tribes in regions adjoining the Indus culture area; and
second, trade with the cities and empires of Mesopotamia. There is ample indication of the
former type, even if the regions from which specific materials were derived are not easy to
pinpoint. Gold was almost certainly imported from the group of settlements that sprang up in
the vicinity of the goldfields of northern Karnataka, and copper could have come from several
sources—principally from Rajasthan. Lead may have come from Rajasthan or elsewhere in
India. Lapis lazuli was probably imported from Iran rather than directly from the mines at
Badakhshan, and turquoise probably also came from Iran. Among others were fuchsite (a
chromium-rich variety of muscovite) from Karnataka, alabaster from Iran, amethyst from
Maharashtra, and jade from Central Asia. There is little evidence of what the Harappans gave
in exchange for these materials—possibly nondurable goods such as cotton textiles and
probably various types of beads. They may have also bartered tools or weapons of copper.

For the trade with Mesopotamia there is both literary and archaeological evidence. The
Harappan seals were evidently used to seal bundles of merchandise, as clay seal impressions
with cord or sack marks on the reverse side testify. The presence of a number of Indus seals at
Ur and other Mesopotamian cities and the discovery of a “Persian Gulf” type of seal at Lothal
—otherwise known from the Persian Gulf ports of Dilmun (present-day Bahrain) and
Faylakah, as well as from Mesopotamia—provide convincing indication of sea trade with
other civilizations. Timber and precious woods, ivory, lapis lazuli, gold, and luxury goods
such as carnelian beads, pearls, and shell and bone inlays, including the distinctly Indian
kidney shape, were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia in exchange for silver, tin, woolen
textiles, and grains and other foods. Copper ingots appear to have been imported to Lothal
from a place known as Magan (possibly in present-day Oman). Other probable trade items

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include products originating exclusively in each respective region, such as bitumen, occurring
naturally in Mesopotamia, and cotton textiles and chickens, major products of the Indus region
not native to Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamian trade documents, lists of goods, and official inscriptions mentioning Meluhha
(the ancient Akkadian name for the Indus region) supplement Harappan seals and
archaeological finds. Literary references to Meluhhan trade date from the Akkadian, Ur III,
and Isin-Larsa periods (i.e., c. 2350–1794 BCE), but, as texts and archaeological data indicate,
the trade probably started in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2600 BCE). During the Akkadian
Period, Meluhhan vessels sailed directly to Mesopotamian ports. But by the Isin-Larsa Period,
Dilmun was the entrepôt for Meluhhan and Mesopotamian traders. By the subsequent Old
Babylonian Period, trade between the two cultures evidently had ceased entirely.

Decline of the urban system and the end of the Indus civilization
How and when the civilization came to an end remains
uncertain, and no uniform ending need be postulated for
a culture so widely distributed. The decline probably
occurred in several stages, perhaps over a century or
more: the period between about 2000 and 1750 BCE is a
Indus civilization: cooking pots reasonable estimation. The collapse of the urban system
does not necessarily imply a complete breakdown in the
lifestyle of the population in all parts of the Indus region, but it seems to have involved the end
of whatever system of social and political control had preceded it. After that date the cities, as
such, and many of their distinctively urban traits—the use of writing and of seals and a
number of the specialized urban crafts—disappear.

The end of Mohenjo-daro is known, however, and was dramatic and sudden. Mohenjo-daro
was attacked toward the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE by raiders who swept over the city
and then passed on, leaving the dead lying where they fell. Who the attackers were is matter
for conjecture. The episode would appear to be consistent in time and place with the earlier
invaders from the north (believed to be Indo-European speakers) into the Indus region as
reflected in the older books of the Rigveda, in which the newcomers are represented as
attacking the “walled cities” or “citadels” of the aboriginal peoples and the invaders’ war-god
Indra as rending forts “as age consumes a garment.” However, one thing is clear: the city was
already in an advanced stage of economic and social decline before it received the coup de

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grâce. Deep floods had more than once submerged large tracts of it. Houses had become
increasingly shoddy in construction and showed signs of overcrowding. The final blow seems
to have been sudden, but the city was already dying.

As the evidence stands, the civilization was succeeded in the Indus valley by poverty-stricken
cultures, deriving a little from a sub-Indus heritage but also drawing elements from the
direction of Iran and the Caucasus—from the general direction, in fact, of the northern
invasions. For many centuries urban civilization was dead in the northwest of the Indian
subcontinent.

In the south, however, in Kathiawar and beyond, the

situation appears to have been very different. There it
would seem that there was a real cultural continuity
between the late Indus phase and the Copper Age
cultures that characterized central and western India
Mohenjo-daro ruins between 1700 and the 1st millennium BCE. Those
cultures form a material bridge between the end of the
Indus civilization proper and the developed Iron Age civilization that arose in India about
1000 BCE.

Frank Raymond Allchin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Citation Information
Article Title: Indus civilization
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 15 May 2023
URL: https://www.britannica.comhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization
Access Date: May 24, 2023

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