Introduction to the Seriously Underrated Indus Valley / Harappan Civilization

Arista Willis says that when he was sent Upon A Certain Mission he saw a country of more than a thousand cities together with villages that had been deserted because the Indus had abandoned its proper bed these words were written by the famed Greek geographer strabo with regard to aristobulus who was one of Alexander the Great's companions during his conquest of the akaminid Persian Empire Aristo Bullis wrote extensively of Alexander's campaigns in Asia and though his original works are lost to us fragments of them have been preserved within the words of later writers of antiquity who often referenced and quoted him extensively this particular passage refers to a trip down the Indus River where aristobulus claims to have seen the ruins of several cities as he explored the area though he didn't know what he was looking at reading his eyewitness account of these abandoned cities today makes one wonder if he were passing by the remnants of one of the ancient worlds truly great civilizations I'm talking specifically about the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization which built some of the world's first truly planned cities in well-organized streets in a grid formation efficient drainage and sewage systems that were available to all and an average standard of living for its people that was higher than anything else in the world at the time its Traders and Merchants journeyed over vast distances both on land and over the seas to bring their valued resources and goods to people as far away as Mesopotamia and Egypt if not Beyond they also developed one of the world's first written scripts as well as an Innovative system of weights and measures by what Still Remains of their cities and towns the people of the Harappan civilization appear to have lived in a rather ordered prosperous and peaceful society that at its height may have contained an estimated 5 million people but after over five centuries of unparalleled progress Harappan civilization began to rapidly Decline and by the first millennium BC it had been all but completely forgotten and replaced or absorbed into the societies of new peoples and cultures that had become prevalent in what was once its zone of influence in this video we'll cover the story of Harappan civilization one of the greatest during the early Bronze Age [Music] though a few British officers had commented on them before in the 1850s Alexander Cunningham the then director general of the newly established archaeological Survey of India visited a few mysterious Mounds near the village of harappa in what was then Northwestern British India at the time he had no idea how old the place was Nor its significance Cunningham thought that he was standing Atop The Ruins of some early medieval Fortress [Music] while he did make some notes about some of his findings including a seal with some unidentified characters he and others didn't think much of them after a brief survey of the site Cunningham and his staff left he made no recommendations or plans to excavate the mysterious Mounds near harappa and for the next few decades they were essentially forgotten the Mounds were visited once again in the 1870s not by archaeologists but Railway contractors who plundered the area for the old but sturdy bricks hidden within them In 1902 a young English archaeologist named John Marshall later to be Sir John Marshall was appointed as the new director general of the archaeological Survey of India Marshall had read about Cunningham's supposedly unimpressive finds at harappa including the rather unusual seal and decided in 1920 to organize an excavation of the site digging started the following year not only did he and his team find more seals with the same mysterious characters but also the ruins of streets lined with brick houses drains and several figurines in 1922 around the same time as harappa was being excavated another site called Mohenjo-daro to its Southwest near the Indus River was also under excavation by a team of archaeologists led by Rd Banerjee at first Banerjee thought that he was digging at the ruins of an ancient Buddhist stupa that may have dated to perhaps the third or fourth Century A.D but he soon found similar seals to those uncovered at harappa having knowledge of ancient Indian languages he realized that what was inscribed on these seals was quite different than any version of the bravni script that he would have normally expected to have found around some 3rd Century ruins and so he concluded that whatever he was digging up at Mohenjo-daro was much older it turns out he was right in 1924 after examining the site himself Sir John Marshall concluded that both harappa and Mohenjo-daro were of the same so far unknown Bronze Age civilization he called it the Indus Valley Civilization as the years went by though the ruins of more cities and towns with the same street system seals and pottery were uncovered throughout Northwestern British India with some of the major sites quite far from the Indus Valley itself and so the term Harappan civilization named after the place where it was first discovered was adopted today some primarily in India also call it the Indus Saraswati civilization since Harappan is the most commonly used term for identifying this civilization today I'll primarily use that in