An Overview of The History of The Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley Civilization is one of the oldest and largest of the four ancient civilizations of the world. It is also known as Harappan Civilization. The name “Indus” derived from the Indus river due to number of its sites located nearby in that region. It covers modern day countries which are northwest India, Pakistan, and northeast Afghanistan. The discovery of Indus Valley Civilization revealed in late 1850s when the British found the ancient bricks of old towns while building the railway lines around Indus Valley. A British general, Cunningham encountered various seals and scripts from the sites and thereby he was convinced that it belonged to an ancient time.

The history of the Indus Valley Civilization is one of the popular topics in history because it is the oldest eastern civilization after the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, which occupied the largest area of all three. The two major cities of Indus Valley Civilization are Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Mohenjo-Daro ended up noticeably not just the biggest city of the Indus Valley Civilization however, one of the world’s most primeval major urban focuses. It is said to be built in 26th century BCE. It was a standout amongst the most refined urban areas of the period, with cutting edge designing and urban arranging. The houses were made from the bricks, that were sunbaked. The greater part of the houses had a progression of rooms off a patio, however, some were little structures with just a few rooms. On the other hand, Harappa was a strengthened city in Pakistan that is accepted to have been home of 23,500 inhabitants living in etched houses with level rooftops made of red sand and bricks. The first settlement at Harappa was built up four thousand years ago, it was an essential and creative town, with many prospering ventures hinting those of the Mature Harappan period. The city had sustained managerial and religious focuses of a similar sort utilized as a part of Mohenjo-Daro. Archaeologists believed that the idea behind using these bricks was to protect from them against flood or drown. Many towns in Indus Valley featured to have urban layout such as the drainage system and well-assembled houses. The drainage and sanitation system of Indus Valley was remarkable.

The inscriptions discovered so far are restricted to several signs on the seals and there is an absence of longer inscriptions. Therefore, there is trouble deciphering this writing. Regardless of tremendous eagerness for its decipherment, the written work of the Harappans still can’t be examined, for various reasons: the lack of bilingual writings to give a beginning stage, the adapted type of the signs, the extremely constrained length and nature of the writings, and the way that the script disappeared as opposed to producing more scripts. The quantity of signs demonstrates that the script was likely logosyllabic, so the parts to be deciphered and the complexities of their usage and communication are considerably more noteworthy than they would be with a syllabic or alphabetic script.

The people of Indus Valley Civilization were advanced in all fields, including trading. The Indus Valley individuals were incredibly dependent on exchange. They traded with various civilizations such as China and Mesopotamia. Also, they were additionally known to exchange with parts of Asia, Afghanistan and northern and western India. A few merchandises that were exchanged were earthenware pots, gold, silver, jewels, metals, stones, and pearls. The rivers were the main source of transporting overseas. Not only that, for short distance trading, people also used bull carts to trade the goods. Exchanging of various merchandise helped the Indus Civilization extended its way of life, coming into customary contacts with faraway grounds. Merchants and skilled workers utilized the exchange courses to bring crude materials into the towns and urban communities, the place they were transformed into adornments, ceramics, and metal product. Archaeologists have discovered weights and gauges which proposes that there were exchange focuses inside the urban communities. Cotton was a standout amongst the most essential result of the Indus Valley exchange. Their riches depended on a subsistence economy of wheat and grain. Aside from exchange and industry, agriculture was the main occupation of the Indus individuals. Agriculture brought sustenance into the urban areas. City specialists made such things as pots, globules and cotton fabric. Brokers brought the materials laborers required, and took away completed merchandise to exchange different urban communities.

According to the archaeologists, the Indus Valley Civilization declined by 2nd millennium. Around 1900 BC, the Indus Valley human progress began to go into decay. Researchers at one time trusted that they were overwhelm and wiped out by the attacking Aryans, some warlike individuals from the steppes of Euro-Asia. While the Aryans moved into the Indus valley area, their presence is never again accepted to be the fundamental driver of the decay of the Indus Valley human advancement. The urban areas of the Indus valley, for example, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, were not all of a sudden crushed. Rather, they were gradually surrendered over a long stretch of time. Nobody knows why this happened. The waterway may have changed course, or worldwide temperature change may have made the urban communities be gradually devoured by the abandon. On the other hand, diseases may have attacked the urban areas, or flooding could have caused overwhelming obliteration that made them appall.

During the research, it was difficult to find information on the scripts and how the civilization declined. Till today, researchers have not deciphered the scripts of the Indus Valley Civilization. It is due to lack of letters or numbers on the scripts which makes it hard to examine. Also, the language and writing disappeared with the people. Sometimes, a language spoken by a group of people becomes dominant which might wipe out other less spoken languages. There are multiple theories about how Indus Valley Civilization came to an end. None of the theories are proven and therefore, it is one of the most controversial topics related to the Indus Valley Civilization. Thus, it was difficult to find the accurate information on these topics.

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