indus valley civilisation 3200 BCE

• The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the world's first urban civilizations, with cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
• The Harappan seal is made of a stone called steatite and often contains animal motifs and signs from an undeciphered script
• We know about the lives of the people who lived in the Harappan civilisation from archaeological evidence such as houses, pots, ornaments, tools, and seals
• The Harappan civilisation is also known as the Harappan culture and is dated between c. 2600 and 1900 BCE
• Distinctive objects of the Harappan culture include seals, beads, weights, stone blades, and baked bricks
• The Harappan culture was named after Harappa, the first site where this unique culture was discovered
• There were earlier and later cultures in the same area, often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan, with the Harappan civilisation sometimes referred to as the Mature Harappan culture
• The Harappans ate a wide range of plant and animal products, including grains like wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, and sesame
• Animal bones found at Harappan sites include those of domesticated animals like cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, and pig, as well as wild species like boar, deer, and gharial
• The Harappans used stone blades and possibly metal tools for harvesting, and terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in Cholistan and Banawali
• Most Harappan sites are located in semi-arid lands where irrigation was probably required for agriculture, with traces of canals found at some sites
• Food processing equipment made of stone, metal, and terracotta was used by the Harappans for grinding, mixing, blending, and cooking
• The drainage system in Harappan cities was carefully planned with streets and drains laid out in a grid pattern, intersecting at right angles
• The Lower Town at Mohenjodaro had residential buildings centred around a courtyard, with rooms on all sides, and each house had its own bathroom and well
• The Citadel and the Lower Town at Mohenjodaro were physically separated, with the Citadel being walled and built on mud brick platforms
• The Citadel and Lower Town at Mohenjodaro were planned with standardised bricks used for construction and a drainage system connecting every house to street drains
• The Citadel at Mohenjodaro contains structures used for special public purposes
• Structures on the Citadel include a warehouse and the Great Bath
• The Great Bath was a large rectangular tank surrounded by a corridor on all four sides
• The tank was made watertight by setting bricks on edge and using a mortar of gypsum
• There were two flights of steps on the north and south leading into the tank
• Rooms on three sides of the Great Bath, with a large well in one of them
• A smaller building with eight bathrooms across a lane to the north of the Great Bath
• The Great Bath was likely meant for some kind of special ritual bath
• Archaeologists study burials to find social or economic differences among people living within a culture
• Burials in Harappan sites involved the dead being laid in pits
• Some burial pits were lined with bricks, possibly indicating social differences
• Graves contain pottery, ornaments, and jewellery, suggesting beliefs about the afterlife
• Jewellery found in burials of both men and women
• Harappans did not believe in burying precious things with the dead
• Archaeologists classify artefacts as utilitarian or luxuries to identify social differences
• Utilitarian objects include daily use items made of ordinary materials like stone or clay
• Luxuries are rare objects made from costly, non-local materials or with complicated technologies
• Rare objects made of valuable materials are concentrated in large settlements like Mohenjodaro and Harappa
• Gold jewellery found at Harappan sites was recovered from hoards
• Chanhudaro was a tiny settlement devoted to craft production including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making, and weight-making
• Materials used for bead-making included stones like carnelian, jasper, crystal, quartz, metals like copper, bronze, gold, and shell, faience, and terracotta
• Beads were made in various shapes and decorated by incising, painting, or etching designs
• Steatite was easily worked for bead-making, while carnelian's red color was obtained by firing the material
• Finished products from Chanhudaro and Lothal were likely taken to large urban centres like Mohenjodaro and Harappa