this program Scholars have divided the life of the Harappan civilization into three broad periods or phases the first of these is the early Harappan phase from approximately 3300 to 2600 BC it was during this time that greater urbanization in the Indus Valley first began the second is the mature Harappan phase which lasted roughly between 2600 to 1900 BC this time frame saw the height of Harappan civilization with its development of large well-planned cities such as harappa Mohenjo-daro kalibangan dolavira total and others it'll also be the period that will focus on the most in this program finally there's the late Harappan phase from roughly 1900 to 1300 BC this is when Harappan civilization began to decline with many of its once great Urban centers being abandoned were devolving into smaller more rural settlements at present there are well over 2 000 known Harappan archaeological sites of all sizes spread out over an immense area surrounding the Indus Valley this Harappan Zone extends east to the upper Ganges River Basin of North Central India West to the site of sutkig indoor near the Pakistani border with Iran deep into Afghanistan were smaller but significant Harappan settlements have been found and finally to the South where the southernmost Harappan settlement to date has been discovered just north of the city of ahmednagar in the state of Maharashtra it's an area estimated to Encompass 1.3 million square kilometers which is roughly the size of France Germany and the United Kingdom combined like those of ancient Sumer Egypt the bactria margiana complex and China Harappan civilization at least initially was tied to a major river system or Valley in this case the Indus River and its many tributaries the Indus is a mighty river whose primary source is the melting Snows of the Himalayan Mountains to the Northwest though it's often augmented by the heavy rains of the Summer monsoon today water from the indescended several tributaries flows across the lowlands of the Punjab and sinned to empty out into the Arabian Sea near the modern city of Karachi Pakistan another river that 4500 years ago may have been even greater than that of the Indus was possibly the gagar hakra river with the exception of perhaps during the monsoon season it's little more than a dry riverbed for most of the year however the sheer number of Harappan settlements within its proximity indicates that at one time the volume of fresh water that flowed through it was much greater than it is today some have theorized that the gagar hakra may actually have been the legendary Saraswati River described in the early Hindu rigveda much like today in prehistoric and ancient times the annual floods of these Rivers provided both fresh water and silt that was well suited for growing crops these two resources combined with a relatively long growing season of high temperatures and constant Sunshine made the Indus Valley region the ideal place for large-scale farming utilizing these river systems initially proved to be a great challenge they had to learn how to deal with unpredictable flooding as well as clear forests and drain swampy mosquito infested Wetlands for the purpose of creating new farmland only then could they make use of the Region's potentially Rich agricultural resources to grow their crops which in the beginning consisted mostly of Wheat and barley but later included peas and cotton Fields were plowed by oxen and at times even camels eventually donkeys were also used there's even evidence that by the third millennium BC Harappan cities in Gujarat and Maharashtra had domesticated elephants buffaloes sheep goats and pigs were eaten regularly and whenever possible their hides or wool was used for making clothing and of course being by the river or even the sea fish was also likely a substantial part of the Harappan diet like in other parts of the world consistent agricultural surpluses allowed for segments of society to divert time and resources into other endeavors such as metalworking town planning engineering and the Arts this in a nutshell is how Harappan civilization first began unlike today where much of the Indus Valley receives on average less than 15 centimeters of rainfall in a given year scientists have determined that the monsoons of the third millennium BC were much stronger and consequently more dangerous for the area's inhabitants the melting Snows of the Himalayas along with annual torrential rains meant that permanent settlements in the Indus Valley needed to have been constructed out of strong durable materials given the Region's climate mud bricks such as those commonly used in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt were not ideal because they could easily break down or wash away especially during periods of heavy rain and flooding the solution to this in Harappan Society was the invention of burnt bricks burnt bricks were typically made from locally available materials such as clay sand and water which was molded into identical rectangular prisms which was the shape of each brick and then dried in the sun before being fired in a kiln whose temperatures could reach over 800 degrees Celsius the end result was that the brick became much tougher and more resistant to harsh weather conditions and erosion in fact they ultimately proved to be so sturdy that many of them were used in the late 19th century as