Other ancient civilizations of Asia, like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China, have left mesmerizing monuments in plain sight for archaeologists to discover. These civilizations were documented and are known all over the world. But there was one more civilization that existed, buried deep in the sand. This civilization was forgotten by the world because its people did not leave any trace. It was the 20th century when the Indus Valley Civilization was found.
The Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization is the first urban civilization in human history. Based on the evidence, the civilization existed from around 3300 BCE to 1900 BCE. But the civilization was at its peak in 2500 BCE. The entire civilization was situated on the banks of the Indus River, hence its name. Along with the Indus River, there were other rivers that fed into the Ghaggar-Hakra River system, but only the Indus River was going strong whereas the Ghaggar-Hakra River system has dried up with time. Scholars refer to the Ghaggar-Hakra River system as the Sarasvati, an ancient lost river that was mentioned in the Hindu text Vedas. According to archaeological evidence, the Sarasvati River was probably a stronger river because more sites have been found near it. But Indus had centuries with good water flow and changed its course from time to time. It is possible that the civilization moved with the changing pattern of the river.
Some of the sites were found further from the Indus River, so the civilization was renamed the Harappan Civilization after Harappa, the first city of this civilization that was found. The reason the Harrapan Civilization was not discovered before was because no one suspected the presence of a lost civilization in these parts. There was some acknowledgment of something under the ground; ancient travelers like Alexander the Great and Aristobulus mentioned some ruins they spotted near the Indus River, but no future curiosity had been aroused.
The Indus Valley Civilization can be considered the most mysterious and the smartest civilization of them all. Indus Valley people did not worship any god; they did not have kings, nor did they fight with other kings. These facts are mysterious considering that the Indus Valley Civilization consisted of a large population of around five million people. There are 1500 sites spread over one million square kilometers of land. The cities are well planned with a sewer system, well-planned roads, and standardized bricks. There were beadworks and fascinating bronze artifacts. The inscriptions on these artifacts have yet to be deciphered.
Excavation of the Harappan Civilization
It was the 1920s when the site at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro was excavated for the very first time. The archaeologists found surprising results. They found a civilization entirely different from other civilizations in its own time. Archaeologists did not find any evidence suggesting that there were royal palaces, kings, tombs, priests, an army, or even a religion. Archaeologists found pieces of jewelry, luxurious clothing, and an indication of a luxurious lifestyle.
The Harappan Civilization had a sewer system that allowed every household to have indoor toilets and bathrooms. The cities were neat and clean and safe. Some of the Harappan sites are hundreds of kilometers away from each other, but their formation and planning still showcase great city building. The cities were divided into two parts – one was a citadel and another was a lower town. The citadel had all the important buildings, like meeting halls, granaries, a marketplace, and a metalwork place.
Establishment of the Cities
Harappan cities were situated on mounds not to protect themselves from war but to protect themselves from floods. The walls around the small city suggest the same scenario – to protect people from animals and floods.
The lower town establishment was based on a grid pattern oriented to the cardinal points with smaller winding roads off the main grids; they were used as entrances to houses. In each segment, these houses, along with the rest of the buildings and city walls, were built out of a standardized brick system that followed a ratio of 1:2:4. If the brick system surprises you, then you will certainly be surprised to learn about the uniform system of weight and measurements that they implemented throughout the entire Indus Valley region. Cities were so well planned that when Mohenjo-Daro was built, they developed 700 freshwater brick wells throughout the city. When the city expanded, they did not have to build any more wells to keep it going. The city planners considered population growth when they founded it. Even in this modernized era, it is not possible to plan things out so well. There is no certainty about the number of people who lived in Mohenjo-Daro, but scholars think somewhere between 40,000 people and 80,000 people could have been living in the lower city.
Even though such a large population was living there, the place was clean and hygienic. There is also evidence that suggests that the Harappans had brick stages near trees for people where they could sit in shade and have fun with their friends. There were also large pots sunken into the ground that worked as modern-day dustbins. People could throw garbage in them instead of littering. The pots were emptied regularly. The Harappan people were dedicated to hygiene and cleanliness; they situated their working factories, such as kilns for pottery and brick-making factories, outside the city walls.
Water System
The Indus Civilization understood the importance of water and regarded it as the highest necessity of life. They also understood the luxury water could bring. All houses in Harappan cities had a personal bathing room that had a slanted floor so that water could drain out into the sewer system that ran under the entire city. The houses also had toilets that emptied into sewers or some type of proto-septic tank. The sewers took the waste outside the city. The houses that were higher than one story had drains attached to the side of the walls, which led the water directly into underground drains.
