The Harappan Civilization

[JenaS62]

My son who is in 10th grade taking a college level world cultures class asked me if I had ever heard of the Harappan? I had not. It seems that they were yet another ancient civilization that thrived and then vanished, much like the Sumerians. They too lived in the Indus Valley.



"One of the most fascinating yet mysterious cultures of the ancient world is the Harappan civilization. This culture existed along the Indus River in present day Pakistan. It was named after the city of Harappa which it was centered around. Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro were the greatest achievements of the Indus valley civilization. These cities are well known for their impressive, organized and regular layout. Over one hundred other towns and villages also existed in this region. The Harappan people were literate and used the Dravidian language. Only part of this language has been deciphered today, leaving numerous questions about this civilization unanswered"


http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/india/Harappa.html


And here's more info:

http://www.geocities.com/pak_history/Harappan.html

[Tired Old Man]

The second link had a lot more info. This was some good reading,Thanks.

[Freddy]

It is believed they traded with the Mediterranean civilizations and China. Also, why the civilizations of Harappa and Mohenj- Daro fell is not well understood.

[JenaS62]

It is believed they traded with the Mediterranean civilizations and China. Also, why the civilizations of Harappa and Mohenj- Daro fell is not well understood.




Did they fall or were the cities simply abandoned and if so, why? This stuff intrigues me greatly.

[Freddy]

Did they fall or were the cities simply abandoned and if so, why? This stuff intrigues me greatly.
There are several theories. Aryan conquest, drought or other natural disaster, disease epidemic. No convincing evidence has surfaced for the fall of these Indus Valley civilizations.

[lazserus]

It is believed they traded with the Mediterranean civilizations and China. Also, why the civilizations of Harappa and Mohenj- Daro fell is not well understood.
There is no substantial evidence supporting they traded with any ethnic group outside the Indus River Valley. The civilization mirrors the Sumerians and Egyptians--as in the earliest forms of civilization. Trade would have been minimal and localized at the best.


Did they fall or were the cities simply abandoned and if so, why? This stuff intrigues me greatly.
There is nothing left of the civilization for us to make a real conclusion. It's all conjecture. We have some evidence, but it is scant at best. The most widely accepted theory is the Aryans flooded the region and took over. Whether the Aryans absorbed or annihilated the Harappans is up for grabs; no one knows for sure. One theory suggests the Aryans swept through and dominated the flourishing Harappans; the other is the Harappans were stressed after depleting their natural resources and were dying out when the Aryans arrived. Either way, around 1750 BC the Indo-Iranian Aryans swept through the Indus Valley and took over. Whether you subcribe to subjugation and absorbtion or absolution, the fact is the Aryans changed the Indus peoples. The how is the question.

The Aryans came through and developed ancient civilization as we know it in the region. Sanskrit was developed later by the Aryans (about 1500 BC) to record the Vedas--the core principles of today's Hinduism. Harappan civilization is interesting, but it's a dead end...at least with current results. Modern Indian civilization spawned from Aryan civilization.

(Make note that Aryan is more a linquistic term than anything else. It has NOTHING to do with the modern white-supremist bullshit. Hitler's Aryans are 100% fiction.)

[Freddy]

There is no substantial evidence supporting they traded with any ethnic group outside the Indus River Valley. The civilization mirrors the Sumerians and Egyptians--as in the earliest forms of civilization. Trade would have been minimal and localized at the best.

Here are a few citations that claim they did trade outside the Indus Valley.

"A complex system of trade networks made the Harappans rich and guaranteed access to exotic goods. Internal networks moved every imaginable good throughout the Civilization. Shell, dried fish, and pearls from the coast; copper, tin, chert, precious metals and semiprecious stone from the hill country; and grain, animals, and wood from the rural areas flowed from one area to another, resulting in a nearly homogenous distribution of goods across the face of the civilization irrespective of origin. Networks extended into Central Asia, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula. These networks exported every good and luxury available in the Harappan Civilization. It is unclear what was being imported, but it is likely to be wool cloth, fish, and grain."

http://www.geocities.com/look4harappan/economics.htm

"By the third millenium there seems to be a lot of evidence for trade by sea between the Indus Valley Civilization, and Mesopotamia by way of Makkan and Dilmun, but there is also evidence for trade through the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and Punt, Egypt and Ophir. Going the other way there was trade with Indonesia and possibly even China and Polynesia. The net effect was to create a region called Meluhha in the Indian Ocean, which basically seems to be defined as “and points beyond”."

http://rupeenews.com/2007/11/27/harappan-trade-within-the-ivc-and-without/

[lazserus]

Though the Geocities site cites sources when discussing Harappan history, there are no citations relating to Harappan international trade. We can't trust Joe Webguy to deliver accurate information about an ancient civilization unless he supports every major theory with a citation. It's possible there is no citation because the author came to his/her own conclusion based on other information. There's nothing inherently wrong with doing this. But without imperical archaeological evidence to back up the claims, we can't put too much stock into the theory. Academia requires a certain degree of imagination, and it's very likely nearly everything we know about ancient civilizations perhaps is shoud in too much imagination. Call it Hollywood liberties. Without a direct reference, I will remain skeptical that the Harappans traded with places as far away as Mesopotamia. Central Asia I can believe.

We can't ignore that trading has gone on for tens of thousands of years. There is evidence that Neanderthals traded with Homo sapiens, even if the trade was minimal. Granted there are other explanations to explain away the evidence, but it is not too far fetched to accept that some minor trade existed between the two species. If Neanderthals and Homo sapiens could trade, even if we're merely talking about the exchange of tools and jewelry, then there's absolutely no reason to believe human civilizations dating back less than 2500 years were incapable of trading. We have to be cautious, however, when discussing international trade in antiquity. Large scale trade via routes either over land or by see began during a pocket of history and proliferated from there. Major trade like we see executed by the Phoenicians happened much later. Let me reiterate that there is no archaeological evidence supporting a widely accepted theory that the Harappans traded outside the Indus River Valley. We know very little about the civilization, and what we know comes from the archaeological record.

I guess all I'm saying is to be careful when subscribing to extravagant theories about the ancient world. It's definitely true that the majority of us don't give the ancients enough credit where credit is do, but that doesn't mean we should jump in the deep end of he pool.

If I were to assert what occurred during Harappan civilization when it came to trade, I would do so as if I were walking on egg shells. It is not unreasonable to imagine jewelry, diet, and pottery reached outside the ambiguous and invisible borders of Harappan Indus River Valley. One amazing thing about the ancient world is, although there is no direct evidence of this, ideas and technology appear to have been exchanged at least somewhat. Between 2000 BC and 1700 BC there were raids in China, India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Every one of the raids were conducted by a Central Asiatic peoples, conducting warfare on chariots! The Shang Dynasty in China was started by the charioteering invaders, the Aryans took India on chariots, the Hittites came into Mesopotamia on chariots, and the Hyksos invaded Egypt on chariots. The invasions happened within brief 200-300 year period. Coincidence? I don't buy that. So it's okay to keep an open mind, just do so carefully.

[Indusciv]

Here all completely deciphered inscriptions of the Indus Civilization and their contents for free download: www.indus-civilization.info

[RobertKairnes]

This is a part of an Indus Valley civilization one of the most ancient,the most oldest and the most historical civilization of all times and it the the most civilized history and the most perfect archaeological archive of the ancient world history.
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