sleepers were ties in laying local railway tracks throughout the Punjab for the Harappan people though such bricks were vital in protecting their settlements against the annual floods and Monsoon rains that otherwise could have literally washed them away the use of bronze became more prevalent in the Indus Valley and surrounding areas during the mature Harappan phase when it was used for making a variety of objects including tools ornaments figurines toys needles for weaving jewelry and weapons among other things the large number of bronze forges discovered in many Harappan cities is a good indicator of just how important this alloy was in Harappan Society though items made solely from copper were also still very common copper and Tin are essential in the production of bronze but these two elements were in relatively short supply within the Indus Valley itself cities such as Mohenjo-daro and harappa had to import them copper was mostly sourced from mines in baluchistan and the deserts of Rajasthan While most of the Region's tin came from Afghanistan as Harappan settlements some of them quite large have been found in all of these outlying regions many scholars believe that long-distance trade developed in order to obtain such materials which ultimately may have been the main cause for Harappan outposts and culture spreading throughout the Indian subcontinent and Beyond in exchange for such Commodities Harappan Traders are believed to have supplied their trading partners with cotton grain wood shells and finished products such as beads made from carnelian with so much trade going on it probably became necessary to keep track of inventories and the flow of goods and services in and out of Harappan cities to destinations abroad and vice versa there was a need to track all of this commercial activity and from this it's believed that a recording system may have been invented in the form of what Scholars today have identified as the Harappan writing system the key word here is May because unlike the kuneiform script of Mesopotamia or the hieroglyphs of Egypt the Harappan script has never been deciphered it has been determined though that the language was written from left to right because on some seals it appears that the Scribe had run out of room and had to condense the text so that it would fit the script also doesn't appear to be alphabetical but instead consists of over 400 pictographs most of this writing appears on small Stone seals which themselves are quite simple and seemingly contain few words there are no large epics or other works of literature written upon them there are many theories as to what the true purpose of these seals was the most widely accepted one is that they were somehow used in trade and commerce for example they could have been markers of ownership and a means of identifying Goods in long-distance trade Networks the animals figures and other objects depicted upon the seals may have been associated with a particular region and used to signify the origin or destination of traded Goods another theory is that such seals were used for identifying individuals it's been suggested that the inscriptions on the seals may represent personal or place names titles and other information similar to what one would find on a government ID card today others have proposed that the Harappan seals had some sort of ritual or religious function this is because several of them seem to depict mythological creatures were scenes that may have been associated with certain religious beliefs and practices they could also have been used as amulets for protection and good luck however without being able to decipher the script the actual purpose of these mysterious little seals continues to escape us you can imagine just what a huge source of frustration this all must be for archaeologists and historians because unlocking this script could help to confirm their hypotheses as well as tell us so much more about Harappan way of life including what they may have called themselves and their cities harappa Mohenjo-daro dolovira and lothal are names that archaeologists have given to these sites often based on the name of the closest Village or town or the local name of the mound that once covered them for example the ruins of harappa are named after the village just one kilometer away from the site whereas Mohenjo-daro in the regional tongue means mound of the Dead what the Harappan people called these places is anybody's guess but it's something that the inscriptions on the seals found there could one day tell us it's possible though that the answer might already be in front of us most the seriologists are quite certain that Sumerian and Acadian texts when mentioning a land called the meluha also sometimes read as maluka are referring specifically to a place within the confines of the Harappan civilization as the word by itself has no other meaning in the Sumerian and Acadian languages it's possible that there's a relation between the name meluha and what the Harappan people may have called themselves or their country one inscription of sargana vakad also known as Sargon the Great the man credited with forming the world's first true Empire mentions at least three countries outside of Mesopotamia whose ships docked at his capital city avagade Sargon king of the world was victorious in 34 battles he destroyed City walls all the