Another great water feature of the Harappan Civilization is the great bath of Mohenjo-Daro. It is a 900-square-foot tank that was fed and filled from the Indus River. There is no such second great bath that resembles this. Scholars suspect that Mohenjo-Daro could have been the seat of power for the Harappan Civilization. The bath was multi-storied with a pool that measured 2.4 meters deep. It was made out of bricks. To make the bath waterproof, it was covered with a layer of tar. There was a well and drain available at the bath to ensure the availability of fresh water and cleanliness all the time. Scholars could not find any evidence to suggest who used this bath. The great bath has been compared to other baths like Roman baths or the public bathhouses of Hungary. But the question is – if everyone had their own baths, what did they need this big bath for? There have been many theories, but nothing is known for sure. Scholars suggest that the bath could have been used for ritual activities or for the purification of the soul and the body. Ritual activity or not, the presence of the bath clearly suggests that the Harappan Civilization was obsessed with hygiene.
Harappan Society
It is strange for an old civilization like Harappan to have had no kind of hierarchy system. There were some differences between locals, like some houses were big and some houses had hidden jewelry in them, but there is no evidence that a king or power figure existed. It seems like Harappan society was built around state interests and that their class structure may have been pretty equal. We don’t know how they were ruled or by whom, but with the amount of uniformity over such a vast area, there may have been some sort of council or something, with larger cities acting as overseers for their immediate vicinities. Some scholars have suggested an overseeing power of priest-kings or king- priests, but we can’t be sure until there is other evidence.
Religion
There is no evidence suggesting a state religion or any kind of religion. Archaeologists have been looking for a building that hints at any sort of religious significance over the entire Indus or Sarasvati region. Lack of evidence does not mean that were was no religion at all. Scholars believe that the Harappan Civilization was based on worshipping nature and fertility. But instead of building temples or statues, they worshipped nature in nature.
There is one stone seal that was found at Mohenjo-Daro that hints towards something like a deity. The stone suggests an image of a seated man decked out in jewelry with a horned headdress surrounded by animals. The image of a possible horned deity can be seen as a master of animals and possibly a proto-shiva deity from the Hindu tradition.
Trading System
The Harappan traders did not trade only inside the city limits. They perhaps used nomadic people to sell their goods at other places. They did not stop at the Indian subcontinent; they sold their goods to Iran, the Arabian Gulf, Central Asia, and Mesopotamia. These merchants are mentioned in Mesopotamian writings under the name “Malua.” The Harappan sellers sold precious stones like carnelian and lapis lazuli. They also sold gold, copper, silver, woven cotton, timber, ebony, ivory, tortoise shells, chickens, peacocks, cats, dogs, buffalos, monkeys, and even a type of Indian cat that we probably now think of as tigers. Even though there is evidence of trade between the Harappan and Mesopotamians, there is no available evidence showing that Mesopotamians ever traveled to Harappan. The Harappans were probably better merchants and sailors, but there are also very few Mesopotamian artifacts found along the Indus. What was the Harappan trading for? It is possible that they only traded for luxury and manufactured goods. There is evidence suggesting that the Harappans exploited goods solely for the purpose of trade. The Harappan site of shortage in modern-day Afghanistan might have been operated as a colony to monopolize lapis lazuli mines. The Harappan didn’t really care so much for this precious stone, but they knew how valuable it was for others. This is why they exclusively used it for export.
Harappans were master beadmakers and made them out of stone, shells, terracotta, gold, silver, and copper. They used a tiny frill to make the beads, which took forever, but the end result was worth it.
Harappan Writing System
Archaeologists have found multiple small stone seals with independent Harappan script and language written on them. All of these seals contain an image and some writing. The most common image found on these seals is of an animal that resembles a unicorn. To this day, we have not been able to translate the writing to understand its true meaning. Scholars are not sure what these seals were used for.
The End of the Harappan Civilization
There is no solid evidence to determine what exactly happened to the Harappan Civilization and how it declined all of the sudden. After rising to prominence around 2600 BCE, in 1900 BCE, there was a sudden decline in their way of life. Harappan writing was forgotten; drains and sewers fell into disrepair. There is no evidence of battles, wars, sieges, or destruction layers. The possible cause in this scenario could be a reduction in trade or some civil strife among the cities. It could have been disease or cultural change. But climate change was probably a bigger factor. The Sarasvati River started to dry out during the time of the civilization’s decline. Crops would have died out, and people would have had to move away to survive. Floods and continuous establishment could have been the main cause of the end of the Harappan Civilization.