way to the shore of the sea he moored boats of meluha Magan and Dil moon at the Wharf of agade as just mentioned meluha is believed to be somewhere within the borders of the Harappan civilization while Magan was located in what's today Oman in the easternmost parts of the United Arab Emirates the country of Dil moon is agreed by most to have been the Persian Gulf Island today known as Bahrain during the old Acadian and neo-sumerian periods of the late 3rd millennium BC meluha was understood to have been a country far to the east where fine wood gold Ivory Carnelian and Lapis Lazuli came from and perhaps Harappan settlers as well there's a text from the 34th year of the neo-sumerian king shulgi discovered amongst the ruins of the city of lagash which in those days was arguably the premier trade hub for goods coming from the East it mentions a meluhan village within its territory seals with text written in the Harappan script have also been found there as well as the cities of Kish or and the City of Susa in the neighboring country of ilam today part of Southwestern Iran seals and objects there with Harappan script have also been uncovered on the island of Bahrain as well as the site of Ras al-qaima in Oman which in ancient times were part of Dil Moon and Magan respectively another fascinating find is a cylinder seal belonging to a scribe named Shu ilushu who lived around 2020 BC and in the text is identified as ameluja translator now in the Louvre the exact place within Mesopotamia where the cylinder seal was uncovered isn't known assuming that meluha is indeed somewhere within the Harappan World such evidence leads us to conclude that not only did trade contacts exist between it and the near East but also that there may have been harappans living in Mesopotamia in early antiquity The Mention Of A Harappan translator is especially encouraging imagine how incredible it would be if a bilingual Acadian Harappan document much like the Rosetta Stone were uncovered beneath the Sands of ancient Sumer and akkad such a text could be the key that unlocks the meaning of the Harappan script and gives us more insight into their society it's believed that Harappan Traders often acting as middlemen were instrumental in transporting items such as beads made of Carnelian Fine Jewelry ornaments wood Ivory spices copper and Lapis Lazuli to destinations further to the West the evidence of harappans in Mesopotamia mentioned earlier indicates that while some of them may have actually transported the items themselves in most cases it's likely that they handed them off to other Traders from places such as marhashi ilam Magan and Dil Moon who then brought them to their final destination which often was one of the cities of Mesopotamia the reverse though is much less understood for it's not known what Harappan Traders may have received in return from their counterparts in Mesopotamia there doesn't seem to have been any written or material evidence of goods from Mesopotamia reaching the Indus Valley though some have speculated that they may have exchanged textiles and foodstuffs such as dates there's an interesting Harappan seal in the National Museum in New Delhi India called by archaeologists the Gilgamesh seal it's not actually a seal of Gilgamesh but it's called that because it depicts a man firmly grasping two ferocious Tigers similar to the so-called master of animals Motif that is common in ancient near Eastern art while this seal doesn't prove that travelers from Mesopotamia or another place in the near East ever visited a Harappan City it might hint at cultural influence and exchanges between the two civilizations more than anything else what had really distinguished the Harappan culture from others during the Bronze Age was its emphasis and expertise when it came to urban planning while there were a few other large Urban Societies in the world at the time none of them seem to have had the organization standardization and efficiency overall as the Harappan civilization most of the larger Harappan sites had what archaeologists have identified as a citadel or Acropolis that was usually set atop in artificially constructed platform where it's believed that the more Elite or ruling class lived such elevated ground was especially advantageous during monsoon rains and the flooding of nearby Rivers below the Acropolis was the Lower Town inhabited by the common people the buildings here were more modest in comparison to those on the Acropolis but still made out of sturdy uniform burnt bricks houses which could be one or two stories were arranged in a grid system whose streets were lined with drains and sewers the latter part was the most impressive for archaeologists as they found that dwellings in nearly every Harappan City regardless of its size had their own Courtyard and a bathroom many with raised platforms so that one could pour water over another much like a modern shower some houses even had their own private Wells water would flow out of the house through a rather simple but efficient drainage system which especially on the Acropolis was often covered by bricks or stone slabs there is no other Bronze Age Society on record that seems to have been concerned with cleanliness and personal hygiene as the Harappan mohanjodaro had a great bath measuring 39 by 23 feet with a depth of eight feet which most scholars believe was used for ritual bathing though some have suggested that it may have been for recreational use and a place for people to relax like a swimming pool today though made of bricks the bath was also coated with tar to help waterproof it like other buildings it was connected to both a relatively complex water supply system as well as sewers to drain a new waste to the east of this bath was a large building measuring 230 by 78 feet that many archaeologists believe may have functioned as a palace for the king or political leader of the city and his family if there was an established priesthood then the high priest and his Entourage may have lived there as well some have tried to portray Harappan society as being very egalitarian because most of the people living in its cities especially during the mature Harappan period seem to have enjoyed a high standard of living relative to other Bronze Age cultures as mentioned earlier the average household had access to amenities such as Wells the sophisticated drainage system and perhaps even public baths in some locations the number and sheer size of City granaries implies that food shortages were rare and the absence of clearly identifiable large palaces or gigantic temples has convinced many that power was not concentrated in the hands of a few Elite individuals on the other hand the presence of large buildings on lofty platforms such as the Citadel at Mohenjo-daro versus the smaller and more modest dwellings in the lower City suggests that some individuals or groups definitely had access to more resources than others some houses consisted of a single room while others may have had up to 12. in addition the discovery of burials with elaborate grave Goods versus more simple Graves for presumed commoners also suggests that select individuals may have enjoyed the Privileges of wealth and higher status in death if there was a social and political hierarchy then who was at the top was it a king a priest who served as both spiritual and temporal ruler or some sort of governing counsel there's no way to know for certain but Scholars have proposed many theories whoever was in charge most likely was based within the Acropolis area of the city and specifically in the Citadel if there was one another question is how powerful was this ruling class within the typical Harappan City since there's little evidence of any sort of military culture or standing army in most Harappan cities how was the leadership's will imposed upon the general population as far as we can tell by the mature Harappan period political and economic stability had been well established throughout Society most today believed that this would have been nearly impossible without someone or at least a group of people possessing the authority to enforce Law and Order the other question is what was the political relationship between Harappan cities did they function as individual city-states or did one or two have hegemony over the others [Music] one possibility is that belief in some higher power may have compelled the Harappan people to maintain peace and Order within their society but even here Scholars have little conclusive evidence to work with unlike an ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt no clearly identifiable temples or religious structures have been discovered at any Harappan site the exception possibly being the great bath at Mohenjo-daro if it indeed was built for an expressly religious purpose however absence of such structures does not mean an absence of religion or spirituality just that perhaps a special man-made building or public space wasn't needed daily devotion and rituals could have been done in the home making Worship in a temple unnecessary the so-called pashupati seal which depicts a three-headed man wearing a horned head covering in a meditation or yogic position is often used by many scholars as evidence that the Harappan people did have some sort of religion this particular figure might have been a God or some sort of shaman looking around him we can see that he's surrounded by several animals that could also have had some religious significance one thing that archaeologists did discover at many haraban sites were numerous terracotta figurines mostly in the form of women men Birds dogs sheep cattle and monkeys for roughly 600 years between 2500 and 1900 BC the civilization of the Indus Valley and its surroundings was at its zenith the Harappan people as a whole had an average quality of life that at least on the surface seems to have exceeded that of their Bronze Age peers in Mesopotamia Egypt China and other parts of the world their fondness for Commerce and active participation in the great International Trade networks of the day allowed them to become extremely prosperous while armed conflicts between neighbors probably did occur from time to time the little that we know about their culture as well as information confirmed by archaeologists suggests that mass violence and campaigns of conquest such as those glorified by near Eastern rulers were rare to non-existent this may have been because there was really no need for it as we've seen for the most part there was little that differentiated one Harappan City from another as far as we can tell they were quite similar in their General culture urban planning architecture weights and measures written language bricks the tools they used the crops they grew and the Beautiful seals and small figurines that they created while flooding was a constant threat Harappan civilization and Society was one that was generally in harmony with itself and its surroundings [Music] so then merely within a century of its golden age how did Harappan civilization begin to precipitously decline and in most areas ultimately collapse this is a mystery that has riddled archaeologists and Scholars since the ruins of harappa and Mohenjo-daro were first excavated as you might expect there are many ideas that have been proposed as to how this might have happened most Scholars today don't believe that there was just one cause but a series of factors occurring within the span of a few Generations that may have greatly contributed to the end of many Harappan cities and smaller settlements while in the past Scholars had confidently made the assertion that the decline and destruction was due to foreign Invaders specifically a people from Central Asia known as the Aryans this today is rejected by most as the primary cause since it's believed that they arrived on the scene a few centuries later modern archaeologists as well as the broader scientific Community a tribute the fall of Harappan civilization to changes in the climate the degradation and deforestation of the local environment and perhaps also tectonic activity that may have caused the courses of various important rivers to shift consider this scenario in the late 1900s BC there may have been less rain causing parts of the mighty Indus gagar hakra and other rivers to change course or completely dry up as such bodies of water were the lifeline of most Harappan cities when they vanished so too did their citizens the loss or fatal reduction of their primary source of water would have brought about the mass failure of their farms and forced them to move elsewhere but where would they have gone most likely to other Harappan cities and towns whose people shared the same culture language and a similar way of life but this would have created another massive problem overpopulation even in places that may have sustained the effects of drought the huge influx of people into these areas would have created food shortages and increased population density with the latter facilitating outbreaks of disease [Music] Harappan civilization relied heavily on agriculture which required clearing forests to make way for new Farmland to grow additional crops and pastures for animals to grazin as the population grew and agricultural demands skyrocketed more land would have needed to be cleared at the same time the demand for wood used as fuel for the Kilns making burnt bricks would have also accelerated all this would have led to widespread deforestation which can have several negative effects on the environment and society as a whole foreign of the most significant impacts of deforestation is soil erosion trees help destabilize the soil and prevent such erosion without them the soil can be easily washed away by rain wind and especially in the Indus Valley flooding this then leads to declines in soil fertility making it more difficult to grow crops which ultimately leads to food shortages economic collapse and often social unrest with the rivers drying up and the trees disappearing the land would no longer have been able to support the general Harappan population and so those who didn't starve to death left in search of food and opportunities elsewhere such as further to the East and the fertile Plains along the Ganges River or down south where the local environment may have been a bit more hospitable and less unpredictable this is at least one hypothesis that many scholars more or less accept today there are several others but we don't have time to go into all of them here though the great cities of Mohenjo-daro and harappa may have been all but completely abandoned by 1800 BC pockets of Harappan culture still survived in other areas for a few more centuries but as often happens over time new peoples migrate into new regions and what was once the Harappan cultural Zone and its people merged with or were absorbed into the new Vedic society that was taking root on the subcontinent during the second millennium BC but that is a story for another time so I hope that you learned something about the great Harappan civilization of the early Bronze Age there will definitely be more on the way so stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching I'd also really like to thank the Channel's patrons for making videos like this possible these include but are not limited to Grand kick 69 Yap de Graf pastafrola Michael Lewis Daniel Allen Danny Vanek Linux TV Robert Morgan Frank Tim Lane Sebastian ortaro Correa Michael trudell leader Titan Micah G John scarberry Andrew Bowmer Monty Grimes Franz Robbins Cyrus mirror dianastra nimrodnir Brendan Redmond Vari dunachanji Jimmy darawala hennahida debut goldustan debut shercam Farhad Kama and all of the Channel's patrons on patreon for helping 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Channel: History with Cy

Views: 169,246

Keywords: Indus Valley Civilization, Harappan Civilization, archaeology, ancient trade, ancient trade routes, ancient history, ancient India, Mohenjo-daro, Harappa

Id: QNCO9XhrSTU

Length: 40min 34sec (2434 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023